What destroys humanity? Guns? Knives? Bombs?
As stated before in this blog, the Coptic Orthodox Church is known as the Church of the Martyrs. Also as stated many times before, the Church has gone through persecution during the reign of Diocletian and the Arab Invasion of Egypt. And I wish I could say it’s is a thing of the past. I wish I could say that every single person of the world, regardless of race, religion, or color followed the Golden Rule. That they would think twice before harming their fellow man. But that is far from the reality the Coptic community faces today.
During the 1970s, religious fever became an epidemic among the Muslims in Egypt. Before that, Christian and Muslims neighbors ignored their religious differences to play together, support each other, and celebrate each other’s holidays. Christians would celebrate the Eid of Ramadan with their Muslim friends and the Muslims would wish their Christian friends a Merry Christmas and Happy Easter. Secular Christians and Muslims alike would snicker at the more religious hijab wearing women and the men wearing the traditional garb. They didn’t follow the fashion of the time nor did they indulge in the kind of joking and fun activities other less religious classmates would partake in. They, the Qur’an-hugging Muslims, were the minority of their own people after all: the “nerds” of the class and outcasts of the workplace.
And then Anwar al-Sadat became president.
Sadat wanted to convert those who were lovers of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the previous president, and followers of Nasserism. So, Sadat met with the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and gave him free reign. He wanted to be the new icon of Egyptian celebrity and power. With his blessing and the turn of his back, The Muslim Brotherhood moved through college campuses, preaching
to students who were great lovers of Nasser. The religious fever among the Egyptian Muslim community began. More men began wearing the traditional garb. Women began wearing hijabs to cover their hair and some even went to the extreme of wearing nijabs, like the one on the left, to cover their nose, mouth, and jaw. Many women also wore loose fitting dresses in accordance to the Qur’an and to distinguish themselves from the Christians.With the religious fever also came the rise of persecution for the Christians. Eleven years later, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric who also had a role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, approved a fatwa for the assassination of Sadat—the same president who stated: “Fear is, I believe, a most effective tool in destroying the soul of an individual—and the soul of a people”—a statement that he put into action every day he was in power. And with his death, rose Hosni Mubarack—Sadat’s vice president and now, the current President of Egypt.
Fast-forward to 1998.
In a small rural town in Upper Egypt called Al-Kosheh, tensions rose between Christians and Muslims. Muslims were seeking revenge for the “poisoning” of a Muslim brother. However, the revenge was done in vain, because the man wasn’t poisoned but actually died of natural causes. Regardless, two Copts were murdered by them. In response to seeking revenge, the corrupted Egyptian police arrested 1,200 Christians for investigation. Metropolitan Bishop Wissa of al-Balyana, along with two of his priests were also arrested after criticizing the wrongful round-up of their fellow Christian brothers and sisters. They were charged with “inciting strife and damaging national unity between Christians and Muslims.” Because, apparently, the revenge seekers and policemen were correct in their actions. After all, Christians are only second class citizens. Go figure.
In October of that same year, two months after the incident, Christina Lamb of London’s Daily Telegraph wrote an article reporting that some of the arrested Christians had undergone mock crucifixions and the Metropolitan bishop faced a possible execution. Now, you have to realize that Egypt is the type of country that will tap your phone, censor the news, and have no problem destroying those who openly disagree with the majority. Can you guess how the Egyptian government took to the international exposure of demeaning us second-class citizens our human rights?
Not very well.
They arrested the head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) and accused him of leaking the story to the Daily Telegraph. Both the head of EOHR and the Metropolitan were eventually released, along with the government stating they would punish those members of the police force who acted improperly. What really happened, you may ask? Those officers who violated the human rights of Copts were promoted. Yes, promoted.
This incident became known as the First Al-Kosheh Massacre. Naturally, Copts in America pushed for the US Congress to add Egypt among the nations who openly discriminates against Christians.
The Second Al-Kosheh Massacre happened about a year afterwards on New Year’s Eve 1999, 
stemming from a dispute between a Christian merchant and a Muslim customer. The incident escalated with the relatives of the customer targeting Christian-owned shops and homes: looting, destroying, and burying them. Two days later, riots spread through neighboring cities killing 21 Christians. More than forty additional Christians were injured and 260 businesses, homes, and kiosks were destroyed—all Christian-owned. In addition, one Muslim was accidentally shot in during the riot by a fellow rioter. This sole event went down as one of Egypt’s bloodiest massacre.
