Another conference in Congress concerning the problems facing expatriate Copts is angering many back home, reports Gihan Shahine Would garnering foreign support for Coptic issues solve their problems or just allow for more US interference into Egypt's internal affairs? The question has again come into the public limelight with the announcement of the launch of the second conference on the protection of Egypt's Copts against discrimination, in Washington on 12 October. Adli Abadeer, an expatriate Copt and a businessman living in Switzerland, organised the conference under the auspices of the US Congress and with the aim of rallying international support for Coptic issues. The very fact that Congress is hosting the conference has fuelled debate back home, among both Copts and Muslims, and increased public speculation that expatriate Copts have a hidden agenda which primarily serve what one observer called "US colonial interests to have Arab countries disintegrated on a sectarian basis". Whereas most tend to agree that Copts have problems that need urgent solutions, the most prevalent logic among both Coptic and Islamic intellectuals is that such issues should be solved within a national framework and not under a US umbrella. By upgrading their outcry to an international level, critics say, expatriate Copts are opening the door wide for more US intervention into Egypt's domestic affairs and sewing sectarian strife in the country's social fabric. "We refuse any kind of foreign intervention and occupation," stated Bishop of Helwan and Al-Maasara Bicenti. "We have to tackle our own problems but the government should also stop ignoring the demands of Copts for equal rights of citizenship." "Expatriate Copts should tend to their own problems," concurred Bishop of the Hanging Church Morqos Aziz. "Rallying US support would only serve American interests in the region rather than solve the problems of Egypt's Copts." Coptic thinker and writer Rafiq Habib said getting the help of a country which is already "in military and political conflict with Arab nations and occupying Arab lands would do Copts more harm than good because it will create sectarian rifts between Muslims and Christians." Habib said that turning Coptic demands into an international issue and providing misleading, overblown reports of discrimination has "inculcated an exaggerated sense of persecution and threat in the minds of Egypt's Copts, increased their sensitivity towards several issues and focussed their attention on sectarian rather than national concerns." Tackling Coptic issues on a sectarian basis, according to Habib, would only "complicate matters even further and damage political life in Egypt -- as is the case in Iraq and Lebanon." Many Copts would concede that they are faring better now than before. It is easier now to obtain permission to build churches, Coptic Christmas has become a national holiday and Copts hold a number of cabinet-level portfolios. Analysts would also mention the case of Wafaa Costantine, a priest's wife who reportedly converted to Islam, as yet another case of how the state is giving the Orthodox Church extra legal rights (after several riots, however, the government ultimately bowed to church pressure, handing over Costantine to church authorities in violation of human rights and religious freedom). Habib noted, "it is obvious that the more the government deals positively with Coptic issues, the more Copts complain of discrimination." Many Copts, however, countered that recent improvements are no more than piecemeal solutions that do not actually provide fundamental remedies to their grievances. "Why should Copts, albeit genius and qualified, remain marginalised in many leading positions in the government and military?" Coptic intellectual and urban planner Milad Hanna angrily wonders. Hanna, who is a strong proponent of conferences by expatriate Copts, would similarly argue that Egypt, albeit a predominantly Muslim nation, should not be classified as a Muslim country "because it also has six million Coptic citizens on its territory". Bicenti, for his part, would not mind whether Egypt is Muslim or secular. "What really matters is that Copts receive equal rights of citizenship." For Bicenti, that "building churches would be as easy as building mosques" is a more pressing issue. These issues and others will be the main topics of discussion in next week's conference in Washington. The conference will discuss the laws which, many Copts believe, are discriminatory against Christians, including Article 2 of the constitution which classifies Egypt as a Muslim country. The agenda will revisit recommendations from last year's conference held in Switzerland, including a call for educational and media reform in a way that would breed more tolerance to Christians and grant Copts a 15 per cent quota in all government posts and parliamentary seats. The conference will also discuss the possibility that applicants to government jobs would not be asked to present any information about their religion in application forms. On the top of this year's agenda is also the issue of alleged forced conversion of female Copts. Abadeer told the Egyptian press he would show a videotape showing live images of the alleged abduction of a female Copt who was forced to convert to Islam. Although Bicenti would confirm at least two cases of forced conversion, in Helwan and Alexandria, Habib insisted no convert was actually subjected to any kind of force. "There are always cases of men and women changing religion in order to get married," Habib explained. "Such cases have increased lately for many social reasons but many Copts attempt to show them as manifestations of sectarian discrimination." Hanna insists that garnering foreign support is the only way to solve what he described as "Coptic grievances" related to the right of citizenship. "The government will not wake up to Coptic demands unless it gets a slap in the face," Hanna scoffed. "The US is the master of the world and it has professional mechanisms to tackle issues related to minority groups." Coptic thinker and writer Gamal Asaad countered that expatriate Copts have "a different political agenda" which would not necessarily serve the demands of their compatriots back in Egypt. Asaad lashed out against expatriate Copts living in the US for providing "misleading reports" about Egypt and even likened them to "expatriate Iraqis who went back home on US tanks." "Expatriate Copts are actually providing the US with an extra card to use in achieving its colonial interests in the region," Asaad warned. Those colonial plans, he added, centre on dividing the region into sectarian parts, as is the case in Iraq, Sudan and Lebanon. It was thanks to misguided reports by some "fanatic expatriate Copts" that, according to Asaad, the US Department issued a law on the protection of the rights of religious minorities in 1998 which seeks to give America the right to monitor the religious situation in Egypt and to impose sanctions on governments accused of violating the rights of minorities. "Now some US institutions are testing the waters to establish a country for Copts under the leadership of the Orthodox Church in Lower Egypt," Asaad told Al-Ahram Weekly. "And the Orthodox Church, for its part, is actually helping out with those plans, assuming the role of a political spokesman for all Copts -- as was the case when Pope Shenouda III supported President Hosni Mubarak in the name of all Copts in the recent presidential elections." For both Asaad and Habib, boosting democracy and eradicating an environment of sectarian tension are the genuine remedies for all the problems of Egypt's Copts.
