Fear and Loathing in Christian Cairo

After a day of brutal violence, my Egyptian Christian family -- and the Coptic community -- is afraid for the future.

BY MONIQUE EL-FAIZY | OCTOBER 11, 2011

CAIRO – The brutal assault on Sunday, Oct. 9, on Coptic protesters -- the deadliest violence since Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in February -- resulted in at least two dozen deaths and was seen by many of Egypt's Christians as confirmation of their fears that the revolution would usher in an era of violent Islamist ascendancy.

That was certainly the concern among many in my Coptic family. I had landed in Cairo at noon, a few hours before the clashes broke out, and the unease among Christians in Egypt was almost the first topic of conversation when my father's cousin came to pick me up and drive me to a family birthday party at the nearby Heliopolis Club. "Why is America endorsing the Muslim Brotherhood?" his wife asked me. (She was referring to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comments in June that Washington would engage in limited contacts with the Islamist group, which she and many others here took as support of the Brotherhood.)

Given the escalation in sectarian tensions -- a member of their church had been beaten at a demonstration just weeks earlier -- she and her husband were understandably fearful about where the country was headed, as are the vast majority of Copts. At the same time, though, they both said they thought the revolution had been a good thing and were trying to remain hopeful about the future of Egypt.

That, though, was before the news of the Army's attack on the protesters had come through. As the children played at the club, some of the adults followed news reports of the unfolding event on their cell phones. I had spent much of the evening engrossed in conversation with a cousin in his mid-20s, one of just a few of my relatives who had supported the revolution from the get-go and had visited Tahrir Square. He was attuned to the Coptic community's worries -- "terrified" is a word one hears a lot these days -- but he remained convinced that Egypt could emerge from its period of turmoil a better country.

By that point in the evening, everyone in our group had heard that live ammunition had been fired into the crowd of demonstrators; my cousin's mother sternly urged him to be careful going home and call her once he got there. He remained sanguine, nodding his assent, but there was no denying that tensions had risen perceptibly among our group.

It wasn't until I got home at about 10 that evening and was able to read news reports that I realized the extent of the tragedy -- and of the disinformation that had been disseminated on government-controlled television. Early reports said -- falsely -- that soldiers had been set upon by Coptic protesters and killed, and encouraged the public to go protect the soldiers from the Christian demonstrators. Mobs took to the streets and were randomly attacking anyone they believed to be Christian, according to Facebook and Twitter accounts from people on the scene.

MOHAMMED HOSSAM/AFP/Getty Images

 

Monique El-Faizy is a journalist and author of God and Country: How Evangelicals Have Become America's New Mainstream. She is currently working on a book about Egypt's Coptic Christian minority.

KUNINO

1:13 PM ET

October 13, 2011

Anybody but ...

Pastor Martin Niemoeller's masterly description of the creeping nature of ethnic and religious cleansing started with the famous "first they came for the Jews" and passes through other groups, including his: the Christians. In the Middle east, a process applauded from Washington and to some degree inspired from there, the Christians seem to be among the first to go.

The Christians that Saddam Hussein protected have virtually vanished from Iraq: some were killed, some were forced into conversion to Islam, most fled the country under threat. We've seen this week the kindly, democratic, compassionate Egyptian army driving APCs full tilt at Christian street demonstrators -- the people Hosni Mubarak protected -- angry because another of their churches had been burned out.

Christians apparently continue to thrive in Syria under the protection of Bashar al-Assad and Washington seems eager to put Mr al-Assad out of a job in the near future. Right wing nuts insult the current administration for not, in effect, invading Syria to help topple its current government. The Christians of Libya presumably ponder their future with deep interest.

This melancholy history leads me to wonder whether anybody has yet studied the effects of American aspirations and policies on Iraq since 15 minutes before Donald Rumsfeld demonstrated shock an awe to the citizens of Baghdad. We know there have been a few new governments since the, but do we know or care how the lives of the Iraqis have changed in the eight-and-a-half-years since? Some winners, some losers, doubtless. How many of each? And how widespread and deep the losses?

 

YARINSIZ

4:54 AM ET

November 7, 2011

The Christians that Saddam

The Christians that Saddam Hussein protected have virtually vanished from Iraq: some were killed, some were forced into conversion to Islam, most fled the country under threat. We've seen this week the kindly, democratic, compassionate seslichat Egyptian army driving APCs full tilt at Christian street demonstrators -- the people Hosni Mubarak protected -- angry because another of their churches had been burned out.