The citizenship salon, in cooperation with the Egyptian Syndicate of
Journalists, held a
symposium entitled, ‘Activating the Copts’ Role in Political Life.’ The symposium was chaired
by Yūsuf
Sidhum, editor-in-chief of Watanī. Participants included Dr. Muná Makram
‘Ubayd, former Member of Parliament Dr. Hāzim Fārūq and Dr. Ahmad
Diyāb,
members of parliament from the Muslim Brotherhood, General Secretary of al-Wafd Munīr
Fakhrī
‘Abd al-Nūr, Muhammad ‘Abd al-Quddūs, and researcher
Samīr Marqus.
[Reviewer: Samīr Marqus is a founding member of the Arabic Team for Muslim-
Christian Dialogue, a member of
the board of advisors of the dialogue program at the Faculty of Economics
and Political Sciences, Cairo University.
Max Michel’s letter asserts his respect for Pope Shenouda and his
persistence of the legitimacy of his title as
researcher and an expert in Muslim-Christian relations, and
the advisor at the Coptic Center for Social Studies and
al-Fustāt Center for Contemporary Arab
Studies.]
Munīr Fakhrī ‘Abd al-
Nūr defined the term ‘participation’ as
initiative, clarifying that the Coptic citizen needs to have the
initiative to demand his rights, and to
question those who deprive him of them.
On the other hand, Dr. Ahmad
Diyāb, a member of
parliament, asserted that “the invitation must originate from the ruling authorities or
civil society.” He
added that the ruling authority would never invite anybody, and that civil society must take
responsibility
for enlightening and provoking the silent majority to participate in public life. He added, “Nobody
listens
to our demands, and as Muslim Brothers we suffer like many other Egyptians from marginalization and
isolation, and this hinders the political and democratic movements in Egypt.”
Dr. Hāzim
Fārūq, an Egyptian member of parliament [Muslim Brotherhood], said that the whole country is
absent,
and all its groups are ignored to serve the interests of a single group that supports the
government. He added that
Muslim Brotherhood had been excluded from Egyptian society and political life
since 1954, and was used as a
“scarecrow” against Copts. He added, “I feel the fears of every Copt and I
understand them, for the new generation
knows nothing about us because of our absence from political life.
However, we believe in the necessity of the
political participation of Copts and their rights of full
citizenship, and this is what the group’s political
problem aims at: freedom, political, economic, and
social reform. The group has an upswing program in which all
Egypt must participate.”
Muhammad
‘Abd al-Quddūs expressed his opinion that there is no way
to realize the full citizenship
rights of Muslims and Christians without the freedom that everyone is calling
for.
Dr. Muná
Makram ‘Ubayd [Reviewer: a former parliament member. For more information in
Arabic see:
http://www.shoubra2005.com/ ] talked about what she called “the silent majority” of not only Copts but
Muslims as well. She expressed her opinion that there was a real passivity among Egyptians in general. She
added
that the Copts’ isolation, however, has been increasing for many reasons: the receding value of full
citizenship
and the inability of the ruling political elite since 1954 to settle the problem of Copts’
political representation
in political institutions. In addition, the government’s restricted strategy
concerning building churches and
excluding Copts from influential governmental positions are also
factors.
On that note, Samīr Marqus
spoke about the historical background of the Copts’
participation in political life. He argued that the revolution
of 1919 was a turning point in the history
of the “national integration” of Muslims and Christians. He added that
until 1952, there was a positive
participation of Copts in political life. Problems later began to materialize due
to the attitude that
Copts held during the 1952 revolution. Upon sacrificing democracy to favor the interests of
the “ruling
Chief,” the political system tried to handle the absence of democracy by establishing a system of
bureaucracy, which embodied two important issues that can be considered the source of all the Copts’
present
problems. First, the Copts were considered a political group. Second, Copts were dealt with as a
religious group,
when in the early 1970’s, former Egyptian President Anwar al-Sādāt announced
that he was “a Muslim
president in a Muslim state,” which caused political life to take on a religious
coloring. The government then
stopped its health and social services, which caused people resort to mosques
and churches to get the help they
needed. Therefore, nationalism was weakened in favor of religious
identity. Following this, Copts were excluded
from election lists because of their inability to win. With
regard to this, Marqus referred to the stance of the
ruling National Party, which nominated only two Copts
out of 444 nominees in the 2005 legislative elections. This
was in addition to the increasing tension
caused by the Islamic groups’ attitudes and activities toward Copts, as
represented by the attacks in al-
Kushh and, more recently, Alexandria.
