I read with dismay the reports of repeated assaults on Copts in Egypt.
Here's a Wall Street Journal account (June 11):
Five weeks after the fall of the Egyptian regime, Ayman Anwar Mitri's [a member of the Christian Coptic minority] apartment was torched. When he showed up to investigate, he was bundled inside by bearded Islamists...[who] accused him of having rented the apartment - by then unoccupied - to loose Muslim women...They beat him with the charred remains of his furniture. Then, one of them produced a box cutter and...amputated Mr. Mitri's right ear.
"When they were beating me, they kept saying: 'We won't leave any Christians in this country,'" Mr. Mitri recalled in a recent interview.
Earlier reports this year spoke of a destroyed church in Soul, 20 miles from Cairo, and the mass evacuation of Christians from the village, as well as the New Year's Day bombing of an Alexandria church, leaving 25 Christians dead and scores wounded. And that's only for starters.
Discrimination, distrust, and paranoia feed the troubling climate. Rumors spread like wildfire. A Christian has allegedly abducted a Muslim and tattooed her with a cross. A Muslim disappears and Christians are accused of violence. An intermarriage triggers fear that Christians are trying to subvert the majority population.
Egypt, of course, has been heavily in the political news in recent months. Unrest in the streets led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. The spirit of Tahrir Square captured the imagination of many. Talk of a new dawn in Egypt has been widespread.
But if a page is to be turned in the Arab world's most populous country, it cannot come at the expense of a vulnerable minority. Copts have lived in Egypt for nearly 2,000 years and represent the largest Christian minority in the Middle East, comprising ten percent of Egypt's 83 million inhabitants.
While some Egyptians, to their credit, have spoken bravely of national unity between Muslims and Copts, they have not been able to stop the deadly assaults or lessen the widespread fear.
As a Jew, I identify with the Copts' situation.
Perhaps it's because we can write a doctoral thesis on the topic of minority status. We know all too well what it means to live in a country where legal protections are left to the whim of the authorities, not embedded in a country's DNA or democratic architecture.
Indeed, according to the 1971 constitution, Islam is Egypt's state religion. Nine years later, the state added that the religious principles of Islamic jurisprudence are the principal source of national legislation.
The story of the Copts is all too familiar.
Jews not so long ago also resided in the Arab world. Their roots stretched back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. They actively contributed to the societies in which they lived. But today, with notable exceptions in Morocco and, to a lesser degree, Tunisia, the Jews are essentially gone, driven out by the same forces that today threaten the Copts.
Arab apologists tried to blame the Jewish exodus on the "born-in-sin" Israel, the "all-powerful-and-scheming" Zionists, the "duplicitous" Jews themselves -- anyone who'd go over well as a scapegoat for local consumption but the real culprits. Now, in eerily familiar fashion, the blame is being placed on Christians for their own misfortunes, as if they brought it upon themselves. National introspection has been in short supply.
Take my wife's family.
They had lived in Libya for centuries. Even as most Jews fled the country after the deadly pogroms of 1945 and 1948, they stayed. They wanted to believe that the new Libya, established in 1951, would abide by the minority protections in the constitution. They were dead wrong.
They were treated as second-class residents. And in 1967, there were more attacks on Jews. Ten people -- parents, my wife and her seven siblings, the youngest just three years old -- went into hiding for two weeks, having been threatened with torching by a raging mob. They were saved, it should be said, by a courageous Libyan Muslim. Yet, 44 years later, his identity still cannot be revealed, lest his family be harmed for the act of saving Jews.
In the end, some 800,000 Jews fled their ancestral lands in the second half of the 20th century, but there was hardly a peep from the international community. The UN kept silent. Democratic governments, hypnotized by the lure of oil and markets, averted their gaze. The churches, intimidated or just plain indifferent, were mum. Leading media didn't find the stories of Jews on the move -- so what else is new? -- fit to print.
Maybe had the Jewish story been told, it would have led to greater effort to safeguard the remaining minorities, especially Christians. After all, once the Jews were gone, it wasn't hard to predict who the next targeted population would be.
Apropos, in the old Soviet days, the story goes, a venerated Armenian leader lay on his deathbed. The elders gathered to hear his last words of sage advice. Summoning the last ounce of energy, he whispered, "Save the Jews." Those around him were puzzled by the unexpected advice. They asked him what he meant. "Save the Jews, you fools," he sputtered. "If Stalin finishes them off, we'll be next."
