The ninth International Congress for Coptic Studies—a congress held every four years—was held at the St Mark’s cathedral grounds in Abassiya, Cairo, from 14 to 20 September, organised by St Mark Foundation for Coptic History Studies.
Cairo was chosen to host this year’s congress since 2008 marks one century since the Coptic Museum was established.
Such a shame!
The writer and intellectual Gamal al-Ghitani talked of his being Coptic—Egyptian—by identity but Muslim by religion. He stressed on the importance of the Coptic history saying: “Coptic history is not related to only a limited number of people—Egypt’s Christian population—but to all Egyptians. Egyptian history can hardly be understood out of context of its various phases, including the Coptic era. This is why I strongly recommend that Coptic history be an integral part of school curricula. Egypt can never confront the increasing spread of violent, extremist thought without referring to the country’s history of co-existence of various religions, beliefs, and sects peacefully side by side.” Ghitani said it was a shame the Coptic encyclopaedia had never been translated into Arabic. He strongly demanded that such a translation be made available in the future.
No religion or politics
Ramez Botros of Toronto University and the congress’ secretary said that about 154 Coptology scholars from 23 countries participated with different research works and 13 reports.
“The Ministry of Education was invited to attend the congress, especially in view of our demand to include Coptic history within the history curriculum,” Fawzy Estafanous who heads the St Mark Foundation told Watani. “But, regrettably, the ministry never responded to our invitation. We also invited 45 professors from Egyptian universities to contribute; several of them responded well.
Dr Estafanous said that the International Association for Coptic Studies (IACS) was founded on the occasion of the First International Congress of Coptology, the Colloquium on the Future of Coptic Studies, which was held in Cairo in December 1976. IACS includes 400 members from 25 countries, Dr Estafanous explained, and is a non-profit organisation that has nothing to do with religion or politics.
Sneaking in
“The congress had to be held in Egypt,” Dr Estafanous said. “It makes no sense that any conference related to Coptology should be held outside Egypt.” Which begs the question why then was the media excluded? How come Egyptians in general were kept in the dark as to the topics discussed in the congress?
Dr Estafanous expressed his sadness because the Egyptian media strongly criticised the congress for inviting Israeli scholars who actually did not come, and he affirmed that people should not confuse politics and science.
Journalists were prevented from attending the lectures or taking photos, which would have been the only way to let the people know about the significance and magnificence of Coptic studies.
Watani reporters were able to attend just two sessions because they had been invited by the lecturers in person and succeeded in sneaking in. However, when they tried to attend one of the most significant lectures, that on the 100-year history of the Coptic Museum, which was held in the auditorium, they were harshly prevented from going in. Considering that the congress was held in Cairo this year to honour the centennial of the Coptic Museum, it was a real pity we could not report this special event to our readers. It is up to the congress’s organisers to figure out who’s loss was that.
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