In south Egypt, Islamists take over a town

By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press

DALGA, Egypt (AP) -- The Coptic Orthodox priest would only talk to his visitor after hiding from the watchful eyes of the bearded Muslim outside, who sported a pistol bulging from under his robe.

So Father Yoannis moved behind a wall in the charred skeleton of an ancient monastery to describe how it was torched by Islamists and then looted when they took over this southern Egyptian town following the ouster of the country's president.

"The fire in the monastery burned intermittently for three days. The looting continued for a week. At the end, not a wire or an electric switch is left," Yoannis told The Associated Press. The monastery's 1,600-year-old underground chapel was stripped of ancient icons and the ground was dug up on the belief that a treasure was buried there.

"Even the remains of ancient and revered saints were disturbed and thrown around," he said.

A town of some 120,000 - including 20,000 Christians - Dalga has been outside government control since hard-line supporters of the Islamist Mohammed Morsi drove out police and occupied their station on July 3, the day Egypt's military chief removed the president in a popularly supported coup. It was part of a wave of attacks in the southern Minya province that targeted Christians, their homes and businesses.

Since then, the radicals have imposed their grip on Dalga, twice driving off attempts by the army to send in armored personnel carriers by showering them with gunfire.

Their hold points to the power of hard-line Islamists in southern Egypt even after Morsi's removal - and their determination to defy the military-backed leadership that has replaced him.

With the army and police already fighting a burgeoning militant insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, there are growing signs that a second insurgency could erupt in the south - particularly in Minya and Assiut provinces, both Islamist strongholds and both home to Egypt's two largest Christian communities.

The takeover of Dalga has been disastrous for the Christian community in the town, located 270 kilometers (160 miles) south of Cairo in Minya, on the edge of the Nile Valley near the cliffs that mark the start of the desert.

In the initial burst of violence, the town's only Catholic church was ransacked and set ablaze, like the Monastery of the Virgin Mary and St. Abraam. The Anglican church was looted.

Some 40 Christian families have fled Dalga since, Yoannis said. Nearly 40 Christian-owned homes and stores have been attacked by Islamists, according to local Minya activists. Bandits from the nearby deserts joined the looting and burning, they said. To ensure the spread of fear, the attackers torched houses in all Christian neighborhoods, not just in one or two.

Among the homes torched was that of Father Angelos, an 80-year-old Orthodox priest who lives close to the monastery. Yoannis' home was spared a similar fate by his Muslim neighbors. A 60-year-old Christian who fired from his roof to ward off a mob was dragged down and killed, the activists said.

"Even if we had firearms, we would be reluctant to use them," said Yoannis. "We cannot take a life. Firing in the air may be our limit."

Those who remain pay armed Muslim neighbors to protect them. Yoannis said his brother paid with a cow and a water buffalo. Most Christian businesses have been closed for weeks.

Armed men can be seen in the streets, and nearly every day Islamists hold rallies at a stage outside the police station, demanding Morsi's reinstatement.

Most Christians remain indoors as much as possible, particularly during the rallies. They say they are routinely insulted on the streets by Muslims, including children. Christian women stay home at all times, fearing harassment by the Islamists, according to multiple Christians who spoke to the AP. Most requested that their names not be published for fear of reprisals.

"The Copts in Dalga live in utter humiliation," said local rights activist Ezzat Ibrahim. "They live in horror and cannot lead normal lives."

None of the town's churches held Mass for a month, until Wednesday, when one was held in one of the monastery's two churches. About 25 attended, down from the usual 500 or more.

"They don't want to see any Christian with any power, no matter how modest," Yoannis said of the hard-liners now running Dalga. "They only want to see us poor without money, a trade or a business to be proud of."

Like other Christians in town, he said police and authorities were helpless to intervene.

"Everyone keeps telling me that I should alert the police and the army," he said. "As if I hadn't done that already."

At intervals, the 33-year-old father of three would stop talking, move carefully to the edge of a wall, stick his head out to check if someone was coming.

His big worry was the bearded Muslim at the gate, Saber Sarhan Askar.

Skinny with hawk-like hazelnut eyes, Askar is said by Dalga's Christians to have taken part in the torching and looting of the monastery. Outside the monastery that day, Askar was telling priests he was there to protect it. But the orders he yelled to other priests left no doubt who was in charge.

"Bring us tea!" he barked at one priest. "I need something cold to drink!" he screamed at another soon after.

School teacher and part-time entrepreneur Kromer Ishaq fled Dalga a day after the Islamists took over. The Islamists already were accusing his father in a family blood feud - a charge that could prompt the killing of Ishaq. Then on the night of the takeover, Ishaq's gold shop was broken into and looted.

The son of a wealthy family, Ishaq fled with his extended family all the way to the Nile Delta north of Cairo, where he is now looking for work.

"I used to employ people and now I'm looking for work. I once lived in a house I own and now I live in a rented apartment. You ask me what life is like? It's like black tar," Ishaq said by telephone.

Dalga is the most extreme example of Islamist power in Minya - no other towns are known to be under such extreme lockdown. But the province in general has seen a surge in Islamist violence since the coup against Morsi.

In the province, 35 churches have been attacked, including 19 completely gutted by fire. At least six Christian schools and five orphanages have been destroyed, along with five courthouses, seven police stations and six city council buildings. A museum in the city of Malawi was looted and ransacked.

On Aug. 11, policemen suspected of loyalty to Morsi stormed the provincial police headquarters in Minya city. They dragged out the province's security chief and his top aide from their offices and ordered them both to leave the province. They did.

Minya was the epicenter of an Islamic militant insurgency against the rule of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in the 1980s and 1990s. It remains a stronghold of Islamists, including the extremist Gamaa Islamiya group. It also has the largest Christian community of any of Egypt's 29 provinces - at 35 percent of Minya's 4 million people, compared to around 10 percent nationwide.

Over Egypt's past 2 1/2 years of turmoil, Islamist strength has grown. Hundreds of jailed radicals who purportedly forswore violence - though not their hard-line ideology - were freed after Mubarak's 2011 fall and given the freedom to recruit. The south has seen a flood of heavy weapons smuggled across the desert from neighboring Libya.

A top Interior Ministry official in Cairo said the Minya police force suffered large-scale infiltration by pro-Morsi Islamists. The local force is now under investigation by the ministry. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe was still undergoing.

The Minya security chief who fled the province, as well as two top aides, were replaced on Wednesday for what the Interior Ministry called the failure to maintain law and order.

In the security vacuum, it has been Christians largely paying the price.

Christian businessman Talaat Bassili recounted how on Aug. 15, dozens of men, some armed, stormed his home in the city of Malawi, not far from Dalga. For three hours, with no police or army in sight, the attackers made off with TV sets, washing machines, mobile phones, jewelry and cash.

The attackers descended on the house from the scaffoldings of a mosque next door. In footage from Bassili's security camera, shown to AP, men in robes and boys in sandals try to force their way into the house, then finally blast away the lock with Kalashnikov assault rifles. Some loaded their loot into a donkey cart.

Later, the footage shows Bassili, his wife Nahed Samaan - in a nightgown and a house robe - and son Fady leaving to take refuge with a neighbor.

A week later, Bassili said a man called him on his mobile phone to ask whether he wanted to buy some of his stuff back.

"I said no."