Today, it's not about the Jews but the Christians. Yet, strangely there's a sense of "déjà vu all over again."
Will the world react any differently? There's a huge opportunity. Egypt is redefining itself in the post-Mubarak era. Which way will it turn -- towards enlightenment or darkness? Western nations, led by the United States, have declared Egypt's future a top priority. That means tons of development assistance, not to mention encouragement of investments, exchanges, and tourism.
Clearly, there need to be conditions attached. Christians must be protected in every sense. They are in Egypt by right, not sufferance. They are full citizens, not transients. They deserve equal protection under the law. In other words, they are a barometer by which the "new" Egyptian society will be measured.
No one spoke for the Jews when they were driven out. It's high time to speak out for the Christians. In reality, we're all in this together.
For more information, visit ajc.org.
Kurt J. Werthmuller: Getting Away With It: Egypt's Religious Minorities Need the Rule of Law
Kurt J. Werthmuller: What Do The Copts Mean For The Arab Spring?
Alexander Goerlach: Is Atheism the Solution to Religious Persecution in Egypt?
During those Wars, some Jews in Egypt were interned just as the Japanese were interned in the U.S. They were not badly treated and a small rump community still exists. It is no surprise that Jewish Egyptians left. If you study the statistics, peak outflows happened coincident with the Wars. If Israel claims all Jews as citizens or potential citizens, it is unavoidable that Jews are viewed as enemy nationals. You do not find too many enemy nationals in states that are at war with each other.
Note also that the riots in Libya where in 1967.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CDYQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2F64.17.135.19%2FAPF001974%2FRubin%2FRubin04%2FRubin04.html&ei=WJX4TcPwAY_CsAOIwZXeBQ&usg=AFQjCNF7E1-WitFZ_ZUWcxc3T1o6tyuBbQ&sig2=UfYnLj7rGzXXtxQdNNQfCA
http://www.newvoices.org/opinion?id=0104
Well of course it's no surprise Jewish Egyptians left, but it has nothing to do with statistics you left this part out :
"In the immediate aftermath of trilateral invasion during the Suez Crisis of 1956, on November 23 by Britain France and Israel, a proclamation was issued stating that 'all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state', and it promised that they would be soon expelled. Some 25,000 Jews, almost half of the Jewish community left, mainly for Europe, the United States and South America, and Israel, after being forced to sign declarations that they were leaving voluntarily, and agreed with the confiscation of their assets. Some 1,000 more Jews were imprisoned.
After the 1967 war, more confiscations took place. Rami Mangoubi, who lived in Cairo at the time, states that nearly all Egyptian Jewish men between the ages of 17 and 60 were either thrown out of the country immediately, or taken to the detention centres of Abou Za'abal and Tura, where they were incarcerated and tortured for more than three years.[26] The eventual result was the almost complete disappearance of the Jewish community in Egypt; less than a hundred or so remain today. The last Jewish wedding in Egypt took place in 1984."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Egypt
So you are saying that Israeli Arabs won't be considered potential Palestinian citizens in a two state solution ? And therefore you think it will be totally understandable if they are viewed as enemy nationals "
Hundreds of Coptic Girls abducted, raped and tortured by criminals need to be released immediately. For true justice, every criminal found guilty of attacks on christian civilians must be caught and prosecuted according to the law. Not only, all Extremist Salafi Clerics must be held accountable by the law for inciting hatred and violence against christians. In every case, christians have been attacked and /or murdered, without criminals being brought to Justice.
As a Jew, I identify with the Copts' situation. Jews not so long ago also resided in the Arab world. Their roots stretched back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. But today the Jews are essentially gone, driven out by the same forces that today threaten the Copts.” (paraphrase of David Harris)
“I am the creature of God, and so is my fellow man” (Talmud). I, like David Harris, also identify with the persecuted Christians..