You may be asking, where was the police? Where was the law enforcement, well, enforcing the law? It’s simple. They were watching. Some actually participated in the riot… and not for the good of the Christians.
On the first of December, 2000, a criminal court in Egypt’s Sohag governorate release ALL 89 defendants charged in the New Year’s Eve massacre in Al-Kosheh—without bail. It was an unprecedented move for Egypt, especially since they were a month away from receiving their verdict. ALL suspects that were initially arrested in connection to this massacre were acquitted. THE ONLY PERSON CONVICTED IN THE MASSACRE WAS A MUSLIM CHARGED WITH THE ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING OF ANOTHER MUSLIM; he was sentenced to thirteen years in prison.
Can you guess how the Coptic community felt at this moment? I’ll just say outraged would be an understatement .
H.H. Pope Shenouda III openly rejected the ridiculous verdict: “We want to challenge this ruling. We don’t accept it.” Egypt’s Prosecutor General Maher Abdel Wahid appealed the acquittal. Metropolitan Wissa of al-Balyana shared the same sentiments with the Pope stating the ruling is “a shame that defames the reputation of Egypt and an invitation for more violence.”
The Bishop was right.
Six days following the acquittal, the homes of four Christian families of Al-Kosheh were set on fire and completely destroyed. One of the homeowners who reported the incident to the police was tortured and forced to sign a statement prepared by a public prosecutor charging him with perpetrating the whole incident. Subsequently, he was forced to post bail for his own release.
Like I said, Coptic Christians around the world were more than outraged. It soon became known that the government wanted to change the name of the town, and therefore, sweep both incidents under the rug by pretending the city never existed. Great way to defend the underdog, don’t you think?
Immediately, the Diaspora Copts rose up seeking the help of their government to take action against Egypt’s corrupted system and double-standard through peaceful vigils, like the one photographed on the left.
Take a look at this video in which the broadcast discusses the difficulty in building churches in Egypt as well as another way the Coptic Christian community is being persecuted: through human trafficking—also known as forced conversions and marriages.
Recent reports included the abductions of Amira Morgan and Ingy Basta: both abducted in 
Alexandria, Egypt during the month of July in 2009. Ms. Morgan, photographed on the right, was abducted on the 18th of July on her way back from work. That same morning, her mother received a phone call from a Muslim cleric named Sheikh Mohammed. He told her that Amira was fine and that she would be converting to Islam the next Friday. When she travelled to the mosque in her region, searching for her daughter and Sheikh Mohammed, a man told her there were over fifty clerics by that name. When she started crying, another man approached her and said that she shouldn’t report the abduction. Otherwise, her nine year old son would be slaughtered in front of her. In order to save her son, Morgan’s mother 
fled the region to an unknown location. On the 22nd of July, Ingy Basta, photographed on the left, was abducted in the Nozha Airport area when she went to repair her cell phone. Ms. Basta was supposed to be engaged to a Coptic man on the 26th. Although her father reported the abduction the next day, she has yet to be found.
It isn’t surprising of the double-standard upheld by the Egyptian government. As you can see, these women have been wronged and you don’t hear about Christians rioting down the street knocking down everything and everyone in their path. However, during the month of October several riots took place in Dairout, Egypt due to an alleged sexual relationship between a Muslim girl, Hagger Hassouna, and a Christian man, Romany Farouk Attallah. Rumors of intimate photos of them together sent by Attallah to various cell phones led the Hassona family to kill Attallah’s father on Sunday, October 19, 2009 in the village market of Attaleen. After they shot him with over 140 bullets and wounded two of his relatives, his body was dragged in the streets while there were shouts of victory and hits directed at the dead body.
The second round of violence began on Saturday October 24, 2009 when a rumor circulated that Attallah would appear in court after being arrested and transferred from Alexandria was just a rumor. In addition, they also heard the prosecution extended the detention of the Muslim killers of Attallah’s father. Hundreds of Muslims, mostly from Al-Azhar Institute in Dairout, went rampaging all over the town, but specifically in areas where Coptic businesses and pharmacies were located. They looted and demolished everything in sight. According to activist Wagih Yacoub, of the Middle East Christian Assosication (MECA), the Church of the Virgin and Abu Seifein as well as the Church of the Virgin were attacked via throwing stones and setting the windows on fire.
