What Do Attacks Mean for Egypt's Christians?

Tensions have long simmered between Muslims and Christians in Egypt and sectarian attacks have escalated since the Arab Spring. In recent weeks and months, there has been a marked increase in religiously motivated violence — a cause for growing concern for rights groups and Egypt’s estimated 9 million Christians (the Middle East’s largest Christian community). The rising tide of anti-Christian sectarianism in Egypt has generally been underreported by the country’s mainstream media, which has been peddling the official narrative that “Muslims and Christians are one people, united by a common history and destiny." Police, meanwhile, deliberately downplay the sectarian strife and at times, and even cover up attacks on Christians by not documenting them as such. Moreover, the perpetrators of such crimes often escape justice. In the last five years, churches and homes of Christians have been burned and entire families have been forcibly evacuated from their villages or have had to relocate to flee persecution. During the period of Islamist rule in Egypt, increased insecurity and fear of persecution prompted thousands of Christians to leave the country, seeking safety and greater freedoms overseas.