CAIRO: A court in Cairo has sentenced two Christian men to death for the murder of the Muslim husband of one of their relatives, Mariam Atef Khilla. The two men, Khilla's brother and uncle, were convicted of entering Khilla's home and opening fire on her, her husband, and their child. The husband was killed in the crossfire. Khilla and her child were also injured in the fray. Khilla had converted to Islam, against her family's wishes, in order to marry her husband. The family attempted to persuade the couple to divorce in order to allow Khilla to convert back to Christianity. When the family's efforts failed, Khilla's relatives resorted to violence. While this sort of interfaith violence is not common to Egypt, it is representative of a simmering conflict between the nation's Muslim majority and minority Christian populations. In a country of 80 million people, Christians, mostly Copts, make up about 10 percent of the population. In the past, conflicts between members of the two religions have resulted in similar ‘honor killings' as well as other violent disturbances. In May, Muslim residents of the town of Bemha, 70 km south of Cairo, attempted to prevent local Christian residents from constructing a church. 10 people were injured in the resulting violent clashes and dozens of Christian-owned homes and businesses were destroyed. In June, Muslims and Christians in the city of Alexandria fought one another with clubs and kerosene bombs. Though there were no injuries, fighting flared up four days later, resulting in ten arrests on both sides of the quarrel. More recently, a Christian shop keeper was murdered and two others were stabbed in the town of Bagur in September. Naguib Gobrail, President of the Egyptian Union Organization for Human Rights, reacted to the verdict by saying, “[I was] very sad, very angry, and very sorry when I heard the ruling yesterday.” Gobrail views the decision as unjust and the punishment by the judge was, “Influenced by [the judge's] Islamic religion.” The final sentence will be passed from the court to Egypt's Grand Mufti, Ali Goma'a, for review. Under Egyptian law, the death penalty is reserved for cases of premeditated murder, rape, and drug related offenses. After review by the Grand Mufti, the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, makes the final decision to uphold the punishment or grant the criminals a pardon. BM
