The Arab Spring is turning sour for Egypt’s Christian Coptic minority — whose future now seems even bleaker than it was under the deposed President Hosni Mubarak.
Rioting Saturday in the Imbaba neighborhood, northwest of downtown Cairo, killed 12 people and injured 250 and set two churches ablaze. The cause? A Muslim man alleged that his wife, a Copt who’d converted to Islam, had been kidnapped by her Christian brethren and held hostage inside a church.
The riots, which have yet to die down, were initiated by the bearded men of the harsh Salafist branch of Islam, which is intolerant not only of Christians and Jews but also of Shiites, Sufis and other “heretics” who have strayed from the religion’s supposed early roots. Copts and Egypt’s pro-democracy forces have also blamed the security forces for failing to protect them.
Some 10 percent of Egypt’s population, the Copts are one of the world’s oldest Christian communities and the Mideast’s largest minority. When allowed, they’ve reached the highest echelons of Egyptian society. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a foreign minister who became UN secretary-general, is but one example.
But for decades now, as Egypt’s economy deteriorated along with its status as leader of the Arab world, Copts have been targeted for attacks — with the Mubarak regime’s passive (and sometime active) approval.
In Mubarak’s later years, Copts complained that Salafists and other Islamists kidnapped Christian women, forcing them to marry Muslims and convert to Islam. As government-related job openings (Egypt’s only economic opportunity) became more scarce, security officials ignored and at times participated in violence against Copts or their religious symbols.
But that was old Egypt, right? Wrong. With the same military establishment and permanent bureaucracy that have held power for the last half-century still running the show, change is coming slowly. When Islamist demonstrators called for the head of the new Coptic governor of the southern Qena province, Emad Mikhail, new Prime Minister Essam Sheraf suspended the appointment last month.
Under Mubarak, sectarian strife was treated as a “security” matter, with the police suppressing all sides, says Cairo University Islamic studies scholar Ali Mabrook, a major advocate of religious tolerance. But with Mubarak gone, passions are erupting.
Egypt is “suffering from a culture of fanaticism related to the economic and sociological situation,” Mabrook says. But, he adds: “If you go and ask the people, most of them will tell you there’s no problem” between Egypt’s Muslims and Christians. And what problems do exist will be resolved once Egypt enacts “democracy and the rule of law.”
But that’s far from guaranteed. Unemployment and other economic and social ills won’t improve much anytime soon; many fear that Egypt’s next leader (to be elected next winter) will allow Salafists and their more moderate Muslim Brotherhood allies to attack Copts and other “infidels” as a way to deflect public frustrations from daily hardships. (Other obvious scapegoats: Americans, colonialists, crusaders, world bankers and other external forces.)
The leading presidential candidates, from former Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa on down, have been more explicit and detailed about such foreign issues as their intent to downgrade relations with Israel than about the economy or the new constitution they envision for Egypt.
This is an old Arab tradition: Unite the people by distracting them from issues like jobs, the rule of law, education and prosperity while igniting passions that are irrelevant to their daily lives. The new attacks on Copts fit that tactic perfectly: “Infidels” are as good as a piñata for venting frustrations as any.
Unlike several Arab countries — Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and even Iraq, to name a few — where sectarian strife frustrates any would-be democrat, Egypt is largely a homogenous, Sunni society. The plight of Copts therefore hasn’t dominated the headlines and is unlikely to change the way we view the Arab world’s journey toward democracy.
But this isn’t only about Copts. Egypt won’t be fully free of its pharaohs until it rids itself of a culture that seeks scapegoats in lieu of policy that benefits its people. Only when a minority ceases to be the target of riots, and only when its talented members are reintegrated into Egypt’s leadership, will we know that a true Arab Spring is around the corner.
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