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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