Aisha Spencer Mrs.

Grigsby 10th Grade Literature 12 November 2012

The Crime of Genocide Envision that you find yourself lounging in your bedroom, watching your upmost favorite T.V show, when out of the blue you hear a commotion from the front of the house. As quick as possible, you switch off the T.V, tiptoe into the hallway, and then peek around the corner into the living room to see your parents tied up by mysterious men in masks. The strange men are shouting profane words to your parents and brutally beating them. Suddenly, both men take out loaded guns, and two blasts go off. As the men scamper off, you flashback to the last time you spoke to your parents, the last time they tucked you in at night, the last time they told you they loved you. Could you imagine the excruciating pain from your losses or even the disbelief when you found out the reason your beloved parents were murdered was because they did not share the same race as the men that murdered them? This is what happens when genocide occurs; people lose the ones they love because of their race, ethnic, or national group. Although the Declaration of Human Rights was created after the Holocaust, acts of genocide still occur in the present day; hence, an intervention needs to be put in action to stop this universal problem at all costs. In the country of Egypt, genocide has been occurring since the earliest of times but as the power of the Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim Jihad Organization continues to grow, so do the genocidal acts. Raymond Ibrahim, a specialist of the Middle East and Islamic culture, acknowledged in an online web-page, Jihad Watch, that with the help of The Muslim Jihad

Organization genocidal episodes has been occurring more frequently. Hours after leaflets from Egypt Jihadist Organizations were distributed promising toreward any Muslim who kills any Christian Copt in Egypt, specifically naming regions including Asyut, a report recently appeared concerning the random killing of a Christian store owner (Ibrahim). The Muslim Jihad Organization in Egypt is recently encouraging Muslims to murder Coptic Christians, they mentioned that the genocide will be called upon until the Christians return to the truth, which is Islam, or to leave the country or else be murdered. Since the leaflets have been released Coptic Christians in Upper Egypt have had their properties pillaged, their businesses burned down, and they are being beaten and murdered. According to Joseph Gilbert, a Senior Opposing Forces Operations Analyst of General Dynamic Advanced Information Systems, he stated: After their churches were repeatedly attacked and burned in October 2011, Egypts Coptic Christians took to the streets of Alexandria in protest. The response from the Egyptian military was swift and brutal. The army opened fire into the crowd and then charged in with armored personnel carriers, running over Christians. At least 25 Christians were killed and many more injured (Gilbert). Incidents, like in Alexandria, have been reported to be happening all around Egypt. People are killing Christians because their religion is different, proving this is a Universal problem. Human Rights are being violated at this moment; for instance, Coptic Christians are being murdered by Muslims because of their religious beliefs. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created by the United Nations after World War Two and the Holocaust to protect Human Rights, clearly states: No one shall be subjected torture or cruel; in human or degrading treatment or punishment (United Nations). Muslims are refusing to abide Human Rights by not following Article 5 and demolishing or stealing items that Coptic Christians own and by beating

and murdering them because of their beliefs. Coptic Christians are being told that they will be slaughtered if they do not alter their religion and continue resisting Islam. Affirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone hast the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion of belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion of belief in teaching, practice, worship and observation (United Nations). By threatening Christians with death and forcing those into a faith that they do not believe in, Muslims are violating Human Right 18. Muslims wanting to change to the Christian faith are not being allowed to and are being threatened or harmed for attempting the change. An article named Egypts Christians, Facing the Fate of Egyptian Jews, created by Compass Direct News, talks about a man, El-Gohary and his daughter, having to stay in hiding as a precaution because of the extreme threats and physical harm made towards them both for trying to change their religion. The next month, the state council, a consultative body of Egypts Administrative Court, provided the court with a report stating that El-Goharys change of faith violated Islamic Law. They instructed that he should be subject to the death penalty (Compass Direct News). This is an example of Egypts government not going by The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 18, this unfortunate man and his daughter are being not allowed to change their religion and the daughter is being forced to sit in a class, which teaches Islamic customs, when she is in reality a Christian. The Holocaust, the most well known act of genocide, was the killing of at least 6 million Jewish peoples because of their race. When a treacherous man, named Adolf Hitler, rose in power, he managed to practically brainwash everyone in Germany into thinking Jews were the reason for all the troubles in their country and that they needed to be eliminated. Hitler produced

