Eure Exzellenzen, Bischof Gebhard Fürst und Bischof Dr. Frank Otfried July,
liebe Dekane, Priester und Pfarrer der befreundeten Kirchen!

Die zum Himmel schreienden tragischen Ereignisse und das extrem brutale Vorgehen des Militärs gegen unsere friedlich protestierenden Glaubensbrüder, dem bis jetzt 24 Kopten zum Opfer fielen und wobei mehr als 300 weitere schwer verletzt wurden, veranlasste Seine Heiligkeit, Papst Schenute III., die Heilige Synode der koptisch-orthodoxen Kirche einzuberufen, um über die Situation in Ägypten zu beraten. Sie verlas am Ende die folgende Erklärung:
Die Heilige Synode der koptisch-orthodoxen Kirche trat am Montag, dem 10.10. in der päpstlichen Residenz unter Vorsitz Seiner Heiligkeit, Papst Schenute III. und in Anwesenheit von 70 Metropoliten zusammen. Die Synode war darüber entsetzt, dass im Verlauf ihres friedlichen Protests mehr als 24 unserer Glaubensbrüder vor Maspiro zu Tode kamen und über 200 verletzt wurden.
Unser christlicher Glaube verbietet die Anwendung jeglicher Art von Gewalt. Wir wissen aber, dass es immer wieder Leute gibt, die sich unter unsere Glaubensbrüder und –schwestern mischen und Verbrechen begehen, die dann uns allen zugeschrieben werden. Die Kopten erleben zudem, dass sich ihre Probleme wiederholen, ohne dass die Angreifer zur Rechenschaft gezogen und verurteilt oder dass etwa diese Probleme jemals ernsthaft aus der Welt geschafft würden.
Die Heilige Synode ruft das koptische Volk auf, ab Dienstag, dem 11.10., drei Tage lang zu beten und zu fasten, damit der Herr unserem geliebten Land Ägypten seinen Frieden zurückgebe.
Die koptische Gemeinde Stuttgart veranstaltet am kommenden Sonntag einen TRAUERMARSCH, zu dem wir Sie, Ihre Familien, Freunde und Bekannten herzlich einladen. Wir beginnen um 15 Uhr auf dem Schlossplatz und erreichen über Kronprinzenstraße, Rotebühlplatz und Eberhardstraße den Marktplatz, wo die Veranstaltung um 17 Uhr endet. Bitte unterstützen Sie uns durch Ihr Kommen und schließen Sie uns in Ihre Gebete ein.

Pater Johannes Ghali
Priester der koptischen Kirche Stuttgart

Stuttgart 19 October 2011
Dear Mr President

Massacre of Copts at Maspero, Cairo (Egypt)

In behalf of the St. George Coptic-Orthodox Church Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany (registered association) I write this letter to you.
On Tuesday 4/10/2011 it got again around to attacks on Coptic Christians in a village called Mirinab in the province Assuan, Egypt.
Early in September 2011 Salafist hatemongers started to abet the Muslim youth of the village. Since then Islamists have been telling Christians not to be allowed to have neither domes nor a church tower, crosses or bells for their church.
Then at a “reconciliation-meeting” representative of the Diocese of Assuan have de-clared themselves ready to abstain from the church tower, crosses and bells. However Copts have refused to abstain from the domes because this would have meant the demolishing of the already completed shell construction.
Furthermore on Friday 30th September 2011 hatemongers preached in 20 mosques of the region against the rebuilding of Saint George’s Church and against Chris-tians in general. All that happened in presence of high-ranking Egyptian army gener¬als.
Then after the Friday prayers more than 2500 Salafists headed to Mirinab. At first properties of Copts such as houses, shops, cars and fields were plundered and de-stroyed. Fortunately Copts managed to escape from their certain death with the aid of a Nile ferry in the last nick of time. As usual Egyptian security forces did not inter-vene but observed these crimes from a distance.
Consequently Salafists turned to Saint George’s Church and set the priest’s office on fire at first. They also threw Bibles and images of saints on the street and finally started to set fire to the church and to break it down.
The excuse of these Salafists’ attacks which were planned, supported and executed by the Administration and by Salafists was the statement of the Governor of Assuan Mustafa Al-Sayyed who claimed that Copts had built the church illegally. He also said that Copts had only had a permission for the construction of a small social facility but not for the construction of a church.
In fact the Coptic-Orthodox Diocese of Assuan already received a permission for the new build of the church in May 2010 after the 100 years old village church had been in a ruinous condition.
As a protest action Copts demonstrated peacefully for their rights as well as for the rebuilding of the destroyed church in Mirinab in front of the TV building Maspero in Cairo on 6th October 2011.
The consequences of this protest were disastrous. Coptic clerics as well as civilians were beaten brutally with riot sticks by the military and the military police. They were also insulted with racist expressions like “you unbelievers” or “you sons of a bitch”.
On State TV the Governor of Assuan Mustafa Al-Sayyed commented on this incident as follows: “Christians have made a mistake and Muslims cared for its removal” apart from that “nothing happened”.
In addition peaceful demonstrating Copts were purposefully killed by the Egyptian military and by Islamists in front of the TV building Maspero in Cairo on 9th October 2011. They were pushed back and were finally shot dead and even knocked down by military vehicles. That could be clearly watched on Al-Arabiya TV, BBC Arabic and ZDF.
However this black night over Cairo still did not seem to have an end. When the ca-sualties were brought to a Coptic hospital a Muslim mob surrounded the hospital which was long since overcrowded by the dead and the injured. They stoned the hospital and threw Molotov cocktails at it. Furthermore volunteer blood donors were violently prevented from entering the hospital with knifes and swords.
On top of that Muslim extremists even entered the hospital and beat the doctors in charge, disgraced the corpses of the dead and also killed some casualties.
Additionally casualties of this massacre caused by the Egyptian Army were not allowed to receive medical treatment at State hospitals.