There has to be serious investigations into the incidents and bringing "criminals" who perpetrated these acts to trial, said MYU, calling on everyone to stop resorting to political and 'urfī (informal) conciliatory solutions that further worsen matters. [Muhammad Imām, al-Jumhūrīyah, Feb. 16, p. 5] Read original text in Arabic
Quiet prevailed in the village of Mīt Bashār on Wednesday (February 15) after a heated night of confrontations between security forces and local residents, leaving five anti-riot policemen wounded, over the disappearance of a Coptic girl of the name Rānyā Khalīl Ibrāhīm, who converted to Islam six months ago.
The street leading to the village church has turned into a battlefield as young men tried to attack and set ablaze the church and hurled Molotov cocktails on the central security personnel who were surrounding the church to protect it.
Security forces fired tear gas to disperse the protesting local residents.
“Muslim elders in the village formed a human shield to protect the church,” said Salāmah Muhyī al-Dīn, adding the girl has moved to live with her father who had converted to Islam two years ago, left his Christian wife, married to a Muslim and changed his name to Khalīl Ibrāhīm Muhammad ‘Abd Allāh. [Author Not Mentioned, al-Misrī al-Yawm, Feb. 16, p. 1] Read original text in Arabic
Local residents said they will confront any attempts to spark sectarian troubles as Salafīs formed a security cordon alongside the policemen to protect the church and to make sure that no Copts or any of their houses or property come under attack.
Some locals had rushed to the church on the belief that Rānyā was detained inside a church but Christians in the village objected and then clashes erupted between the two sides.
A delegation of the People’s Assembly members and senior Muslim and Christian elders in the village marched to see the girl who was placed under tight security measures. The delegation, making sure the girl was fine, spread the news among the citizens, which helped restore peace in the troubled area. [Nirmīn al-Shawādfī, ‘Uthmān Shihātah and Shādyah Yūsuf, al-Ahrām, Feb. 16, p. 3] Read original text in Arabic
MP Marian Malāk forwarded a question in parliament over the Mīt Bashār incidents, calling for investigating the circumstances that led to the demolition of a church fence and burning of a chamber inside the Christian house of worship. [Author Not Mentioned, al-Jumhūrīyah, Feb. 16, p. 5] Read text in Arabic
A security source said the family of the Christian young man accused of taking photos on his cell phone in Sharbāt village, al-Nahdah area, in the Alexandria district of al-‘Āmrīyah, already left the village before the story was found out while the family of the Muslim woman and her husband departed two days before the unrest broke out.
“The media mishandled the issue as they mentioned that the number of Christian families forced to leave their areas were eight while they were in fact only two,” the source told al-Misrī al-Yawm newspaper.
He said that the ‘urfī session, attended by the church priest, the Millī (Community) Council member and local elders, had decided that the two families must leave “to guarantee their safety”.
A western Alexandria prosecutor ordered the release of Murād Sāmī Girgis, the young Christian tailor involved in the incidents, on Wednesday (February 15) at a bail of LE1,000 (roughly $360) pending investigation into the incidents that fuelled clashes with guns that left three wounded and three houses and a car set on fire. [Nabīl Abū Shāl, Rajab Ramadān, Nāsir al-Sharqāwī and Muhammad Abū al-‘Aynayn, al-Misrī al-Yawm, Feb. 16, p. 5] Read original text in Arabic
A statement issued by the general local council in Alexandria condemned the decisions made at the end of an ‘urfī meeting on al-‘Āmrīyah incidents.
The statement described the decisions as ones of “submission to the wishes of the assailants and inciters for vandalizing the property of some of the Christians in the area”. [Author Not Mentioned, al-Jumhūrīyah, Feb. 16, p. 5] Read text in Arabic
Security agencies on Wednesday (February 15) contained a sectarian fitnah in al-Ismā’īlīyah village in the Upper Egyptian governorate of al-Minya, where Muslim and Christian local residents exchanged hurling stones after priests and more than 100 Copts entered two houses and turned them into two churches for prayer without prior licenses.
Minya Security Director Maj. General Mamdūh Muqlid led a security force that managed to control the unrest and disperse the gathering locals.
Copts in the village had applied in 2006 and 2007 to turn two houses into churches for prayer but the request was turned down then because it fell short of meeting the set conditions. [Bāhir al-Rūbī, al-Jumhūrīyah, Feb. 16, p. 5] Read text in Arabic
Counselor Tharwat Hammād, a judge delegated by the justice ministry to investigate the October 9 clashes in the area of Maspero, ordered the arrest of Michael Meunier, President of the U.S. Copts Association and leader of Al-Haya Party, for investigations over involvement in the incidents that left 24 persons killed and 350 others wounded.
The judge also gave orders to bar Meunier’s departure from Egypt pending the investigations and instructed the public prosecutors to notify all airports and seaports of the decisions.
A judicial source said Meunier is accused of inciting citizens to assault armed forces personnel, assembly, possession of unlicensed weapons, vandalizing public property with malice aforethought for terrorist purposes, attempt to storm the state radio & TV building, beating persons, which caused the death of soldier Muhammad ‘Alī Shitā, and robbing weapons and ammunition owned by the armed forces. [Hātim al-Jahmī, al-Shurūq al-Jadīd, Feb. 16, p. 3] Read text in Arabic
Nine army soldiers on Wednesday (February 15) completed their treatment from injuries they sustained during the Maspero incidents as medical reports showed that a soldier received a bullet in his buttocks, four with knife stabs – one in the arm, another in the leg and two in the abdomen – and four others with injuries from stones. [Nuhá ‘Āshūr, al-Shurūq al-Jadīd, Feb. 16, p. 5] Read text in Arabic
Meanwhile, Grand Shaykh of the Azhar Dr. Ahmad al-Tayyīb on Wednesday (February 15) launched an international initiative to break the siege imposed on al-Quds (Jerusalem) in the presence of Palestinian Muftī Shaykh Muhammad Husayn, representatives from the Patriarchate of Antioch and Ambassador Muhammad Subayh, Assistant Secretary General of the Arab League. [Muhammad ‘Abd al-Khāliq, al-Ahrām, Feb. 16, p. 3] Read original text in Arabic
