While monks resume their sit-in at the monastery of Abū Fānā, Coptic communities abroad are organizing demonstrations protesting the incidents. The following presents an up-to-date review of the aftermath of the Abū Fānā attacks.
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Like an earthquake with several “aftershocks;” the case of Abū Fānā Monastery seems to be moving from one problem to the next. At first, the problem lay in the attacks against the monastery; the assaulted abducted monks, and one dead Muslim victim whose killer has yet to be identified.
In the aftermath of the incidents, new problems have surfaced. Rumors spread about alleged illegal trading of antiquities in the area. The investigation formed by Egypt’s prime minister and headed by the governor of Minia revealed that both the tribal communities and the monastery took possession of lands belonging to the state.
However, possession by Wad‘ yad [seizure of an area of land] is an avowed convention in Egypt. According to this convention, people can possess lands even if the lands belong to nobody or to the state. After a given number of years, the possessor can claim his possession of the land in the official concerned institution and can obtain legal papers that prove their ownership of the seized land. [The time needed to avow someone’s possession of a land by Wad‘ yad is 15 years, provided that no conflicts or disturbance interrupt this period.]
In the case of Abū Fānā, both parts claim their possession of the land. The monastery has obtained official papers for some of the lands, yet appears to have not obtained them for others.
Al-Usbūc of June 28, 2008 published a detailed report on the final recommendations of the investigation committee formed by the prime minister and headed by the governor of Minia. Representatives of the concerned governmental institutions were present, they presented the site and examined the area on earth.
Al-Dustūr listed the committee’s final recommendations as following:
1- Suspending the construction of any more cells out of the monastery’s area, and considering all the cells that were built within a distance of three kilometers from the main building of the monastery to be “private” buildings independent of the monastery. Only people who live in those cells are responsible for their protection.
2- Suspending all cultivating works until the related licenses and authorizations are obtained according to the conditions of the General Association of Agricultural Development.
3- Stopping any extension further into the lands that were possessed by Wad‘ yad until the specialized institutions issue final decisions in this regard.
4- Allowing, temporarily, use of the road located inside the monastery’s archaeological periphery, and establishing two gates on either side of the fence when it is completed around the archaeological monastery, so that it can still be used to reach the church next to the monastery. That road can only be closed if antiquities are proven to have been found.
5- Forming a committee from representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Survey, Department of Public Possessions in Minia to determine the “seriously” cultivated areas as a primary procedure to regulate the ownership of those lands and do the necessary codification in this response.
6- Forming a committee to review the official documents presented by the church to prove its ownership of the lands.
7- Refusing the metropolitan’s request to build one fencing wall that surrounds the archaeological monastery, the church and the farm to provide the maximum protection for people working in these places. The rejection depended on the fact that the the authorized fence is around the archaeological monastery only and not all the areas related to it. The committee also promised to consider the possibility to build another fence around the church and the farm after the borders are clearly and finally determined.
8- Calling on the Ministry of Interior to establish a police station in the region to provide the maximum protection and deny all rumors about the reluctance of the security or the police officers in resolving similar incidents.
Moreover, the Egyptian press continued to publish news and interviews with the concerned people. The state-influenced press concentrates on denying the sectarian nature of the incident and enforces the assumption that it is a conflict over the state’s properties.
Al-Akhbār of June 26, 2008 reported on the opinions of inhabitants from the villages surrounding area of the monastery. People claimed that what happened was a conflict over land and had nothing to do with religion. Al-Akhbār headlined, ’We live in a strong unity and rumors about sectarianism are all lies to absent law and sow evil seeds [of sedition] that will never grow in an Egyptian soil.’
The monks of Abū Fānā are resuming their sit-in staged as a protest against the recommendations and decisions of the investigation committee. Al-Misrī al-Yawm of June 25, 2008 reported that 1000 monks and clergymen staged a sit-in that has lasted for almost one week [Editor: that number is impossible, there are 18 monks and there are tens of priests in the bishopric of Mallawi. If the bishop would want to get a sit-in of 1000 clergy he would need to get clergy from other bishoprics and that is unlikely. The number may still be accurate but then of tens of clergy and others could have been Christians from the diocese]. The newspaper also reported on Bishop Dimitrius of Mallāwī’s complaints about the increasing security procedures in the monastery. He mentioned that security prevented even the donations in kind offered by the people of the region to the monastery.
Father Bula, spokesman of the bishopric of Mallāwī, declared that the sit-in is peaceful and aims at defending the monastery, stressing defensive nature of the sit-in.
Al-Jumhūrīyah of June 24, 2008 headlined its article on the issue with, ’Monks of Abū Fānā are hindering the codification committee’s [works ]’ in the region. Al-Jumhūrīyah reported on the the monk’s rejection to allow members of the committee in the area surrounding the monastery. It also reported that the Department of Archeology had filed a claim against the responsible people in the monastery concerning alleged detected violations of the archaeological site. The local unit also filed another claim about building unauthorized fencing at the site’s entrance.
Al-Wafd of June 29 reported that Mallawī prosecution called eight of the clerics and monks of Abū Fānā to interrogate them about the filed claims. Moreover, the prosecution prolonged the detention period of the 15 people accused in the attacks, including the monastery’s contractor and his son who are facing charges of killing a man during the attacks.
Conversely, monks of Abū Fānā filed a claim in which they deny their responsibility for any constructions that followed the May 31 attacks.
On an international level, Coptic communities abroad organized demonstrations protesting the incidents. Al-Dustūr of June 24, 2008 reported on Coptic demonstrations in France, The Netherlands, and Greece.
Al-Misrī al-Yawm of June 27 reported on Coptic demonstrations in front of the Egyptian embassy in Athens. Bishop Mūsá of the Youth denied the Coptic Orthodox Church’s involvement in the protests, expressing Pope Shenouda’s rejection to such reactions. He attributed the participation of priests in Europe’s demonstrations to their will to control the demonstrations and enforce peace.
In the same context, al-Misrī al-Yawm reported on declarations of a bishop who is accompanying the pope during his trip to the U.S. that bishops of the Coptic Orthodox Churches there called on Coptic communities to adopt a peaceful reaction and avoid demonstrations.
Al-Misrī al-Yawm reported from anonymous sources that the church’s rejection to demonstrations is mainly to preserve the prestige of Pope Shenouda and avoid demonstrations while he is abroad.
Al-Dustūr of June 29, 2008 reported that Pope Shenouda asked the monks at Abū Fānā to defend the land and never give up any part of it.
It is noteworthy that the General Habīb al-‘Ādilī, Egypt’s minister of interior, received a report from the State Security revealing the existence of more than 270 registered conflicts between the monasteries and tribal communities over desert lands surrounding the monasteries, which, according to the report, threatens of the repetition of the “massacre of Abū Fānā monastery.”
State Security called for urgent solutions to theses troubles to avoid any further sectarian conflicts.
Al-Dustūr also mentioned that the Ministry of Interior called for enforcing guardianship of the churches and monasteries located in desert areas.
