The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights issued a report July 21 showing that there were 70 incidents of assault against Egyptian Shiites during the period from January 2011 to May 2016.

The report also highlighted the killing of Shite cleric Hassan Shehata and three of his students in June 2013.

The report indicated that these violations arise in the context of incitement to hatred, violence and discrimination against Shiites. In addition, the report accused many parties of supporting this anti-Shiite attitude such as the official religious institutions and state-run media outlets, in addition to the Islamist political currents such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist Call and some private media outlets. According to the report, some media outlets provided unbalanced coverage that incited hatred and discrimination against this minority in Egypt. While there are no confirmed statistics on their numbers, estimates range from the thousands to 3 million out of Egypt’s total population of about 90 million.

Shiite intellectual Ahmad Rasim al-Nafis said that regular citizens, under the oversight of the regime, systematically practice violations against Shiites. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Nafis accused security forces of failing to counter such violations and of clamping down on Shiites, especially when they want to visit the sacred shrines of Prophet Muhammad’s family members or travel abroad.