Cairo, Egypt: Coptic Christian fears for siblings in Egypt

As reports from Cairo reach America, it's hard to ignore what Lila has to say.

"It's not safe at all,'' said Lila, whose name has been changed to protect the brother and sister she hopes to get out of Egypt as soon as she possibly can.

 

On Tuesday, an Associated Press story about recent clashes included accounts of "crowds of bearded Islamists proclaiming allegiance to Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi and chanting 'God is great' as they descended on tents set up by anti-Morsi protesters ... They set up a detention facility, interrogating and beating captured protesters.''

"If your last name is Christian,'' rather than a traditional Muslim surname, "they can beat you up but good,'' said Lila,a Coptic Christian.

Lila grew up about 200 miles away from Tahrir Square, in Assuit, an area with Egypt's highest concentration of Coptics, who represent about 10 percent of the country's population.

"Before the revolution, it was safe and secure. They could leave the house, go to church,'' she said.

Now an American citizen, she came to the United States in 2006, after her husband got his green card through the U.S. immigration lottery program.

Last year, after returning from a relative's wedding in Egypt during the early days of the "Arab Spring,'' she hired an immigration attorney to help her bring her parents and younger siblings to live with her family here.

The lawyer filed individual applications rather than a family petition, she said. She then sought assistance from U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-3rd.

"I figured out the whole thing was messed up when I went to McGovern's office,'' said Lila, who recently moved from the Framingham area to a community closer to Boston.

McGovern's staff suggested a different lawyer, and things seemed to be going well.

Her parents were interviewed at the American embassy in Cairo and given visas, but the applications for her brother, 16, and sister, 12, were denied.

"We have no idea why,'' said Lila.

In September, with their visas about to expire, her parents made the decision to come to Massachusetts and leave the youngest of their six children with relatives as they continue to fight to be reunited.

"From here, we can do something. From there, we can do nothing,'' Lila said.

"We just want them here so bad,'' her father, who speaks Arabic, said with a family friend translating during an interview Monday afternoon.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x719504572/Spitz-Coptic-Christian-fears-for-siblings-in-Egypt#ixzz2FPPk8DQU