Faced with such a reality, Marqus
proposed solutions rooted in
the need to organize a national conference for national integration on the basis of
citizenship. He
stressed the necessity of applying the constitutional articles that advocate political integration
on the
basis of citizenship. Marqus also proposed a campaign to adopt a “list system,” where for every ten names on
the list, two must be Copts. In the case of the Copts not being elected, they must regardless assume the
positions
of two non-Copts who were successfully elected.
In the context of proposing solutions, Dr
Muná Makram
‘Ubayd discussed the urgent need for a comprehensive revision of all
legislations, provided that these
revisions guarantee full citizenship rights and equality for all citizens
in the framework of the legal state. She
also proposed changing the adopted individual elections
system.
For Dr. Makram ‘Ubayd, there are
three parties responsible for activating the
Copts’ political role. First, the government represented by the ruling
national party, which she argued,
must cancel the portion of seats designated for Copts as soon as the political
rights law is amended to
provide them with real participation in political life. The government must also focus
more on Copts and
introduce more information about Coptic society through the mass media, stop referring to them as
“our
brothers the Copts,” and cease covering the fast-breaking ceremonies and all other elements that emphasize the
division of society. The second responsible party, however, is the different political currents and powers
on the
top, which includes the Muslim Brotherhood. The third party, and that which has the greatest
responsibility, are
the Copts themselves, who must overcome their fears to enable them to participate in
public activities.
Dr.
Sa‘d al-Dīn Ibrāhīm, the sociologist and
chairman of Administrative Council of the
banned Ibn Khaldūn Center for Development Studies
[http://www.eicds.org/ ], came to the conference without an
official invitation and asked to speak. He
argued that the majority of struggles in Egypt are struggles between
Muslims and Christians. He added that
in 1972 a committee was formed in parliament to investigate facts. The
committee gave ten recommendation,
none of which has been implemented. [Reviewer: No details mentioned about the
recommendations].
Dr.
Ibrāhīm talked about three scenarios facing the recent problem of Copts’
political
participation: the first scenario is the extermination of the Muslim Brotherhood as it represents the
petrifying political current of many Muslim groups. [This scenario was described in this way in all
periodicals on
the subject. However, Sabāh al-Khayr of December 12, 2006, reports it in a
contradictory way as
follows: “Copts will try to build an army by foreign funds but they will be massively
exterminated, and this will
be the worst scenario ever.”]
His second scenario is what he called the
“walwalah” phenomenon represented in
the Copts panicking, becoming passive before all circumstances, and
finally leaving Egypt altogether. [Reviewer:
Walwalah is the Arabic word for wailing, expressing a woman’s
cry for her dead husband.]
The third scenario
and, despite its difficulty, the best of all in his
opinion, is based on participation. Copts will participate in
public and political life and this suggests
that Muslim Brotherhood answer the points of Coptic panic openly since
they occupy 88 seats in
parliament.
Dr. Sa‘d al-Dīn finally proposed the necessity of
having a clear
constitutional text asserting the secular nature of the Egyptian society and guaranteeing the Copts
and
women participation.
From his side, Munīr Fakhrī ‘Abd al-Nūr rejected
Sa‘d al-Dīn’s three scenarios and asserted that they evoke sectarianism. He warned that
such
proposals divide the country on a religious basis more than it is.
