Egypt: Naga Hammady Massacre

Respect Religions by Sarah Carr

Respect Religions by Sarah Carr

Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7. On the eve of their celebrations in Egypt, Copts go to churches and celebrate the holy event. But this year an unexpected incident happened in Naga Hammady, in Upper Egypt, where an unknown criminal opened his fire randomly on people there after they finished their prayers and were on their way back to their homes.

Zeinobia wrote a new post about the massacre in her blog saying:

I am really very sorry and angry for what happened in Naj Hammadi yesterday. It hurts me more than the Egyptian Christians because what happened is against all Egyptians.

My condolences to the families of those who were killed and injured in this disgusting attack.

Another blog, Coptic File, wrote about the incident:

تم إطلاق النار بشكل عشوائى من رَشاش آلى موَجه من داخل سيار (فيات – خضراء اللون)، مما أسفر عن استشهاد ثمانية أقباط وإصابة آخرين، وجميعهم ممن حَضروا قُداس عيد الميلاد بالكنيسة
A shooting gun was used from inside a car (green Fiat), to randomly kill eight people and many others were wounded. They all were from those who attended the prayers that took place in the church on the Christmas eve.

On Misr Digital, Wael Abbas also published a video of Naga Hammay shootout on his blog.

The ministry of interior says that this attack is related to an older incident when a 12-year-old Muslim girl was raped by a Christian man in the same city. But Zeinobia can't see how such incident can be accepted as an excuse for the shooting. She also blames the ministry of interior for the whole thing:

And with my all respect this is ridiculous , fighting a crime by a group of crimes. I blame the ministry of interior in all of this , if there is a real respect and fear of the law nothing of this could happen.

Also, Nawara shares echoes similar sentiments. On the Ministry of Interior's press release regarding the shooting, she says:

اعجب بيان للداخلية قريته في حياتي، عمري ما شفت بيان للداخلية بيلقي اللوم على الضحية وبيحرض على العقاب الجماعي
The strangest release I've ever read in my entire life, I've never seen a press release blaming the victims and encouraging mass punishment.

Nawara also blamed the Egyptian Media:

الاعلام المصري الراكد مش جايب سيرة الموضوع كأن اللي اتقتلوا امبارح دولم خرفان
The inactive Egyptian media is ignoring the incident, as if the ones who were killed yesterday are sheep.

The Cat of the Desert blamed the society and the extremists for all this.

موت 7 مسيحيين كلهم شباب فى عمر الزهور واطفال غير الجرحى
سرقوا فرحتهم بالعيد وقتلوهم برصاص الإرهاب والغدر .. وقاعدين لحد يولولوا على شهيدة المرجيحة اللى اطلقوا عليها شهيدة الحجاب
مستنيين ايه ؟؟ بعد الانحطاط وقلة الادب على المختلف عقائديا مستنين سمعتكو تبقى ايه فى الخارج ؟؟
الله ينتقم من كل من افتى بتكفير الآخرين وعلى رأسهم القرضاوى والحيوانى وحسان
Seven young Christian children were killed, and many others were wounded.
They stole their Christmas celebrations and happiness, and killed them with their bullets. And they are still crying on the the martyr of the sea-saw, and they called her the martyr of the hijab.
What are you waiting for after all this ignorance, and retardation? What are you expecting the others to think of us after this?
God damn those who call for considering the others infidels, and on top of the the Al Quaradawy, El Huwainy, and Hassaaan.

He then posted a video of Abu Is-haq El Huwainy warning people form the Christians and the evil plots they make against Egypt!

The Egyptian blogger, Te3ma, on the other hand, believes that some foreign entities stand behind such incidents:

وأنا على يقين تام بأن الفتنة خارجية وليست داخلية
I'm so sure that the ones behind this massacre are from outside, and not from here.

23 comments

  • There is no excuse for an incident of this sort. A rape of a child is a crime against all humanity, and has nothing to do with religion whatsoever. To tie it to religion is simply a crime upon a crime. The government simply has to accept the fact that it’s time to take crimes against women of all ages seriously in Egypt, whether they are child abuse, marital abuse, rape, or harassment.

  • […] Hammady massacre, Religion, religious freedom, religious persecution by Claudia As we can see here, most of Egyptian bloggers are really angry at the brutal killings of 6 Christian Copts (and their […]

  • Hi dear Tarek:
    Very sorry I too and my condolences to the families of those who were killed and injured in this disgusting attack.
    Best regards and thanks for you for the information.

  • […] Beitrag erschien zuerst auf Global Voices. Die Übersetzung erfolgte durch Hans H. Knauf, Teil des “Project Lingua“. Die […]

  • Jennifer Mc Cleary

    What disgusts me most about this attack is the fact that children were injured and killed because of crazed revenge hungry lunatics fueled not by a lust for revenge for a disgusting rape of another innocent child but rather, by their un-Godly hatred of people who don’t believe as they do. I repeat, CHILDREN! Killing children because of a vicious rape of another child is asinine! Children are innocent victims of a harsh and sometimes absurd reality. God damn anyone who thinks this is just. If there is a hell, they are surely going to it.

