From: mjkugel@iastate.edu (Michael J Kugel)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic
Subject: NY Times article on the Copts (longish)
Date: 28 Jul 92 15:57:57 GMT
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA

The following article is reprinted from Monday's New York Times.
I generally don't believe in posting news articles, but I felt this was
the best way to initiate a discussion on the treatment of Christian
minorities in Islamic countries.

Spelling and grammar errors are most likely my own.



            Heaviest Cross for Egypt's Copts: March of Islam.

                           by Chris Hedges

SANABU, Egypt -- Daniel Samaan, a 26 year-old farmer, has not left his
mud hovel to tend his fields for three months.  
  
The last time he stood barefoot in the dark, fecund earth where he and
his family have grown wheat and corn for generations, he collected the
bodies of his uncle and five cousins, who had been slain by Islamic
militants.

His three brothers have fled the village, but he remains holed up in his
hut with his blind 70-year-old father, his mother and eight other family
members who are too afraid to venture out for more than a few minutes
and too poor to find another place to live.

``Life for Christians here is over,'' he said, as his mother stood at
the wooden door to make sure no one was listening.  ``Now we must figure
out how to get out.''

Coptic Christians, who number 7 million to 8 million of Egypt's 56
million people and belong to one of the oldest denominations in
Christendom, have become the victims of an increasingly violent campaign
waged by Islamic militants who want to create a state ruled according to
strict interpretations of Islamic law.

      
                       Attacks Occur Daily

In the last four months more than 30 people have been killed in Asyul
Province, which embraces this town, including 13 Christians massacred by
militants one morning in May.  Assaults on Christians and the burning of
their shops are a daily occurrence.

In this farm village Christians say they are forced by militants to pay
monthly protection fees to avoid harassment and are forbidden to hold
public weddings and funerals.  Many content they are denied jobs because
of their religion.

The sectarian violence, which is creeping into Christian neighborhoods
in Cairo, eerily resembles the successful drive by Muslim leaders to
drive Jews from the Arab world three and four decades ago.

The Egyptian Government has placed several thousand troops in Upper
Egypt to curb attacks and hunt down militant groups.  Parliament has
passed a tough antiterrorism law, including the introduction of the
death penalty for members of ``terrorist'' groups.

The new measures follow the assassinations of Farag Foda, a leading
intellectual who criticized the militants, and several police and
Government officials.  The also come on the heels of two abortive
attacks on groups of tourists visiting Luxor.


                    Tourism Called a Target

``These extremists want to destroy tourism, a vital source of our
revenues, to impoverish the country,'' the presidential press secretary,
Mohammed Abdel Moneim, said.   ``They want to eliminate our leaders and
intellectuals.  And they want to attack the Christians to make the
Government look weak and to foster a split within the nation between
Muslims and Christians.''

Egyptian officials also contend that some 2,500 fundamentalists have
recently infiltrated southern Egypt from the Sudan.

Many Coptic leaders, who say that Muslim militants now control several
small villages and towns in Upper Egypt, wonder if it is already too
late. 

``If the Government had acted earlier then we would not be facing the
crisis we have today,'' said a Christian member of Parliament, who asked
to remain unidentified.  ``But they let it go and now we have a real war
with armed rebels.''

The town of 25,000 people has suffered some of the worst violence,
including the burning of 64 Christian shops and houses after the
shooting by security forces of the town's militant leader in June.

                   Basic Services Lacking

The grinding poverty and lack of basic services mean that most people
are unable to school their children or find adequate health care.

Even the police have little part to play in the village.  Local elders
mediate disputes, as they have for generations, and most men in Sanabu
have old bolt-lock rifles to settle their own quarrels and protect
their property.

The lack of Government involvement has left a vacuum the
fundamentalists, most allied with and organization known as the Islamic
Group, have rushed to fill.  Bearded militants dole out small quantities
of food and money to poor Muslims.

About a third of Sanabu is Christian, but the numbers are falling.  ``We
have lost about 50 families since June,'' said 70-year-old Abdu Labib,
the leader of the Christian community.

Younis Zaki Ashamalla, 35, a farmer, slowly picked through his gutted
home at the edge of the village.  A dozen fundamentalists broke into his
house last month when he was in the fields.  They beat his wife with
sticks and poured gasoline over the furnishing before setting the house
ablaze. 

``They screamed that there is no God but God, and that Jews and
Christians were infidels,'' his wife said.  ``Before they left they
slashed me with a knife.  We lost everything, even our chickens.  Now we
are living with a neighbor while we try to get money to leave.''

In the Abnoub al-Harmam hospital outside Asyut, where two Coptic priests
were killed last year, Kamel Azmi was recovering from a beating that
left his right arm broken.

He limped painfully to the hallway to speak.

``I did not tell the doctors what really happened,'' he said softly.
``I am afraid the fundamentalists will come and get me here.  Even the
children report what you say these days.''