Persecution of Coptic Christians Must End! They are our Brethren in Christ

The murderous bombing of Saints Coptic Orthodox Church reminds us that the plight of the Copts is our plight too.

The recent murderous bombing of Saints Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria, Egypt reminds us that the plight of the Copts (and all persecuted Christians throughout the world) is our plight too. This means that we can no longer look the other way. Our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ need our prayers first and foremost. However, they also need a visible expression of our solidarity, that is, tangible support and help. Together we can make a difference.

P>KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - The recent murderous bombing of Saints Coptic Orthodox
Church in Alexandria, Egypt places the plight of our Coptic brethren in the forefront of our prayers and concern. Furthermore, as hatred and violence against our Egyptian Christian brothers and sisters increases, it becomes incumbent on us to learn about their plight and express our solidarity in any way that we are able. 

The Coptic Orthodox Church is one of the oldest Christian churches in the world. These dear Christians trace their origins back to Saint Mark, the writer of the Gospel of Mark. It has members in many countries throughout the world, though it is centered in Alexandria, Egypt. It is also the largest religious minority in the Middle East. The members of this Church, called Copts, have been persecuted since invading Muslim armies conquered Egypt in the seventh century. The persecution has intensified in modern times.

Many Copts 'converted' to Islam after the Muslims conquered Egypt. They did so under coercion; if they did not, they had to pay excessively high taxes or be killed. Many Copts were martyred as a result. Those who paid the tax, while they were allowed to remain Christians, lost many of their rights and were forced to live as second class citizens. Life for the Copts improved somewhat in the 19th century, but it has been in steady decline since the mid-twentieth century.

Waves of violence began spreading throughout the Copt communities in the 1970's. Various reports cite numerous incidents where Copt churches, monasteries, villages, homes, and shops have been destroyed by roving gangs of young Muslims. Hundreds of Copts have been beaten, tortured and killed. Copt women and girls have been kidnapped, suffered sexual violence and exploitation, forced into servitude and forced to convert to Islam. There are many examples. I will begin with the most recent and then mention some others that occurred throughout this past year.

The most recent example involved the explosion of a car bomb outside Saints Church in Alexandria, Egypt as people were filing out of church after the New Year's Eve Mass. Approximately 21 people were killed and, according to some reports, about 80 were wounded. Apparently Father Maqar Fawzy was leading prayer when the bomb exploded. Father Fawzy's thoughts on the bombing were reported by Ahram Online.

Father asks "How can a human do something like that? When we were picking [up] the body parts, I was thinking this is inhuman. . . . This is simply a brutality of the heart." He believes that this devastation is the result of blind extremism and fanaticism which are spreading throughout Egyptian society. He says, "Fanaticism and narrow thinking fills the heart with darkness and evil."

Father also believes that this bombing ". . . could be a wake up call. We believe that God can turn any evil into good, and this tragedy could help our country in some way - maybe even cause more unity."  He says that violence is not the solution to fanatic terrorism because it will only bring more violence. The best solution is a proper awareness of terrorism and "a healthy environment in which extremism has no place."

It is not known who is responsible for the attack, but a local group is being investigated. There is also the possibility of an Al Qaeda connection since the attack came amid threats by Al Qaeda members to kill Copts in Egypt. Moreover, only days before the car bombing in Egypt, Copts in Canada were also threatened by Al Qaeda.

According to reports the personal information of about 100 Copts who made public comments against Islam and are presently living in Canada has been published on a website associated with Al Qaeda. The information includes photos, names, phone numbers, and addresses. It is believed that the purpose of these publications is to target the individuals for possible acts of retribution by Islamic terrorists.

In April of 2010, it was reported that after Friday prayers, a mob of 3000 Muslims attacked a Copt community of about 400 people in the city of Marsa Matrouh because "the mosque's imam exhorted them to cleanse the city of its infidel Christians." According to another report, 20 Copt homes were burned down in Abu-Tesht this past November "under the complicit watch of the police." Many Copts have been forced to flee their homes as a result of these and similar atrocities.

The Copt community in Omrania requested permission to build a church in 2003. After all this time, they have not received a permit to build their church. However, they did receive a permit to build a service center in early 2010. Then the authorities ordered them to stop construction and demolish parts of the building. Feeling they had no means of redress and frustrated, the Copts organized a sit-in at their building. According to reports, on November 24, 2010, over 2000 state security forces attacked them. Three persons were killed, dozens were wounded and about 158 were arrested.

Not surprisingly, the Copts are becoming increasingly agitated and taking to the streets in protest. While some of these protests are organized and peaceful, others are spontaneous and involve confrontation with the police and Muslims. Even though President Mubarak said that the attack against Saints Church was against "all Egypt" and vowed to track down those behind the bombing, feelings of frustration are high among the Copts because they do not believe the government is doing all it can to protect them, and they are not treated as equal citizens.

The Egyptian Constitution says all Egyptians are equal under the law, but the discrimination against Christians is widespread. For instance, while Egypt has a public school system from the elementary level through college, it will not accept Copt students or hire Copts for any positions. And many colleges place severe limits on the number of Copts who may enroll at any given time.

In addition, Copts are not able to advance into many high ranking jobs. This is especially true for public jobs. Thus, Copts are poorly represented in government. While it is easy to build a mosque, it is difficult to build a church, or even to make repairs on a church. And though it is easy to convert to Islam, there are be strict penalties for Muslims who convert to Christianity.

For Catholics, the plight of the Copts is more than just news. By virtue of our baptism the Copts (and all persecuted Christians) are our brothers and sisters in the Mystical Body of Christ. We read in the Acts of the Apostles that when Saul was still persecuting the early Christians, he experienced a flash of light and fell to the ground. Then he heard Jesus say to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" (9:4).

Years later Saint Paul wrote, ". . . we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another" (Rom 12:5). The significance of this for us is explained in 1 Corinthians, "If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy" (12:26).

In this respect, then, the plight of the Copts (and all persecuted Christians throughout the world) is our plight too. This means that we can no longer look the other way. Our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ need our prayers first and foremost. However, they also need a visible expression of our solidarity, that is, tangible support and help. Together we can make a difference.
 
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Michael Terheyden was born into a Catholic family, but that is not why he is a Catholic. He is a Catholic because he believes that truth is real, that it is beautiful and good, and that the fullness of truth is in the Catholic Church. However, he knows that God's grace operating throughout his life is the main reason he is a Catholic. He is greatly blessed to share his faith and his life with his beautiful wife, Dorothy. They have four grown children and three grandchildren.

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