Why are Egypt's Coptic Christians so apathetic about their persecution?
The
other night flipping through Arabic satellite stations, I came across a
Coptic man who was lividly discussing the "Coptic question." His name
was George Sa'ad, and he was speaking on the famous Arabic show,
Al-Bayt Baytak, which airs on Al-Masriya ("The Egyptian"). It quickly
became apparent, however, that his objections were not directed at
Egypt's radicals or even the government; no, he was upset with the
"trouble-making" Copts of the diaspora, particularly those living in
the West. Sa'ad, a member of the Itihad al-Misriyin in Canada, (the "Egyptian Union") was claiming that there is no real problem in Egypt, and that it is the Western Copts who are creating all this "propaganda."
When
the (Muslim) host asked him point blank what he would like to see
changed in Egypt, all Sa'ad could muster saying was, "Certainly, there
are things that need to be fixed!" He kept repeating this without once
explaining what those "things" could be. When further pushed to
explain, he said he'd like to see Copts have more influence on the
Egyptian media -- just a bit more.
No
talk however of the recent attacks Copts in Egypt have been exposed to
-- such as the Abu Fana monastery raid, where Muslims attacked and
abducted monks, tortured them and tried forcing them to spit on the
cross and embrace Islam; or the repeated phenomenon of Muslims
abducting young Coptic girls, raping and forcing them into conversion;
or the recent slayings of Coptic store clerks; or the day-in-day-out
discrimination Copts encounter in all walks of life.
Sa'ad
went on to explain an interesting dichotomy: that Copts living in Egypt
or only recently moved to the West hardly ever complained of the
situation; instead, most of the noise is being made by those Copts
who've been away from Egypt for thirty years or more.
This,
of course, is a natural phenomenon. All humans tend to get used to
their circumstances and learn to accept them as "normal." Anything out
of the ordinary from what they have come to expect becomes "abnormal."
Consider for instance a black child born into plantation slavery. He
grows working the fields all day, perhaps being whipped and in general
being treated harshly. Since he has no other real experiences of the
world to counterbalance, he comes to view his own existence as "normal"
-- not great nor horrible -- perhaps even envying the "house-negro" for
the "great life" he has.
Same
with Copts in Egypt. As Sa'ad maintained, the opinion of any given
Copt over the "Coptic issue" in Egypt is totally predicated on how far
away from Egypt-in both time and space-they happen to be now. In other
words, there is a continuum of opinions, the most critical often
belonging to those Copts who have been away from Egypt the longest (and
permanently residing in faraway countries such as the US) and the
least critical from those Copts still living in Egypt in the midst of
Muslims and minarets.
How
does one explain such a conundrum? If Coptic persecution or
discrimination is a fact -- and it is -- one would naturally expect the
Copts living in Egypt and surrounded by Muslims to be the most
vociferous about it. By and large, they are not; only when wholesale
massacres or rampant rapes occur do they, for a time and out of great
despair, make some noise (which often goes unheard by the international
community). Similarly, one would expect those Copts who have been away
from Egypt for decades -- or were born here and never even been there
-- to be more apathetic to the situation.
The
reason, of course, why Copts in Egypt do not make too much noise over
their situation and instead remain subdued to their Islamist overlords
is fear of even worse retaliation.
Still,
what does one make of the fact that many Copts in Egypt do not think
their "house-negro" situation is all that bad? Coptic stoicism is, of
course, a thing of legend. Over the course of fourteen centuries of
Islamic rule, a particular "survivalist" mentality that happily accepts
second-class status in order to remain Christian, as well as
"occasional" persecutions, has become integral to the Coptic mindset
and worldview. What an American would consider outrageous oppression
is to the Copt just another day in Egypt -- which is precisely why the
"American-Copt" who has been away from Egypt for decades sees and
resents the oppression, while his Egyptian counterpart may not.
In recent years, an all-encompassing term has come to best describe the Coptic mentality: dhimmitude, a
term first made popular by the writings of Bat Yoer, a Jewess who, born
and raised in "multi-cultural" Alexandria, Egypt, in the forties and
fifties, later experienced firsthand what it means to be a non-Muslim
living in Islamic territory. The word "dhimmitude" has come to
describe a host of psychological factors present in the non-Muslim who
resides in Muslim countries, such as Egypt.
The
word is based on the Arabic "dhimmi," which has been in use since the
dawn of Islam, and denotes the non-Muslim who continues living in the
lands conquered by Islam. Whole treatises and books have been written
by Muslim scholars on the status of the dhimmi throughout the
centuries; suffice to say, the dhimmi is a "tolerated" minority, who is
allowed to practice his religion freely, as long as he follows the laws
of sharia (which do not afford him equal rights vis-à-vis his Muslim
counterpart) and as long as he lives in humble submission to his
Islamic overlords (according to the all-pivotal Koranic injunction
9:29).
Historically,
the dhimmi often had to follow many other restrictions and
guidelines-such as paying the "jizya," dress-codes to distinguish them
from Muslims, including wearing an extremely heavy wooden cross,
refraining from riding horses or bearing arms. Today, few are the
Islamic governments who still openly enshrine "dhimmi" codes
in their constitutions. Living under submission to Islam for 1400
years has nonetheless led today's dhimmi descendents to develop a
permanent mentality that exhibits "dhimmitude" in the face f Islam:
depending on context, this dhimmitude can manifest itself variously --
from "irrational" fear of Islam to self-debasing gratitude towards it.
I was
reminded of this all watching Mr. Sa'ad: not only would he censure
Copts for "making a lot of noise," but, in pure "dhimmi" fashion, he
made it a point to wish the Muslims on the show, a "very happy
Ramadan," asking, indeed, imploring, the host to visit him in the
future so they can break the Muslim holiday's fast together.
However,
while Sa'ad continues praising Islam and its "toleration" towards the
Christians of Egypt, the rest of the free world, should understand this
sort of "psychology," and, far from emulating it -- by kowtowing to
Islam -- learn to see the Coptic situation for what it is.