c. 1999 Religion News Service

CAIRO _ Wrapped in a black leather jacket, hair shorn to a near stubble, Hafez Abu Seada seems the picture of New York-chic, appearing more like a SoHo gallery owner than a leader of Egypt’s fledgling human rights movement.

Abu Seada, a Muslim, was recently released from a Cairo prison for presiding over a report documenting the arrest and torture of hundreds of Coptic Christians by Egyptian police last summer.

The report by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), triggered a firestorm of protest from human rights and Coptic groups worldwide, and concern on the part of foreign governments. Egypt denounced the report as false, insisting the country’s Muslims and Copts live in harmony.

The Copts, who number less than 10 percent of Egypt’s overwhelmingly Muslim population, are members of a church that pre-dates Islam’s seventh-century arrival in North Africa. The church is one of the oldest in the Christian world, its first adherents traditionally said to have been converted to the faith by St. Mark.

But the EOHR report also unearthed other troubles beneath the surface of Egyptian society; police brutality, distrust of foreign interference, and the shaky status of human rights groups and other nongovernmental institutions.

Many fear the EOHR report may be used by the government to crack down on NGOs operating in Egypt. “This (report) is a story essentially of police violation of citizens’ rights, which have coincided with other unresolved issues in Egyptian society and boomeranged,”said Saad Eddin Ibrahim, head of the Cairo-based Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development, a private think tank that studies minority rights.”It’s like lighting a match in a room full of gas.” Like a number of experts and foreign diplomats in Egypt, Abu Seada doubts that what happened to Copts in the Egyptian town of Al-Kosheh _ the basis of the report _ was a case of religious persecution, as many observers outside Egypt have maintained.

American, European and Australian Coptic groups placed a full-page ad in the New York Times in October alleging the”massive arrest and torturing of over a thousand”Copts in Al-Kosheh between Aug. 15 and Sept. 15 1998. The ad claimed that”women and children were abused and terrorized with electric shocks”and blamed”the state police itself”for the actions.

However, Abu Seada points to dozens of cases in which police have rounded up and tortured alleged Muslim militants in a similar manner.”It’s not a religious issue,”he said.”What happened in Al-Kosheh was not persecution of Christians.” Many Copts in Egypt seem to agree.”The Copts are living very happily in this country,”said Milad Hanna, a prominent member of the Coptic community.”Nevertheless, the Coptic situation needs a review, because the government does not put them on the agenda.” In a carefully worded statement, Pope Shenouda III, the Coptic Orthodox patriarchate, said Copts in Al-Kosheh had been victimized, but denounced attempts to blow the incident out of proportion. Relations between Muslims and Copts in the village are generally good, he said.

But Coptic rights groups overseas say the arrests reflect a pattern of discrimination and persecution practiced for decades against Egyptian Copts. They point to difficulties obtaining permits to build and repair churches, as well as a string of attacks on Copts by Muslim militants in recent years. “The Coptic community is not divided,”said Alphonse Kelada, president of the South Carolina-based American Coptic Association.”The Coptic community (in Egypt) is afraid. The Coptic community is like a hostage.” The troubles in Al-Kosheh began when two Christian men were found dead. In searching for the killer, police rounded up hundreds of Copts, according to the EOHR, which sent a lawyer to the village to investigate the incident. Police were anxious to find a Christian killer from the predominately Coptic town to avoid stoking sectarian strife, some experts here believe.

But their brutality made the Al-Kosheh arrests a cause celebre for religious and human rights groups worldwide. The EOHR report, generally confirming the New York Times’ ad allegations, said police applied electric shocks to the genitals of some detainees and threatened women with rape. One young boy was hung from a ceiling fan. “First they blindfolded me, forced me to remove my clothes and connected

electric wires to my body, one to the penis and a second to the right toe,”detainee Ayman Boctor Abu Al-Yameen was quoted in the EOHR report.”They kept giving me electric shocks for one hour with some breaks during which they beat me. Then, I was hanged in the slaughtered animal position until, after one hour, I passed out.” In all, the report said, more than 1,200 people were arrested between August and September.

News of the incident filtered out through the foreign media and through two independent, Cairo-based newspapers. Egyptian officials maintained that only about two dozen Copts had been rounded up by police. Later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs bumped the number up to 53, but said many of those brought in for questioning were Muslims.

In October, police detained Bishop Amba Wissa, local head of the Coptic Church, and two priests on a number of charges, including inciting religious strife. The three clerics were later released.

But the government generally maintained a low profile on the matter until late October, when an explosive article appeared in the British Sunday Telegraph, where reporter Christina Lamb wrote that some of those detained were raped or nailed to crosses. Neither allegation was included in the EOHR report.

Foreign journalists who interviewed Al-Kosheh residents said they did not hear about rape or mock crucifixions. Lamb did not travel to Egypt to research her article. “There is some truth and there is some exaggeration”to the Daily Telegraph article, said Coptic leader Hanna.”There was no crucifixion, there was no violation of any girls.” The Telegraph story finally prompted official ire. Egyptian officials reacted angrily, alleging foreign interference in Egyptian matters. President Hosni Mubarak hinted at an Israeli disinformation campaign. A group of 2,000 prominent Copts, some with close government ties, took out advertisements in major international newspapers denying religious persecution existed in Egypt. State subsidized newspapers also lambasted the alleged foreign meddling.

Meanwhile, an article Hafez Abu Seada wrote in the weekly Al-Osbou newspaper landed him in prison.

Headlined”$25,000 the price of treason,”the newspaper charged the EOHR had taken a bribe from the British government to write its report on the Al-Kosheh arrests. A British Embassy spokesman in Cairo denied the allegations, but admitted that EOHR had received British money _ but for an entirely unrelated program on women’s rights. “The government was looking for a scapegoat,”said Eddin Ibrahim of the Ibn Khaldoun Center.”They couldn’t get to the Daily Telegraph and to Christina Lamb. So they found an easy scapegoat (in the EOHR).” Shortly after the article in Al-Ousbou, Abu Seada was called to the state prosecutor’s office for questioning. Six hours later, he was sent to a Cairo jail, where he was placed in solitary confinement.”I didn’t eat or drink for two days,”he said, describing time cramped in a filthy cell, with a slit for light to enter. On the third day, prison guards moved him to a larger cell and shaved his head. Three days later, he was released on bail.

Activists and experts here believe the story is far from over. With Egyptian lawmakers poised to debate new legislation regulating nongovernmental organizations, many fear the EOHR incident will pave the way for tough, new restrictions against NGOs.

Perhaps of greatest concern is a possible crackdown against foreign funding, which provides the lion’s share of many NGO budgets. “The government has a policy of trying to cripple and manage institutions of civil society,”said Virginia Sherry, associate director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.”And the last institution they haven’t been able to control are human rights organizations.” Sherry recently visited Egypt, where she investigated the Al-Kosheh incident. She, too, believes last summer’s arrests reflect police brutality typically practiced on Christians and Muslims alike.

But problems do exist between the two communities in Egypt, Sherry said, problems that neither will acknowledge openly. “Everyone’s denying discrimination in Egypt … which in my mind is unfortunate,”she said.”There are serious issues of discrimination. People are saying Copts aren’t a minority. But it’s a fact. Copts are a minority.”

DEA END RNS