Egypt has the largest Christian community in the Arab world. But as we were sadly reminded last week, that does not make the country a model of peaceful integration. On Sunday February 19, ISIS released a video calling for increased violence against Egyptian Christians. In recent weeks, Coptic Christians in the Sinai Peninsula have been shot dead or burnt alive. Hundreds have fled the area.
Although Sinai has an especially bad terrorist problem, further inland is not always safe. On December 11 last year, 29 people were killed by a bomb attack on Cairo’s Coptic Orthodox cathedral complex. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has said that anti-Christian terrorists do not belong in Egypt.
But as Bishop Angaelos, the general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Britain, recently told Christian Today, those assurances don’t “help those who are being killed in the streets”.
Christians’ difficulties in Egypt go back a long way. By the mid-19th century, the country was among the most liberal in the Arab world. Partly for that reason, says the historian Gerard Russell, “and because of painful encounters with its European neighbours, it was the birthplace of the anti-Christian Muslim Brotherhood movement back in the 1920s. Their strategy was in part to sow distrust of Christians in order to win sectarian support. They have been very successful.”
In 2012, the Brotherhood provided Egypt’s first elected president following the “Arab Spring”, Mohamed Morsi. When he was ousted in a military coup the following year, the Brotherhood turned to its old tactics, whipping up suspicion of the Christian population. Christians were attacked, abducted and raped, and dozens of churches were vandalised. Hundreds of thousands of Copts left the country.
The Brotherhood has been partially suppressed, but relations remain tense even without them. Local populations are often roused to violent anger by rumours or accusations – reminiscent of the saga of Asia Bibi’s condemnation and trial in Pakistan. Word spreads that the Christians are about to build a church, or that a Christian has committed some offence. Before anyone has a chance to clear their name, the faithful are being attacked and churches burnt to the ground.
The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria accounts for about 95 per cent of Egypt’s Christians, out of a total estimated at seven million. Historically, the Copts have had a complicated relationship with Rome: the subdivision that remained loyal to the Holy See, the Coptic Catholic Church, numbers little more than 150,000 people. Even that is five times bigger than the Protestant community. So when we speak of Egyptian Christians, we mostly mean the Coptic Orthodox.
Bishop Angaelos, the leader of Copts in Britain, says that attacks against Egypt’s Copts now seem to be systematic rather than sporadic.
Many Egyptians are deeply suspicious of Christianity – which is partly why scurrilous rumours spread so easily. For instance, many Egyptian Muslims subscribe to an ancient legal code, the “Conditions of Umar”, which recommends strict limits on Christians’ civil liberties. No Muslim woman can marry a Christian, and Christians have no right to preach their religion or build new churches.
The other major factor is Saudi Arabia, and the extremist Wahhabi strain of Islam which the Saudis sponsor. Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor of Islamic Studies and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, says that many Egyptians’ views are shaped by working in Saudi Arabia or going on pilgrimage to Saudi-controlled Mecca. “But there are also direct forms of influence, including Saudi sponsorship of schools and mosques in Egypt. The role of Saudi television programmes and internet sites also should not be ignored.”
Prof Reynolds is scathing about the role of Western governments: “By forming alliances with Saudi Arabia those governments have effectively supported the spread of radicalism.” They should look closely at the Saudi influence in the region and its record on human rights, he says.
The “Arab Spring” brought upheaval in which Christians have been among the worst affected. At the same time, it revealed that not a few Egyptians would prefer a society which treated minorities more fairly, and observed the rule of law. President al-Sisi’s remarks are sincere. The trouble is that Islamic radicals are gaining in strength and numbers.
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