Christians in Egypt defy ban on public protests to fight for their rights

Chiqui Guyjoco Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Egyptian Christians defied the ban on public protests and took to the streets in Cairo on Saturday to demand their equal rights as citizens in the predominantly Muslim country.

Egyptian Christians hold placards during a protest against the killing of Egyptian Coptic Christians by militants of the Islamic State in Libya, in Cairo, February 16, 2015. | Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Some three dozen Christian demonstrators held signs demanding for their legal rights as they stood defiantly outside a courthouse in downtown Cairo.

"I am an Egyptian citizen above all," Michael Armanious, one of the protestors, told AP. "We pay taxes, we serve in the army, we are dealing with all the same economic problems in Egypt with the rest of our countrymen, why should we have fewer rights?"

Coptic Christians, who make up 10 to 15 percent of the country's 90 million population of Islamist majority, become victims of unprovoked sectarian attacks. This prompted Coptic Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria to meet with the state's lawmakers last month to speak out against the increased attacks and urge for national unity.

He cited a report that revealed 37 cases of sectarian attacks against the Coptic Christian minorities since 2013 which averaged to one incident in every month.

"The incidents we heard about are very painful. On my part, I'm patient and enduring, but there have been incidents that warn of danger," a Coptic Church statement quoted the 63-year-old leader of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church as saying, according to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA).

Parliamentarian Saad El-Gamal, also the head of the Support Egypt coalition, responded by reporting that the religion committee already undertook to draft a legislation which would recognize such sectarian attacks as "crimes against national unity."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who enjoys the support of the Coptic Christians, also met with the Coptic Pope and praised the Coptic citizens for proving their "wisdom and a spirit of patriotism" despite the attacks by those who "try to exploit religion as a means of fomenting division and spreading extremist ideas." Sisi declared all citizens regardless of religion "have equal rights and duties as established by the Constitution."