an organization of followers that did everything he wanted them to do; they were called Nazis, which stands for National Socialist German Workers' Party. Ellie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, explains the Nazis key goal during the Holocaust in his world known novel, Night, that recaps all of his memories while he was a victim of the Holocaust. The Nazis in Germany set out to build a society in which there simply would be no room for Jews (Wieselviii). Nazis violated Human Rights and made lives as miserable as possible for Jews in ghettos, concentration camps, and death camps. Ghettos were areas where Jews were trapped and heavily secured by Nazi soldiers, The Jews in ghettos were malnourished, disease stricken, and starved; therefore, they usually died. The conditions in concentration camps were no different and Jews were either killed because they were not able to work anymore or they died from being overworked. In Ellie Wiesels book, Night, a character shouts: You will be burned! Burned to a cinder! Turned to ashes! (Wiesel31). When Jews arrived at the death camps, they were led straight to gas chambers or firing squads, which annihilated them from the face of the earth. Fortunately, some Jews escaped immediate death but were treated as slaves and helped with the extermination process until they soon were killed also. There were numerous rights violated during the Holocaust, but the most significant ones are articles two, five, and six Of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As said in Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent,

trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty(United Nations). This Human Right was desecrated the second Jews were stripped of their rights, forced to put a Star of David, which was used to identified if one was Jewish, and then forced into Ghettos, concentration camps, and death camps because of their race. As said in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (United Nations). Jewish peoples were treated as slaves, enforced into hard labor, shot, placed into gas chambers, and after they were dead their remains were disrespected and put into crematoriums and occasionally thrown into mass graves; therefore Article 5 was violated. Stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law (Declaration of Human Rights Article 6). Hitler and the Nazis did not consider Jewish people as human beings; Hitler stated that they were subhuman and culture-destroying people. The difference between The Holocaust and Egypts genocide begins with Egypts genocide against Coptic Christians not yet being well known. Martin Niemller, a founder of a Confessional Church that opposed nazification and was placed in a concentration camp because of his actions, mentioned in a famous statement: When Hitler attacked the Jews, I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church -- and there was nobody left to be concerned (Niemller).

People that knew that genocide was happening in the Holocaust made the mistake of not informing others before millions were killed; now the same is happening in Egypt. Clare Lopez, a witness of all of the genocidal acts against Coptic Christians, even states that the fate of the Christians is looking quite bleak. The Copts must get out of Egypt as soon as possible- for many millions who will not be able to get out, I expect things will continue to deteriorate- just as they did for Germanys and Europes Jews from the 1930s onward(Lopez). Although there are no ghettos, concentration camps, and death camps in Egypt, the same warning signs of the universal problem, genocide, are present just like before the Holocaust began. There may be a worse future for them and an intervention needs to be put in place before everything goes downhill. All human beings, at all costs, deserve Human Rights, because everyone should be able to have a voice and be themselves no matter how different they are from others. If there were no Human Rights the world would be animalistic and chaotic. The Universe would be like a never-ending food chain, people would be swarming to get to the top, but only the strongest would survive. While there are still dictators at present, imagine a world bursting of tyrants ready to obliterate one another, not caring who goes down in the process as long as they get their way. Even more genocidal feat would occur and no one would be or feel safe. That is why the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created, to protect the rights of people. Now people just have to enforce Human Right so everyone can have equal opportunities in this world. The Declaration of Human Rights was formed to protect Human Rights from being snatched away from this universes people, but so far they continue to be taken, seeing as genocide still continues present day. Ellie Wiesel affirms: If this happened then it could happen again (Weisel6). Even though everyone tries to convince themselves that genocide is not

happening, the truth is it still is. The genocide going on in Egypt against Coptic Christians is proof of this. The past does have a history of repeating itself and it is everyones responsibility to prevent the universal problem of genocide from repeating in the future.

Works Cited "Egypts Christians, Facing the Fate of Egyptian Jews." Egypts Christians, Facing the Fate of Egyptian Jews. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.defence.pk/forums/middle-east-africa/210870egypt-s-christians-facing-fate-egyptian-jews.html>. "Egypt's Jihad Organizations Call for Christian Genocide." - Jihad Watch. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/08/egypts-jihad-organizations-call-for-christiangenocide.html>. "Muslim Brotherhood and the Killing and Persecution of Christians in Egypt." Examiner.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.examiner.com/article/media-silent-on-killing-and-persecutionof-christians-egypt>. PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/eliewiesel/nobel/index.html>. "Understanding the Treatment of Jews during World War II." - For Dummies. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/understanding-the-treatment-of-jews-duringworld-w.html>. "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, Declaration of Human Rights, Human Rights Declaration, Human Rights Charter, The Un and Human Rights." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/>. Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1982. Print.