XPost: alt.christian.religion, alt.atheism, sac.politics
XPost: talk.politics.guns
Egyptians are just uppity niggers in need of a few good
whippings.
MINYA, Egypt — Masked militants in military-style uniforms
opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt
on Friday, killing at least 28 people in the latest bloodshed
targeting the country’s Christian minority, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the Islamic
State has claimed links to previous attacks against Egypt’s
Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population.
The massacre took place on the eve of Islam’s holy month of
Ramadan, a time when some militant factions have stepped up
attacks in the past.
The ambush — in the Minya region about 150 miles south of Cairo
— underscored the increasing pressures on Egyptian forces as
Islamist militants gain greater footholds around the country,
undercutting Egypt’s vital tourism industry and forcing greater
security for Coptic Christians and others targeted by militants.
The Minya governor, Maj. Gen. Essam el-Bedewey, said at least 28
people were killed and at least 25 were wounded when the
attackers fired on the bus heading for the St. Samuel Monastery,
one of several pilgrimage sites in an area that is home to a
large portion of Egypt’s Christian population. Among the dead
were two small girls, 2 and 4 years old, local officials said.
A member of the region’s security department, Maj. Mohamed Abdel-
Moneim, told reporters that about 10 men wearing military-style
gear carried out the attack.
The attack spurred global condemnations, and Egyptian warplanes
retaliated by striking militant bases in eastern Libya after
President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi warned in a televised address
that training camps for terrorists who attack Egypt would be hit
regardless of where they are. The planes targeted the
headquarters of the Shura Council in the eastern Libyan city of
Darna, where local militias have been linked to al-Qaeda rather
than the Islamic State, the Associated Press reported.
Sissi also appealed to President Trump to lead the fight against
terrorism. “I trust you, your word and your ability to make
fighting global terror your primary task,” the Egyptian leader
said.
Trump, attending a Group of Seven summit in Italy, denounced the
“merciless slaughter of Christians” and called on nations to
come together to fight “evil organizations of terror” and their
“thuggish ideology.”
Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened” by what he called a
“barbaric attack” and a “senseless act of hatred.”
Israel joined the condemnation, as did its two main enemies in
the region: Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah militant group and the
Islamist Hamas group that runs the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah
denounced “terrorism that takes religion as a cover,” while
Hamas called the bus attack “an ugly crime.”
The victims included Gerges Mahrous, a 25-year-old accountant,
and his brother, Kirolos Mahrous, an 18-year-old high school
student who were on their way to pray at the monastery, family
members said after identifying their bodies at a local hospital.
“Why?” screamed their cousin, Amal Fares. “What have they done?
Kirolos was just telling me he wanted to become a cardiologist
and treat the people for free. An accountant and an honor
student — what is their sin?”
An uncle, Fares Ishak, 70, said that according to survivors, the
attackers demanded that the victims recite the shahada Islamic
creed. His nephews “refused to give up on their faiths and died
Christians,” he said.
Another cousin, Sama Malak, 15, angrily demanded justice. “No
matter how strongly we condemn this and regardless of how much
we speak out or even scream, nothing changes,” she said, citing
previous attacks on Christians. “It is heart wrenching. We were
shopping for dresses to attend Gerges’s wedding. Now we are
wearing black to mourn him.”
Egyptian Grand Mufti Shawki Allam, the country’s top Islamic
authority, condemned what he called “the disgusting terrorist
operation that was carried out by extremists against our
Christian brethren.” He quoted the prophet Muhammad as having
declared: “Whoever harms a person of the covenant [a non-Muslim
of a Muslim territory], I am his adversary, and I will be his
adversary on the Day of Judgment.”
Last month, twin bomb blasts rocked churches in the
Mediterranean port of Alexandria and the northern city of Tanta,
leaving 44 dead and prompting Sissi, to declare a state of
emergency.
After the latest attack, the Egyptian president called an
emergency meeting of security officials, state-run media
reported.
[Pope Francis calls for tolerance during visit to Egypt]
In late April, Pope Francis visited Egypt as part of Vatican
outreach to Egypt’s embattled Christians, whose community dates
back to the early centuries of the faith. But the papal trip
also brought denunciations from Islamist militants and warnings
of further reprisals.
In December, a bomb hit the main cathedral in Cairo, killing 25
people as part of what is being described as a new strategy by
the Islamic State to target Christians.
Christians have been generally supportive of Sissi’s military-
backed government, but have become increasingly critical of the
inability of the country’s security forces to protect their
places of worship.
“The state is doing its best, but we need more efforts,” Minya’s
Coptic Bishop Makarios told The Washington Post. “They [security
forces] are always present and on guard after the attack takes
place, and keep their security measures tightened for a short
while after. .?.?. What we need is real effort exerted to ensure
this is not repeated, not just solidarity and compassion.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/gunmen-kill-23-christians- in-central-egypt/2017/05/26/3d2693dc-41fc-11e7-adba- 394ee67a7582_story.html?utm_term=.a4ad57815764
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