By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
CAIRO, EGYPT
(ANS) -- Morning Star News (http://morningstarnews.org)
is reporting that a Coptic Christian girl walking home from a Bible
class at her church was shot and killed this week in Cairo by an
unidentified gunman, human rights activists said on Friday, August 9,
2013.
Jessica Boulous (Morning Star News photo courtesy of Boulous family)
|
According to the Middle East
Correspondent for the news service, the teacher turned to buy an item at
a market stall only to turn back and find Jessica lying in the dirt in a
puddle of blood, rights activists said. A Muslim shopkeeper who knew
Jessica saw her fall to the ground and ran to her side. He took off his
shirt, wrapped it around her motionless body and rushed her to a
hospital, but she was already dead.
A single bullet had passed through her chest and heart, killing her instantly, witnesses said.
Nasr Allah Zakaria, Jessica's uncle, said the killing has devastated the girl's family.
"I just can't believe she is
gone," Zakaria said. "She was such a sweet little girl. She was like a
daughter to me. I can't believe she is gone."
The story added that no one
has claimed responsibility for the killing. Zakaria, pastor of an
evangelical church in Egypt, said he didn't know for sure if the
shooting was religiously motivated but quickly added that violence
against Christians "seems to be normal" in Egypt now.
"Violence or intimidation
against Christians has become almost a daily occurrence in most parts of
Egypt," continued the Middle East Correspondent. "In the aftermath of
the protests that led to the removal of Mohamed Morsi as president,
militant supporters of Morsi have publically scapegoated the Coptic
Christian minority for the Islamic Brotherhood-backed president's fall
from power.
"Many have called for revenge
against Christians. Less than 12 hours after the Egyptian military
announced that it had expelled Morsi from office, reports of attacks
against Christians by Morsi supporters began.
"After numerous attacks for
about a week and a half, there was a relative lull in the violence. But
at the end of July, the pace picked up once more. The attacks were
inspired, human rights activists said, by a near-constant stream of
vitriol from Islamic leaders calling for retribution against the Copts."
The journalist went on to say
that members of the Muslim Brotherhood on Aug. 2 distributed flyer
threatening to attack church buildings and police stations in Minya in
Upper Egypt, according to local residents. Muslim Brotherhood leaders
have stated that the attacks against the Christians will not stop until
Morsi has returned to power. The new wave of attacks has included
drive-by-shootings, kidnappings, attacks on church buildings and
Christian-owned property and now two lethal shootings.
On the same day Jessica was
killed, masked gunmen burst into a grocery store in Jazeerat Al
Khazendara village in Souhag and attacked a Coptic Christian family
according to the rights activists. During the kidnapping attempt, Milad
Ebeed was abducted and his father, mother and brother were all shot. His
father, Sadek Ebeed, 75, died at the store. The others sustained
serious, but not life-threatening wounds.
Milad Ebeed was later released after a ransom was paid, the rights activists said.
Along with the shootings, the towns of Minya and Assuit have been
the sites of repeated attacks against Christians, which make up about
10 percent of Egypt's predominantly Sunni Muslim population. For the
past two weeks, unidentified vandals have painted graffiti on church
buildings and Christian-owned homes and businesses in Assuit declaring,
"Egypt is Muslim, not Christian."
According to the story, "At the same time, Islamists have been roaming Christian areas of Assuit handing out anti-Christian flyers and intimidating any Coptic business owner who keeps his store open, rights activists said.
"On Saturday (Aug. 3),
roughly 20 people were injured and five Coptic-owned homes were
destroyed along with several Coptic-owned businesses in the village of
Al-Sharqiya in Minya Governorate when a political dispute at a
Coptic-owned café turned ugly. A fight that started over changing the
channel from a news program quickly led to Islamist mobs rampaging
through the village with clubs, swords and Molotov cocktails, according
to human rights activists."
Mina Thabet, spokesman of the Maspero Students Union, said things could get worse in Minya.
"For the past few days, we
have had many instances of attacks against Copts," Thabet said. "Threats
are widespread. In the Minya Governorate, I think it will be hard for
the next few days."
In a statement released Wednesday (Aug. 7), the Egyptian
Initiative for Personal Rights and 15 other human rights organizations
condemned Islamist incitement to violence and the government's lack of
will to stop it.
"These organizations strongly
condemn the rhetoric employed by leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and
their allies, which includes clear incitement to violence and religious
hatred in order to achieve political gains, regardless of the grave
repercussions of such rhetoric for peace in Egypt," the statement read.
The statement further
denounced negligence of the state to protect Christians, to confront
sectarian attacks and to hold assailants in several governorates
responsible.
"This negligence reveals that
the pattern of impunity which spread during the Mubarak era and
remained in place throughout the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood
continues to this day, even after both of these regimes were
overthrown," the organizations stated.
The Morning Star News story
stated that Zakara said that, strangely, Jessica, an only child, was
concerned about the violence and seemed to have a premonition of her
death. She watched protests on television and urged her parents to get
involved, but at the same time she was afraid enough for her safety that
she asked her Sunday school teacher to escort her home from Bible
school.
"She said she didn't feel
safe," Zakaria said. "She asked her mother and father, 'What if I am at a
protest and I got shot in the chest? What would happen to me?'"
See all ASSIST News articles at www.assistnews.net
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