AFRICA/EGYPT - Sinai jihadist groups threaten Copts for their support to President al-Sisi

Tuesday, 28 April 2015

Al-Arish (Agenzia Fides) - The Coptic Christians must leave their homes and the Sinai Peninsula if they do not want to die for the next targeted attacks that jihadist groups operating in the Peninsula are preparing to carry out against them. The threat, direct and selective, was spread through social networks by militants, such as the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis group. In their threatening messages - say local sources consulted by Agenzia Fides - jihadists explicitly declare that the Copts are a target of their violence because of their support towards President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and therefore for their non-marginal contribution to the consensus enjoyed by the current strong man of Egypt.
Coptic social organizations have denounced the seriousness of the new terrorist threats, asking President al-Sisi to take them seriously and to increase security measures for churches and Christian communities in Sinai. Meanwhile, a few days ago the men of al Tarabin, the most important Bedouin tribe in the Sinai, made public their intention to fight with weapons jihadist groups operating in the Peninsula to stop their violence against civilians, their propaganda aimed at spreading a "false message about Islam" and their design to transform the area into a battlefield. According to local analysts, the announced attacks on Copts responds to the design of fomenting sectarian hatred in order to plunge the country into chaos. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 28/04/2015)


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