Copts and the Revolution
Bishāy claimed the benefits reaped by the Copts off the Revolution far outweighed the hardships they incurred. These hardships included sidelining the Copts from leading positions, and establishing a fully-fledged State-sponsored Qur’ān radio station while broadcasting Christian material for only 30 minutes every Sunday on a low-frequency station.
The Revolution developed the 10th century Islamic seminary the Azhar into a modern-day university that offered studies in the modern sciences but restricted the admission to Muslim students, even though it was financed by Egyptian—Muslim as well as Coptic—taxpayer money. The Education Ministry at the time obliterated all trace of Coptic civilisation from the history curriculum. Despite all these—and many other—negative moves, Bishāy wrote, peace reigned between Muslims and Copts during the Nāsir era; there was no fitnah tā'ifīyah. He puts to the Revolution’s credit the establishment of free education for all, up to the university level; as well as setting up the admissions bureau to determine the placement of secondary school certificate holders in university colleges according to their scores alone, regardless of any other factor.
The absence of fitnah tā'ifīyah cited in Bishāy’s story, however, was refuted in the book published by Watanī last October Sadāt in the Memory of Copts. The book documented the fact that the strict censorship imposed on the press during the Nāsir era made it impossible for any paper to report on incidents of fitnah tā'ifīyah when they occurred; thus the false impression of there being no sectarian violence.
Priestly problems
Following the disappearance of Kāmīliyā Shihātah, the wife of Father Tidawous Sam'ān of the Saint George church in Dayr Mawās, Upper Egypt, who was later found to be in Cairo with some family friends, the weekly State-owned Rose al-Yūsuf published a file on the wives of the Coptic Orthodox priests. In interviews conducted with five priest spouses, they talked of the great sacrifices they had to make for the sake of the Church service and how their homes are always open for the needy or those in trouble. When they were asked about their domestic trouble or problems with their husbands, they said that theirs were ordinary homes where problems and clashes would most likely occur.
Bishop Abra’am, Bishop of Faiyum told Rose al-Yūsuf that no priest’s wife ever came to him asking for divorce. In case this ever happened, he explained, it would necessitate the call for a special Clerical Council. Rose al-Yūsuf concluded that a priest had better be ordained only if he has been married for a minimum five years, and not right after finding a wife as is frequently done.
Awaiting a solution
The recent conflict between Bishop Aghathoun, Bishop of Maghāghah in Minya, Upper Egypt, and Minya governor Ahmad Dīyā' al-Dīn arose over what Copts saw as the unjust refusal of the governor to grant them a permit to build a new church they direly need. In response, they took to the bishopric grounds where they held demonstrations to protest the governor’s decision. The matter preoccupied a major part of the Egyptian media last month, with opinions ranging from wide condemnation of the so-called Coptic unjustified protest to a few who recognized the Copts’ grievances and rights.
