Persecution of Coptic Christians Threatens Civil War

Asia News recently interviewed Father Rafic Greich, the chief press officer for the Egyptian Catholic Church. Father Greich said, "Egypt is at the beginning of a great civil war. And this because of a small group of Islamic extremists who are stifling the ideals of the Jasmine Revolution, fomenting violence across the country."

P>KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - Asia News recently interviewed Father Rafic Greich, the chief press officer for the Egyptian Catholic Church. Father Greich said, "Egypt is at the beginning of a great civil war. And this because of a small group of Islamic extremists who are stifling the ideals of the Jasmine Revolution, fomenting violence across the country."

The small group of Islamic extremists that Father Griech is referring to is the Salafis. The Salafis are followers of a movement that models itself on Islam's patristic period. The Salafis believe that this time period, which lasted for the first three generations, reflects the pure and authoritative teaching and practice of Islam. Contemporary Salafism is seen as a literal and puritanical approach to Islam, and a minority of Salafis espouse violent jihad against the civilian population.

Yet, it is not just Salafi extremists that concern Father Greich. He is also concerned that radical Islamist ideology is spreading among more moderate Muslim leaders, whom he believes have grown closer to the Muslim Brotherhood since Hosni Mubarak stepped down as the president of Egypt. Many believe the Muslim Brotherhood is mostly fundamentalist. He also indicated that the military government is too weak to stand up to these fundamentalist forces. But it is the Salafis who are at the center of the most recent round of violence against the Copts, which occurred in Cairo, Egypt on the evening of May 7, 2011.

Wayne King of Compass News Service has provided a detailed account of this violence in which at least 12 people were reportedly killed and over 200 wounded. In addition, another Coptic church was set on fire. The name of this one is the Virgin Mary Church, and it is located in a poor section of Cairo called Imbaba. The following is a summary of the incident:

Apparently, it began over a Coptic woman whom Salafi Muslims claim converted to Islam, but the woman denied this claim on two occasions. On this evening, Muslims claimed that she was being held in Saint Mina Church in Cairo against her will. Some of Saint Mina's parishioners set up barricades and allowed a group of imams to search the church. A crowd of Muslims began marching in the streets while shouting Islamic chants and Osama bin Laden's name. The imams were supposedly satisfied that the woman was not in the church, but it did not seem to matter at that point. Copts claimed that Muslims attacked them around 8:30 p.m. with knives, guns, Molotov cocktails and other weapons. But the Muslims failed to break through the barricade. The mob also attacked some Coptic-owned businesses and apartments near the church and claimed a couple more lives.

At this point, the mob sought out the Virgin Mary Church. It was only a ten minute walk away, and it was unguarded. Consequently, it was easy for the mob to break into the church and set it on fire. By the time the fire was put out, much of the church was gutted, and a church attendant was dead. Some say that the army and security forces did not arrive on the scene for two hours, at which point, the incident was basically over.

Since Mubarak resigned, writes Wayne King, the Salafis have been growing increasingly bold in their hostility toward the Copts. Just one day prior to this incident, several thousand Copts had gathered at Saint Mark's Cathedral in Cairo in response to Salafi threats, including threats to kill the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Shenouda III. The attacks against the parishioners of Saint Mina and the Virgin Mary Church are being called the most serious attacks by Salafis against the Copts since Mubarak resigned. In the aftermath, thousands of Copts have continued to demonstrate in Cairo and several have been arrested or injured. And the army has agreed to rebuild the Virgin Mary Church.

Where is our outrage? Remember all the hysteria last September over Terry Jones, the Florida preacher who vowed to burn the Koran?  For a while, he was vilified on a daily basis by the media in America and around the world. Everyone seemed to want to get into the act. In an article for the Huffington Post, Barbara Nelson, a professor at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, described Jones' vow as an act of breathtaking disregard for the norms of decent behavior, gross violence, recklessness, a repellent provocation, vile rhetoric, lies, a disgusting stunt, and religious hatred. Then she called him a bigot. Others referred to him as an Islamophobe and an international villain. Of course, Jones' vow was none of these things; it was merely crass and inappropriate. Yet, even Senator Clinton; Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense; and President Obama got into the act.

Where are all these voices now? Coptic churches, business, and homes are being set on fire and destroyed. Copts and other Christians throughout the Muslim world are being persecuted and brutally murdered. Remember Saints Mina and George Coptic Church in Soul, Egypt, which was burnt to the ground two months ago, or the bombing of Saints Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria, Egypt this past New Year's Eve? The ground was littered with body parts. Human flesh and blood were splattered on the walls.

Given the response toward Terry Jones, I would expect some kind of outcry in response to the hatred being directed at the Coptic Christians and the threat this obviously represents to democratic reform in Egypt. But the silence is deafening. How petty and ridiculous all the vocal agitators in my country seem now. Even their desire for real democratic reform in Egypt seems suspect to me in light of their silence. Consequently, if anyone's voice is going to cry out for the Copts and true democratic reform, it will have to be Christian voices.

The Copts are our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is hard for us to visualize, but when we were baptized into the Body of Christ, we were bonded to each other more tightly than blood relatives. Christianity may be a broken family, but the time has come when we must see ourselves as one family in spite of our differences; and we must cry out in one voice, not divisively or hysterically, but truthfully and firmly.

One way that we can help diminish the chance of civil war in Egypt is by demanding that our media and our leaders respond to the continuing persecution of the Copts, and other Christians throughout the Muslim world, with at least the same level of outrage and forcefulness they expressed toward Terry Jones over his vow to burn the Koran.

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Michael Terheyden was born into a Catholic family, but that is not why he is a Catholic. He is a Catholic because he believes that truth is real, that it is beautiful and good, and that the fullness of truth is in the Catholic Church. However, he knows that God's grace operating throughout his life is the main reason he is a Catholic. He is greatly blessed to share his faith and his life with his beautiful wife, Dorothy. They have four grown children and three grandchildren.

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