THE COPTIC CHRISTIANS OF EGYPT TODAY: UNDER THREAT OF ANNIHILATION

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By BAHEG T. BISTAWROS

"This study finds that Coptic Christians are subjected to daily persecutions. Someof the persecutions include confiscation of property, discrimination and bigotry, the imposing of Islamic laws against them to further enslave them, murders in broad daylightwith impunity, extortion, the siege of some towns, the bombing and burning down of churches, and ill treatment on a daily basis. Copts are considered to be second class citizens and have been deprived of their God-given inalienable rights. The West has been blind in the face of such persecution. Egypt has been able to elude world condemnation despite the grave situation of twelve million Coptic Christians in thatcountry.
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ix I INTRODUCTIONThe West regards Egypt as a moderate country, which is true regarding its foreign policy. The West, especially the United States, seems to ignore human rights violations in that country. The annual report of the U.S. Department of State on human rights is very mild in language concerning the severe human rights violations against Coptic Christians in Egypt.1The Department of State's annual report does not represent the truth 1Notice that I have used both the word Christian and Copts. Both are synonymous, and mean the same thing in Egypt.
When writing about the Copts, in fact, I am writing about Christians and vice versa. In defining the word Coptic, Gerard in his book What is the Christian Orient said:Coptic is the last stage in the evolution of the language of the pharaohs which was deeplyinfluenced by Greek. Coptic, here, is understood to be Egyptian. It is made up, principally, of two dialects which are Sahidic in northern [sic, southern] Egypt and Boharic in the Delta. Outside of the Greek cosmopolitan city of Alexandria, Hellenismhad spread only superficially in Egypt where the mass of fellaheen [ordinary Egyptians]knew little or no Greek. As soon as Christianity was established in the country, translations of the Sacred Scriptures into Coptic began to appear. See Gerard Guertin, What is the Christian Orient (Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1967), 64.
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in that country.2The Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on human rights and the U.S. foreign policy, after extensive hearings reported the following: 2In comparing the annual reports of the U.S. Department of State for 1986, 1987, and 1993, with the various documents published by Amnesty International, Christian Solidarity International, and other human rights groups, one comes to the conclusion that the U.S. Department of State reports do not represent the true condition of the Christian minority of Egypt and the violations of their human rights by the Egyptian government. The human rights factor is not accorded the high priority it deserves in our country's foreign policy. . . . The State Department has taken the position that human rights are a domestic matter. . . . When charges of serious violations of human rights occur, the most that the Department is likely todo is make private inquiries. The prevailing attitude has led the United States into embracing governments which practice torture and unabashedly violate every human rights guarantee pronounced by the world community. Through foreign aid and occasional intervention both overt and covert--the United States supports these governments
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Egypt's Coptic Christians Driven to Isolation

CAIRO -- Under pressure from fundamentalist forms of Islam and bursts of sectarian violence, the most populous Christian community in the Middle East is seeking safety by turning inward, cutting day-to-day social ties that have bound Muslim to Christian in Egypt for centuries, members of both communities say.

Attacks this summer on monks and shopkeepers belonging to Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, and scattered clashes between Muslims and Christians, have compelled many of Egypt's estimated 6 million to 8 million Copts to isolate themselves in a nation with more than 70 million Muslims.

To a degree, the separation will stand as the legacy of one of the longest-serving leaders in the church's history, Pope Shenouda III, some Copts say. Shenouda has strengthened the church as the center of daily Coptic life, making it a bulwark for Christians, during a papacy that has spanned 36 years. Now 85, Shenouda is facing health problems, including a broken leg last month that was repaired in the United States.

Across much of Egypt, Muslims and Christians note a drawing apart of their communities, especially in the working class.

Many say they mourn the loss.

Others say the separation is for the best.

"It's natural," Ayad Labid Faleh, a Coptic Christian, said in his auto parts store in the Shobra neighborhood of Cairo. In the dim, oil-slicked shop front, Faleh waited for customers, surrounded by boxed hoses and florid icons.
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