  • dmf6364

    I have read all of your comments and i feel all the anger,hurt and disgust in all of this. I can tell you having lived in egypt several times in the past 5 years i have seen this happen so many times. i say to myself how does a country like the USA continue to send money to a country with a government like this country has. This muslim government continues to allow all this barbaric actions done to the christians in egypt by the muslims in egypt and looks the other way. How does this religion you call islam teach your children,men , and women to hate and kill anybody who doesnt believe like the muslims or refuses to become muslim. You say this IS from GOD and this is to be carried out. I say HOW DOES GOD WANT ANYBODY TO KILL IN HIS NAME BECAUSE OF YOUR RELIGION ,RACE ,OR THE WAY YOU BELEIVE. Nobody can accept all this and never will. GOD is a just GOD and GOD will have revenge on this people in the end. All we can do is pray for all these people who commit these hanas acts and pray they will see all the truth. As for the people from naga hammady and my dearest friend amgad who i stayed with in naga hammady and all the families who lost loved ones JESUS is with you and WILL HOLD YOU ALL IN HIS ARMS THRU ALL OF THIS. MAY GOD BLESS ALL THE PEOPLE FROM EGYPT AND KNOW JESUS LOVES YOU AND DONT EVER LEAVE YOU. A FRIEND IN JESUS FROM AMERICA…

    • Terrorism has no religion, or else your same talk can talk about the IRA, you can blame the Egyptian government all along and it is all your right, but please stay away of religions.

      • masihi banda

        mohamad

        I beg to disagree with you. I believe that there is a case to be made when it comes to a religion that preaches and practices terrorism. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Its nothing new, you know it and the world knows it.
        Furthermore, it is naive to say, criticize the government and not the religion. Let me put it this way, when the government of Egypt is totally based on religious doctrines that say: kill the infidel in the name of your god, then religion itself is to be blamed. Do you get it?

        • If you believe that the government in Egypt, where I live, is based on religious doctrines then really you don’t know what you are talking about. The same government you are talking about use this radical islamists umbrella to beg the western governments support to their authoritarian rule.

          The Kill the infidels in the name of God is in the time of wars with attackers, not within peace. So please spare me your unprofessional annotations. If really any religion is supporting terrorism then it is not a religion, it is a cult. And I don’t believe that a 1 billion people are evil enough that they belong to a cult promoting terrorism and hatred.

          And btw, why are there still at least 6% of the Egyptians Christians according tot he CIA fact book of Egypt, shouldn’t they be eliminated under the “terrorist” Islam?

          Egypt had Christian and Jewish ministers (since the Middle Ages till now) while Hitler was torching people in his labs.

          Please try to be more professional while dealing with religious matters, Mr Masihi aka Christian.

          • masihi banda

            Mohamad

            I am from an Islamic country and experienced the workings of the Jiahadist ideology first hand, this religion and the government work together hand in hand, are as one and the same. When you talk about jihad whether it’s personal or political, the message is the same also, any way you look at it: kill the infidel personally or politically is direct teaching of your prophet. Consequently the believers follow the same old Bedouin ideology to kill in the name of your god. We as minorities in the Muslim world are constantly harassed and persecuted and it’s not a news flash anymore. This kind of teaching is practiced all over the Islamic world.
            One more thing, the present day govt. of Egypt didn’t put Christians there. FYI, The Christians and Jews were already there before Islam was ever conceived. My point is you didn’t invite the Christians and Jews to live there rather when Islam entered Egypt it messed up peace for all the minorities. And it continues to do so today. All these murders of Christian and Jews are committed under the same umbrella of this Bedouin jahadist ideology. If you want to call it a cult please go ahead.

             
          • From other comments here I really doubt that you have any knowledge of anything Islamic, I have Muslim friends who were detained by the government’s State Security when they went to pay condolences to the victims’ families. Plus they witnessed how the Priest himself there coordinated with State Security and other related thugs.

            Please spare us your comments and throw your non-sense else where.

             
  • […] Alexandria, and other cities in Egypt to pay their respects to the families of the victims of the Naga Hammady massacre. Seven Christian Copts were shot dead on the eve of their Christmas, on January 7. Many others were […]

  • […] الدكتور مصطفى النجار، لتقديم تعازيهم لأسر ضحايا مذبحة نجع حمادي. أُطلِق النار على 7 من الأقباط المسيحيين أثناء […]

  • […] (province of Qena, south Egypt), to pay their condolences to the families of the victims of the sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians that took place a week earlier during which Seven Christian Copts were shot dead on the eve of […]

  • terry

    There is a conspiracy between the Egyptian regime and those murders. I is not the first incident and will not be last. The scenario is repeating itself. After every crime against Christians, the government arrests a bunch of innocent Christians and makes a deal with the church in order to set the criminals free. We, the christian of Egypt are fed up with these actions. Enough is enough.We call the free world to do something, please.

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