[Grem] A Bloodbath for Christians, No response from Egypt

[Emoke Greschik]

 A Bloodbath for Christians, No Response from Egypt


* by Raymond Ibrahim
<https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Raymond+Ibrahim> November 11,
2018 at 5:00 am*

*https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13282/egypt-christians-bloodbath
<https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13282/egypt-christians-bloodbath>*

   -

   Seven pilgrims were shot to death, "just because they were Christian,"
   said Pope Francis after the attack.
   -

   "The pilgrims were killed in such a savage and sadistic way, as if they
   were enemy combatants, when they were just simple Christians come to get a
   blessing from a monastery." — Coptic Bishop Anba Makarios of Minya, Egypt.
   -

   "The minimum response expected from president El-Sisi is to dismiss the
   head of State Security and the governor of Minya, as a clear sign of
   holding officials accountable. Furthermore, given the government's
   continued failure to protect the Copts, Coptic Solidarity vigorously calls
   for an independent inquiry by the UN to evaluate the Copts' situation and
   to recommend necessary measures to alleviate their increasingly perilous
   situation..." — *Coptic Solidarity*, Washington, DC.

On November 2, heavily armed Islamic terrorists ambushed and massacred
Christians returning home after visiting the ancient St. Samuel Monastery
(pictured) in Minya, Egypt. (Image source: Roland Unger/Wikimedia Commons)

On November 2, heavily armed Islamic terrorists ambushed
<http://dailynewsegypt.com/2018/11/04/egypts-copts-targeted-by-terrorism-again/>
and massacred
<https://www.copticsolidarity.org/2018/11/07/we-will-kill-the-men-and-children-and-leave-you-to-live-the-rest-of-your-lives-in-misery/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=6aa59968-add9-43a0-98bd-b75f740929a5>
Christians returning <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbBYzYiIGTA> home
after visiting the ancient St. Samuel Monastery in Minya, Egypt.

Seven pilgrims -- including
<https://morningstarnews.org/2018/11/islamist-terrorists-ambush-kill-seven-christians-near-monastery-in-minya-egypt/>
a 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy -- were shot to death. More than
20 were left injured with bullet wounds or shards of broken glass from the
buses' windows. "I pray for the victims, pilgrims killed just because they
were Christian," said <http://www.arabnews.com/node/1399016/middle-east>
Pope Francis after the attack.

Pictures posted on social media reveal
<https://dailynewsegypt.com/2018/11/04/egypts-copts-targeted-by-terrorism-again/>
"bodies soaked in blood and distorted faces of men and women." In one video
posted, a man can be heard crying
<https://dailynewsegypt.com/2018/11/04/egypts-copts-targeted-by-terrorism-again/>,
"The gunshot got you in the head, my boy!" and repeating, "What a loss!"

After the first and largest bus had passed the ambush point, the terrorists
emerged in black 4x4s and opened fire with automatic weapons on the second
bus; six pilgrims were injured, including a small child. Fortunately, the
bus driver managed to escape and speed away, at which point the terrorists
fired on the third and smallest bus as it approached. After the driver was
killed, they surrounded the stalled minibus and opened fire on all sides.
The bus carried <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVtS2GFD4P8> 20 people --
14 adults and six children -- all from one extended family who had visited
the monastery to baptize two of the children.

The terrorists first opened the hatchback and looked to see who was still
alive. They then shot all the men in the head and all the women and
children in the ankles or legs.

One of the female survivors who was shot in the legs recalls, in a video
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVtS2GFD4P8>, only that an explosion of
gunfire suddenly opened on all sides of their bus; by the time she could
register what was happening, she saw pieces of her brother-in-law's brain
splattered on her lap.

Another woman, after realizing that her husband and daughter had been
killed, begged the jihadis to kill her, too. They said
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyTqbAx_s4E>, "No, you stay and suffer
over your husband and daughter." Then they shot her in the ankles so she
could not move away.

In a separate report
<https://www.copticsolidarity.org/2018/11/07/we-will-kill-the-men-and-children-and-leave-you-to-live-the-rest-of-your-lives-in-misery/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=6aa59968-add9-43a0-98bd-b75f740929a5>,
another survivor said the terrorists told her, "We will kill the men and
children and leave you to live the rest of your lives in misery."

Virtually all of the survivors have
<https://www.persecution.org/2018/11/02/gunmen-replicate-2017-bus-attack-egyptian-christians/>
"had a nervous breakdown of what they have seen and they are in the
hospital."

Coptic Bishop Anba Makarios of Minya confirmed
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9YWHk2vqbI> that "The pilgrims were
killed in such a savage and sadistic way, as if they were enemy combatants,
when they were just simple Christians come to get a blessing from a
monastery."

Reactions among Egypt's Christians echoed those from earlier incidents. "Oh
God, these children were students in my school!" wept
<https://www.persecution.org/2018/11/02/gunmen-replicate-2017-bus-attack-egyptian-christians/>
one local teacher. "I can't imagine they are dead now!"

The day after the attack, the Egyptian government created more questions
than answers. It announced that it had killed 19 terrorists believed to be
complicit in the November 2 attack. As one report
<https://www.persecution.org/2018/11/05/egypts-response-massacre-raises-questions/>
noted:

"With the suspects now dead, it is impossible to confirm whether they were
indeed involved in Friday's attack. Fear continues to permeate the
Christian community in Egypt."

