At Ezbet Basilious, Minya:Where victims are turned into suspects
Tereza Kamal - Nader Shukry - Photos by Emad Nassif
The hamlet of Ezbet Basilious in Beni-Mazar, Minya, Upper Egypt is home to some 4000 inhabitants, a third of whom are Copts. Last Saturday, fire erupted in the village church leaving it in ruins, upon which the security forces surrounded the village and conducted an investigation.
The fire
The Coptic villagers told Watani that, on Saturday at noontime, they saw fire break out in the only church in the village. The small building—some 150 square metres in area—that is the church is adjoined to the courtyard of the house of Milad Adeeb Asaad in which only Asaad’s wife Fulla and his old mother live, Assad himself being outside the country, working in Lybia. The building formerly belonged to the Asaads, but they donated it to the Church.
As is common in most village houses, the house is accessed through two gates, one for the use of the inmates and leads directly into the living quarters, and another opens onto the courtyard and is used by guests. As the two women were in the kitchen, which overlooks the courtyard, preparing a meal, they felt the door open and spied rapid, suspicious movement in the courtyard. They rushed to find out what was the matter just in time to see the three men they later accused open another door in the courtyard and run into the church ground. They poured kerosene all around the church building and set it on fire, also throwing fireballs onto the church. Asaad told Watani she tried to lock them in till she could call for help, but they escaped through the main gate of the church, which opens on to the street.
Consecrated
“The church was established in the 1970s,” Father Phillipos Ibrahim said, “but all through these 35 years we could not get it licensed as a church. In the meantime, we had a permit to conduct religious rites which was twice renewed.”
Egyptian law stipulates that church buildings should be licensed by the president—or in case of restoration or renovation, by the governors. The licensing process, however, is notorious for being unjustifiably arduous, with countless bureaucratic and security hurdles to be cleared with the local authorities before reaching the president’s office. The process in many cases extends for years on end, in some cases as long as 30 or 40 years, after which a license may yet be withheld no matter how much the community needs a church. The case of Ezbet Basilious church is thus no lone exception.
“This year,” Fr Phillipos said, “we were informed by the security authorities that the licence was finally near being issued, and were given verbal permission to conduct prayers. On 7 March 2009 Anba Athanasius, Bishop of Beni Mazar held the consecration rituals of the church, consecrating it in the name of the Archangel Michael and St Antony. Once that was over, the security officials decided to re-close the church on the pretext that the licensing documents were yet pending.” Fr Phillipos asked for an urgent permit to repair the roof and reopen the church. He stressed that the hamlet had never throughout its history witnessed any sectarian violence.
Witnesses charged
Until Watani went to press Fuli and Taha were still detained, as were Huzayin and Asaad who were charged with burning the church. Huzayin, a 29-year-old father of three small girls, was charged on the basis of the testimony of the Mahmoud Mohamed Hussein, the sheikh al-balad—deputy to the village mayor—who claimed he saw him standing at the scene of the fire and holding a vessel full of kerosene. Asaad was charged with being his accomplice.
The Coptic villager Magdy Halabi told Watani that Huzayin was at his (Halabi’s) house, which lies some 200m away from the church, repairing a satellite receiver dish when they heard the cries of fire and commotion nearby. They rushed out to find the church on fire. Hussein was there and with him another villager, Fathy Abdel-Hamid. Hamid later joined the official guards, Ahmed Ali Hassan and Mohamed Ashmawi, who were stationed at the gates of the church, in testifying against Huzayin. Incidentally, these guards had not been at their posts when the church was set on fire. They also testified that the Muslim villagers tried to put out the fire but the Copts stopped them.
Father Bisada al-Suriani, deputy to the bishop of Beni Mazar, remarked that the charges against Huzayin and Asaad represented a gross underestimation to peoples’ intelligence. “How can a man who took part in building the church burn it? If the guards who testified against Huzayin did see him torch the church,” he said, “Howcome they never caught him?”
Defying reasom
Adel Shehata, a lawyer and member of the defence team of the Church, said that the security authorities were again at the game they played best, that of reversing the roles of the victims and the attackers. “In glaring defiance to all reason,” he told Watani, “we are asked to believe the Copts would burn a church they took so much trouble and went through such expense—despite their limited means—to build. We are to believe that they prevented the Muslims from putting out the fire, all on the pretext that they wished to appear victimised and thus pressure the security authorities to let them re-open the church. How can a church be re-opened when it no longer exists, having been burnt by members of its own congregation?”
The Coptic villagers have sent collective appeals and complaints to the President, Justice Minister, Interior Minister, and Minya Governor accusing the security officials of conducting biased investigations.