Writing an anonymous opinion piece as ‘The girl with the Christian tattoo‘, a woman has expressed her shock at abusive social media posts published in response to the 26 May attack in Minya, Egypt, by so-called Islamic State that killed at least 28 Coptic Christians, including several children.
The Christian woman said on cairoscene.com that she was “horrified” when she saw the hashtag #MinyaRejoices, in Arabic, trending across social media sites.
One post appears to mock the attack and includes two laughing emojis; another post on Facebook, which attracted hundreds of ‘likes’, calls the victims “mules” and “crusaders”, ending with: “this is just the beginning, Allahu Akbar [Allah is the greatest]”.
“What is also gut-wrenching are people’s reactions to these attacks,” she added. “There is an overwhelmingly silent majority who don’t seem to care. And those who do, don’t seem to care enough to take the time to process and grieve and mourn. The lack of measures taken to end this persecution speaks volumes of what seems to be society’s true feelings towards this particular minority. A few hours after the attack, people were already moving on to the next topic of discussion like it never even happened.”
Following the attack it was reported that a 66-year-old man killed by the militants had recently renovated a mosque without charging a fee. Iz Tawfiq, an academic, told Al Arabiya that Atef Mounir Zaki had repaired cracks in the Altaqwa mosque in Abou Karkass and, when asked about his fee, replied that it was his “contribution for Allah”.
Zaki and his companions, who were all shot dead, were not on the bus but travelling in a separate vehicle, which IS militants stole; his funeral reportedly drew a large crowd, including many Muslims.