In Egypt, Rockville man witnesses attack on Coptic Christians

Susan Singer-Bart, Staff Writer
26/10/2011

Post-revolution events worry county’s Middle Eastern activists.

Harry Malek attended a church service in Cairo, Egypt, the morning of Oct. 9, then watched on TV in the afternoon as police attacked worshippers marching from the church to a television station.

The Coptic Christians were protesting the burning of a church in southern Egypt 10 days earlier and the treatment of the Christian minority since February, when President Hosni Mubarak’s government fell.

The estimated 6,000 marchers were shocked when police fired at them with live ammunition and ran them over with tanks, Malek said. The official death toll is 24. Malek suspects the toll is higher.

Egyptian military officials explained the action to the New York Times by saying soldiers were terrified of the thousands of demonstrators.

Malek, who lives in Rockville, flew home early the following morning.

Malek’s second trip to Egypt since June, this was intended to be a family visit. He was invited by the new Egyptian government in June as part of a delegation of Copts who met with the government to discuss the future of the Christian minority.

“We are part of the Coptic Solidarity,” he said.

Coptic Solidarity was formed in 2009 by Copts in the U.S., Europe and Canada to support members of the church in Egypt. More than 2 million Copts live in the U.S. and there are five Coptic churches in the greater Washington, D.C. area, Malek said. He is a member of St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Cabin John.

“We ask that they not apply Islamic law to Christians,” Malek said.

They also asked the government to liberalize rules that make building new churches difficult.

Christians, primarily Copts, make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 85 million. The New York Times reports more than 93,000 Christians have left the country since the revolution.

Christians throughout the Middle East are in danger, according to Charbel Moussa of Germantown, director of the Center for Education, Dialogue and Advanced Research of the American Lebanon Assembly in Washington, D.C.

“Everybody was hoping things would change for the best,” Moussa said. “We haven’t seen that, unfortunately.”

Moussa meets regularly with Congressional leaders and administration officials to brief them on the Middle East. The Obama administration has not supported Christians in the Middle East, Moussa said.

“I think what’s happening in Egypt right now will happen to every country in the Middle East,” he said.

Coptic Christians who demonstrated in front of the White House last week were asking the U.S. government to help protect their basic human rights of religious freedom in Egypt, he said.

Malek, who is in his 70s, moved to the United States in 1968.

The situation was not as bad in June when Malek’s delegation and Coptic Pope Shenouda III met with the Egyptian prime minister and cabinet secretaries, Malek said. The delegation told Egyptian officials they would go the international court if the new constitution imposes Islamic law. A new constitution has not yet been written.

“The government is not free to do what they want because the military council is in charge,” he said.

The delegation did not meet with the military council.

Shortly before Malek moved to the U.S., the Virgin Mary appeared to millions of Egyptians, he said. She stayed on the roof of a church named for her from 1968 to 1970, then reappeared in Egypt in 1986 and 2000.

“I hope she will return,” Malek said. “Her presence gives us peace and confidence.”

ssingerbart@gazette.net

Source: