Talking about the emigrant Copts is a very difficult subject because the newspapers have dealt with them from one point of view and they classified them with the extremists, and traitors against their country. They had also mentioned that they were agents [for foreign powers] and so on. The truth is completely different from that. The emigrant Copts are the faithful children of Egypt and they are ready to save their country with their souls. They will not spare any effort to achieve their country’s requests even if they cost them much effort or hardship. I have lived with the emigrant Copts for many years. I have served in Canada and the United States of America. I have eaten on their tables and drank of their water, but I have not found anything in them similar to what was published about them in the newspapers. It is just a simple matter as they are thinking in a different way from ours. We can agree in some details or differ. The main thing that used to worry the emigrant Copts and cause them a lot of troubles is their feeling that there is something which the Egyptian government is trying to hide and does not want to reveal.
From the Egyptian government point of view, this might be right and for the benefit of the nation. It is well known that not everything that is known should be said and not everything that is said could be published. Many times, matters have become more complicated because of the publishing of such things and, at the same time, these matters could have been solved if they were dealt with away from [making them public by] publishing [them]. I would like to say that life abroad differs from life in Egypt in all aspects whether in the best or the worst matters in each one of them. The press abroad is used to interfering in every detail. It is also known that every city has it own press, even every district has its own press and this [comment] also applies to the television channels.
Accordingly, every detail that happens anywhere is published immediately without any censorship or politeness in describing the details if they are dealing with the personal life of someone. Even the people who are describing their personal affairs do not feel ashamed or shy about talking in public about them in the mass media, even if they were the personal affairs of the president. We all remember how the American media dealt with the relationship of the American President with Monica. On the other hand, our Egyptian morals forbid us to talk about this nonsense. [Editor: Father Marcos Khalil was probably not in Egypt during that time. Ahrar gave many weeks, often on the front page, information about the Monica affair. Also Rose el-Yousef and other papers wrote in length about Monica] I remember this example because it is well known to the whole world. There are thousands of examples in which the great difference between the American and Egyptian mentality is clear.
The emigrant Copts live at the middle of this life with all its highs and lows, its sweetness and bitterness. The Copts were affected by the nature of the Western society after their emigration because it became their second country, [their] "new country". They were affected by it and affected it. This does not mean that they have abandoned their mother country, but they love it as I have previously mentioned and its love lives in their hearts and courses in their blood. What really happened is that they accepted new behavior patterns, but their feelings towards their country were not affected. To explain my point further: here in Egypt, we love our country and president and we do not accept the idea of discussing his leadership, especially if it is a ridiculous discussion, because we believe that the president of our country is the symbol of our nation and whoever dares and says bad words about him is regarded as making an attack against all Egyptians. At the same time, the president welcomes criticism and is happy with it.
On the other hand, in the United States, its president could meet the school children and the children can have fun with him or even criticize him in a very rude way. As Egyptians, we will not accept that. According to these considerations, we have in front of us two different mentalities; each one of them believes that his way is right, cultured and civilized. If we do not accept the attitudes of few of the emigrant Copts, we need to say that they are very few Copts who need to explain their attitudes without describing the entire [body of] emigrant Copts as being traitors. But I would like to say that when the emigrant Copts listen to the Egyptian mass media when it describes them as being traitors, this could frustrate them and make them feel they are being treated unfair when they are innocent. I am not defending the emigrant Copts, because they are not accused of anything and they do not need anybody to defend them. I also do not talk on behalf of them or on behalf of the church, nor do they talk on behalf of the church or me. It is just that I feel upset because we are wasting our energy. I believe that the emigrant Copts should be regarded as a very strong power that has to be used for the benefit of Egypt. What is required is to study how these people think and have a dialogue with them not on the basis that they are traitors, but on the basis that they are part of this nation.
I want to refer to a point that was mentioned in the beginning, which is that the Egyptian mass media sometimes do not cover the events completely - like what happened for the first time [in the reporting on the first incident (in 1998)] in Al-Kosheh. This forced some emigrant Copts to think that there was a plan to hide the facts. What forced them to think this is that all the [international] mass media were covering the first events of Al-Koshh completely, but the Egyptian media was silent except for the Watani and Al-Wafd newspapers. Even our Egyptian Embassy had not got any information about anything and their answer when they were asked was weird, "We do not have any information except what we read in the newspapers." This forced me to write some articles in the Egyptian newspapers in which I called the Egyptian media to reveal the whole facts in order to relieve the emigrants and not to leave them victims of the international media. The Egyptian media published my articles, and then they had published the details of the tragic events that took place. This is not an assault against Egypt or the governing system in Egypt because violence and conflicts are everywhere in the world, but the silence of the Egyptian media had its role in forcing some Copts to scream in the American way because they were afraid on their families. Revealing the truth now has a very good effect on regaining tranquility and calmness.
To be fair, some of the Copts went crazy because of the Egyptian media silence and they behaved in a way that was rejected by the rest of the emigrant Copts. Recently, I have read an article that was talking about one of these persons who is called Dr. Esmat Zaklama who wanted to organize a demonstration and declared that he had prepared several buses to transport the demonstrators, but he failed because he could only find a small number of people whom would take only a van [to transport]. Such a person defames all the people who deal with him. At the same time, I would like to express my sympathy with the great master and scholar who is working with all his energy in order to support love between the Egyptian people and preserve their patriotic unity. It is Mr. Ramzi Zaklama. I have said to him I wished that your name was not that, because you are making the biggest mistake in your life to carry this name [the name Zaklama].
I have once served in Montreal in Canada, in the Virgin Mary Church and among their people was Salem Naguib, the judge in Montreal court, and then I served in the State of Connecticut in the United States of America, and among the people of the church there was Dr. Shawqi Faltaous Karas, the mathematician. I was greatly amazed when I was dealing with them because they were genuine in everything and they were honoring the name of Egypt.
