Truth Beyond Media Exaggerations and Manipulation
CAIRO, FEB 22 (ZENIT).- Since 1992, Egypt has witnessed a worrying increase in terrorist attacks by fundamentalist groups. In general, the attacks are aimed at government institutions or tourists, in order to de-stabilize tourism, which is the country's principal source of revenue. But often, the attacks are directed against Egyptian Christians.
Among the most severe of these was that of an Islamic commando in 1997, which ended in the death of 12 Copts, who were worshipping in the Abu Qorqas Church in the province of Minya. The following year, 1,000 Christians of El-Kosheh village were tortured by the police. In this same locality, a confrontation between Muslims and Copts ended with the tragic death of 20 persons.
The Vatican "Fides" Agency issued a report exploring to what point it is justifiable to attribute a religious motive to this violence. The region of Upper Egypt, where the fundamentalists are concentrated and where over 1,200 persons have died from violence since 1992, is also the area of greatest concentration of Christians. This is a rural zone where arguments are more easily settled by a gun than by appealing to a judge. "Many of the crimes defined as 'confessional,' are often the consequence of an archaic system of resolving disputes, which to a large extent are rooted in economic and social differences among members of the two communities. The confrontations end up by progressively degenerating into the mutual sacking and burning of homes," "Fides" concluded from its research.
However, the Vatican news agency states that this does not change the fact that at times the Christians become the target of the fundamentalists. According to the Egyptian Organization of the Rights of Man, the fundamentalists of Dairut "forbid Christians to worship" and impose a tax on commercial transactions of Copts, threatening them with "corporal punishments" if they default.
Finally, "Fides" reports that given the fact that the government prohibits foreign sources from financing the activities of groups of the "Gasmaa Islamiya," the latter look for funding by assaulting banks and jewelry stores that are often the property of Copts, to finance their "holy war."
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