“A car for sale… its owner will migrate” reads one Internet advertisement that caught 35 year-old Maha Rashwan’s attention. As she continued looking for cars, she found that the most modern cars were owned by Copts preparing to leave. Rashwan says she immediately believed the French ‘Le Figaro’ newspaper article, which reported the migration of 100,000 Christians since the beginning of the revolution; a report that has been denied by the state.  Yet the state has yet to provide clear numbers.

“A car for sale… its owner will migrate” reads one Internet advertisement that caught 35 year-old Maha Rashwan’s attention. As she continued looking for cars, she found that the most modern cars were owned by Copts preparing to leave. Rashwan says she immediately believed the French ‘Le Figaro’ newspaper article, which reported the migration of 100,000 Christians since the beginning of the revolution; a report that has been denied by the state.  Yet the state has yet to provide clear numbers.

Rashwan says her neighbor’s sister, Susie Fahmi, obtained a normal visa to the United States two months ago. Fahmi arrived in Florida and tried to work in a supermarket for $7 per hour. She will return within days to sell her property in preparation for a longer stay until she gets her “green card”.  Shamie says she has become afraid of Islamist rule in Egypt. “Why should we live under the threat of extremists?” she asked.

Tales of migration

Susie stresses that a number of her acquaintances filed religious persecution suits as soon as they arrived in America and found that proving that to the courts has become less difficult.

Young novelist Samir Zaki Thiabdi on the other hand, is committed to Cairo, its cafes and its people; however, he does not underestimate the phenomenon of migration around him. Thiabdi’s friend, a police officer, traveled to Mexico, and tried to enter the US across the desert. When the journey grew perilous, the friend turned himself in to the border police, saying he had been subject to religious persecution.

Samir’s friend was about to die, as the Africans who die at the Egyptian-Israeli borders. Samir however draws attention to the role played by the TV channels of the Copts abroad in facilitating it. On their screens, they declare that the arrivals to any American airport can call a specific number and somebody will immediately receive them to begin procedures of persecution suits.

Being a Copt on the job

Egyptian authorities entered into almost a small diplomatic crisis with the Netherlands, with a rumor that a right-wing party was receiving cases of Coptic religious asylum seekers. In a café near its embassy in Zamalek district, Mina William, a 26 year-old activist, who participated in the revolution and is a member of the April 6th Youth Movement, was filling out visa applications. He said his father, who, before the revolution, used to deter him from speaking about the uprising, finally welcomed and blessed his travel.

William works for a small telecom company. Before the revolution, his department had 60 employees, 12 of them were Copts. After the revolution, however, they decreased to five, including him. Although he says the company does not discriminate against him, and the only greeting during the holidays came from a Salafist fellow, the company leaders try to follow the current trend of throwing Christians and activists.

 They assign him tasks beyond his duties, saying, “Imagine you’re going to a demonstration.” Mina calls says this form of persecution cannot be proven or punished.

Ester Posada, a 56-year-old administrative employee in the city of Nag Hammadi (in southern Egypt), says the word “Christian” has come to be a curse word, which has prompted her, at this age, she says to request and wait for the “green card.” She says she already experienced a yearning for national unity in the 1970s and 1980s but it no longer seems to be enough. She says kidnapping of underage girls from rich Coptic families has become normal. She says she is scared whenever her daughter, Travina, goes out, in spite of the good company of her Muslim neighbors.

Escape is not the answer

Despite anecdotal evidence of Copts leaving Egypt, the church denies the alleged phenomenon. Father Amenus Fares, deputy of Qena Diocese, where Ester lives, says the number of members in his parish who had migrated did not exceed one-hand finger. “The church rejects calls for migration,” Fares said, but acknowledged that there was growing fear amongst its members, especially amongst the young.  “Priests can only remind them, that escaping from distress is escaping from God himself.”