The head of Egypt’s Protestant Church said in April that he urges clergy not to take part in ‘reconciliation sessions’ that aim to resolve community conflicts without the involvement of the police and legal system.
The Rev Dr Andrea Zaki said he ‘strongly’ opposed the scheme because it renders the law ‘absent’.
The reconciliation scheme is often used to resolve tensions such as conflict between Copts and Muslims over the building of new churches, but it has been criticised by some Christian leaders. The scheme aims to restore good community relations without needing to involve law enforcement officials. However, some Christians, especially in small towns, have complained that they are pressured to simply drop their complaints.
‘[The scheme] does not always go in the right direction; sometimes it benefits those who have power. Sometimes they let the criminal escape and give them freedom to repeat what they did,’ Zaki said. ‘We are against community reconciliation; we are pro applying the law and a trial for all criminals, whatever their religion, whatever their background.’
Zaki said he believed the refusal by Protestant and Evangelical clergy to take part in reconciliation sessions has contributed to decisions to try cases in court. He cited murders of two Copts that had been brought before a judge and resulted in the death penalty in both cases – including for 19-year-old Ahmad Saeed Ibrahim al-Sonbati, who last year murdered a Coptic priest in broad daylight in a suburb of Cairo.
