One of the studies on the polarisation of Muslims and Christians in Egypt was a document entitled “Israeli Strategy in the 1980s”, which mentioned the importance of dividing Egypt into regional zones. Even then the makers of the document detected the growing split between Muslims and Copts, and advised exploiting such a religious split as a chance to establish a Coptic State in Upper Egypt. (“The Road of Egypt for Self-Acceptance” by Khaled Othman, Cairo Center for Human Rights Studies, 2006, p. 21)
My conviction is that such a plan to destroy the people and culture of Egypt could only be realised at the expense of us, as Egyptians, losing our national unity.
There is a harmony between the elements of the Egyptian nation which constitutes an ‘immunity system’, and its job is to defend Egyptians from any attempt to divide the nation on a religious or sectarian basis. The first element of this unity is that we are the sons of one national culture whose values were invented by people throughout history on such bases as respect for women, upholding the family, sharing joy and sadness, a philosophy of death, and so on. This element, the Egyptian National Culture, unites Egyptians in spite of their different religions and sects.
Religious transition
Egyptians underwent periodical changes from ancient Egyptian to Christianity and then Islam. The national custom of the mawalid, or popular celebration of a saint’s birthday, is observed by both Christians and Muslims and has unified Egyptians to a degree that it is hard for a foreigner to distinguish between a Muslim and a Coptic festival. Egyptians were all steeped in the historic roots of an agricultural community, which expressed its merriment at harvest time with singing and dancing.
The extension of that historic root to the present time was outlined by the sociologist Sayed Oweiss in his book “The Duality in Egyptian Religious Heritage”. Dr Oweiss wrote, “The rank of the Egyptian gods was transferred throughout our history to our Christian saints and our awliyaa (Muslim holy men) in the Egyptian religious legacy.”
Dr Oweiss stressed that the Egyptian national culture was a culture of connection. He cites the incident of a Christian woman who would fast during Ramadan in the belief it would help her son succeed in exams, and a Muslim woman who observed the fast of the Holy Virgin and regularly visited Mar-Girgis Church.
If we move on to another peculiarity of the Egyptian national culture, there are popular proverbs, such as “a people’s servant is their master”. This could be classified as part of the cultural consciousness of the people, and is repeated by Muslims and Christians alike. It is neither one nor the other: it is merely Egyptian.
Both sides are funny
It is the same with jokes. How can you tell if a certain joke has been created by a Muslim or a Christian? Jokes which mock clergymen and fanatics are just Egyptian jokes, told by people who are generally tolerant and reject extremes.
The same could be said of the Egyptian mawaal or ballad, whose creators speak of love, honesty, family consistency and the condemnation of cheating and betrayal. Who can say if they are Muslim or Christian?
Celebrations of sobou, the seventh day after the birth of a baby, or the arbe’ien, the 40th day after someone dies, are purely Egyptian traditions and go back to pharaonic times.
Apart from this brief extract from popular legacy as an original part of the Egyptian character, it is relevant to mention the many memories of the older generation. Speaking of his childhood towards the end of the 1940s, history professor Raouf Abbas, said his grandmother lived near St George’s Church in Shubra. Children, Muslims and Copts, used to play in the churchyard, and all would eat pieces of consecrated bread from the hand of the priest.
No difference in mother’s milk
Dr Abbas remembered one Umm Girgis, his mother’s neighbour. Until he was seven or eight he thought Umm Girgis was his grandmother’s daughter and his aunt, since that was how he addressed her. Shubra was a ‘mini Egypt’ whose residents lived as one family. In the days before bottle feeding became common, Muslim and Coptic women used to suckle each other’s babies. These pictures in Dr Abbas’s memory reflect the deep bonds between Egyptians despite the difference in their religions.
Our National Culture says that, despite the variations in religion Egyptians are but one people. Neither Muslims nor Copts have ever thought to divide Egypt into two states.
Is our national culture able to withstand the Islamic fundamentalism which dreams of exiling Egyptian Christians outside Egypt, thus negating the national intimacy for the sake of a certain religious intimacy?
I think being Egyptian before being Muslim or Christian is the only hope of defeating any alleged Israeli or American planning and of aborting the dream of the Muslim fundamentalists in splitting Egypt.
WATANI International
27 April 2008