The Muslim Brotherhood were successfully ousted from power in Egypt with the deposal of their leader and President Mohamed Morsi on the 3rd July 2013, following heavy protests and the military’s impetus. Whilst most Egyptians, both Copts and moderate Muslims, celebrated the removal of an increasingly power-hungry and incompetent Presidential office, some disagreed. The vast majority were Muslim Brotherhood or their affiliates, and for six weeks, from before Morsi’s deposal to after they occupied the Rabaa al-Adawiya Square and al-Nahda Square. These sit-ins became hotspots of violent outbreaks and bloody confrontations.
Whilst many aim to portray the encampments as entirely peaceful forms of protest, the activity there was rather less so. They terrorised various Cairo neighbourhoods such as the Nasr City area, holding sticks and chanting Islamist militant slogans through street marches. Al Qaeda flags were proudly flown within the encampment. On July 29th at the main stage of Nahda Square, an announcement was made saying: “elements of al-Qaeda and the Salafi Jihadists had joined the [Brotherhood’s] protests” (you can watch the clip here ). Before the planned Tamarod protests of June 30th, which were the true democratic reflection of the people’s will, the encampment Brotherhood supporters fired heavy gunfire in the streets of Alexandria. Throughout the weeks of the encampments, security forces managed to control large amounts of weaponry, specifically guns, being transported by Brotherhood members and their affiliates.
Moreover, eleven bodies, which were forensically examined, had signs of torture near Rabaa square (link here). At the time, there were continuous allegations of torture being carried out within the encampments as ‘reprisal attacks’ for supporting the removal of Morsi. In a report (link here ), 21-year-old Mastour Mohamed Sayed told Amnesty International that he and a group of 20 others were attacked by a group of Morsi supporters near the Rabaa sit-ins, and they were armed with knives and machine guns. Several remained captured at the encampment. He told them that:
“I felt terrorised by the guns pointed at me…They grabbed me…They called us ‘infidels’….We were then driven to the sit-in… I was dragged on the ground. We were eventually held under a podium…I was beaten with bars and given electric shocks. I lost consciousness a few times… My hands were tied behind my back, and I was blindfolded, but I could see a bit from underneath the blindfold… I could hear the girl screaming when she was given electric shocks. I could also hear a woman ordering her to take off her clothes. At that stage, I said that this was haram (forbidden) and was hit on the head. I then saw two bearded men go into the room and heard the girl screaming more…”
The same report details the following atrocities that occurred in Rabaa:
“Karam Hassan, a 48-year-old resident of Giza, was abducted and taken to an unknown location by armed Muslim Brotherhood protesters on 2 July. It followed clashes between residents of Giza and Muslim Brotherhood protestors in Nahda Square. His body was discovered by his mother in Zenhom Morgue on 10 July. It was covered in bruises and had burn marks on the chest, back, arms and both legs. He had also been stabbed in the chest and had a fractured skull.
Ahmed El Kelhy, Karam’s neighbour, who was with him when he was abducted, said that armed Muslim Brotherhood supporters were shooting live rounds at the residents. He pointed at two bullet holes in buildings and a bullet-ridden pick-up truck.
Hassan Sabry, aged 20, said that he was dragged by armed assailants into Oumran Garden, near the pro-Morsi protests at Cairo University. “They used plastic wires to handcuff me… They started to beat us with sticks all over the body. At least two of us were bleeding,” he said. He then watched a bloodied protester have his throat slit and another being stabbed to death. “They then started to beat me on the head. I fell on the ground and pretended to be dead. I held my breath. They thought I died and held me and threw me to a place with the two bodies of the men killed.”
Shehab Eldeen Abdelrazek, 23, a journalist, was also dragged into a tent and beaten with wooden sticks on his head, back and legs in Rabaa Eladaweya Square on 3 July.”
The level of gender-based violence targeting women was also incredibly high. The encampments made entire areas of the city completely unsafe and deadly. One report (link here ) recounts how she was violently beaten and left on the sidewalk.
Moreover, those gathered at the Rabaa encampment knew and planned to oppose the governmental directive to dismantle the encampment. Islamist cleric Safwat Hegazi said that desisting would occur “on our dead bodies” and that “we are ready to be martyred in the thousands” (link here). Children as young as four-year-olds marched around the encampment in funeral shrouds, as the glorification of incoming martyrdom approached (link here ).
The focus became increasingly focused on the Copts. This would be an ominous portent to foreshadow the violence that Copts would endure.
On the 26th of July, at least ten anti-Morsi protestors were killed, and several tortured and interrogated inside a mosque in Alexandria, where they were accused of being infidels and questioned as to whether they were Christian (link here ). On an Islamist channel, Salafist Sheikh Mahmoud Shaaban concocted a story that Christians were meeting in Tahrir Square, chanting: “Jesus is the solution”. It followed with a warning to Copts not to participate in Anti-Muslim protests (link here ). The Muslim Brotherhood blamed the ascendency of Morsi’s interim replacement, Ahmed Shafik, on the Copts, despite the fact that he won 49% of the vote and the Copts are 10-15% of the population. In a video from the encampment, on woman in the clip threatens to “set fire” to Egypt’s Christians – you can watch the video here.
Following the removal of encampments on the 14th August, the Muslim Brotherhood and various extremists directed their fury at the failure in controlling the country successfully onto the Copts. The following period after Rabaa, Christians in Egypt paid the price heavily.
On the night that el-Sisi announced Morsi’s deposal, pro-Morsi extremist factions took to the streets of Minya, firing shots in the air with their guns and chanting:
“Oh, how pathetic, oh how shameful, the Copts have become revolutionaries.”
In Minya alone, there were more than six attacks on churches, some arson attacks. On the 28th July, during a funeral procession of two Muslim Brotherhood supporters threw strones and Molotov cocktails at two churches. In Beni Suef, extremists drew graffiti on the walls and hung the flag of Al-Qaeda on the church door in warning. They went to St Mary’s Church, chanting:
“Tawadros, you coward, call back your dogs from the Square” and “Islamic! Islamic! Despite the secularists!”
Extreme and brutal attacks on the Copts became widespread in the weeks following Morsi’s deposal and Rabaa. There were attacks on Copts in Luxor, Marsa Matrouh, Minya, North Sinai, Port Said, Qena, and many other places.
Whilst there are countless examples, to highlight a few:
On July 3rd, Morsi supporters looted and burned St George’s Coptic Catholic Church and another church in Delga, Minya, injuring eight people, and displacing many Copts in the area who fled. On July 5th, four Copts were beaten to death inside their home, three others were wounded, and at least 24 Coptic properties were destroyed near Naga Hassan. It was a relentless 17-hour anti-Christian rampage. A Priest and two others were also killed later between July 5-11th. In Port Said, men attacked St Mina’s church violently on July 9th. In Qena, the police had to use tear gas to control the mob that attempted to attack the Church and Copts there. In North Sinai, a Christian was kidnapped and decapitated. (Read more here ).
It is estimated that due to Rabaa, over 66 churches were destroyed, and 200 Coptic-owned properties were attacked. (link here and here ). This is only a small sample of the immense suffering and persecution that the Copts experienced.
Of course, the deaths in Rabaa are not to be celebrated in any way. Part of the Coptic identity is our Christian faith, and we do not celebrate or find any joy in any human beings suffering and death. However, the media has committed a heinous crime in scrubbing from the internet the truth of what the Rabaa encampments were: extremist hotspots of violence, which killed, tortured, and raped those who crossed their illegal territory. And for their failings in maintaining a Muslim Brotherhood government, their wrath was directed at the Copts, who suffered for weeks following Rabaa.
