The Parliamentary elections are at hand, and the Islamic currents are planning and working hard to incite sectarian strife. Since the crisis of Camellia Shehata and Wafaa Constantine, disappearances of Christian women happened on daily basis. Many people talk about their stories in the talk shows before they forget about them to be occupied with the next story, and so on. In the account of Jabal al-Tir, the lady disappeared and many Copts demonstrated demanding her return before they clashed with police and police attack their homes and demolish their household. This happened at the time the Copts in America were planning to support president al-Sisi in the United States.
So, the Christian public opinion was divided. For instance, the Coptic activist Dr. Magdy Khalil said then they will support the president against the Muslim Brotherhood and will demand him to take care of the suffering Copts in Upper Egypt. If he won’t respond, we should escalate the matter on international level. Furthermore, the Coptic Dutch organization issued a statement to denounce the attack of police on the Copts and their properties in Jabal al-Tir.
The state intervened and solved the crisis. The lady returned to her family, but many Coptic activists traded on the matter to benefit from the account. Soon, the diocese of Samalout issued a statement to invite everybody to forget about the story for the sake of the woman, her family and community.
Yet, throughout the story there was no official statement to clarify what’s going on. Transparency should solve many problems and decrease sectarian problems. The true story should be mentioned.
First: Where is the so-called crisis management committee in the Church? I assure that before the return of Pope Tawadros, nobody knew something about the story that almost caused sectarian violence in Samalout, Minya?
Secondly, with all due respect to the appointment of a priest as spokesperson, he failed as he is a priest following a priesthood order and is apparently less than bishops in ranks.
Third, civil society organizations specialized or interested in Coptic affairs failed to represent the Copts instead of the Church. Some of them even promoted false information for some reason that ignited the situation even more.
Fourth, some Coptic activists, especially lawyers, committed many mistakes that threatened the safety of the society.
Fifth: the political parties were so late to issue statements concerning the matter except for few.
Sixth: the Ministry of Interiors hasn’t issued any statement to clarify its position which encourages many rumors as well as sectarian strife.
Seventh: the absence of the president and the pope literally bureaucratic state. The activists have no experiences or true responsibilities. Therefore, I demand the issuance of the right of knowledge law and the unified law of houses of worship as well as the return of advice and guidance sessions.