And of course, we can’t forget our vulnerable Coptic girls. They were subjected to Muslims trying to tear their clothes off as they went to school. Overall, they were subjected to sexual harassment, obscene insults, and recipients of hurled stones in an attempt to avenge the “shame” brought on by Attallah towards the Muslim girl.
And, yet again, the police was nowhere to be found until FIVE HOURS after the initial call.
Those who were interviewed agreed that the couple should be penalized rather than the entire village for their illicit affair. After all, the girl was equally a willing participant as the man.
Attorney Dr. Naguib Gobrail, President of the Egyptian Union Organization for Human Rights, wrote to President Mubarak asking him to intervene. He also blamed the government for 
neglecting to take the proper actions in regards to both Al-Kosheh Massacres: “Had you condemned those who defamed the Christian religion and those who spread the culture of violence and fanaticism, then no sectarian violence against Copts would have taken place in Dairut, Menoufia (where a Copt was beheaded like the one on the left) or Abu Fana, where monks were tortured in 2008.” He reminded Mubarak that Copts are also Egyptian citizens.
Where’s Martin Luther King Jr. when you need him? All he would have to do is make little revisions here and there in his infamous speech. Maybe something like, “I have a dream that one day these Coptic daughters will live in a nation where they will not be judge by the cross on their skin but by the content of their character.” Or how about, “This swelter summer of the Copt’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.”
You may think that all these attacks only happen in Egypt or only happen in third-world Middle Eastern countries. After all, websites like CoptsUnited.com, TheFreeCopts.net, ForgottenMinority.blogspot.com, and the newspaper The Voice of the Immigrant educate others about the persecution and condemnation Coptic Christians endure—something that local Egyptian news are adamantly ignoring during their daily broadcasts.
But it has recently expanded.
Coptic Americans were shocked when they perused the newspapers in early 2005 to find a Coptic man, Hossam Armanious, and his family slain and mutilated because he was… well, Coptic. The family was outspoken critics of Islam. The father especially, would go on websites and chat rooms via paltalk.com debating theology with Muslims. Armanious received many death threats due to his debating. According to one family friend, one threat stated: “You’d better stop this bull, or we are going to track you down like a chicken and kill you.” But Armanious didn’t stop because after all, he wasn’t in Egypt anymore. He was in the land of the free—Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion was grated to him and anyone who wanted to disrupt his right to practice them would be prosecuted. Right? Well, Carrie Devorah states: “Hossam wrongly interpreted America’s Freedom of Religion guaranteed his Freedom of Expression and offline anonymity.”
On January 14, 2005, Armanious (47), his wife Amal Garas (36), and their daughters, Monica (8) and Sylvia (15), all photographed on the left, were found murdered in their New Jersey home. The family was bound and tortured before the murders slit their throats. Sylvia was especially brutalized with her face beaten beyond recognition and repeatedly stabbed in the chest and wrist where she bore her cross tattoo. The later is a common torture mechanism when afflicting those who bear the sign of their faith: either with stabbing them in the wrist or slicing that section of skin so that there is a gap where the cross used to be. Oh, by the way, that Saturday would have been Sylvia’s sixteenth birthday.
So what happened? Was justice sought out? Well, here's where it gets interesting... and a little confusing, so bare with me. According to TalkLeft.com and TheAmericanMuslim.org, they state that the newspapers were wrong… that the motive was robbery, not religious hatred, pointing the finger to an upstairs neighbor, Edward McDonald, and alleged accomplice, Hamiliton Sanchez, who both pleaded not-guilty to the crimes. It’s an interesting conclusion, since at the time, it was believed that all their gold and valuables were left untouched.
