Thursday 31 August 2017

“Discharging the pus”

  


Last week’s article has stirred a strong argument about diversity in the Arab communities in general and Egypt in specific… the Egyptians were keen to keep the unity of their national composition with its religious, cultural and other diverse aspects… however, that has never prevented that Egypt has been through times when many forces, or one can even say forces that exploit certain circumstances of deterioration, hit such diversity of our united national composition… in such regard, many researches were written and tens of seminars were held as well… I do not believe that anyone can disagree to the fact that there are adverse circumstances that hit and are still hitting the Egyptian society… and of course, those forces we mentioned did not miss the chance to make use of such circumstances in order to dismantle Egypt.

I do not exaggerate if I say that the most dangerous and menacing – I apologize for using the superlative form here – of such deteriorated circumstances is the insistence of some forces of those who use slogans and mottos of political Islamization claiming to adopt religious principles, to regard the Egyptian Christian Copts as a minority and practice the ugly cultural, social, sectarian, and religious discrimination against them… while, in the same time, Egyptian Christians insist they are Egyptian citizens and that no one and no awful circumstances will drive them to do any practices, calls, or even adopt ideas that will get them out of the very composition of the national structure.

I received many comments on last week’s article that I would like to publish some of them here, however, that does not mean that I underestimate the significance of other comments.

The friend and prestigious scientist in Cardiology, and expert in Arab language and literature Charles Beshri Megally wrote: “dear sir… this article goes into the heart of what we live today like we always expect of you… however, I may allow myself to comment on the part concerning the case of the Christian Copts in Egypt since I am a Christian Coptic burdened and interested in the public affairs of my country… Copts here represent a special case… away from undesirable bragging and empty boasting, everyone knows that the Egyptians have one origin that goes back to the Coptic descent entrenched since the time of Pharaohs and maybe before that…”

“… Many branches, due to geography and history, were added to the Egyptian tree, including the Arab branch… however, we Egyptians all belong to one origin… that is why I claim that there is not a single Christian in his normal state away from temporary passive emotions he may have due to the systematic discrimination practiced against Christian Copts – and which no one can deny -… I say I claim there is not a single sage Christian who even thinks of this nonsense of separation that some conspirers suggest as part of the creative chaos project and the Arab autumn…”

“… No one of us, Christian Egyptians, thinks of a special status for Christians as we know that all Egyptian people are Copts who descended from the Pharaohnic origin… some of them chose to divert to Islam when it entered Egypt while some others stayed adherent to Christianity which they defended with blood throughout different eras suffering from persecution, especially in the Roman era… the dominating genetic element is the long-in-time Coptic Pharaohnic origin of the Egyptian people… while the number of those coming from the Arabian Peninsula was few compared to that of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country… and so, the actual effect of the genes coming from the Arabian Peninsula was small in reality as proved and still is proved by scientific researches…”

“… Therefore, there is no way here to talk about the “two elements of the nation” as we all, due to history, belong to one origin… when hit by discrimination or poverty, the Egyptian Christian Copt may think of migrating to other countries where human rights are respected or even immigrating to it… but his heart remains attached to his homeland feeling pity for it and for every memory he lived in it… he may have some bitterness towards some of his country folks who were unfair to him but he can never think of separating from them as long as he lives in his country…”

“… I claim – and of course I wish – that our beloved country will overcome this fake barrier that stands between its sons in the near or the relatively far future when we overcome this civilization gap that separates us from other developed countries where asking someone about his religion or belief is considered a flagrant breach of his privacy and rights… I believe this day is coming no way due to globalization and the spread of human rights values in this small world that became a mere small village… by that time, talking about the “two elements of the nation” will only be history…”

“… I apologize for my lengthy comment but you stirred up sorrows as they say my thinker friend”.

My long-time friend Soliman Shafiq, also the prominent leader in al-Tagamou party wrote: “I was and still is one of those who belonged to a generation that was brought up on the principle that Israel is the main enemy to us in the region… I am proud to have joined the Palestinian Liberation Movement (PLO) Fath in the first flush of youth… I am also very proud of being Arab and to be one among others who warned of denying the issue of minorities, religions, ethnicities, diversity… to the end of this… I even participated to a study which confirmed that one of the most important reasons of the Arab unity is denying the rights of those belonging to those minorities…”

“… I believe the biggest part of the responsibility lies on Baathist and Arab-national leaders like late Saddam Hussein and Hafez al-Asad… before we condemn what Barzani did, we have to discuss the reasons that made him collaborate with the enemy without taking precautions… with all my respect to all who talk about the one national composition and alloy, the Coptic Egyptian citizens are suffering from discrimination practiced against them by the state and persecution practiced against them by the hardliner groups… the thing that drove them to have their prayers in the streets after security agencies close their worship places…etc…”

“… You have seen how some Coptic intellectuals signed a statement in solidarity with Al-Aqsa but now the Copts themselves are subjected to discrimination but no one says a word!!!... I here ring the bell… if any Coptic communicated with Israel or the United States, do not blame but yourselves… it is a message I deliver to you sir before it is too late… my sincere wishes to you sir”.

Mr. Hussein Shammon wrote: “the divisions being created on the media and intellectual levels… in the west or in Israel… are diverse and spreading on a wide scale… unfortunately, we see that the Arab media, either deliberately or unintentionally, has adopted such divisions and are now being dealt with as axioms… expressions like Sunni states and Shia ones became normal in many of that media outlets… moreover, they started dealing with minorities in any society as independent components that have their own civilization and cultural concepts separated from the rest of this societies’ components.

“… Therefore, I, personally, believe that the real conflict taking place in reality in the Arab world is the one going between two projects… the first is the division-based project… such project is led by Israel since it adopts the principle of being the Jewish state like you mentioned before sir… its legitimacy depends on such principle… as to the second project; that is the project of the national state with the cultural national dimension that takes in all the diverse civilization aspects that once contributed to all the historical phases of the nation…”

“… I believe such project – despite I believe it is right and mandatory as a guarantee to the future of our societies – needs re-launching based on the lessons learnt from past experiences and with the aim of reaching a new clear modern concepts that can explain the political, cultural, and social visions targeted… as it is in no way that we can achieve any progress in intermittent courses and goals if the final target is not clear… otherwise, all efforts will be in vain”.

We shall continue publishing other comments about the same issue later.

Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar



This article was published in Al Ahram newspaper on August 31, 2017.

To see the original article, go to:


#alahram #ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #Copts #Christians #minorities

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