41-year-old Emile Naseem, a Christian and anti-Morsi activist, was hacked to death by a pro-Morsi mob as he ran from rooftop to rooftop trying to escape the mob. 2 of his cousins and one neighbor were also stabbed and beaten to death by the same mob. Police did nothing to save them because they were outnumbered and feared for their own lives:
UT SAN DIEGO – With a mob of Muslim extremists on their tail, the Christian businessman and his nephew climbed up on the roof and ran for their lives, jumping from building to building in their southern Egyptian village. Finally they ran out of rooftops.
Forced back onto the street, they were overwhelmed by several dozen men. The attackers hacked them with axes and beat them with clubs and tree limbs, killing Emile Naseem, 41. The nephew survived with wounds to his shoulders and head and recounted the chase to The Associated Press.
The mob’s rampage through the village of Nagaa Hassan, burning dozens of Christian houses and stabbing to death three other Christians as well, came two days after the military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi from power. It was no coincidence the attackers focused on Naseem and his family: He was the village’s most prominent campaigner calling for Morsi’s removal.
Some Christians are paying the price for their activism against Morsi and his Islamist allies in a backlash over his ouster last week.
Since then, there has been a string of attacks on Christians in provinces that are strongholds of hard-liners. In the Sinai Peninsula, where militant groups run rampant, militants gunned down a priest in a drive-by shooting as he walked in a public market.
… [HOW IT ALL BEGAN]
The worst anti-Christian backlash since Morsi’s July 3 ouster was the attack in Nagaa Hassan, a dusty village on the west bank of the Nile River, not far from the most majestic ancient Egyptian archaeological sites in the city of Luxor.
The body of a Muslim villager was discovered at dawn on July 5. The cry went out around the village that Christians killed him. A mob of several hundred, led by men wearing the hallmark long beards of ultraconservative Salafis as well as more extreme movements, went on a rampage, according to witnesses and security officials speaking to the AP.
They smashed the windows and doors of Christian homes, ransacked Christian-owned stores and set them ablaze – damaging about 30 homes and stores in all. Muslim residents who tried to stop them were brushed aside, sometimes threatened with violence as well. At least a dozen Christian families took refuge in the local Church of St. John The Baptist, the church’s priest, Father Vassilios, told the AP.
The crowd targeted in particular Naseem, besieging the apartment building of his cousins where he and his wife hid. Their three children had been taken earlier to a relative’s home for their safety. The mob set fires in the building, while the families with women and children fled to the upper floors.
Security forces pulled up to the building, backing an armored personnel carrier up to the entrance to evacuate those inside, according to witnesses and activists briefed on the day’s events. But the mob, outnumbering police, refused to let the men inside leave – so the police told the families they would only take the women and children, she said.
Naseem and several other men initially put on women’s clothes to escape detection by the mob waiting close by for the police to leave so it could set upon the men, said el-Ameer, the nephew,
The police still refused to take the men, fearing the mob outside would see through the ruse and attack the armored police car that came to evacuate the Christians, said el-Ameer and activists. Martha Zekry, Naseem’s wife, begged the police to take her husband, pleading with them that he would not survive if left behind. The officer in charge said he would come back for Naseem. He never did.
Once the police pulled away with the women and children, the attackers stormed the building. Naseem tore off the women’s clothes and fled to the rooftops with his nephew, al-Ameer said. Naseem’s cousins, Romani and Muhareb Nosehi, and a neighbor Rasem Tadros, never made it out of the building, stabbed and beaten to death on the spot.
Naseem’s friends and family say he was targeted because of his activism against Morsi. In the months before Morsi’s ouster, he was energetically collecting signatures in the village for Tamarod, or “Rebel,” the youth-led activist campaign that collected signatures nationwide on a petition demanding Morsi’s removal. It organized the June 30 protests that brought out millions.
“Emile was the de facto Tamarod leader in the village and that did not escape the notice of the militants,” said Naseem’s best friend and fellow activist Emile Nazeer. “He, like other activists, received threatening text messages for weeks before he was killed.”
“Almost everyone in Nagaa Hassan loved my uncle. He spoke a lot about politics and people listened to what he had to say,” said el-Ameer, Naseem’s nephew. “He paid the price.”