The series of brutal attacks were believed to be in retaliation against an ordinary Facebook post by a 22-year-old Bassem, which was widely shared among the local Christians their. The author had written the post in May after the deadly attack by Islamic extremists against a caravan of Coptic Christians traveling to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor.
What Bassem wrote on his Facebook wall
“Are we (Copts) Egyptians not from Egypt? No matter that you try to hurt us, one day all your ways will fail. Do you think that I cry? Never! I don’t cry because I trust in Jesus very much, I prostrate to him and he loves me. He never leaves me one day. When you demolish the homes of his children, you attack himself. I ask Jesus to touch your heart and change you. Our Lord knows and see what is happening to us. Continue and increase your terrorism, but I’m not afraid because it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God,” Bassem wrote on his Facebook wall."Bassem also shared pictures of Salafi Sheikhs whom he believed bore responsibility for inciting extremist violence against Christians alongside the post.
Although Bassem deleted the post on May 28, the next day, but not before it had spread across the country's social media platforms.
Now four months after, a Muslim villager in Tawa saw the post on the Facebook page of Bassem’s friend, Mena - spreading it among some of the Muslim villagers, who considered the post was an insult to Islam. They brutally attacked Christians and their interests.
Essam, a Christian resident in Tawa and an eyewitness to the mob’s violence, told ICC,
“Many Muslims gathered and the mob began to destroy Christian homes, businesses and cars. They were pelting stones at the homes while shouting ‘Allah Akbar,’ Essam, a Christian resident in Tawa and an eyewitness to the mob’s violence, told ICC. 'They even hurled bricks and stones at Mar Girgis (St. George) Coptic Orthodox Church despite the presence of some security guards who had been assigned to guard the church, but the guards couldn’t confront the huge number of the mob. The police then arrived in the village, controlled the situation, and arrested some Muslim villagers.'
Recall that a gun attack this year killed at least 26 minority Coptic Christians on a bus in Egypt is just the latest assault on the religious group, which has been a target for deadly violence throughout its history. Innocent children are among the victims. The bombings on Palm Sunday this year killed and injured dozens of people at two Coptic Christian churches in Alexandria and Tanta. Islamic Terrorists group ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks.
Who are these highly persecuted Egyptian Coptic Christians? (History of Coptic Christians)
Coptic Christians, the largest Christian community in the Middle East, make up the majority of Egypt's roughly 9 million Christians. About 1 million more Coptic Christians are spread across Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to the World Council of Churches. Coptic Christians base their theology on the teachings of the Apostle Mark, who introduced Christianity to Egypt, according to the St. Takla Church in Alexandria, the capital of Coptic Christianity.The Coptic language descends from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The word "Copt" is a Westernized version of the Arabic "qibt," which is derived from the ancient Greek word for Egyptian, "Aigyptos." Hundreds of Coptic monasteries once flourished in the deserts of Egypt, but barely 20 remain today after decades of persecution by majority hostile Muslims. They have only seven convents, operated by a little over 1,000 Coptic monks and about 600 nuns.
The head of the Coptic Church is the Pope of Alexandria, who is based in the country's capital, Cairo. The church operates primary and secondary schools throughout Egypt, as well as a Coptic museum and a theological college in the Egyptian capital.
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