Witnesses: Church used by Egyptian Christians torched in
eastern Libya
By Associated Press,
Flames were seen rising from the church, witnesses said. The
Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning what it described as
“assault,” and that the church’s priest was not inside and is unhurt.
Abdel-Salam al-Barghathi, a security official in Benghazi ,
said his forces stopped angry men from doing more damage to the church. He says
they were angry about a protest by Christians in front of the Libyan embassy in
Cairo , where they set fire to the
Libyan flag.
The protests came after death of one Egyptian Christian
detainee in Libya ,
whose family says he died of torture. They say Ezzat Atallah, who died in
detention in Tripoli after being
transferred from his prison in Benghazi ,
was one of around 100 Christians, mostly Egyptians, who were detained by
militias on suspicion of trying to covert Muslims to Christianity.
Al-Barghathi appeared to blame the Christian protesters for
the violence. He said Atallah died of natural causes and that he confessed
before his death. “I got everything taped. He confessed and we videotaped his
confessions. Why do the Christians burn the flag and replace it with a cross?”
he said.
“These incidents will take place once and twice if the
reactions on the other side continue like this,” he warned.
On Sept. 11, four Americans including the U.S. Ambassador in
Libya Chris Stevens were killed in an assault on the U.S.
mission in Benghazi . An Islamist
extremist militia that had been handling some security duties in the city,
Ansar al-Shariah, was blamed for the attack. Months later, several Western
countries withdrew their nationals from Benghazi
citing imminent threats.
Churches, shrines used by traditionalist Muslims, and a
Commonwealth war cemetery have also been vandalized in Benghazi
and other cities in attacks blamed on hard-line Islamist puritans.
Last week, Egypt ’s
Foreign Ministry intervened to win the release of 55 Egyptians who were in the
group suspected of proselytizing. Thirty-five of them were deported for illegally
entering the country, while 20 were cleared to stay in Libya .
Four foreigners under investigation for alleged espionage
and proselytizing remain in a Libyan prison. They are a Swedish-American, a
South Korean, a South African and an Egyptian.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All
rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
Government condemns
attack on Benghazi church
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation has condemned an attack on Thursday on the Egyptian Coptic church
in Benghazi in which the priest and
his assistant were assaulted.
In a statement today, Sunday, the Ministry voiced its
concern at what had happened and expressed regret, saying that the attack was
“contrary to the teachings of our Islamic faith and customs and as well as
international covenants on human rights and fundamental freedoms and respect
for the monotheistic religions”.
The attack followed the arrest earlier in the week of a
number of Copts, variously put at between 50 and 100, who were accused being
Christian missionaries. Following the intervention of the Egyptian Foreign
Minister Mohammed Amr Kamel and the Egyptian embassy in Tripoli ,
they have now been deported. Charges of proselytism have been dropped.
There have been concerns about possible Christian missionary
activity in Benghazi since earlier
reports that four Protestant Christians were arrested in the city on 13
February accused of proselytizing. One of them was also said to be an Egyptian,
although it is extremely unusual for Protestants and Copts to have any links
whatsoever.
The Copts were arrested in Benghazi ’s
Suq Al-Jareed area and accused of being missionaries after they were reportedly
found in position of bibles and other Christian literature. According to the
police, the arrests followed a row
at the market. Other Egyptians working there, accused a group of Copts of
trying to take over control of it. One of the complaints was that the latter
were renting space at the market for LD 1,000 a month and then subletting it
for LD 2,000.
Following the complaints, the police say that after they
arrested the Copts they found books in a “storage place” which were covered on
the outside so as not be identified as Christian. These books, they said, the
Copts denied owning.
A display of the books went on show last week at a Katiba
building in Benghazi not run by the
police.
Insisting that they had nothing against Christianity and
that they respected all religions, the Libyan police said that the group’s
behaviour aroused their suspicions, including, reportedly, the fact that all
had crosses tattooed on their wrists.
All Copts have crosses tattooed on their wrists.
On questioning, the police say, the traders disclosed the
names of other Copts whom they knew, resulting in the arrest of around 100 in
all. The police said they were found without passports or any identity
documents and that it was not clear how they entered the country.
Following Egyptian embassy complaints about the treatment of
the men, the Interior Ministry took control of the Copts, holding them in
prison pending their expulsion on charges of entering the country illegally.
There been claims, however, reported in the online edition
of the Egyptian daily Al Ahram, that the Copts were absued. The paper
reported a Coptic Church source in Egypt
claiming that “the detained Copts had been tortured by their captors, who had
also shaved their heads and used acid to burn off the crosses tattooed on their
wrists”.
Photos show the men
with shaved heads, but no sign of anything else.
The Church source had also claimed that the men had been
arrested after “a group of Salafist Muslims” attacked a Coptic church in Benghazi .
However, all the indications are that the attack on the church took place after
the arrests, not before.
According to today’s Foreign Ministry statement, a committee
of enquiry comprising itself, the Interior Ministry, the General Staff and the
Intelligence Service and headed by the Ministry of Justice has been set up to
investigate the attack on the church. In the meantime, it said the government
would be providing security to the building.
The Ministry statement also called on “all Libyan citizens
to respect those from friendly and sister countries living in Libya
and to respect their beliefs”.
On 30 December, two members of the Coptic church in Misrata
died when the building was bombed. The culprits have not yet been found.
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