Although Copts formed their own “Christian Brotherhood” back in 2005, the election of Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi has revived the urgency to deal with “political Islam” according to Copt activist Michel Fahmi.

Although Copts formed their own “Christian Brotherhood” back in 2005, the election of Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi has revived the urgency to deal with “political Islam” according to Copt activist Michel Fahmi.

The idea of establishing a Christian party, however, doesn’t appeal to most Egyptian Copts.  Farooq Girgis and his wife – both residents of the Muslim-majority Serabium village in Ismailia (200 km to the east of Cairo) – reject the idea of joining a Christian party. “All afflictions are caused by parties,” said Girgis, stressing that sectarian seditions and divisions started to appear among Egyptians when Anwar El Sadat, Egypt’s third president, authorized the establishment of parties in the 1970s.

“If only they learned from the Prophet.”

Girgis and his family provide an example of coexistence between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. Despite his suffering, according to him, from the persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood in Zagazig – north of Cairo – where he was born before the 1952 revolution, he doesn’t fear of them. “If only they learned from the Prophet,” he said.

He adds that if the Muslim Brothers abide by the Holy Quran, which he and his wife have studied, Christians wouldn’t feel persecuted and wouldn’t have to elect someone like Shafik to avoid the Brotherhood strictness.

Surprisingly, two of Girgis’ sons have become Muslims; however, they still keep close contact to the rest of the family and visit them regularly. Even though Girgis was shocked by his sons’ decision at first, he neither prevented them from changing their religion nor got angry with them.

“Christians need psychological rehabilitation.”

Girgis’ lack of enthusiasm to establish Christian parties concurs with the Coptic Church view. Bishop Macarios, the Ismailia Church pastor, affirms that the church rejects such parties “because they will harm the public interest”, explaining that the Christian parties in the west derived their teachings from “sublime ethics” and didn’t mix religious with political issues.  Macarios credits secularism with western cultures’ emergence from The Dark Ages, as well as the success of the Islamic party in a secular Turkey.

A human rights activist and head of the Youth Committee at the Wafd Party in Ismailia, Malak Naguib, doesn’t agree with the negative view regarding parties in general. He believes that many Christians “need psychological rehabilitation since the persecution and discrimination they suffered during the reign of the former regime has enhanced their spiritual link with the church and made them reluctant to engage in public work and political parties, even though they and their Muslim brothers share in everything save the place of worship.”

Naguib however rejects the idea of establishing a Christian party because it “would divide Egypt into many countries, and people would be chosen for posts based on their religion, as happened with Dr. Morsi,” he said.

Polarization during the elections

The election process that brought Morsi to power has pushed Egyptian Christians in the midst of political participation. Before voting in the run-off between Morsi and Shafik, who was considered the former regime candidate, many observers predicted that Christians would vote for Shafik, not out of conviction but of fear of the Islamists’ arrival to power. This was in fact the choice made by Girgis; however, he denied the church’s involvement in taking it.

Further, the representative of the Orthodox Church in Ismailia, Bishop Dawoud, asserted that the church considered itself a place for worship and prayer, indicating that the Copts had been free in their choices in the first round.

Eng. Magdi Saleeb, a Catholic Copt, said that he had voted for Hamdeen Sabahy, the Nasserist candidate who came in third after the first round of voting. However, when Morsi and Shafik entered the run-off, he voted for Shafik.

“Without any direction, Christians united to vote for Shafik who focused in his campaign on the Copts’ rights, which were neglected by Morsi whose campaign, with its Islamic Renaissance slogan, considered that those who would vote for Shafik would be infidels even though the Islamic religion doesn’t allow that,” he said.

“A Christian fears no one. . .”

While they can’t necessarily imagine a Christian president, many Egyptian Christians hope that Morsi will establish a civil state that distinguishes among people through their competence only. They don’t fear Morsi, they say, because “a Christian fears no one as long as he is with the Lord”, according to Bishop Dawoud who added that Christians continued to establish ritual prayers in churches despite the threats that followed the bombing of the Saints Church in Alexandria in January 2011. 

Last month hundreds of Copts in the village of Dahshur fled their homes after being targeted by Muslims reacting to the death of a Muslim young man by a Copt, which sparked a week of sectarian violence in the village.

Dawoud believes that a small amendment such as ‘and non-Muslims may resort to their jurisprudences’ to the new constitution, as Article II thereof states that Islam is the main source of legislation, would protect Copts in an Islamic state.

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