"We are targets" - Coptic Christians say they are being persecuted by Muslim extremists

oge okonkwo

May 5, 2015 6:49 PM

While the attacks on Egypt's Christian community are not on the scale of persecution faced by their brethren in Syria and Iraq, the Coptics – mostly descendants of the people whose Pharaohs ruled ancient Egypt before the 7th century – say they face renewed isolation in the country

Coptic Christians in Egypt

Christians in Egypt are facing a new wave of persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists, and human rights groups fear the situation could be on the brink of exploding, Fox News reports.

Reports also say that while the attacks on Egypt's Christian community are not on the scale of persecution faced by their brethren in Syria and Iraq, the Coptics – mostly descendants of the people whose Pharaohs ruled ancient Egypt before the 7th century – say they face renewed isolation in the country.

“We are the weaker element in society, so if anything happens, we will be the first victims,” Mina Thabet, a Coptic activist and researcher at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, told FoxNews.com from Cairo.

“You are a target for extremists when no one is supporting you,” he added in a reference to the “often-sluggish” protection the Christian community says it gets from the police.

It was gathered that while Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has taken steps to protect Coptic Christians amid his calls for national unity, many of the latest incidents have occurred in Minya Governorate of Upper Egypt, about 150 miles south of Cairo.

The mix of poverty and limited job prospects there is typical of the social conditions Thabet says could trigger the sort of unrest in which the country’s Christians – comprising Orthodox, Catholic and some Protestant members of the faith – become central targets, just as Jews were historically targeted during pogroms.

“Not all the people would blame the Copts,” he said. “But many ordinary Egyptians have strong thoughts toward the Coptic community.”

oge okonkwo