Day: January 31, 2010

Egypt’s Copts send 4,000 letters to Obama

Bikya Masr reports:
“The American Coptic Assembly said in a statement last week that the Coptic community in the United States and across the world had sent 4,350 letters to American President Barack Obama in the past week, asking him to take a stand to protect the Copts in Egypt. According to a statement from the religious group, the letters included a list of the problems that the Copts suffer from in Egypt.”

Egypt: “In Egypt, Religious Clashes Are Off the Record”

NYT reports on the continuing issues with Copts in Egypt:
— NYT: “In Egypt, Religious Clashes Are Off the Record”
— “A few weeks ago, on the day that Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas Eve, a Muslim gunman opened fire on worshipers as they walked out of church, killing 7, wounding 10 and leading to the worst sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians in Egypt in years. In the days that followed, there were riots and clashes. Stores were wrecked. Homes were burned.”
— “The government responded by sending in heavily armed police officers, banning the news media and insisting that the Jan. 6 attack was retaliation for a rape.”
–“‘There are initial indications connecting this incident to the consequences of accusing a young Christian man of raping a Muslim girl in one of the governorate’s villages,’ the Interior Ministry said after the attack.”
— “The one thing the government would not do was admit the obvious: Egypt had experienced one of the most serious outbreaks of sectarian violence in years. Instead, it said talk of sectarian conflict amounted to sedition.”
— “But the evidence, provided in newspapers, was irrefutable: 14 Muslims arrested, 28 Christians arrested, Christian shops burned, Muslim houses burned.”

West Bank: 2 West Bank mosque arson suspects released to house arrest

West Bank: 2 West Bank mosque arson suspects released to house arrest
— Jerusalem Post reports: “Two men arrested earlier this month in connection with the arson attack on a mosque in the West Bank village of Yassuf were released to house arrest for a duration of 60 days by a Petah Tikva magistrate on Sunday.”
— “The suspects, Zvi Succot and Shlomo Gilbert, have been banned from contacting others, and have had a no-exit ban imposed on them.”

Jordanian’s Sentence Reduced for “Honor Killing” of Sister

— AFP reports: “Jordanian jailed for sister’s ‘honour killing'”
— “A Jordanian court sentenced a 19-year-old man to 10 years in jail for stabbing his sister to death in order to “cleanse the family honour,” a judicial official said on Friday.”
— “The defendant turned himself in to police after killing his 22-year-old sister last year for many unexplained absences from home, said the official who requested anonymity.”
— “‘The court sentenced the defendant to 15 years in prison for premeditated murder, but reduced the sentence to 10 years after the family dropped any legal claims’ against him, the source said.”
— “‘The defendant killed his sister with knife stabs on April 5, 2009 to cleanse the family honour, because of her many absences from home,’ the official said. ‘He then turned himself over to the police.'”
— “Murder is punishable by death in Jordan but in so-called ‘honour’ cases a court sometimes commutes or reduces sentences, particularly if the victim’s family urges leniency.”
— “Between 15 and 20 women are murdered in honour killings each year in Jordan despite government efforts to fight such crimes.”