BENI SUEF, Egypt — Two boys, accused of allegedly showing contempt of Islam and arrested in late September 2012, are soon to stand trial.
Attorney Karam Gabriel said anti-Christian hostilities in the restive country are getting worse as the two boys are to be tried in a court in Beni Suef for showing “contempt to Islamic religion and insulting the Koran.”
The boys, Nabil Naji Rizq and Mina Atallah (identified in some press reports as Mina Nadi Faraj), were 10 and 9 years old respectively at the time of their arrest.
The accusation made headlines throughout the country after a man allegedly saw Rizq and Atallah playing in trash that he claimed included pages from the Koran. The report filed against Rizq and Atallah accused the boys of tearing pages of Islam’s holy book — a later version of the story had them allegedly urinating on it. They were released in early October.
Angry protestors from Beni Suef reportedly intimidated Christian residents of the nearby village of Ezbat Marco at that time and prevented them from going to work.
“They are just small children, and they don’t really understand what all the fuss is about — they can’t even tell the difference between the Koran, the Bible or any other holy book,” Gabriel said.
Clearly outraged at recent cases of hostility toward Coptic Christians in the post-Hosni Mubarak era, Gabriel said that since Mohamed Morsi came to power in June 2012, the Christian community is in dire need of protection. Tensions are such that, for the moment, there is no information on the exact date of the two boys’ trial, as authorities fear it will exacerbate hostilities in the city.
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