Paul KeenanIs the tide turning for Egypt’s Christians? If the Middle East contains any lessons over the last few years, it is that matters in the region can turn on a hair.
Sadly, too, it has been instructive to watch the precarious fortunes of minority Christian communities whose long histories in nations have guaranteed them nothing among the more violent ‘visionaries’ of the new Middle East.
Look most recently to Baghdad for a measure of the uncertainty still gripping Christians as fighters of the Islamic State (IS) hold firm in their desire to seize the capital, the consequences of which – convert, leave or die – have already been presaged in towns such as Mosul.
In his opening address to the October 20 consistory in Rome, Pope Francis referred to events in the Middle East and lamented the fact that “it seems the value of human life is not considered any more, that the person does not count and may be sacrificed to other interests”.
Had the consistory begun just a few days later than it did, it is to be wondered if the Pontiff would have felt able to refer to somewhat more positive news, specifically from Egypt.
Re-establishment
Here, on the evening of October 21, leading figures from the spheres of religion and politics gathered in Cairo’s Coptic museum to announce the re-establishment of the country’s Holy Family pilgrimage, offering visitors the chance to follow the major sites associated with the Flight into Egypt. (The itinerary aims to bring visitors from North Sinai across the Nile to Cairo’s Church of Ss Sergius and Bacchus, reputedly standing on the site where the Holy Family sought refuge.)
Present at the ceremony to celebrate the pilgrimage’s return was the Coptic leader, Pope Tawadros II, who declared: “Jesus was the first ‘tourist’ to Egypt. For us, for our community, his stay in this land has been a blessing for the present and for the future.”
The patriarch’s words, uttered in the presence of Hisham Zaazou, the country’s tourism minister, were no doubt carefully chosen to play into the overall programme envisaged by the current Egyptian administration to revitalise the country’s tourism sector, a sector which realised nearly €10 billion annually before the days of the Arab spring from 2011.
That the country is working hard to promote its tourism again – minister Zaaazou has invited foreign delegations to judge for themselves the “New Egypt” – offers a measure of positivity for what has been achieved since the usurping, not just of dictator Hosni Mubarak, but Muslim Brotherhood chief, Mohamed Morsi. The latter brought no small measure of vengeful pain to Christians, reviled by Brotherhood supporters as backers of the now-installed administration of President Abdel Fattah el Sisi.
It must be perfectly reasonable, therefore, to test claims of a new Egypt against the experiences of the Christian community in the interim. And the signs are good.
In an AsiaNews interview with Fr Refic Greiche, spokesperson for the Catholic Church in Egypt, which ran the day after the pilgrimage launch, Fr Greiche said of Egypt: “In terms of security, life is much better than the year when the Muslim Brotherhood was in power. The country is becoming more confident and, in a sense, one can say that Egypt has found itself.”
Importantly, Fr Greiche’s words were based not alone on the pilgrimage move but on substantive moves prompted by President el Sisi himself for a ‘better deal’ for minority religions in the area of places of worship. In the course of his interview, Fr Greiche revealed that the president had recently met Christian leaders to discuss drafting new legislation guiding the construction of churches.
“Such feel-good unity looks set
to end with parliamentary elections, pencilled in for the end of this year”
Reflecting something of his vision for the new Egypt, President el Sisi is reported to have signalled his willingness to have the presidential approval clause for church buildings contained in current guidelines omitted in favour of more local processes.
Church representatives are now working with government on drafting the new bill. (This is in keeping with Article 235 of the Egypt’s new Constitution which requires the House of Representatives to legislate on church construction.)
A note of caution is warranted here: while friendly meetings and draft legislation are in themselves measures of a distinctly fresh mood abroad in Egypt, they are very much ‘of the hour’.
Secular/political observers of events locally have pointed out that, to now, the country has ridden the crest of a ‘wave of consensus’, being nearly unanimous both in the January vote on a new constitution and the presidential election of May (not to mention the removal of Hosni Mubarak).
Candidates
But such feel-good unity looks set to end with parliamentary elections, pencilled in for the end of this year. Parties and candidates are already seeking alliances and sharpening knives against opponents. Draft legislation rises and falls with the fortunes of government.
Yet, for Christians, the current reality is that the threats of just a year ago – a wave of church attacks and sectarian murders – have abated to levels Fr Greiche described as “a minimum”.
He conceded that issues which have dogged interfaith relations in Egypt for decades still exist. In this he referred to kidnappings of Christians for ransom and to the ongoing practice in certain quarters of abducting Christian girls for conversion and marriage to Muslim men.
On the latter, a group known as the Association of Victims of Abduction and Forced Disappearance (AVAFD) issued a report in June detailing some 550 such abductions since 2011.
In an unintended twist, some of the current unity fostered within Egypt can also be laid at the door of IS and its activities. While international attention focuses on the group’s diabolical activities across Syria and Iraq, in Egypt the populace is concerned with the actions of affiliated groups both in Sinai and neighbouring Libya, some of whom are believed to have smuggled weapons to sympathisers within Egypt itself.
“Egyptians who rejected the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood will not easily surrender their gains”
While the proximity of these extremist elements is clearly a concern, it is true at the same time that those ordinary Egyptians who already rejected the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood will not easily surrender their gains to the far more extreme IS. In this they will certainly find Christians standing shoulder to shoulder, just as they did during the Tahrir Square revolution of 2011.
Time will tell on all things, of course, and who can say what societal shocks may yet befall Egypt and its neighbours across a far from stabilised Middle East?
For now, however, the country’s Christians have been afforded their own room to renew after three years of violent pressure.