LCHR condemns Abu Fana Monastery attack, Egyptian government’s indifferent response to incident
The Leadership Council for Human Rights condemns the recent attacks on Egypt’s Abu Fana Monastery and is outraged by Cairo’s lack of response to this latest assault on the nation’s beleaguered Coptic Christian minority.
The May 31 attacks occurred in Mallawi, in Egypt’s El Minya Province. According to news reports and our colleagues at the Coptic Assembly of America (CAA), a mob of least 60 men carrying automatic weapons stormed the monastery, destroying and burning property, including two on-site churches and crops on monastic farmland.
The incident left a total of nine monks and monastery employees wounded, one critically. Four other individuals, including three monks, were kidnapped and held overnight by the assailants, who tortured, tied up, and beat the men, resulting in multiple broken bones and other injuries. The fourth individual held captive, a brother of one of the monks, is still missing.
According to one of the monks on the scene, the Egyptian police did not respond to the attacks until three hours after the call for help was made. This, despite the fact that the nearest police station is located just 15 miles from the monastery. Once the authorities did arrive, victims say they failed to interfere, as assailants continued to destroy property for an hour, despite their presence.
To date, none of the individuals responsible for the crime have been punished. The only arrest made in connection with the incident was of a Christian man not present during the attacks. He has been falsely accused of murder, and, after being taken in for questioning by security officials days ago, his whereabouts are now unknown.
El Minya’s governor has stated publicly that the attacks were not sectarian in an effort to downplay the incident. Some of the monastery’s monks have requested that the governor visit the victims in the hospital, but he has so far declined to do so.
LCHR stands with CAA and the Egyptian human rights community at large in denouncing this episode and the continued intolerance towards Christians in Egyptian society that it demonstrates. We also call attention to the apparent negligence and complicity by security forces, as well as the government’s attempts to diminish the seriousness of the incident, which are loathsome and cause for severe concern.
For more information on the attack, click here.
To read a petition on the incident signed by 19 Coptic organizations, click here.