Saturday, March 16, 2019

...unprecedented...

News outlets have been using the word "unprecedented" for the recent events in New Zealand.

Let's look at one other country that has been clawing its way out of "developing" status: Egypt

2011
  • 1 January 2011 (On New Year's Eve) -- 21 Christians killed in bombing in Alexandria.
A car bomb exploded in front of an Alexandria Coptic Orthodox Church killing at least 21 and injuring at least 79. The incident happened a few minutes after midnight as Christians were leaving a New Year's Eve Church service.[48][49][50]
  • 11 January 2011 — A mentally deranged member of the police force opened fire randomly in a train in Samalout station in Minya province resulting in the death of a 71-year-old Coptic Christian man and injuring of 5 others Copts and Muslims.[51]
  • On 30 January 2011, just days after the demonstrations to reform the Egyptian government, Muslims in southern Egypt broke into two homes belonging to Coptic Christians. The Muslim assailants murdered 11 people and wounded four others.[52]
  • 5 March 2011 — A church was set on fire in Sole, Egypt by a group of Muslim men angry that a Muslim woman was romantically involved with a Christian man. Large groups of Copts then proceeded to hold major protests stopping traffic for hours in vital areas of Cairo.[53][54]
  • April 2011 — After the death of two Muslims on April 18, sectarian violence broke out in the southern Egyptian town of Abu Qurqas El Balad, in Minya Governorate, 260 km south of Cairo. One Christian Copt was killed. Coptic homes, shops, businesses, fields and livestock were plundered and torched.
  • 7 May 2011 — the burning of 3 Coptic Orthodox churches, and the destruction of many Christian-owned houses and businesses. In addition, 15 people were killed in the attacks, and about 232 injured.[55][56][57][58][59][60]
A dispute started over claims that several women who converted to Islam had been abducted by the church and was being held against her will in St. Mary Church of Imbaba, Giza, ended in violent clashes that left 15 dead, among whom were Muslims and Christians, and roughly 55 injured. Eyewitnesses confirmed the church was burnt by Muslims who are not from the neighborhood, by the committee of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR). Copts converting to Islam are usually advised by the police to take out restraining orders against their families as the Coptic community does not tolerate converts to Islam. These incidents have fueled strife and problems between Copts and Muslims as in the famous case of Camelia.[61]
  • May 2011 — Copts in Maspero, Cairo are attacked during protests 23 coptic Christian were killed by the Egyptian army and the Islamic mob.
  • 18 May 2011 — The Coptic Church obtained a permission in January to turn a garment factory bought by the church in 2006, into a church in the neighbourhood of Ain Shams of Cairo. However, angry Muslim mobs attacked the church and scores of Copts and Muslims were arrested for the disturbance. On Sunday May 29, an Egyptian Military Court sentenced two Coptic Christians to five years in jail each for violence and for trying to turn a factory into an unlicensed church.[62]
  • On 4 October 2011, military and police squads used force late at night to disperse hundreds of angry Coptic demonstrators and their supporters who were attempting to stage a sit-in outside the Maspero TV headquarters in downtown Cairo to protest attacks on a Christian church in Upper Egypt.[63][64]
  • 9 October 2011—The worst sectarian violence occurred in 2011, when the army killed at least 24 Christians in what became known as the "Maspero massacre".[65]
Thousands of Coptic Christians took to the streets in Cairo to protest the burning of a church in Marinab and were headed towards Maspiro, where they were met with armoured personnel carrier, APCs, and hundreds of riot police and special forces. Army vehicles charged at the protesters and reports of at least 6 protesters being crushed under APCs, including one with a crushed skull, has emerged. In addition, witnesses have confirmed that military personnel were seen firing live ammunition into the protesters, while the Health Ministry confirmed that at least 20 protesters have undergone surgery for bullet wounds.[66] In total, an estimated 24 Copts were killed, while numbers as high as 36 and 50 were reported, including unconfirmed reports of the death of several soldiers.[67]
The events came against the backdrop of tensions simmering due to the violent military breakup of a sit-in staged at Maspiro by Coptic demonstrators a few days earlier to protest the burning of the church of Marinab in the Governorate of Aswan by Muslims of the region.
OK, maybe 2011 was just a bad year. Lets look at 2017

  • February 2017 - terrorist groups fighting in the Sinai insurgency call for attacks on Christians.[86][87][88] At least seven Christians are killed in separate attacks in city of El Arish in Sinai. Many Coptic families respond by fleeing from the Sinai Peninsula to Ismailia Governorate.[89]
  • 9 April 2017 - Bombings of two Coptic churches kill over 45 people and injures over 130. St George's Coptic Orthodox Church in the Tanta region and St Mark's Church in Alexandria were bombed during Palm Sunday processions.[90]
  • 7 May 2017 - A Christian man was shot dead by Islamic State militants in the El Arish Sinai Peninsula.[91]
  • 26 May – 2017 Minya attack, In May 2017, gunmen executed at least 28 Christian pilgrims traveling in a bus during a visit to the monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor in Minya Governorate.[92]
  • 12 October - A Coptic priest was killed in a knife attack in Cairo; his murderer subsequently declared his antipathy toward Christians.[93][94][95][96]
  • 29 December - A gunman who was later identified as an Islamic extremist shot multiple people at Saint Menas church in Helwan killing 11 people including a police officer
 From Wikipedia.

The thing is that this happens year-after-year-after-year in Islamic countries. Egypt is hardly unique in this regard. And it hardly makes the press.

I suspect the word "unprecedented" does not mean what they think it does.

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