When the few Jews remaining in Yemen were being harassed by Muslim radicals a couple years ago, the words I hoped to hear and did besides my own thank G-d was, "protect and save the Jews." They are the most unique fabric in our Yemen society. Most Yemeni's respect and feel a historic kinship to our Jewish brothers and sisters. Don't misconstrue Muslim's disagreement with the politics of the Israeli government and support of Christian Evangelicals in the US in the unfair treatment of Palestinian rights to mean Christians are not safe in a free Muslim nation. They will and must be. But if I may suggest that moderates on all sides need to retake the debate concerning who's on the "we're for peace team". As to Chistian minorities in the Muslim countries, Christ Church in Aden, Yemen for one, serves the small Christian community and provides a valuable health clinic for Muslims. I and many Muslims will support and defend them in their worship and work. Thank you for your article but, include Muslims in your terms of endearment that you ascribe onto other peoples of faith as well.
and by the way this author is blowing it out of proportion with his wifes situation,no Libyan is goinged to be killed because he helped libyan jews in the 60's. that was a time of great strife, and great fear..and unfortuanately many muslims did horrible things to their fellow countrymen who where jewish.
Things have changed..where is the article discussing the invitioation by the libyan opposition to libyan jews to return to their country. Maybe its doesn't serve any agenda
The result of occupation, blockades, and olive groves being destroyed.
Another reason for the world to support Palestinian state hood.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/un-study-gaza-unemployment-rate-remains-among-the-worst-in-the-world-1.367580
"JERUSALEM, July 14 - About half the greenhouses in the Israeli settlements in Gaza have already been dismantled by their owners, who have given up waiting to see if the government was going to come up with extra payment as an inducement to leave them behind, say senior officials working on the coordination of this summer's Israeli pullout from Gaza.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/international/middleeast/15mideast.html
As for what was left by the time Gazans took up the business, Israeli border control put paid to it:
"The issue of the greenhouses is especially painful to Wolfensohn because of his personal contribution to them. "Everything was rotting because you couldn't get the fruit. And if you went to the border, as I did many times, and saw tomatoes and fruit just being dumped on the side of the road, you would have to say that if you were a Palestinian farmer you'd be pretty upset"
Certainly, state sponsored persecution of Christian Jews, this Christian community in Israel must also be protected.
"Around the world the Messianic Jewish community number roughly 350,000. In Israel they stand at 15,000 and have over 120 different congregations. Not surprisingly, from their inception the Messianics have managed to rouse the ire of the ultra-Orthodox and (to a lesser extent) secular communities in Israel. That anger has frequently turned into aggressive physical and verbal confrontations precipitated by religious radicals (Jews and Arabs) who oppose the presence of what in their view are dangerous missionizing Christians (in contrast to the fact that not a single Messianic Jew has ever stood trial for illegal missionary activity — e.g. forced conversion, or conversion of minors). Most recently, in the settlement of Ariel, a bomb planted under a Purim gift-basket left a 15 year-old boy belonging to a prominent family of Messianic Jews in critical condition. In addition to being targets of persecution at the hand of religious radicals, the Messianics have also faced state-sanctioned discrimination."
http://www.jewcy.com/post/israels_state_sanctioned_persecution_messianic_jews_must_end
The last thing Egyptian Copts need is public shows of support from the Jewish community. Islamists are not going to be suddenly endeared to them if they think Israel is supporting them. The author must know that articles like his will harm them more than help them. It logically follows that he is not at all trying to help the Copts.
Israel or Jews?
I though Hews and Israel are two different entities so why do you think that David Harris writing this piece is tantamount to Israeli support for them?
Public attention of any sort will motivate the Egyptian army to move to protect them - or risk losing the IMF and other handouts they're getting
The persecution of all non muslims in muslim nations is a horrific abomination that must be spoken of, loudly.
Cardinal Antonios Naguib, the Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria, floats that hypothesis in a new interview with the prestigious Italian Catholic publication 30 Giorni.....
Naguib, however, says there’s a long history of a connection between domestic anti-Mubarak agitation in Egypt and violence directed at Christians. In the 1980s and 1990s, he says, Christians were targeted by forces that wanted to bring down the regime, and when that failed, they began to attack the police and government officials.
In light of that history, Naguib suggests, security forces grew accustomed to using attacks on Christians as a pretext to clamp down on opposition movements – an Egyptian version of the “strategy of tension” long associated with police states....
Naguib suggests that Mubarak’s Minister of the Interior, at the time Habib Ibrahim el-Adly, encouraged the attack as a way of proving that “his person was essential for the president and the regime.”"
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/mubarak-regime-may-have-planned-attack-christians-catholic-leader-says
MacArthur's speech:
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/au-24/au24-352mac.htm