The ’Persecution Show’ in Al-Kushh is a new series in the many series being played against Egypt by its enemies for what came of events last August 15 in Al-Kushh did not deserve more than a 10-sentence news item in a local newspaper in its accident pages, even if this paper were a ’yellow journal’ or tabloid paper. However, this event suddenly became a world issue.
A world issue that took up a page in a British newspaper and other papers after the conspirators moved in Egypt and abroad to made out of nothing a big issue, an issue that to their enjoyment has been called ’Persecution Show’ with an annex called ’Torture Party’.
The beginning was very simple when a report was filed at the local police station of Dar El-Salam, Sohag Governorate, saying that two bodies [of men who were shot] have been found, those of Samir A’wida Hakim and Karim Tamer Sulaiman Arsil, on an agricultural piece of land in the village of Kushh. Next to the two murdered Christian Copts were empty envelopes and a deck of playing cards. The fact that they were Copts is not strange for the village has a population of 25,000 with a majority of Christians.
It was very easy, even for a young investigator, after seeing the deck of cards next to the bodies to reach a conclusion that this was a quarrel over a gambling game and its winnings. However, to find two murdered at the same time in a small and quiet village was an unusual matter, which led to more in-depth investigation and analysis.
Because of the strangeness of the case the investigation required the police to call larger numbers of people since the nature of the Upper Egyptian village will not allow people to go to the police and tell them about information that they might know.
Tens of men and women entered the police station to be questioned leaving after an hour or two, and some were detained, a number according to official police statistics to be 25, eight of them being Muslims.
This investigation quickly resulted in two witnesses who were, according to their first testimony, with the victims and the murderer. The two Coptic witnesses are Abdo Mikhail Malak and Yasser Shahid Alam who are normal laborers currently undergoing their military service period in Al-Minya.
Alam and Malak recall what happened in the incident: The two victims where gambling with them and the murderer Sheibub William Sulaiman Arsil who is also a Copt, and is the cousin of the second victim Karim. A quarrel started over the winnings of the game between the first victim Samir and Sheibub who took out a gun and fired a bullet hitting his cousin Karim. Sheibub did not stop there and continued to fire until he hit his target Samir, resulting in the death of the two, and Sheibub fled the scene of the crime. The two witnesses fled as well.
There is nothing unusual in this incident because such an action can happen anywhere and there is no indication here to any form of sectarianism. What is also not unusual is that the murderer is not new to crime since he has 13 other criminal charges in his police file, some of which he was innocent of and other cases in which he was imprisoned.
Sheibub was later arrested by the police and sent to the prosecutor’s office on September 14, 1998. The murder weapon was confiscated, and he confessed the crime that was recorded in the investigation file under number 1882/1998, district of Dar el-Salaam.
However, what stirred up events was the interference of Bishop Wissa of Balyina who proclaimed himself as the rightful protector of the Copts of Al-Kushh, giving up his sole role of being a man of religion. He gave himself a role comparable to that of a union leader fighting for his laborers, once as a lawyer, once as an investigator and once as a press coordinator sending details abroad, which mostly were not even correct details.
Bishop Wissa who is now in his 60s was previously arrested and detained in 1981, according to what was said by the Coptic politician and ex-member of Parliament Gamal Asa’ad in his article about the Al-Kossh events. Asa’ad said that as a result of the way the Bishop was arrested and the humiliating detention measures he experienced, the Bishop built a general discontent against the security forces. Consequently the reactions of the security would be the same, which means that a feeling of mutual distrust was a natural thing as was proven when he went to the state security in Sohag, which was automatically provoked due to the Bishop’s natural animosity toward them, explained Asa’ad.
These actions of the Bishop where considered by the security apparatus to be provoking. for the Bishop with two other priests attempted, according to police investigations, to convince the villagers not to cooperate with the police. He sent communiqués to those who hobby the ’Show’ inside26 and outside of Egypt27 saying that the police are persecuting Copts and that they have arrested 1000 Copts28 and have forced witnesses to confess that a Copt is the murderer which is not true.
This is how the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights came to issue its report talking about physical torture and arrests of more than 1000 men, women and children. In addition, the Sunday Telegraphs [ran a] page-long report written by a journalist who apparently does not even know the location of Al-Kushh.29
What is obvious to the normal reader is that he will notice the lack of credibility and apparent conspiracy behind the report. The report first talks about thousands, then hundreds, then talks of murder vendettas between Muslims and Christians which never happened. It then talks about the Bishop who is supposedly facing the death sentence, putting in mind that the charges never even reached court, in addition to fabrications about nails, crucifying and rapes.
A statement made by the Human Rights Center for the Aid of Prisoners, which is an Egyptian center known for its neutrality, answered the whole issue. Entitled "Transgressions and not Persecutions", the report says that there were many violations faced by some of the villagers and that was not because of any form of religious persecution but due to violations by an officer during the investigations of the crime case.
The report then calls on the international press to examine the correctness and truth of what it publishes concerning religious persecution against Copts in Egypt. The report confirms that there is a strong relationship between all religions of the nation and that forging information about the existence of sectarianism does not help in any way the situation of human rights in Egypt.
The Dutch correspondent, Kees Hulsman, says: two Christians were murdered in Al-Kushh village in a fight over gambling, The Christians suspected five Muslims because one of the victims was suspected for murdering one of their relatives.30 The five Muslims denied the charge and the police made investigations to catch a Christian who was a suspect to avoid sparking conflicts between the village’s Christians and Muslims.
The police questioned hundreds of villagers, most of them were Christians. Some of them had been detained for two or three days by police violating the Ministry of Interior’s laws. It is not impossible that police used torture with the detained. Bishop Wissa presented a complaint to the Head of Security, but it had not been investigated which motivated the Bishop to bring it further to mass media and international and Coptic human rights organizations on September, 9th, 199831. He said he had waited for such a long time after the incident which occurred on August, 14th, 1998 because he had no idea about what should have been done and he had not faced such situations before. Only one journalist visited Al-Kushh 32 while the others just phoned Bishop Wissa and lawyer Maurice Sadek in Cairo who had not investigated the matter himself. Therefore, most statements released by these organizations lacked accuracy. Some of them, in their reports, pointed out to the involvement of five Muslim suspects who belong to Al-Gama’a Al-Islamia, the Islamic Group. It is worth mentioning that Muslim extremists had not been active in this region before and the villagers are not of the religiously extreme type. They only care about bread-earning.
Hulsman added that despite frequent Egyptian media criticism of policemen’s behavior towards Muslims33 in Al-Qurna in Luxor and in Belqas in the Dakahliya governorate, the Western media did not care about those Muslims who lack support of concerned bodies in the West. Acts of tortures committed in Al-Kushh village have nothing to do with persecution of Christians as it is alleged outside Egypt. However, some policemen’s behavior was behind the problem. The Egyptian Minister of Interior interfered to stop this big investigation operation carried out by the police. This was the testimony of a foreigner and we conclude by it. Will the West do the same? I doubt it.
