Another important article from the Middle East Forum:
“In scattered locations across Egypt,” wrote Morning Star News, “mobs of hard-line Muslims enraged over the deposing of the country’s Islamist president [Muhammad Morsi] this week attacked Christian homes, business[es] and church buildings and were suspected in the shooting death of a priest.”
None of this should come as a surprise. As Gatestone Institute reported right at the beginning of the June 30 revolution, anonymous “letters addressed to the Copts threatened them not to join the protests, otherwise their ‘businesses, cars, homes, schools, and churches’ might ‘catch fire…. This message is being delivered with tact. But when the moment of truth comes, there will be no tact’.” Several popular and influential Brotherhood leaders and supporters made the same threats, including Sheikh Essam Abdulamek , Dr. Safwat Hegazy , Dr. Wagdi Ghoneim, and Sheikh Abdullah Badr.
True to their word, now that Morsi and the Brotherhood have been ousted, Egypt’s Christians are being heavily targeted by Brotherhood supporters. On July 3rd, in a village in al-Minya in Upper Egypt, the services building of St. George Church was looted and torched. Likewise, the evangelical Saleh Church in Delga was attacked and caught fire, while the villagers, the majority of whom are Copts, had their homes and businesses looted and torched. Two Christians were injured from the fires. According to the pastor of Delga Catholic Church, who was able to escape the fire only through the roof, “supporters of former President Morsi are engaged in continuous and unprecedented harassment of Copts. He said that a number of those people broke into the homes of Christians at gunpoint, terrorizing women, children and seizing gold jewelry and furniture. He contacted security forces, pleading for help. Witnesses said security arrived next morning.”