Researcher Tal‘at
Radwān argued that the solution is to separate the state from religion in a secular
constitution.
Rev. Rif‘at Fikrī from the Evangelical Church in Arḍ̣ Sharīf,
Shubrā, asserted the necessity of casting out the religious fundamentalism that causes the Copts’
exclusion
from public life. He added that using the motto “Islam is the solution” worries Copts and
restricts their
initiative to take on an active role in society. He added that the Muslim Brotherhood must
choose between
announcing their disagreement with the principles established by Hasan al-Bannā and
his successors
concerning the Copts’ participation and silence on the issue, which will implicitly indicate
their agreement with
those principles. Copts have the right to know the Brotherhood’s stance. [Reviewer: No
details mentioned about al-
Bannā’s principles regarding the Copts.]
Dr. Hāzim
Farūq responded, asserting that the
ideas of Hasan al-Bannā are his own personal opinions. “We
are going to publish a modern reading of his
ideas,” Fārūq concluded in Watanī of
December 10, 2006.
Hāzim Farūq’s
declaration during the symposium contradicted Dr. Ahmad
Diyāb’s statements from a private interview he gave
to the United Copts website, [See: http://copts
-united.com/ ] in which he asserted that the group (the Muslim
Brotherhood) will not reconsider the
writings of Hasan al-Bannā, especially ‘al-Wilāyah al-
‘Āmmah.’ [The General
Guardianship]
In Rose al-Yūsuf of December 12, Ayman
‘Abd al-Majīd
called for announcing the expected amendments, granting privileges for Copts, and
in particular reserving
them seven to ten percent of the seats in parliament [Editor: a fixed percentage amounts to
nothing but
Lebanonization, reserving fixed percentages and fixed functions for particular religious groups in
society].
In the same issue of Rose al-Yūsuf, Khālid ‘Abd al-
Fattāh
accused the Muslim Brotherhood of using religion to achieve political goals.
On
December 10th,
Watanī published its report about the symposium and included two
charts showing the Coptic presence
in parliament. The charts were published by Samīr Murqus in his
book, ‘al-Muwātinūn al-
Aqbāt wa-al-Mushārakah al-‘amalīyah al-
Intikhābīyah.’ [Coptic
Citizens and their Participation in Elections’]
Copts
representation in the Egyptian Parliament from 1924 to
1952:
|
Year
|
Total number of Parliament members
|
Number of Coptic representatives
|
Percentage
|
|
1924
|
214
|
16
|
7.48 %
|
|
1925
|
214
|
15
|
7 %
|
|
1926
|
214
|
12
|
5.60 %
|
|
1926 [most likely 1927]
|
235
|
23
|
9.79 %
|
|
1931
|
150
|
4
|
2.66 %
|
|
1936
|
232
|
20
|
8.62 %
|
|
1938
|
264
|
6
|
2.27 %
|
|
1942
|
264
|
27
|
10.32 %
|
|
1945
|
264
|
12
|
4.55 %
|
|
1950
|
319
|
10
|
3.13 %
|
|
The average Coptic membership in the Egyptian Parliament from 1924 - 1950 is 6.14 %
|
Copts representation in the Egyptian
Parliament from 1984 to the present:
|
Year
|
Total number of Parliament members
|
Number of elected Coptic representatives
|
Number of assigned Coptic representatives
|
Total number of Coptic representatives
|
Percentage
|
|
1984
|
468
|
4
|
5
|
9
|
1.92 %
|
|
1987
|
458
|
6
|
4
|
10
|
2.18 %
|
|
1990
|
454
|
1
|
6
|
7
|
1.54 %
|
|
1995
|
454
|
Zero
|
6
|
6
|
1.32 %
|
|
2000
|
454
|
3
|
4
|
7
|
1.5 %
|
|
2005
|
454
|
1
|
5
|
6
|
1.32 %
|
|
The average Coptic membership in the Egyptian Parliament between 1984 - 2005 is 1.63 %
|
