By Palash R. Ghosh: Subscribe to Palash's RSS feed
January 10, 2012 9:52 AM EST
The emergence of conservative Islamist political groups in the wake of the Egyptian revolt has raised fears about the nation's Coptic Christian minority.
Long persecuted by the Muslim majority, tensions between the two factions have intensified in the past year, featuring riots, assaults, arson and other incidences of sectarian strife.
The Christian presence in Egypt stretches as far back to the earliest days of Christendom -- in fact, it was the nation's dominant faith until the Arab Muslim invasions of the 7th century.
Today, the Copts represent at least 5 percent of Egypt's population (perhaps higher), making it the largest Christian community in the Middle East.
The Coptic church itself is quite diversified, including Orthodox, Catholic and even Protestant members – although the Copts are not affiliated in any way with either the Roman Catholic Church of Rome or the various Eastern Orthodox churches.
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About 4-million Egyptian Copts are believed to live outside of Egypt, including communities in Sudan, U.S., Canada and Australia.
In 1952, when Gamal Adel Nasser overthrew King Farouk and established a pan-Arab nationalist republic, the status of Coptic Christians became extremely precarious.
Christians, who were resented for their wealth, witnessed the closing of some of their churches and courts and confiscation of properties, prompting many to emigrate.
Meanwhile, Copts who remained in Egypt have faced widespread discrimination, restrictions on church-building and, in the worst cases, assaults and murders by militant Muslims.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) once noted: "Egyptians are able to convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who convert to Christianity face difficulties in getting new identity papers and some have been arrested for allegedly forging such documents.”
Egyptian authorities have also reportedly under-reported the number of Christians in the country in order to downplay their influence.
However, a number of Copts have reached high positions in government, including Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who served as Egypt's acting foreign minister twice under President Anwar Sadat; and later served as the United Nations Secretary-General.
Now, in 2012, with Islamist parties having performed exceedingly well in post-Hosni Mubarak parliamentary elections (with even the hard-line Salafist candidates scoring some seats), the Copts are again living in fear. (Under Mubarak’s reign, Islamic fundamentalist parties were banned).
The Salafists adhere to the type of harsh, unyielding Islam that is predominant in Saudi Arabia. Salafists have already burned Christian churches and attacked Copts.
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