From the Tunisian newspaper Business News. French original here.
Non-Muslim places of worship are being targeted by still-unidentified individuals. After the attacks perpetrated against the Orthodox church on Avenue Mohamed V, the Russian school located behind the church as well as the Christian cemetery of Montplaisir in Tunis have been vandalized.
The walls of the school were smeared with fecal matter, as also a fresco of Saint Siberian [sic] located in the back courtyard of the Orthodox church, while the cemetery's crosses were destroyed.
Yamina Thabet, the president of the Tunisian Society for Aid to Minorities (ATSM), indicated during a conference held April 4, 2012 at the headquarters of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists that the government is responsible for the protection of minorities in Tunisia, a protection that is imperative in the face of these repeated assaults. She especially lamented the government's manifest indifference with regard to minorities' right to protection.
According to the newspaper Le Maghreb, a Salafist burst into the church during April to deliver a letter from an Islamist party called "Hizb Allah" [not to be confused with the Lebanese party of the same name], inviting the archpriest to convert to Islam or to take down his church's crosses and pay the "jizya", a tribute that non-Muslims were required to pay at the beginning of the Islamic era [and oftentimes since then].
We note as well that the prosecutor of the Republic has ordered, Thursday April 5, an investigation to be opened within the context of the complaint filed by the ATSM regarding the calls made to kill Jews, according to the declaration of Ms. Thabet Thursday on Mosaïque FM.
Non-Muslim places of worship are being targeted by still-unidentified individuals. After the attacks perpetrated against the Orthodox church on Avenue Mohamed V, the Russian school located behind the church as well as the Christian cemetery of Montplaisir in Tunis have been vandalized.
The walls of the school were smeared with fecal matter, as also a fresco of Saint Siberian [sic] located in the back courtyard of the Orthodox church, while the cemetery's crosses were destroyed.
Yamina Thabet, the president of the Tunisian Society for Aid to Minorities (ATSM), indicated during a conference held April 4, 2012 at the headquarters of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists that the government is responsible for the protection of minorities in Tunisia, a protection that is imperative in the face of these repeated assaults. She especially lamented the government's manifest indifference with regard to minorities' right to protection.
According to the newspaper Le Maghreb, a Salafist burst into the church during April to deliver a letter from an Islamist party called "Hizb Allah" [not to be confused with the Lebanese party of the same name], inviting the archpriest to convert to Islam or to take down his church's crosses and pay the "jizya", a tribute that non-Muslims were required to pay at the beginning of the Islamic era [and oftentimes since then].
We note as well that the prosecutor of the Republic has ordered, Thursday April 5, an investigation to be opened within the context of the complaint filed by the ATSM regarding the calls made to kill Jews, according to the declaration of Ms. Thabet Thursday on Mosaïque FM.
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3 comments:
Tunisia is going into the same path as Egypt: The christians lived in good intelligence with the muslims until now. The fundamentalists have begun to put ablaze some coptic churches and recently they made arrested a coptic priest under the accusation of "blasphemy". The room where the trial was made was full with bearded attendants carrying guns (yes, guns in a court of justice). The poor priest was sentenced 6 (SIX) years of jail.
An example of blasphemy against Islam: The catholics teach that GOD is triune, Father, Son and Spirit. So simple: That is a blasphemy !!!
It's not really true that Christians in Egypt used to live in "good intelligence" with Muslims until recently. Christians have in fact been persecuted and discriminated against since Islam first appeared in Egypt (with a few shorter periods of relative tolerance) and now when the Muslim Brotherhood have taken charge of the country, things are going to get a lot worse.
PS Copts are not Catholics, they are Orthodox :)
PSS - there are Catholic Copts too. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coptic_Catholic_Church.
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