In the process of researching the slaying of the Armanious family, I came across Daniel Pipes blog which posted a summary of the prosecution's case based on the Jersey Journal account. In short, on March 3, 2005, McDonald gave a videotaped confession admitting he and Sanchez held the three woman at gunpoint, masked, and ready to burgarlized the home. According to McDonald, they bound and blindfolded the women. While they ransacked the house, Armanious arrived. He gave them the ATM card and PIN number without resistance. (This would later be the reason authorities believed they were the cause of the murders, finding almost $3,000 withdrawn from Armanious' bank account after the day of the murders). He was also bound and blindfolded. McDonald added that Monica "pulled the thing off--she seen all of us." After mumble a few things inaudibly, he added, "everybody had to die." He then confessed to "stabbing" Monica, while Sanchez killed the other three. In total, his jury convicted him on 29 counts of felony murder, burglary, robbery and weapons possession. According to Michaelangelo Conte of the Jersey Journal: "After the jury was dismissed, one member of the panel said some jurors believed the confession and others did not. That's why there wasn't a guilty verdict on the murder charge to Monica."
Isn't that interesting? The one murder he admits to doesn't get a gulity verdict and the man who McDonald confesses to carrying out the other three murders walks away utterly free. According to Daniel Pipes, defense attorney Paul Feinberg "kept arguing throughout the trial, because McDonald's confession came under dubious circumstances and not a single piece of forensic evidence ties him or Sanchez to the crime." If no one believed it, why wasn't it thrown out? And if it was true, why did he stab Monica? Even if she did see something, she would have seen a tall figure wearing a mask. Besides, he said he threatened the family wearing a mask at gunpoint; why didn't he shoot her?
However, on March 20, 2008, a jury found McDonald, photographed on the right, 
guilty of felony murder in the slaying of the Armanious family. According to reporter Jason Fink, "The felony murder convictions mean the jury held him responsible for the deaths because they occurred during the commission of a felony (the burglary)" not because he killed him with his own hands. But it just doesn’t make any sense. Bishop David, spiritual leader for most North American Copts states: “It’s very difficult to believe that four people were killed just to steal a card to take some money out of an ATM machine. A lot of things need to be explained in more detail.”
It isn’t the most unheard of thing for people to loot the dead. I suspect he found the family slaughtered, and instead of reporting the crime, he grabbed the ATM card and ran. Also, since his was on parole for drug-dealing, I wouldn’t put it passed him to not report the incident, fearing that he would be accused of the murders. Then again, his background makes him the perfect scapegoat for those who desire to deflate the situation between Muslim- and Coptic-Americans, as well as avoiding any offense against the Muslim community.
But let’s pay devil’s advocate, shall we? Let’s say he did murder all four members of the family just to steal an ATM card. Why would he create such a blood bath? Why torture them? But most importantly, why go through the extra mile of carving out Sylvia's cross tattoo? What does her tattoo have to do with his mission of robbery? After all, most Americans don’t know the significance about the cross tattoo to Copts. Most Americans don’t know much about Copts in general. But fellow Middle Easterners do.
Regardless, on June 30 of the same year, Supreme Court Judge Kevin Callahan sentence McDonald to four 75-year terms to be served consecutively. That’s a pretty hefty sentence to give a man convicted of crime with so many holes in it. Lucky for Sanchez, all charges were dropped on his account.
Why am I writing about something that’s so depressing, you may ask? What does this have to do with Coptic identity or the complexities of the threshold? It’s simple, really. This is something that is happening to our brothers and sisters as we speak. Visit one of the websites regarding persecution listed above and I assure you they will have something new to report weekly, if not daily. The fact of the matter is that it was pure luck that we, the Diaspora Copts, aren’t facing the situation that they are; whether because your family’s name was picked out of the lottery to emigrate out of Egypt or you found out some glitch in the system to escape the country and never look back.
Let me ask you again: what destroys humanity?
It’s hate. Blind, ignorant hate. Hate is like a weed: once implanted, it’s hard to uproot and it 
destroys everything around it. So how can we protect others from hate? Call me an optimist, but I believe the answer is love. Now hear me out. The love I’m talking about isn’t stationary. It’s active. The love I’m talking about spreads like pollen in a field. It grows and blossoms. Out of love for our people, country, and livelihood, I implore you to identify with these victims imprisoned in these situations, like this girl with the burnt face. What would you want others to do when they hear your story? Would you want them to turn their backs and pretend you never existed? Or would you want them to be active in the struggle and strife to gain your human rights? So out of love, write to your congressmen and to the President asking them to defend the defenseless. Attend the peaceful vigils announcing to your government that you have not forgotten those victims. That you will speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. After all, love is what keeps humanity alive.
