How to stop violence against Copts

Seminar blames sectarian violence on political Islam

By Magdy Samaam
First Published: January 16, 2008

CAIRO: The spread of political Islam is responsible for the rising violence against Copts, according to Human Rights and Coptic activists attending a seminar titled “How to stop violence against Copts.”
The seminar was held last Sunday as part of an ongoing program of events by the Middle East Freedom Forum, an organization established in December 2007 by Egyptian-American and Coptic researcher Magdy Khalil. The seminar drew a wide audience of Coptic figures, including activists and secularists.
Members joined in asking for new legislation to ensure the punishment of religious discrimination between Egyptian citizens.
Some members, however, were optimistic about the growing awareness of sectarian strife, and noted the unified stance of Egyptians during the workers’ strikes.
They were also optimistic about intellectuals’ condemnation of the Muslim Brotherhood’s anti-Coptic stance in their recently publicized political program.
The audience evoked Pope Shenouda’s previous comments about how Egypt has been and always will be a unified entity.
Attendees also noted comments made by famed journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal that Egypt’s main priorities are the preservation of the sources of the Nile and a united patriotism.
Khalil revealed results from the Ibn Khaldun Center about sectarian incidents, showing that almost 240 incidents against Copts occurred since the Al-Khanka events of 1972. In his personal study on the subject, Khalil claims to have recorded 4,000 victims and millions of pounds in damage to property.
He added that common issues triggering conflicts include the bias of security forces and the absence of justice. He claimed that no Muslim was ever sentenced to death because he killed a Copt, and that no Muslim was ever punished for any crime committed against a Copt. This lack of punishment is, in his opinion, an encouragement for extremists to commit more crimes against Copts.
Khalil blamed the Muslim majority for sectarian tension and said, “The majority is responsible for helping the minority. However, reality shows that the majority has been creating the tension, and that the minority resisted and faced violence with forgiveness.”
Khalil refused the principle of forgiveness regarding civil rights, saying it was negligence. He pointed out the fact that there were various organizations providing the Coptic community with its rights through a campaign for Egyptians’ rights regardless of religious affiliation.
He claimed that the country’s aim is to win the Copts’ support at any price, without giving them any support in return.
Khalil and Mohamed Fayek, former minister and member of the National Council for Human Rights, agreed that the most important duty with regard to stopping violence against Copts lies in the hands of the Muslim majority, saying that Egyptian society had become characterized by violence.
“We have to admit that the Copts are facing discrimination in practicing their religion and in the law,” he said.
He added that there was a group working to draft a law criminalizing religion-based discrimination.
Fayek talked about both foreign and domestic causes for the violence against Copts. Among the domestic reasons was a lack of good religious understanding by both Muslims and Christians. Foreign causes lie in the United States’ policies in the Arab region and their “war on terror.”
Fayek also focused on the issue of religious freedom, and criticized the courts’ handling of divorce cases — especially those in which a man changes his religion to divorce his wife — confirming that Islam is not the root cause of such misunderstandings, as it teaches freedom of faith.
Mounir Megahed, founder of the Egyptian Action Against Discrimination, explained that former president Anwar Sadat’s approval of Islamic political groups in the 70s was the reason behind increased sectarian strife.
He said that an initiative enabling Egyptians to overcome sectarian differences could be achieved, pointing out that Egyptians overcame religious differences during the workers’ strikes, focusing on matters of common interest and establishing hope of a patriotic union.
Writer and journalist Saad Hagrass was optimistic about the fact that there is a growing awareness among Egyptians of issues of equality and citizens' rights. He noted the so-called “intellectuals revolution” against the Muslim Brotherhood’s programs that discriminated against the Copts. Even members of the Muslim Brotherhood themselves had, as a result, taken a step back and tried to assume some responsibility on the subject, he said.