Editor’s Note: In the following article, Abdel Moaty Hegazy, a respected secularist Egyptian writer, takes as his starting point the recent debacle in Egypt, when riots ensued and Christian families were evicted from their homes, simply because a Coptic youth was accused of having a picture of a Muslim girl on his cell phone. Aside from addressing such recent particulars, the article is also a good history concerning relations between Muslims and Christians in Egypt, with surprises along the way that many idealistic Islamists may find unwelcome.
For the past forty years, Egypt has been plagued by sectarian sedition. As soon as we extinguish its fires in one place, it instantly re-ignites somewhere else. We should expect the status quo to endure and to get even worse, as long as we continue to live in a state of denial, seeking to delay the catastrophe rather than eradicating it from the roots.
All we do is relieve the symptoms of the disease—or rather cover it up—while the true cause is spreading and permeating until it has become endemic. In fact, we are nurturing religious sedition, thus doing a favor to those who commandeer and abuse religion.
How can we explain the displacement of Egyptian families, looting their property and torching their homes—simply because someone claimed that a Christian youth had on his cellphone photos of a Muslim girl?!
The Christian man’s behavior was reckless, but it happens; actually, many people commit similar acts. Reckless behavior needs be reprimanded and modified. Yet, the reaction to this reckless act was barbaric and fuelled the situation.
We realize the gravity of the catastrophe when we see the state, represented by the governor, taking part in the shameful council that ordered the evacuation of Christians. This only means that extremists are actually governing this country, who not only discriminate between Muslims and Christians but go as far as segregating between the two “teams.” This is not much different than what happened in Israel, when they built a wall to separate between Israelis and Palestinians.
We need to mend our ways if we want to avoid an insurmountable catastrophe. Turning a blind eye to the true reasons behind sectarian sedition, settling for separation between conflicting parties and issuing religiously motivated rulings which are brazenly iniquitous and unfair for the minority, would lead to disaster and end up dividing this nation and country.
Tolerating what happened in Amreya shall give way to the recurrence of similar incidents everywhere in Egypt. In fact, only two weeks after the Amreya incident, the Met Bashar village in Sharqia witnessed a similar episode.
The unremitting scenario of the past forty years [despotic rule] shall endure as long as we don’t deal with the true reasons for sedition. As a matter of fact, nowadays, sedition has secured its own outspoken and dogmatic groups of supporters.
We live in a hideous atmosphere that promotes sedition and condones discrimination between Muslims and Christians, leading to utter indignation and transgression against the law. Instituting discrimination to be the prevalent norm as it was in the Middle Ages or in the pre-modern Egypt era, could prove detrimental.
In the historic, pre-modern Egyptian eras, Islamic Sharia law was enforced by successive Islamic authorities that ruled Egypt. Indeed, Islamic Sharia was lenient enough to allow Christians and Jews to hold onto their religions. However, there was obvious and undeniable discrimination between Muslims and non-Muslims with regards to citizens’ rights and duties. Theoretically, Muslims were the “owners of the country” whereas Christians and Jews were mere dhimmis, who were allowed to live, reside and work but were not allowed to partake in governing the state. They were not treated as equal citizens.
Muslim Egyptians were not much different because they were inherently Copts who converted to Islam after Arabs invaded Egypt. All Egyptians were originally Copts; hence, they did not participate in ruling the country. Those who ruled were the foreign invaders and their mercenaries.
In fact, the only difference between Muslim and Christian Egyptians was that Christians paid jizya [tribute] and Muslims did not. Muslims, however, remained slaves who cultivated the land but did not enjoy its fruits.
The difference between Muslims and Christians in Islamic countries was that the Islamic state viewed Muslims as its genuine subjects, while Christians and Jews were considered as subordinates for those subjects, who lived as vassals under the subjects’ protection.
Arabia’s traditions and relationships modality were imposed on the countries they invaded. They had strong tribes whose people were all related by blood bond. Then, there were lesser or satellite tribes who lived under the protection of the strong tribes. Those who were privileged by the bond of blood are the masters while others are mere vassals and slaves.
The Arab invaders imposed their nomadic Bedouin style on Egypt. The Egyptian state continued to discriminate against Christians and treat them as dhimmis until the mid-19th century when Saiid Pasha came to power. He granted Christians their long-denied citizenship rights, and, in 1855, abolished jizya. Saiid Pasha also allowed Christians’ recruitment into the army.
Only shortly before that, Mohamed Ali Pasha had allowed the enrollment of Muslim Egyptians in the national army, which was previously an exclusive turf for foreigners and mercenaries.
Egyptians, Muslims and Christians, were united for the first time in one national army. Afterwards, they were united again in the first Egyptian parliament which Khedive Ismail established in 1866. Christians won several seats in the parliament and represented, along with their fellow Muslim Egyptians, the entire reawakening Egyptian nation.
Ahmed Orabi led the entire country, as one nation, demanding freedom and affirming its unity.
The revolutionary imam, Sheikh Muhammad Abdu, stressed this unity as he declared in the fifth article of the program of his National Party: “The National Party is a political party, not a religious one. It is comprised of men of all faiths. Christians, Jews and all individuals who toil this land and speak its language, regardless of religion, are members of this party.”
In 1919, Muslims and Christians united in the face of the British occupation. They coined their immortal slogan, “Religion is for God and the homeland is for all”.
However, disaster befell the country when the army officers seized power in 1952. They divested Egypt of all the progress it achieved in its modern era.
They disbanded political parties, suspended the constitution and forced the radio and press to sing their praises day and night. Elections were always rigged, and while Christians could easily win dozens of parliament seats before the army officers seized power, not a single Christian managed to win in the elections in the past six decades that followed their usurpation of power.
Since the junta seized power, they shirked off their original responsibility of defending the country. Thus the country sustained—thanks to them—one defeat after the other. Later, Egyptians realized that what they thought was a revolution was in fact a coup d’état. Egyptians were frustrated and their sense of belonging waned. Hence, earning a living in one of the wealthy oil countries became their greatest dream.
Free opinion was stifled, national and democratic activities were curtailed and Egyptians had no place to go but mosques and churches. Political Islam groups emerged as Islamist leaders started to return from their desert diaspora. They colluded with Sadat and conspired to lead Egyptians to where they stand now. They have succeeded in transforming Egyptians once again into Muslims and dhimmis, tribes and fellaheen.