http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2011/1033/op162.htm
27 January - 2 February 2011 Issue No. 1033 Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 Silence the fanatics While everyone is to blame, not just the government, for letting sectarian hatred fester in Egypt, now everyone must act to end it, writes Amr Hamzawy* -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Egyptian politics is often depressing and mind numbing, but never more so than in the aftermath of the Alexandria bombing. Egypt is in peril, its humanism and national fabric now under threat. We have failed, as people and the government, to uphold religious diversity. We have failed to build a modern society based on true equality among citizens regardless of factional affiliations. We have failed to maintain the tolerance that kept us safe for so long. If we have any love for this country, if we have any respect for its humanism, then we have to admit that what happened on 1 January wasn't an outside conspiracy hatched by foreign terrorists. Even if there was a conspiracy involved, and even if the conspirators were foreign, the problem is still ours and ours alone. We have failed to establish a society that treats its members equally. We have allowed sectarianism to grow unchecked in our midst. We have allowed extremists to go crazy with their message of hatred. The Muslim majority in this country has failed to protect the national fabric. The majority has condoned discrimination against the Copts, and the government has failed to address the inherent causes of the discrimination. Innocent blood has been shed because of our failures. So now is the time to look deep and hard inside our collective soul. Let's stop harping on foreign conspiracies. Forget the invisible hands of outsiders. Forget the severed head that presumably has Asian features and is said to have been found at the site of the bombing. Let's look at what matters. Sectarian terrorists pick their targets with care. When they strike in Iraq, it's because they know that society is fractured beyond hope. When they strike in Egypt, it's because they recognise the telltale symptoms -- the sectarian distrust, the factional resentment in our midst. Whenever a sectarian crime is committed, our kneejerk reaction is to go into denial. We pay lip service to a non-existent national unity. We claim that Christians and Muslims are brothers. We even get priests and sheikhs to embrace in public. This is nonsense. Unity is much more than photo ops. The Christians attending the memorials in the Abbasiya Cathedral and the Two Saints Church sneered at the officials sent to console them, and who can blame them? The Copts are disillusioned with the government, angry at the official line, tired of the discrimination, sick of the public apathy. So let's stop the charade. People will write in papers. They'll say that their best friends are Christians. They'll say that they love their neighbours, Girgis and Edward and Michel. But that's just silly. Those who write such things are the same ones who levelled accusations against the Coptic Church in the past. They are the same ones who spread rumours about Coptic women converting to Islam. They are not to be trusted. Forget about the presumed fraternity between Muslims and Copts. The current social climate is not one of fraternity. Ahmed is no longer a brother of Girgis. Mohamed and Michel don't hang out together much. This country has failed to establish equality among its citizens. But the blame doesn't rest with the government and its agencies alone, as the opposition would have us think. True, the government bears part of the responsibility, but we are all -- especially the Muslim majority -- to blame. We are to blame for allowing the Copts to be treated as second-class citizens. We are to blame for allowing certain individuals in our midst to preach a message of sectarian sedition. Pseudo preachers, who propagate a message of hatred, have grown in stature. Some have been elevated into the status of national heroes. It is such preachers who call for demonstrations in front of churches. Some of them have even urged a "boycott of Christian products". The government is heavy-handed in its methods and discriminatory in its policies. The government has withheld democracy from all Egyptians, Muslims and Copts, while giving its agencies and a few powerful men a freehand. But to say that Muslims and Copts are equal victims to discrimination is a gross misrepresentation. And to claim that democracy is a magic solution for our sectarian troubles is also silly. The Copts have grievances that are common to all Egyptians, and then they have a set of legal, religious, political and social complaints that go beyond that. When the Copts claim that they are treated as second-class citizens we must listen. When they claim that their personal safety is gravely endangered they are not lying. Ahmed and Girgis may or may not be best friends, but that doesn't end the discrimination against Copts. We have failed to give the Copts the same religious rights given to Muslims. Their places of worship are not treated in the same way Muslim places of worship are. And there is only a handful of Copts in the new parliament. In the upper echelons of government, Copts are seriously underrepresented. Acts of sectarian violence against Copts and churches are on the rise. The attack in Naga Hammadi was remarkable in the tardiness of authorities in bringing the culprits to trial; something that suggested to many that no deterrent exists against attacking Copts and churches. For some Copts, it seemed that the government was colluding in the sectarian violence. Over the past few years, the government has taken some measures to establish equal rights for all citizens regardless of religious affiliations. Lately, the government closed down some television stations that regularly engaged in sectarian sedition. But the government is still unable or reluctant to issue a common law governing the construction of houses of worship. It hasn't ended the constraints on Coptic religious freedoms, nor has it brought quick justice to the perpetrators of sectarian violence. The government is also acting as if the political marginalisation of the Copts and their underrepresentation in administrative and security services were irreversible. Of the 800 candidates fielded by the National Democratic Party (NDP) in the last elections, only 10 were Copts. The NDP said that it couldn't nominate more Copts to parliament because of social pressures. It is still reluctant to agree to a quota for Copts in the legislature, just as there is a quota for women. The reason for that, it claims, is that all citizens are equal and the Copts don't need any laws that set them apart from the rest of the nation. The fact that they are continually marginalised didn't seem to bother the NDP. When acts of violence are committed against Copts, the government reacts with security measures. Then it arranges for some Muslim and Christian figures to meet in public. Apart from that, everything stays the same. The laws remain unfair and the policies twisted. The government acts as if it were incapable of helping the Copts out. One wonders if it has any interest in doing so. Meanwhile, society has failed to address the problem. I cannot stress it enough that the main responsibility for the current situation rests with the Muslim majority which, since the creation of the modern state in Egypt, has been in charge of maintaining diversity, tolerance and coexistence. It is the responsibility of the majority to embrace the Copts, protect their security, and ensure that they are treated equally. It is the responsibility of the majority to reject discrimination and oppose persecution. But with the notable exception of some positive initiatives, such as that we've seen following the Alexandria bombing, when Muslims joined the Copts in protecting churches on Christmas Day (6 January for the Coptic Church), the majority seems incapable of protecting the Copts, or unwilling to do so. Large sections of Muslims are falling victim to extremist ideas being propagated in the media. Look at Alexandria. Once a model of cosmopolitan tolerance, the city has become a breeding ground for sectarianism. There are Muslims in our midst willing to say stuff like, "boycott Christian goods". And yet they act horrified when Coptic fanatics shout back, "Egypt is our country and you're just guests here." There are Muslims who question Coptic tenets, and yet they get outraged when the Copts return the favour. If we want to rid Egypt of the spectre of sectarianism we will have to end discrimination against the Copts. We have to take immediate steps to introduce legal, political and procedural measures ensuring the safety of the Copts and guaranteeing their freedom of worship. More importantly, we have to increase Coptic presence in parliament and key official positions. We used to say that "Religion is for God and country is for all." It is time to turn this slogan into reality. Stand by the Copts. Stand together, and for God's sake silence the mad choir of exclusionist fanatics. * The writer is Research Director and Senior Associate at the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut. 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