By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Leaders of the Coptic Christian community in the U.S. say that while the Obama Administration focuses on reaching out to Muslims, it has been turning a deaf ear to the pleas of the Arab Christian minority in Egypt.
In an article appearing in the New York Sun, Youssef Ibrahim says that Coptic Christians, who are suffering increasing persecution in the very country where President Barack Obama delivered his “Cairo speech” of appeasement to the worldwide Muslim community, have been unsuccessful in their efforts to gain a hearing from the White House.
“In the speech Mr. Obama President apologized for America’s misdeeds to Muslims, stating that he came ‘to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world’,” Ibrahim writes. “Coptic leaders say that even while reaching out to Muslims the administration has turned a deaf ear to the pleas Arab Christian minority in the very country where he delivered his apology to Muslims.”
The President of the U.S. Copts Association, Michal Meunier, told the Sun: “The Obama administration’s benign neglect of Arab Christians, is putting freedoms and human rights in the whole Middle East at risk. Friendships with Muslims has been the Obama Administration’s opening theme from his first day in office and in that famed Cairo speech in which he extended a hand to all Muslims in partnership.”
Coptic Christians in Egypt are suffering persecution in many forms, such as having to obey a law banning the repair or construction of churches without a “presidential decree.” The measure, known as the Hamayuni Law, is based on an 1856 Ottoman decree but was rarely enforced in Egypt under the monarchial dynasty overthrown by army officers in 1952.
“Because Christianity in Egypt is so ancient, preceding Islam by seven centuries, the country is a repository of multiple centuries-old churches, part of its international cultural heritage,” Ibrahim writes. “As attractions for tourists, they rival the Pharos heritage. Those churches benefit somewhat as tourist sites, getting a measure of protection by the state. Elsewhere in Egypt, smaller, ordinary churches are burning. Because of the Hamayuni Law, the churches that are attacked or burned down remain gone.”
Ibrahim says the Copts are down to 2,524 churches, down from more than 3,000 churches in the early 1950s.
“The bigger problem is not only that of systematic destruction of churches but the inability to replace the losses and build more to keep up with the normal growth of the Christian population,” he writes.
As a result, Copts often travel great distances to receive the sacraments such as baptism, marriage, funerals, and Mass.
The businesses of Coptic Christians are also being attacked with employees being mugged, robbed, stabbed, and occasionally shot and killed, while their establishments are damaged or destroyed, Ibrahim writes.
“The Islamists’ objective is to drive Copts out of the business of tourism and commerce. That objective is voiced openly by advocates of the Moslem Brotherhood, who voice the ambition in weekly sermons, as well as over the airwaves by such broadcasters as the Qatari Al Jazeera and the Saudi Al Arabia television networks.”
In addition, news networks carry a steady stream of anti-Christian speeches and news programming.
As Mr. Meunier told the Sun, “We have no problems with American friendships with Islam and Muslims, but it cannot be accomplished at the expense of our rights as Egyptian Christians and Arab Christians, and as the very lives of our people there are endangered.”
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