Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Modern Coptic Struggle (1) The State vs. the Church 1971-1981

Copts are the Christian Minority in Egypt. Historically they had their share of trouble as a subdued minority for two thousand years. This article focuses on their modern struggle since the military took control of Egypt in 1952.
Before 1952, Egypt was a kingdom, the king rules but he doesn't govern. The elected prime minister governs, similar to the British royal system. In liberal Egypt, 1919-1952, Copts enjoyed one of their most peaceful and prosperous eras. They led the peaceful liberation struggle against the Brits with Saad Zaghloul (most of El-Wafd party leaders were Copts) and two of them became prime ministers.

Since the military took power in 1952, things began to deteriorate fast. When the government nationalized everything, from companies and banks to land. Copts lost their position as one of the wealthiest sects in Egypt. Before that, Copts were able to send their kids to private school, which they owned. The educated Muslim kids went to Coptic schools, so they were tolerant by nature. When Copts lost their wealth, a lot of them left Egypt. This was the first wave of Coptic exodus in the 1960's. The great relation between Pope Kyrillos and President Nasser, saved the Copts from sectarian violence though. But losing their financial status affected them badly.

In 1971 President Sadat followed President Nasser and Pope Shenouda followed Pope Kyrillos. The relation between the two new leaders was not at its best as Sadat wanted to attract the Political Islamists to his camp against the communists. Sadat tried to appeal to Muslim as the "Believing President", as he liked people to call him. He tried to force Shari'a law on the country in return of ruling the country forever. That initiated the epic struggle between the Church and the State, between Pope Shenouda and President Sadat.

The Struggle between the Pope and the President reached its hight in 1981 when the President revoked the executive order approving Pope Shenouda as a Pope for the Copts, denoting the State doesn't recognize him as the head of the Church anymore and appointed a 5-bishop committee to run the Church affairs. Putting the Pope under house arrest in one of the remote desert monasteries. Sadat was killed by Islamists less than two months after this incident leaving the pope under house arrest.

That was the first episode from the modern Coptic struggle. The State Vs the Church.
In the following posts I will discuss the (2) The Islamist militant against Coptic people and (3) The tensions between everyday Muslim and everyday Copt.

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