Egypt's Coptic Christians: From Apartheid to Genocide

For over a millennia, the Coptic Christian Community of Egypt has been forced to live as a permanent under-caste in Egyptian society.  There was at no point during the past 1,000 years that the Coptic Christian Community enjoyed a period in which they were afforded full equality in the Islamic controlled nation.  Over the millennia, the Coptic Christians endured constant persecution coupled with a string of mass slaughters that occurred throughout the centuries.  Under the laws of Islamic conquest, all Jews and Christians living within the conquered nations were forced to live as dhimmis (under-castes), which essentially means you accept your conquest and inferior status, and any attempt to change this is considering an armed revolt and would justify your death.

Though the Coptic Christians enjoyed a brief break from persecution during the time that the British Empire controlled the region, they never enjoyed full equality, and ever since the British withdraw, the Coptic Christian Community has endured one of the most brutally enforced apartheid systems that has ever existed in the modern world.  With the end of Western Colonization in the 1950's, a power vacuum was created in the region, one that witnessed a continuous struggle between Egyptian dictators on one side and the Muslim Brotherhood/Salafist powers on the other.  In efforts to appease the Brotherhood, the dictators over the decades enacted increasingly harsh Sharia-based laws that led to an ever growing persecution of the Coptic Christian population.  Both government and societal persecution created an religiously based apartheid system that stripped the Coptic Christians of any and all equal rights.  They found themselves ousted from government positions, upper-level employment opportunities, and universities.  The only way to escape this persecution was to convert to Islam.   Though Egyptian Law freely permits Coptic Christians who convert to Islam, it repeatedly imprisons Muslims who attempt to convert to Christianity.  The state-based persecution does not end here.  Coptic Christians are frequently denied housing due to their faith, or they're evicted at will, and the government does nothing to stop this.  In addition, the Egyptian government freely permits the construction of Mosques, but forbids the construction or even renovation of any church without official government permission, permission that is seldom granted. 


This is a very clear Apartheid system, yet it recent years, the Apartheid has begun to shift into something far more sinister: mass murder.  For the past few decades we have witnessed countless terrorist attacks on Coptic churches, businesses, villages, and monasteries.  The Rise and Fall of the Muslim Brotherhood after the Arab Spring only served to increase these attacks.  Thousands of Copts have been murdered as a result of these vicious attacks, and thousands of Coptic girls have been abducted and sold into sex slavery, or forcibly converted to Islam and married off against their will.  Many of these actions are not only endorsed by Muslim Brotherhood dominated Mosques & Universities, but by their Wahabist & Salafi allies in Arabia.  As it stands, the situation of the Coptic Christians in Egypt is rapidly shifting form Apartheid to Genocide.  If things do not change soon, they will inevitably meet the same fate as their brethren met in Syria & Iraq at the hands of ISIS. 

Sources:

Darwish, Nonie.  Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson Inc., 2008.

Darwish, Nonie.  Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror.  New York: Penguin Group, 2006.

Egypt: The Fear and the Faith.”  Directed by Mark Stucke.  1996.  Surrey, U.K.: Produced by Journeyman Pictures.  1996: 40 minutes.  DVD, 3:05.

El-Hamzawi, Nagwa, Housam Ahmed and Angela Dewan.  Egypt: At Least 28 Dead as Gunmen Fire on Bus Carrying Coptic Christians.”  CNN.  May 26, 2017.  Accessed from https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/26/africa/egypt-shooting-coptic-christians/index.html on June 20, 2016.

Free the Copts: From Ancient Glory to Modern Oppression.  Edited     by Ramy Tadros.  St. Clair, Australia: Australian Coptic Movement Association Limited, 2013.

Gabriel, Mark.  Islam and Terrorism: The Truth About ISIS, The Middle East, and Islamic Jihad.  Lake Mary, FL: FrontLine, 2015.

I Am N: Inspiring Stories of Christians Facing Islamic Extremists.  Edited by Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2016.

Ibrahim, Raymond.  Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians.  Washington D.C.: Regency Publishing Company, 2013.

Kendal, Elizabeth.  After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East.  Eugene, OR:  Resource Publications, 2016. 

King, Jeff.  Islam Uncensored.  Washington D.C.: International Christian Concern, 2011.

“Minorities at Risk: Coptic Christians in Egypt.”  Hearing Before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.  First Session.  210 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC.  July 22, 2011

Spencer, Robert.  The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats non-Muslims.  Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2005.

Sterling, Joe, Faith Karimi, Mohammed Tawfeeq, and Hamdi Alkhshali.  “ISIS claims Responsibility for Palm Sunday Church Bombings in Egypt.”  CNN.  April 10, 2017.  Accessed from https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/09/middleeast/egypt-church-explosion/index.html on June 20, 2017.

Williams, Daniel.  Forsaken: The Persecution of Christians in Today’s Middle East.  New York: ORP Books, 2016.

Ye’or, Bat.  Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide.  Lancaster, UK: Gazelle Book Services Ltd., 2002.
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