[See for a background to the incidents the AWR report, art. 13 in this issue]
A full-page article in Sawt al-Umma newspaper is devoted to a 22-year-old Israeli document to declare a Coptic state in Upper Egypt or Hurghada. The document reads: “the idea of setting up a Coptic state in Upper Egypt along with frail tiny states is our way to wield domination and impose security and peace.” [Editor: Sawt al-Umma plays on an existing fear in Egypt but it is totally unrealistic to believe this could happen. Perhaps the document was created for the sake of creating fear in Egypt and thus adding to tensions between Muslims and Christians?]
It goes on to say that the disintegration of Egypt into separate geographic entities is Israel’s top objective on the Sinai front.
In the same paper on page 6, Coptic intellectual Milād Hannā, who spent the greater part of his life working on protecting Egypt’s national unity, said in an interview that Pope Shenouda III has enfeebled and marginalized the role of al-Majlis al-Millī [Community Council] and that was why he had to seek solitude and pray for a solution to the Copts’ problems.
He added that it is incumbent on the President’s responsibilities to guarantee the security of the Copts, wondering how the country would have the stamina to fight while 20-year-olds still practice masturbation.
On page 7, Nabīl ‘Umar said Egypt had not been originally Christian as many persons propagate, nor Muslim of course. It was pagan and not all of us have come with the Islamic conquest, as it is often argued.
In al-Maydān newspaper’s front-page editorial, Albeir ‘Āzir Bārih, the Secretary General of the Alexandria-based National Fraternity Society, says some fanatic rash young protesters had publicly insulted Presidential Political Advisor Usāma al-Bāz and People’s Assembly Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Mustafa al-Fiqī over the so-called abduction and forced conversion of a Christian woman to Islam.
However, the evidence that torpedoes any kidnapping suspicions was the Church statement published in all Egyptian newspapers that the woman was to be given time to reconsider her decision, which, according to the statement, will be respected anyway.
Archpriest Marqus ‘Azīz Khalīl says in an editorial in al-Maydān that religions have their own prestige and sacredness. “We, Copts, would not work on invading any other faith and likewise we hope our [Muslim] brothers would not work on invading ours,” he said.
The cleric stated that “both Muslims and Copts were happy to see the priest’s wife, who is also a good mother, reciting her Coptic Orthodox prayers until the daylight of a new day shone on our beloved Egypt.”
Muhammad Amīn writes in another editorial in al-Maydān that the solution to problems is not demonstrations, violence, appeals of expatriate Copts to urge Sharon to protect them in Egypt or the launching of internet campaigns to press the government into handing over a Christian woman who was supposedly forced to convert to Islam.
Mustafa al-Fiqī, the chairman of the parliament’s foreign relations committee, said in a symposium hosted by the opposition party the Wafd that the recent sectarian incidents have proved that Egypt is a targeted nation and that any ordinary event in Egypt is usually given prominence in world news agencies.
Rose al-Yousuf magazine says that what really drew the attention during those incidents was the protesters’ resorting to the church and using it as a political rostrum, which indicates the failure of civil society to incorporate people’s interactions.
Bishop Youhannā Qulta, the Deputy Patriarch of Catholic Copts, said if we really want to build a civilized nation and to do Egypt an everlasting favor, we have to start planting the seeds of tolerance, equality and justice in Egyptians at an early age in order to promote national unity as our holiest duty.
Milād Hannā says in a feature in al-Ahālī newspaper that national unity is at stake and the solution is in President Mubārak’s hands, elaborating that this sensitive file should not be left in the hands of the Interior Ministry, which will strictly think security.
Shawqī al-Sayyid, a member of the Shura Council and deputy chairman of the National Unity Society, said the conflict between Muslims and Christians have to do with the country’s political and economic changes, noting that the nation’s enemies abroad are trying to use that card to press political leaders.
Councilor Labīb Halīm Labīb, in a message to President Mubārak published in al-Usbou‘ newspaper on December 20, 2004, says the state’s relationship with the Copts needs to be reconsidered, adding that there are some aspects threatening to destroy national unity.
He says education is seeking discrimination between children, pointing out that negligence of rumors can be very serious.
In a full-page interview with thinker Milād Hannā in al-‘Arabī, the mouthpiece of the Nasserite Party, he says the State Security department caused incidents to further turmoil inside and outside churches, adding no single patriotic Copt would ever accept intervention by the United States or any other country.
He goes on to say Pope Shenouda III is required to make changes inside the church, affirming that U.S. President George W. Bush’s famous Freudian slip of the tongue about a ‘crusade’ turned out to be true.
Sabāh al-Khayr magazine says Egypt is a lofty fort in a friction-gripped region, but no one can tamper with its unity and social fabric; the history of this great nation bears witness to the failure of all attempts to hinder its security, stability and the unity of its people.
Journalist Salāh al-Din Hāfiz says in an editorial in al-Ahrām newspaper that the only thing acceptable now is to launch a frank overall national reconciliation that is based on justice and equality in rights and duties under the umbrella of a key principle: the citizenship rights are guaranteed for the sons of this country.
Al-Ahrām columnist Salāma Ahmad Salāma says the truth about religious clash incidents in Egypt is often unknown because the newspaper reports are curtailed and the sources of information are either the security bodies or the religious institutions and both are dubious.
Fahmī Huwaydī writes in an editorial in al-Ahrām dated December 21, 2004 saying: “We would be dead wrong if we turned over the chapter of the recent sedition incidents in Egypt and overcame it as just a dark cloud that passed by.”
He says what has happened requires a serious pause to deal with those incidents with all the credibility and sense of responsibility possible.
Coptic writer Jamāl As‘ad says in an editorial in al-Akhbār that the expression of opinions should not take place inside the church but rather inside the state constitutional and legislative institutions, for fear of giving the issue a sectarian dimension which in turn would prompt a reaction on the part of the others.
He notes that demonstrations inside the church give the clergy a false impression that they are the political representatives of the Christians and make them think they can press the government at any time and for whatever purpose they want.
Another Copt, Girgis Kāmil Yousuf, wonders why Pope Shenouda got so angry that he decided during those disgruntled demonstrations to leave for an Arab country and return two days later to refrain from meeting with his congregation.
London-based newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat of December 21, 2004 says the Egyptian church expressed deep regret over some Coptic young men’s assault on journalists. During a church delegation’s visit to the Syndicate of Journalists, the clergymen stressed their appreciation of the Syndicate and its role in enhancing national unity.
