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Egyptian Coptic Christians: A Barometer of Religious Intolerance

(Ha'aretz) Benjamin Balint - As Egypt becomes more Islamic, there is no surer measure of its transforming identity than its treatment of its Coptic Christian minority, which comprises about 10% of the country's 80 million citizens. No community can claim to be more native or authentically "Egyptian" than the Arabic-speaking Copts, whose culture dates back to antiquity. Although Egypt's constitution provides for equal rights without regard to religion, discrimination against its Christian community - through both acts of omission and commission - persists. Intolerance of non-Muslim minorities is the best barometer of a society increasingly conscious of its Muslim identity, as Egypt is today. In November, a report by Christian Solidarity International and the Coptic Foundation for Human Rights documented 25 cases of alleged forced conversion to Islam. Last May, the Egyptian government pointlessly slaughtered thousands of pigs belonging to the Coptic Christian minority because of fears relating to swine flu. Six Coptic teenage worshipers were gunned down as they left midnight mass on January 7, Coptic Christmas, in the southern Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi. Every so often, the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition Islamist movement, seeks to bar Copts from senior army, police and government positions, on the grounds that they represent a fifth column. The writer is a fellow at the Hudson Institute.
2010-02-05 08:43:11
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