Will They Be Punished?
Mohammad Salim Al-Awa has accused Coptic Churches in Egypt of storing weapons and preparing for war against Egypt’s Muslim majority.
Michael Armanious, who blogs at The New Egypt, has detailed how three Egyptians — Muhammad Salim Al- Awa, Salafist Mohammed Hassa, and TV broadcaster Rasha Magdy — have helped undermine the safety of the Coptic Christians in their homeland. He did this in a blog post about efforts to memorialize the deaths of two dozen Coptic Christians in Maspero Oct. 9, 2011. Armanious reports:
The Maspero Massacre did not take place in a vacuum. It was preceded by an ongoing campaign of anti-Christian incitement perpetrated by Egyptian elites of all stripes. In the months and weeks prior to the massacre, religious and political leaders and journalists spewed invective clearly intended to cause violence against Copts in their homeland.
Many of these acts of incitement have been ignored or swept under the carpet, but they are not forgotten. We must remember and document these acts of incitement in order to keep faith with the victims of the Maspero Massacre.
Armanious suggests that someday, “Al-Awa, Hassan, Magdy and many, many others may have to answer for their acts of incitement.”
There is precedent.
In the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda, pop-singer Simon Bikindi was sentenced for 15 years imprisonment for his role in generating hostility toward Tutsis in that country. Apparently, Bikindi “used a speaker on his car to broadcast messages asking the majority Hutu to rise up and kill Tutsis in June 1994. On a second drive along the same road, Bikindi asked if people had been killing the ‘snakes.’
While Al-Awa, Hassan and Magdy did not directly call for the murder of Coptic Christians in their homeland, they did create an environment where such murders were inevitable.
If Bikindi can be punished for what he did in Rwanda, there are many Muslim extremists who should be punished for what they have done to the Copts in Egypt.
Read the whole thing.
More from SNAPSHOTS
Double Standards: Boycotts and Discrimination in MassLive
May 16, 2025
Anti-Israel activists, including Harvard University’s Lara Jirmanus, a clinical instructor, seem to struggle with the concept of “discrimination.” Quoted in a May 14 MassLive article, “Harvard ‘failed to respond’ to 450 discrimination complaints. Staff hand-delivered [...]
Swarthmore Students Are Learning: It Was Never About Palestinian Rights
May 14, 2025
Students at Swarthmore College are so close to understanding the conflict. An article in the Swarthmore Phoenix details the frustrations of student activists with the college’s Students for Justice in Palestine. The gist of their criticism is [...]
AFP Arabic Stops Mislabeling Northern Israeli Communities ‘Settlements”
August 10, 2021
A view of Metulla, northern Israel (Photo by Hadar Sela)After failing to set the record straight last May when Agence France Presse's Arabic service repeatedly referred to Jewish communities in northern Israel as "settlements," the [...]
NY Times Praises Ilhan Omar’s Book While Glossing Over Her Antisemitism
August 19, 2020
A recent New York Times book review boosts Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) autobiography while glossing over her antisemitism. In the paper’s Aug. 16, 2020 edition, NYT reporter Christina Cauterucci writes: The memoir offers breathing room [...]
When TV Interviews of Ilhan Omar Constitute Journalistic Malpractice
August 11, 2020
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) documented animosity toward Jews and Israel was ignored in recent interviews by MSNBC and C-SPAN. MSNBC’s The Beat for July 23, 2020 included host Ari Melber’s 10-minute conversation at 6:16 [...]
Boston TV Station WCVB Teamed Up With Terrorist Supporter CAIR
July 7, 2020
WCVB-TV (channel 5) (Boston’s ABC network affiliate) recently misled area viewers about a matter involving antisemitic propaganda. This occurred on its local Sunday show Cityline hosted by Karen Holmes Ward who is described by the [...]
Harper’s Magazine Echoed Palestinian Propaganda Condemning Israel And America
June 2, 2020
Writing in Harper's, Kevin Baker condemns the U.S. Middle East peace plan [“The Striking Gesture,” Easy Chair, May 2020], mischaracterizing it as, “Give up all your [Palestinian] hopes and your holiest places, embark on a [...]