ASSIUT, Egypt
(AP) -- It was nighttime and 10,000 Islamists were marching down the
most heavily Christian street in this ancient Egyptian city, chanting
"Islamic, Islamic, despite the Christians." A half-dozen kids were
spray-painting "Boycott the Christians" on walls, supervised by an
adult.
While Islamists are on the defensive in
Cairo following the military coup that ousted President Mohammed Morsi,
in Assiut and elsewhere in Egypt's deep south they are waging a
stepped-up hate campaign, claiming the country's Christian minority
somehow engineered Morsi's downfall.
"Tawadros
is a dog," says a spray-painted insult, referring to Pope�Tawadros II,
patriarch of the Copts, as Egypt's Christians are called. Christian
homes, stores and places of worship have been marked with large painted
crosses.
The hostility led a coalition of 16
Egyptian rights groups to warn on Wednesday of a wave of violence to
come, and to demand that the post-coup authorities protect the
Christians who are 10 percent of the population, and suffer chronic
discrimination.
Nile-side Assiut, a city of
one million people 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Cairo, dates back
to the pharaohs. The New Testament says Mary, Joseph and the infant
Jesus passed through as they fled the infanticidal King Herod. Today,
its Christian fears are compounded by the failure of authorities to curb
the graffiti-spraying and the Islamists' demonstrations, which have
gone on almost nightly since the July 3 coup that ousted Morsi.
"They
(the Islamists) will not stop as long as they are left to do as they
please without fear of accountability," said Hossam Nabil, 38, who owns a
jewelry store on Youssry Ragheb St. where the demonstration passed on
Tuesday night. "They are many and one day they will trash our stores."
Like
other Christians with stores on the street, Nabil shuttered his
establishment until the protesters had passed. "They (the marchers) run
their index finger across their throats to suggest they will slaughter
us, or scream Morsi's name in our faces," he said.
A
young couple arrived to shop while scores of marchers were still on the
street. They froze in fear, the husband shielding his wife with his
body.
Families living in apartment blocks
above the stores stayed home, shutting windows and staying off
balconies. Those outdoors kept their distance from the march.
Assiut's
Islamists are strong because local authority is weak and religion is
powerful in a region where poverty is widespread and envy of the
relatively high number of well-to-do Christians runs high.
As
for the graffiti, acting provincial governor Gamal Adam told The
Associated Press the authorities have given up on washing it away
because it quickly reappears. He also said municipal cleaners might be
roughed up if caught in the act by Islamists.
For
the 40 percent of Assiut people who are Christian, life has changed
radically. They find their apartment blocks disfigured by painted
crosses with a red X painted over them. They stay at home at night.
Churches have cancelled afternoon activities. Some of the wealthy have
left town.
"We had never experienced the kind
of persecution we suffer now. We are insulted every day," said Nevine
Kamal, a 40-year-old Christian pharmacist and mother of two teenagers.
"We are angry and frustrated but we are not leaving Assiut," she said,
seated at her desk at the St. George Pharmacy on Youssry Ragheb Street.
Under her desk's glass is a poster of the Virgin Mary and on the wall is
an image of St. George slaying the mythical dragon.
"Sadly,
my children are angry with Egypt and want to leave and they don't
believe us when I and my husband tell them that things will get better
soon. But, personally, I have faith that all this will yield something
good for us and the country. We thought the Muslim Brotherhood will rule
for 80 years and they are out after just one year. Who would have
believed this?" Morsi is a longtime leader of the Brotherhood.
At least seven Christians have been killed since the coup, one of them in Assiut. Scores have been injured.
This
week, in a village in the province of Minya south of Cairo, a
pro-military song playing on a coffee shop radio sparked an argument
between a Muslim and a Christian, and the next day a mob of thousands
ransacked Christian homes and stores and tried to storm a church. At
least 18 people were injured and arrests warrants issued for 35.
Egypt's
Christians used to shun politics, but since the Arab Spring of early
2011 they have started to demand a say in the country's direction. They
took it to a new level during Morsi's year in office and the empowerment
of his Islamist allies. Tawadros, the Coptic Christian pope installed
last year, openly criticized the president and told Christians they were
free to actively participate in politics.
It
was a risky gamble for a minority that has long felt vulnerable, with
its most concentrated communities, like the one in Assiut, living in the
same rural areas where the most vehement Islamists hold sway.
During
Morsi's year in office, some of his hard-line allies increasingly spoke
of Christians as enemies of Islam and warned them to remember they are a
minority. When the wave of protests against Morsi began on June 30,
Media supportive of his Muslim Brotherhood depicted the movement as
dominated by Christians.
Still, at the ancient
convent marking the last spot where the Holy Family is thought to have
stayed before it left Egypt, hundreds gathered this week for an annual
festival in upbeat mood. Children played, families picnicked, people
lined up to buy blessed bread.
"Those who hate
us are misled,"�said a convent member named Martyra, speaking to the AP
while standing in a cave where ancient Egyptians quarried stones to
build their cities. "I am safe here in the convent but I worry and pray
for those who live outside and have children."�
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