Persecution of Christians in Egypt in the light of History

Egyptian Christians knew exactly what to expect when the 2011 revolution began. They knew not to expect Muslim-Christian amity in the big Cairo rally.

Husni Mubarak had been reluctant to prosecute Muslims who attacked Christians or destroyed churches. His government often had arrested Christians who even defended themselves. But at least the regime had restrained anarchy, caught terrorists, and kept the Islamists at bay.

With revolution, some Christians have been hopeful for a secular government that would allow for more freedoms. Others fear an Islamic government will take power and make their lives even harder than before.

Now, however, the army is tearing down the walls around monasteries, once built to protect themselves and Christians who took refuge there. These walls will no longer be available to shelter Christians from attack.

Alexandria is believed to have been founded by Mark the Evangelist in 33 AD and was a Christian center by 200 AD until the Islamic conquest in 640 AD. Egypt’s Coptic Christians are the largest remaining religious minority in the Middle East. They originated there and are proud of their Egyptian heritage.

Copts in 1960 made up 20% of the population and held half of Egypt's wealth. Now they make up 10% of population and are economically deprived as second class citizens.

Before Egypt's revolution, though in recent years the Copts have felt marginalized by society, there was a remaining mutual brotherhood between Christians and Muslims. However, there had been incidents of violent attacks by Islamic extremists.

• In the worst attack on Christians in decades, a bomb on New Year's Eve killed 23 Christians at the Coptic All Saints Church, in Alexandria, wounding at least 70.
• A strong, unexpected response came from local Muslims disapproving of the violence against Christians. An out of the ordinary solidarity rose between Christians and Muslims.
• Then, the Jan. 14 Tunisian protests toppling their president emboldened the Egyptian public to organize mass demonstrations through Facebook, Twitter and distributed fliers.
• By Jan. 25, tens of thousands of protesters marched in Cairo, Alexandria, and Suez. Church leaders were divided on whether Christians should join the protests or stay away.
• On Jan. 28, hundreds of thousands of protesters filled Egyptian cities for "The Day of Rage," and the Muslim Brotherhood—who had initially remained quiet—called its members to join the protests.

Now that the revolution succeeded in Mubarak's departure, many Egyptian Christians are still concerned about the potential rise of the Muslim Brotherhood. For years the group has been banned from Egyptian politics, but they have announced they will launch an official political party. Some don't expect the group to assert an aggressively Islamic agenda immediately, but others worry that it may.

Church leaders are encouraging Christians to engage their communities and resist retreating. What increases the possibilty, they say, that Christians will have greater freedoms in a new secular government is to not withdraw but be bold.

In a newly released letter, Ayman al-Zawahiri calls for violence against Egypt’s Coptic Christians. He alleged that Copts have aspirations to form a separate State with Asyut being its capital. He called Pope Shenouda III, the 117th Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, a Zionist traitor saying he invited America to intervene in Egypt’s situation together with the “traitor Zionist” Mubarak.

Here are other hub articles of mine on this topic.

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