Another report
<https://www.persecution.org/2018/11/07/answers-solutions-wanted-minya-bus-attack/>
stated that government photos of the purported slain terrorists "appear
staged in a manner which mirrors past examples of Egyptian security forces
executing suspected terrorists."

The attack was a virtual duplicate of another that occurred on May 26,
2017. Islamist gunmen ambushed buses full of Christians returning from the
same monastery. Twenty-eight Christians -- ten of whom were children,
including two girls, aged two and four -- were massacred. According to accounts
<http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/05/28/in-ramadan-massacre-egyptian-christians-killed-for-refusing-to-renounce-their-faith-in-jesus/>based
on eyewitness testimonies, the terrorists had ordered the passengers to
exit the bus in groups:

"... as each pilgrim came off the bus they were asked to renounce their
Christian faith and profess belief in Islam, but all of them — even the
children — refused. Each was killed in cold blood with a gunshot to the
head or the throat."

Discussing the recent massacre with Bishop Makarios, a television
interviewer said <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnmsO3aw0B8>, "this is a
duplicate of the same event and same place that happened a year and five
months ago -- how can this be? What does it mean?" Makarios replied,
"Honestly, those best positioned to answer this question are the state
authorities.... I add my voice to yours and ask the same questions."

"That the same attack occurred in the same place only means that, despite
all the talk, protecting Egypt's Christian minority is not on the
government's agenda," Magdi Khalil, Egyptian political analyst and editor
of the Egyptian weekly *Watani International*, told Gatestone by phone.

Despite Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's many conciliatory and
brotherly words to the nation's Christian minorities, they have suffered
more
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/10/christians-egypt-unprecedented-persecution-report>
under his rule than any Egyptian leader of the modern era, partially
because ISIS arose during his term. In December 2017, a gunman killed 10
worshippers inside a church in Helwan. One year earlier, 29 Christians were
killed during twin attacks on churches. On Palm Sunday in April 2017, a
suicide bombing of two churches killed nearly 50 people and injured more
than a hundred.

While it may be understandable that Sisi cannot eliminate terrorism
entirely, there is evidence that the government itself participates in the
persecution of Egypt's Christians. According to the World Watch List (2018)
<https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/egypt/>,
Egyptian "officials at any level from local to national" are "strongly
responsible" for the "oppression" of Egypt's Christians. "Government
officials," the report adds, "also act as drivers of persecution through
their failure to vindicate the rights of Christians and also through their
discriminatory acts which violate the fundamental rights of Christians." [1]

Coptic Solidarity, a Washington, DC-based organization dedicated to the
human rights of Egypt's Christians, condemned the Novemnber 2 attack in a press
release
<https://www.copticsolidarity.org/2018/11/02/coptic-solidarity-condemns-ruthless-attack-on-coptic-pilgrims/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=269cc68a-3a77-478e-bf28-4a51920a3fd5>
:

"Coptic Solidarity reiterates the message published after the May 2017
attack, that the Egyptian government has failed to protect its Coptic
minority. Coptic Solidarity strongly maintains that this violence is not
perpetrated by foreign terrorists as the Egyptian government would like the
world to believe, but is homegrown, one created by a culture of hate and
impunity within Egypt.

"Consequently, Coptic Solidarity holds the Egyptian government fully
responsible and calls for a transparent investigation of these attacks, and
to institute serious measures to prevent future attacks. The minimum
response expected from president El-Sisi is to dismiss the head of State
Security and the governor of Minya, as a clear sign of holding officials
accountable. Furthermore, given the government's continued failure to
protect the Copts, Coptic Solidarity vigorously calls for an independent
inquiry by the UN to evaluate the Copts' situation and to recommend
necessary measures to alleviate their increasingly perilous situation and
to avoid repetition of the tragic situation of Christians in Iraq and
Syria."

"Our lives have turned into hell," said one man
<http://www.foxnews.com/world/coptic-christian-attack-10-of-the-29-dead-idd-as-children-heading-to-monastery-to-pray>.
"I'm a Copt and I curse myself every day for bringing [Sisi] to power. He
failed us. He sold us."

"Who can accept these incidents?" asked
<https://www.persecution.org/2018/11/02/gunmen-replicate-2017-bus-attack-egyptian-christians/>
another Christian, discussing the recent massacre. "Every day, there are
many incidents harming Christians. We must leave our land and get out of
here. I'm so exhausted... it's so dull and dark these days."

*Raymond Ibrahim <http://raymondibrahim.com/>, author of the new book,* Sword
and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West
<https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0306825554/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0306825554&linkCode=as2&tag=raymondibrahi-20&linkId=0f925201768b161ae319879bb3fdf1d7>*,
is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and a Judith
Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.*

------------------------------

[1] Open Doors International, World Watch List 2018, Compilation Volume 3,
Persecution Dynamics for Countries Ranking 1-25, pages 154-155.

   - Follow Raymond Ibrahim on Twitter <https://twitter.com/RaymondIbrahim5>
   and Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/raymond.ibrahim.5>
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