The Coptic Christians of Egypt Today: Under Threat of Annihilation
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THE COPTIC CHRISTIANS OF EGYPT TODAY: UNDER THREAT OF ANNIHILATION By BAHEG T. BISTAWROS B.D., EVANGELICAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 1974 THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the joint degrees of Master of Arts in Public Policy and Master of Business Administration Robertson School of Government School of Business Regent University Virginia Beach, Virginia 1996 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the joint degrees of Master of Arts in Public Policy and Master of Business Administration __________________________ Baheg T. Bistawros Approved April, 1996 ___________________________ Joseph N. Kickasola, Ph.D. Chairman ___________________________ Philip C. Bom, Ph.D. ___________________________ John C. Munday Jr., Ph.D. ii Copyright l996 Baheg T. Bistawros All Rights Reserved iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to thank the Lord Jesus Christ for His grace and strength throughout his graduate work at Regent University, especially during the time of research and the writing of this thesis. And to many others who helped make this project a reality. iv CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................... vii I. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................2 II. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AGAINST COPTIC CHRISTIANS.....................6 A. THE SUFFERINGS OF COPTIC CHRISTIANS IN EGYPT..........................6 B. OPPRESSION AGAINST COPTIC CHRISTIANS ON ALL FRONTS ..........................................................................................14 C. COPTIC CHRISTIANS DENIED POLITICAL REPRESENTATION ................................................................................35 D. VIOLENCE AGAINST COPTIC CHRISTIANS IN EGYPT ........................38 III. ISLAM AS STATE-SPONSORED RELIGION ........................................................68 A. THE INTENTION OF ISLAM........................................................................68 B. LAWS DERIVED FROM ISLAM ..................................................................74 C. ISLAM AS A POLITICAL FORCE................................................................79 D. CHRISTIANS ARE OUTCASTS ACCORDING TO ISLAM .......................82 E. THE RISE OF ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISTS IN EGYPT ......................86 F. ISLAM AND THE WEST: CAN THE WEST LEARN FROM HISTORY? 107 IV. THE ROLE OF THE EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT ..............................................111 A. U.N. DOCUMENTS GUARANTEEING UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS.............................................................................111 B. DOES DEMOCRACY EXIST IN EGYPT?..................................................115 v Page C. RELENTLESS ATTACKS AGAINST COPTIC CHRISTIANS BY THE EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT .................................................116 D. ANTI-CHRISTIAN SPEECHES AND PROPAGANDA .............................120 E. MANIPULATION OF PUBLIC OPINION USING SOME COPTIC LEADERS. ...................................................................122 F. ILLEGAL SEIZURE OF COPTIC ENDOWMENTS, SCHOOLS, AND HOSPITALS ..................................................................................123 G. FALSE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE COPTIC CHURCH LEADER POPE SHENOUDA III ...........................................................126 H. SAMUEL BISTAWROS UNDER SIEGE BY THE EGYPTIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY ...................................................................132 V. BIBLICAL FOUNDATION FOR GOVERNMENT IN CONTRAST. ...................133 VI. PROPOSALS: WHAT CAN CHRISTIANS IN AMERICA DO? ..........................152 APPENDIX: SAMUEL BISTAWROS AND HIS ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ......... EGYPT BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................165 VITA................................................................................................................................173 vi ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to show the many human rights abuses by the Egyptian government and Muslim radicals against Coptic Christians, to expose the abuses to the American public and to encourage Americans to get involved in protesting and defending the rights of Coptic Christians in Egypt. The method used in this study involves information from various human rights organizations in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Books written on the subject and the agenda of Islam as a state-sponsored religion are further references. This study finds that Coptic Christians are subjected to daily persecutions. Some of the persecutions include confiscation of property, discrimination and bigotry, the imposing of Islamic laws against them to further enslave them, murders in broad daylight with impunity, extortion, the siege of some towns, the bombing and burning down of churches, and ill treatment on a daily basis. Copts are considered to be second class citizens and have been deprived of their God-given inalienable rights. The West has been blind in the face of such persecution. Egypt has been able to elude world condemnation despite the grave situation of twelve million Coptic Christians in that country. vii THE COPTIC CHRISTIANS OF EGYPT TODAY: UNDER THREAT OF ANNIHILATION viii I INTRODUCTION The West regards Egypt as a moderate country, which is true regarding its foreign policy. The West, especially the United States, seems to ignore human rights violations in that country. The annual report of the U.S. Department of State on human rights is very mild in language concerning the severe human rights violations against Coptic Christians in Egypt.1 The Department of State's annual report does not represent the truth 1Notice that I have used both the word Christian and Copts. Both are synonymous, and mean the same thing in Egypt. When writing about the Copts, in fact, I am writing about Christians and vice versa. In defining the word Coptic, Gerard in his book What is the Christian Orient said: Coptic is the last stage in the evolution of the language of the pharaohs which was deeply influenced by Greek. Coptic, here, is understood to be Egyptian. It is made up, principally, of two dialects which are Sahidic in northern [sic, southern] Egypt and Boharic in the Delta. Outside of the Greek cosmopolitan city of Alexandria, Hellenism had spread only superficially in Egypt where the mass of fellaheen [ordinary Egyptians] knew little or no Greek. As soon as Christianity was established in the country, translations of the Sacred Scriptures into Coptic began to appear. See Gerard Guertin, What is the Christian Orient (Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1967), 64. ix in that country.2 The Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on human rights and the U.S. foreign policy, after extensive hearings reported the following: The human rights factor is not accorded the high priority it deserves in our country's foreign policy. The State Department has taken the position that human rights are a domestic matter. When charges of serious violations of human rights occur, the most that the Department is likely to do is make private inquiries. The prevailing attitude has led the United States into embracing governments which practice torture and unabashedly violate every human rights guarantee pronounced by the world community. Through foreign aid and occasional intervention both overt and covert--the United States supports these governments 2In comparing the annual reports of the U.S. Department of State for 1986, 1987, and 1993, with the various documents published by Amnesty International, Christian Solidarity International, and other human rights groups, one comes to the conclusion that the U.S. Department of State reports do not represent the true condition of the Christian minority of Egypt and the violations of their human rights by the Egyptian government. A higher priority for human rights in foreign policy is both morally imperative and practically necessary.3 On a daily basis, Christians in Egypt are subjected to persecution, harassment, threats, attacks, invasion of privacy, discrimination, confiscation of property, and murder.4 Christians in Egypt are considered outcasts. Muslims look at Christians as a burden and think that they must get rid of them or force them to accept the religion of Islam. Politics and religion are two sides to the same Islamic coin.5 Dean Curry in his book A World without Tyranny argues that: . Islam allows no "space" between the church and the state. The secular and the sacred are one and the same. The state exists to serve Islam; government is part of the sacred.6 The vast majority of laws are derived from Islam, disregarding the Christian's beliefs and culture. The same can be true in the judiciary system. All political parties and social acceptance are derived from Islam. Christians are prohibited from forming their own party, from establishing their own universities, from having their own radio or television stations, and seldom having their views heard in the media or newspapers.7 On 3David Heaps, Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy (New York: American Association for the International Commission of Jurists, 1984), 9. 4Shawky F. Karas, The Copts since the Arab Invasion: Strangers in their Land (Jersey City, NJ: