A well-known Middle Eastern journalist has claimed that the Egyptian Government is attempting to silence the “Coptic Diaspora” following the drive-by shooting of Copts as they left Christmas Eve mass on January 6 in the southern Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi which she said had “shocked and enraged Copts all over the world.”

Mary Abdelmassih, writing for the Assyrian International News Agency , said that international condemnations poured in after the attack, which left six Copts dead and nine injured, with Italy, Canada, France, the Vatican, the US Congress, and the European Parliament, expressing their concerns about the safety the Copts in Egypt.

She said that in reply, a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said, “It is an internal Egyptian matter that no foreign party is allowed to consider.”

Abdelmassih stated that the shootings triggered unprecedented protests by Copts inside Egypt and abroad.
Explaining this Coptic reaction, Coptic intellectual Magdi Khalil said on Life TV on February 4 “This incident is not like the rest. Copts feel they are in danger, and a bigger one is forthcoming. They finally have realized that the crimes against them are not individual incidents but rather 'crimes against humanity' planned by the Egyptian State itself.”

“Thousands of Copts participated in peaceful rallies in Western countries, voicing their grievances and exposing the Egyptian Regime's infamy,” she wrote. “For the first time Coptic clergy participated in the rallies, and in some countries members of parliament also attended. Petitions have gone out to most Western leaders, and a great number of Copts have contacted their Parliament representatives asking for support.

“After the shootings, state security imposed a news blackout on Nag Hammadi. The media and rights activists were forbidden to enter the area, and those who did were arrested. To counteract this, Votoc and Middle East Christian Association, two Coptic advocacy groups from outside Egypt, exposed the false information given by the government using their heavily frequented Paltalk chat rooms. They carried out updates and live interviews with Coptic witnesses from the scenes. Their servers were hacked twice by government operators.

“The outrage of the international community and the success of the Coptic immigrants in raising awareness of the serious situation of the Copts caused the Egyptian government to intensify its efforts to silence them.”

Abdelmassih said that the Coptic Diaspora has always been accused by the Egyptian regime of “tarnishing” Egypt's image by presenting Coptic problems before foreign governments instead of solving them inside the country.

“Weakening their role as a pressure group abroad is a way to sabotage Coptic efforts in obtaining real gains,” Khalil said, “and depriving the Copts in Egypt from the lungs through which they breath. The real work for the Coptic Issue is done abroad, and not inside Egypt. Coptic emigrants are effective on the political and human rights levels.”

According to Khalil, the Foreign Minister, Ahmad Abu el-Gheit, held a secret meeting on January 19 with all his aides and ambassadors -- excluding the two Coptic ambassadors -- around the world to announce a “new strategy” to encounter the activities of the Coptic Diaspora. Abu el-Gheit said the Coptic Diaspora is a “fifth column,” “enemies of Egypt,” “who have a separate identity” and “all measures ought to be taken in all Egyptian Embassies around the world to curb their activities.”

The second part of the “new strategy” is to “convince the homeland Copts that the activities of the Copts abroad will increase Muslim attacks on them, and the outside world will not be able to save them.” Khalil said that he got this information from a Muslim ambassador who attended the secret meeting and who disagreed with the policy.

Intensive media campaigns were waged, she alleged, to distort the reputation of Coptic migrants, accusing them of treason, fanaticism and of seeking “empowerment through foreign support,” a term invented by the government to intimidate and terrorize them".

Khalil criticized this moniker, saying “as American citizens, we use our constitutional rights to help our Coptic brethrens in Egypt to get their citizenship rights. We have not asked for any financial aid to be cut from Egypt, or sought military intervention from a foreign power. We are only asking that the Egyptian State honor its international obligations.”

It has been reported that a draft has recently been presented to parliament making “empowerment through foreign support” a criminal offense.

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