During a nine-hour marathon session of negotiations with a visiting parliament’s fact-finding commission, Hawwārī denied that the banishing of the Coptic families was mainly targeting their displacement.
“Those families were driven away only to prevent the problem from further deteriorating,” said Hawwārī, blaming the mass media for “exaggeration” and adding all the expelled families will be brought back to their homes within a few days in a special celebration to be attended by politicians, clerics and security officials.
Hānī Bahnā, the founder of the Egyptian Coptic Union, praised the attitude of Shaykh Hawwārī, noting an agreement was reached to expel only two persons – the Coptic man Murād and a Muslim of the name of Mahmūd who started the fitnah – and to compensate the harmed families for any losses that occurred during the clashes that left two Muslims and one Christian wounded by gunfire. [Rāmī Yāsīn and Shādyah Yūsuf, al-Ahrām, Feb. 18, p. 3] Read original text in Arabic
Coptic leaders and church sources welcomed the decisions by the People’s Assembly human rights committee and the ‘urfī (informal) conciliatory panel to have Coptic families forced out of their homes in Sharbāt village, al-‘Āmrīyah, return to their homes.
Member of Parliament ‘Amr al-Shubkī said the session underscored the rule of law as a main principle and rejected looting and burning of Coptic local residents’ houses.
Lawmaker Ahmad Sharīf of the Salafī al-Nūr (Light) Party pledged to preserve the safety of the Christian families and rejected their displacement on the grounds that it was against religious teachings, the law and norms. [‘Imād Khalīl, al-Misrī al-Yawm, Feb. 18, p. 6] Read original text in Arabic
The parliamentary delegation as well as some MPs from Alexandria denied that what happened to the Copts in ‘Āmrīyah should be called "displacement".
The delegation stressed the rule of law and justice and expressed respect for all endeavors by citizens to reach a conciliatory deal and end the problem that continued for about three weeks now. [Ahmad ‘Alī, Muhammad ‘Abd al-‘Āl and ‘Alīyah Timrāz, al-Misrī al-Yawm, Feb. 18, p. 6] Read original text in Arabic
The banished family of a notable Copt in al-‘Āmrīyah of the name of Abū Sulaymān opened fire on the locals who gathered outside the house of Murād Girgis, the young Copt who started all the trouble in the area, but his neighbors secured his exit with his property from the area.
Sāfī ‘Abd al-Wanīs, a Coptic member of the ‘urfī panel set up in an attempt to defuse the crisis, said the shaykhs and Muslim preachers refused Abū Sulaymān’s request to leave the village from a religious perspective but agreed for security reasons. [‘Abd al-Wahāb Sha’bān, al-Wafd, Feb. 18, p. 5] Read original text in Arabic
Meanwhile, elections of the executive committee for the general council of Apostolic Churches nationwide were finalized at the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS) office in Itsā, al-Minya governorate, as Dr. Samīr Sādiq, the pastor of the Apostolic Church in al-Tir’ah al-Būlāqīyah and director of the Evangelical Theology College of the Middle East, was elected president of the council. [Bāhī al-Rūbī, al-Jumhūrīyah, Feb. 18, p. 11] Read text in Arabic
