{"id":2676,"date":"2013-03-19T08:01:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-19T08:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/protest-highlights-treatment-of-coptic-christians-in-libya\/"},"modified":"2013-03-19T08:01:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-19T08:01:00","slug":"protest-highlights-treatment-of-coptic-christians-in-libya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2013\/03\/protest-highlights-treatment-of-coptic-christians-in-libya\/","title":{"rendered":"Protest highlights treatment of Coptic Christians in Libya"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Washington D.C., Mar 19, 2013 \/ 02:01 am (CNA<\/a>).- Christians gathered in front of the Libyan Embassy in Washington, D.C., on March 14 to peacefully protest the recent detainment and torture of Copts in Libya.<\/p>\n

\tOne protestor, a Middle Eastern Christian, told CNA that the Libyan government holds Coptic Christians and \u201caccuses them of evangelizing against Islam\u201d for possessing Christian Bibles and icons, even though such items are permissible under Libyan law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI'm sorry to say, but in the Middle East, it's all starting to be the same,\u201d he continued, warning that similar persecution of Christians has also occurred in Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\tThe March 14 protest condemned the arrest and torture of dozens of Egyptian Copts in Libya, as well as the death of one of the Christians, Ezzat Hakim Atallah, on March 9 after ten days of torture at the hands of Libya's Preventive Security department in Tripoli.<\/p>\n

\tThe protestors gathered in hopes of persuading authorities to free the remaining prisoners who, according to a statement by the organizers, were detained simply for \u201cpossessing Christian books for personal use.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe event was organized by the group Coptic Solidarity and joined by the Jubilee Campaign, an organization that seeks to pursue religious freedom for persecuted Christians.<\/p>\n

\tIn a press release announcing the protest, Coptic Solidarity called on Libyan authorities to release all Copts imprisoned in the country \u201cunder the despicable and idiotic charges of proselytizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThey also criticized Egyptian government officials for \u201ctheir failure to defend their fellow citizens.\u201d
\n\t\u00a0
\n\t\u201cIn contrast,\u201d the group added, the Egyptian \u201cpresidency and the foreign ministry had enthusiastically rushed to defend a Muslim Brotherhood cell that was arrested in the United Arab Emirates on charges of threatening the country's national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe attitude of the Egyptian authorities in dealing with the Coptic citizens is shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe organization also called on international human rights groups to push for investigations and an end to \u201cthe flagrant attacks on innocent Copts in Libya.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tKelly McLean of the Jubilee Campaign told CNA that one of the prisoners was the owner of a bookshop in Benghazi that contained some Christian books and humanitarian aid materials. Previously, police had confiscated a number of his books, but had allowed him to keep others, she said.<\/p>\n

\tHowever, in early March, the shop owner was detained again on charges of proselytization because \u201che had fewer books than the original shipment,\u201d leading the government to claim that he had been distributing the books.<\/p>\n

\tBut in reality, McLean explained, the shortage of books was due to the fact that police had already confiscated some of them.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIt doesn't make any sense,\u201d she said. \u201cHonestly, if he was giving out that many books, there would have been an issue before this latest detention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHopefully in the future, we want to put pressure on the government to not only abide by human rights standards, but to uphold their own constitution, which allows freedom of religion,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington D.C., Mar 19, 2013 \/ 02:01 am (CNA).- Christians gathered in front of the Libyan Embassy in Washington, D.C., on March 14 to peacefully protest the recent detainment and torture of Copts in Libya.<\/p>\n

\tOne protestor, a Middle Eastern Christian,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nProtest highlights treatment of Coptic Christians in Libya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Mar 19, 2013 \/ 02:01 am (CNA).- Christians gathered in front of the Libyan Embassy in Washington, D.C., on March 14 to peacefully protest the recent detainment and torture of Copts in Libya. 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