Our reading of the Egyptian press this month takes us to the first issue of the new Cairo independent weekly al-Youm al-Sabei (The Seventh Day) which printed an article by the poetess Fatma Naout under the title “Christian…but good”. Naout commented on the phrase many Muslims use when talking about a Copt: “He [or she] is Christian, but a good person”.
Presupposed
“How many times do we catch ourselves using this phrase to describe a Coptic friend, doctor, trader, or whoever. The trouble is that it is not the extremists who exclusively use this phrase, but all of us without thinking. It has become part of our accumulated folk heritage. Even highly-educated persons and intellectuals—those who rushed to call for abolishing the religion box from identity documents and the second article, which stipulates Islam as the State religion of Egypt and Islamic jurisdiction the main source of legislation, form the Constitution—unwittingly use this phrase.” Naout ended by asking herself: “Where are you heading to, dear Egypt?” We join Naout in her lament, especially that many Copts have taken to using a parallel phrase “Muslim…but good” to denote Muslims. It is heartbreaking that Egyptians should presuppose that a fellow Egyptian belonging to another religion should be ‘bad’, then wake up to the realisation that he or she is nevertheless ‘good’.
Matter of faith
The same issue of al-Youm al-Sabei included an article by the poet and prominent liberal Ahmed Abdel-Moeti Higazi under the title “Coptic is our language and Arabic as well”. Higazi criticised as fanatic the notion that Coptic was the language of Christian Egyptians alone and that, worse, Arabic was exclusively Muslim. He called for teaching Coptic, with pride, in school.
However, Higazi went on to tackle a topic which took him to the thorny issue of faith. With the aim of emphasising that Coptic heritage is an extension of the ancient Egyptian, he cited as evidence the Coptic language and Coptic arts. Then he made a comparison between the Egyptian goddess Isis and her son Horus and St Mary and her son Jesus; both Isis and St Mary had their sons through the Holy Spirit, he points out. Higazi may have meant to imply that the ancient Egyptians’ beliefs were sublime enough to border on heavenly beliefs, or that they were well prepared to embrace Christianity when they were told of it. His words, however, might be understood to imply that Christian beliefs have their roots in pagan cultures, an argument which Christians categorically deny.
Commendable
In its 12 October issue, Watani printed a news article informing of a two-month course on Coptic Studies offered by Tanta University in its free study section beginning this November, the first such move by an Egyptian university. In his column “A Free Pen” in the daily State-owned Rose al-Youssef, Hany Labib commented that no paper other than the Coptic-owned Watani had bothered to report on this news, a fact which he found amazing. Labib remarked that Tanta University had, in offering this course, taken a courageous move that warranted commendation. Several attempts had already been made to have courses in Coptic Studies offered in Egyptian universities, but efforts to do so had always been aborted, he said. Labib said the step should be a first that would lead to many others, and that he hoped Coptic heritage would be accorded the special niche that it warrants among Egyptian academia.
The ‘saint’
It was with extreme shock that I read a remark by Egypt’s prime footballer Abu-Treika as reported in the weekly independent al-Tariq (The Way). Abu-Treika, who is famed for preaching Islam to fellow players and has a reputation of being ultra pious, is nicknamed “the saint”. When asked by the press why he made no donation to help the victims of the devastating Muqattam Hill rockslide which occurred last month he answered, “Because they are mostly Copts”. Despite the fact that Abu-Treika must have been poorly informed since the rockslide victims were Muslims not Copts, how is one to regard ‘humanitarian’ effort that discriminates on basis of religion?