Sacred unity
By Khaled Diab
I – Restoring faith in
national unity
National unity is a sacred cornerstone of Egyptian official discourse
and, up to a point, Muslims and Copts have a common identity and pursue common
causes. Millions of Egyptians of both faiths interact daily as friends and
co-workers and the mainstream Coptic insistence on not being classed as a
minority is admirable.
“Throughout its long history, there has never been discrimination
in Egypt between Muslim and Christian. No power, external or internal, is
capable of shaking national unity,” President Mubarak claimed after the latest
violence in Alexandria.
But to suggest that Copts are equal citizens is stretching reality too
far. Muslims are fond of pointing out how wealthy and successful in business
many Copts are. But they are severely underrepresented in the political
establishment, the army and the police force, and the situation is worsening.
For instance, President Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party only fielded
two Coptic candidates in last year’s parliamentary elections.
It is encouraging that enlightened members of the Muslim Brotherhood acknowledge
that there is a problem and espouse the need for healing. “We need to admit that there is a Coptic
problem and begin moving immediately and steadily towards resolving it,” wrote
Abdel-Moneim Abul Futouh, of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau, in Al Ahram
Weekly. “There is much tension in this country as a result of the stifling
despotism we've all endured for the past 50 years. It is natural under such
circumstances that tensions should build up in the way we’ve just seen.”
But Abul Futouh conveniently overlooks his organisation’s role in
alienating Egyptian Copts. For instance, Mahdi Akif, the conservative supreme
guide, said in a recent interview that Egypt as a nation was secondary to the
establishment of an Islamic caliphate.
Despite the claims of more liberal Muslim Brotherhood members that the
party is for all Egyptians, their overt promotion of an Islamic identity and
their association with the idea of the Ummah has left Christians feeling
threatened and fearing that if the Islamists were ever to gain power, they
would turn back the clock one and a half centuries and reintroduce the
second-class jizya-paying (head tax) dhimmi – i.e. protected
minority – status which left Egypt with the Ottomans. This is regarded as
particularly insulting by Copts, since they have as much right to be identified
as Egyptian as any of their Muslim compatriots.
Identity crisis
More generally, society is gradually becoming more overtly Islamic in
character, which has lead to the growing religiosity of the public domain. This
has manifested itself most conspicuously amongst Muslims over the last quarter
of a century in their choice of dress. Christians have also followed suit and
are increasingly reverting to wearing gold and silver crucifixes and tattooing
crosses on their wrists in a counter-assertion of their religious identity.
This overt religiosity is gradually driving a visible wedge between the
communities. During my last visit to Egypt, a Christian friend told me with
concern that a few of his Muslim friends had experienced a spiritual rebirth
after listening to evangelical preachers like Amr Khaled and had stopped
calling him. Whether this was due to the fact that he was a Christian or
because of his lifestyle wasn’t entirely clear.
Part of the problem is that Copts are suffering from the increasing
frayed relationship between Arabs and the West. Although Copts abhor US-led
militaristic interventions in the region as much as any other Egyptian, they
are often hurt by association with their ‘co-religionists’ in Washington and
London. If the depiction of western ambitions in the Middle East as that of a
‘crusade’ against ‘Islam’, rather than a grab for resources, continues to gain
credibility in the eyes of ordinary people, then Egyptian and Arab Christians are
likely to suffer.
In addition, the growing belief that secular democracy is little more
than the calling card of imperialism and that ‘Islam is the solution’, as the
Brotherhood never tire of telling us, will likely lead to the further
marginalisation of Copts in Egypt.
Read on: III – Privatising faith
ã2006
K. Diab. Unless otherwise stated, all the content on this website is the
copyright of Khaled Diab.