A Plea from a Christian Copt

by a Christian Copt | Jan. 11, 2010

The recent killings in Nag Hammadi have cast a dark shadow over a time that for Copts (Christian of Egypt) all over the world should be very joyous. We find ourselves unable to enjoy the glory of the Lord’s birth while our brethren in Egypt are mourning the loss of their young sons.

While many of you may see this as just an unfortunate event, I see it as much more. During the past 1,358 years, the Christian of Egypt have been attacked, persecuted, scorned, enslaved, and all but annihilated by the Arab Muslim majority.

The attacks in modern times have been the worst during the last ten years, starting with the attack on a church in the Egyptian village of El-Kosheh (recently renamed “City of Peace”) which killed 23 young men and women who were attending a meeting and wounding countless others. The suspects in this shooting were all indicted, but the Copts were the ones sentenced for “stirring up violence”.

Since a young Muslim girl was raped by a Coptic man this past November, the attacks have escalated. The man who raped the girl is in prison awaiting a trial on January 20. Don’t get me wrong, this man should be beaten to death, but these people are punishing the entire Coptic population for what one man did. If it was a Muslim man who had raped that girl, it would have been a feud between two families and it would have ended.

Since that incident, a Coptic jeweler was beheaded in his shop in the middle of the day, none were arrested. The Copts of an entire village were evacuated because it is no longer safe for them to live there, they still have not returned. Several churches and homes of Copts were burned in the villages of Dayroot, and Farshoot, none have been arrested. Stores and homes belonging to Copts in Nag Hammadi were burned, 11 Muslims and 28 Copts arrested. Of course 7 young men between the ages of 14 and 18 were killed Christmas Eve, January 6, 2010 in front of their church after the service.

I’m done. I’m done being quiet, I’m done being sad. Now I’m angry, as are all the Copts in Egypt and abroad. I’m angry that my people are being killed and no one is doing anything about it. I’m angry that my people cannot get justice in their own country. I’m angry that we have to flea our homeland for fear of our lives. I’m angry that no one knows what is going on, and the people who know aren’t doing anything to stop it. I’m angry.

I lift up first a prayer to the Lord who is above all and the provider of all, and also a plea to all of you. To anyone who has the power to do anything. Talk about it to your friends, send letters to anyone you know, the public needs to know about the excruciatingly slow genocide that has been taking place in Egypt over the past 1,300 years. There are 10 million of us left in Egypt and about 3 million abroad. Please help if you can.

I thank you for your time. God bless us and have mercy on us all.