Despite the bloodshed and fear that marked 2011 for Coptic Christians in Egypt, it was also a year of unprecedented political participation, writes Dina Ezzat With some new ornaments for her Christmas tree and a few coloured boxes for the hand-knitted sweaters for her grandchildren coming for the holidays from Canada, Audette Helmi was happily exiting one of the very few stores left that sell Christmas ornaments in Heliopolis, a district once home to a good part of Cairo's middle class Christian/Coptic population, and where Catholic and Coptic Christmas celebrations were clearly visible. Helmi, whose two daughters migrated to Canada over 15 years ago, is joyfully anticipating her children's return, regardless of recurring attacks on Christians -- either against individuals or churches, as has been the case throughout the year. "I know there is much concern, but we should not get too anxious because I think we cannot live with fear; we have to keep faith and we have to pray and it is the Lord who shall protect us," she said while finishing her Christmas shopping. Helmi said that she would do everything "as usual" and that she would pray for things to get better. "Of course, I am aware that with the considerable majority of members of parliament being from Islamist groups we might not have things going the right way, but then again we have to have faith," she said. The overwhelming success of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that of the Salafi Nour Party during the first two rounds of Egypt's legislative elections is causing a sense of apprehension, if not outright fear, in many liberal quarters, and indeed in a good part of the Christian community. The concerns of liberals, including some practising Muslims, are mostly associated with the anticipated elimination of personal liberties and the enforcement of an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islamic law that would not be compatible with Egyptian lifestyles. For Christians, according to Amin Iskandar, the Coptic political activist, the concern goes beyond this. Christians, he said, are concerned that they would no longer be addressed as equal citizens, even if the discourse of equality under the former regime never translated into actual egalitarianism. Rather, they would be subjects of a minority in a country that would no longer be perceived as an Arab state with a predominant Islamic culture but rather as a Muslim state with a Coptic minority. Personal liberty aside, Iskandar argues, Christians fear harsher restrictions on the right to build churches and worsening discrimination that might prompt hate crimes. And for many Christians such fears are not the product of paranoia but rather the natural consequence of a year marked with bloodshed and conspicuous Coptic victimisation. The first blow was on New Year's Eve 2010, only 25 days before the start of the first round of demonstrations that at the end removed then ruling president Hosni Mubarak. The Two Saints Church in Alexandria, the once very cosmopolitan Egyptian city, was blown up while worshipers were praying, 31 December. After the 25 January Revolution, where Christians and Muslims jointly called for political reform and social justice, and where they equally sustained police brutality, the word was that the attack on the church, which the Mubarak regime blamed on radical Islamists, was in fact the work of the Ministry of Interior, designed to divert public anger from the flagrant rigging of parliamentary elections of the autumn of 2010. However, as euphoria over the end of Mubarak's regime was dissipating, attacks against Copts -- and indeed churches -- evolved into a pattern, with words of sympathy being expressed by the state but without any actual indictment of the perpetrators, leaving Egypt's Christians with a terrifying sense of being under attack. "I have to say that there was a time when I would not take my children to the church on Sunday; I was really afraid that there would be an attack and that something would happen to them. I would go to pray one day and Fayez [my husband] would go on another. I just feared so much that we would be together in the church and something would happen to both of us; I feared for my children," said Jihan, a pharmacist. Jihan and Fayez, both in their early 50s, say there was so much discrimination that they learned to live with "as Copts" in Egypt, but the attack on churches and the increasing sense of societal segregation, and perhaps even rejection, was not there. "We would be lying to ourselves now if we say it is not there," Jihan added. Egyptian Christians, who mostly follow the Coptic Orthodox Church, have known good times and hard times throughout the centuries since the Islamic conquest of Egypt. The hard times have often spurred consecutive waves of exodus, the most recent of which was following the 1967 defeat followed by a sudden increase of Islamic discourse that reproduced anti-Coptic clichés. Today, according to some Western diplomats in Cairo, there is a considerable increase in the demand of Copts to leave Egypt. A source close to the office of the ailing and frail Coptic patriarch, Pope Shenouda, acknowledged that Shenouda is concerned about the fact that many of the better educated Copts are planning their exit from the country, feeling it is no longer theirs -- even if only as second class citizens. In other words, the situation has gone beyond unwritten discrimination that traditionally has denied Copts access to top state jobs and from national security agencies. Now Copts are under attack. For Heba Morayef, of the Cairo office of Human Rights Watch, there is a problem of accountability when it comes to sectarian violence. The state is not only failing to prosecute (or at least not seriously prosecuting) the perpetrators of crimes of sectarian violence, but worse is being implicated in incitement. According to Morayef, a case in point is the discourse of state-run TV during the 9 October Coptic demonstration in Maspero against their victimisation and attacks on Christian churches. More than two-dozen died in subsequent violence that evening. For many Christians, the 9 October carnage of Coptic demonstrators who were protesting against the increasing pattern of attacks against Copts and Churches and who ended up being crushed by the military armoured vehicles while being labelled "infidels" was a last straw. State-run TV that evening was calling on "honourable Egyptian citizens to defend the army against the attack of the Christians". Only a few days ago did the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces announce that it would refer the perpetrators of the carnage to prosecution, without any commitment to make this process public or at least transparent. For some of Coptic activists, who have recently been vocal in protesting their vulnerability, it is too little too late. They insist that symbolic moves are no longer satisfactory and that what the Christians of Egypt deserve is equal citizenship. "When I took part in the demonstrations of the 25 January Revolution I did so as an Egyptian; I was there like any other Egyptian Muslim or Copt and I deserve to be treated by the state, especially now after the revolution, as an Egyptian citizen with all the duties and the rights [that implies], not as a Copt," said Sally Farid. "I go to the church because I am a Copt but I am in Egypt as an Egyptian," she added. Morayef is convinced that for Farid to feel like a full-fledged citizen in Egypt the state has to promote equal citizenship. Some "rules" to this effect were promised by the Essam Sharaf government, which took over a few weeks after Mubarak stepped down and was removed last month in the wake of renewed protest. The rules never materialised but included firm legal action against sectarian incitement and violence, equal representation in all jobs, and the introduction of fair regulations governing the construction and reconstruction of churches. To date, such promises are still pending while existing laws are not implemented, accused Morayef. She added that worse still some individuals have taken -- under the eyes of ruling authorities -- law into their own hands. If Egypt is not a state of law, Morayef argues, many, including Christians, would suffer discrimination and violence. The only way out is to have fair laws that are implemented and to ensure that those who violate these laws are penalised. "This is for the short term. For the long term, you need a much more comprehensive approach which should cover education, media and public policies to end the call for discrimination," Morayef added. The recently elected member of parliament Amr El-Shobaki is convinced that the next parliament should move to adopt a set of laws to end all forms of discrimination, including anti-Christian discrimination. El-Shobaki is also of the view that political Islamic groups should act, and not just speak, in a way that would "reassure society with all its segments about their rights, especially Christians who are clearly concerned about their future". El-Shobaki is convinced that this is not an impossible mission to deliver. The success, he argued, of the Wasat Party, that has a political Islamic base, in garnering the Coptic vote in some districts where members of the party stood against anti-Coptic violence is an example of how things could work. Whatever happens, El-Shobaki adds, Christians in Egypt should not go back to their old political isolation. "The Christians made a historic move when they actively participated in the demonstrations of the 25 January Revolution and beyond. Today, they cannot go back on this; they should rather make sure to be present in most political parties." "There is only one way for Copts to go if they wish to secure their full equal citizenship: political participation," said Amin Iskandar. Iskandar, who is the deputy of the Karama Party, is not underestimating the pressure being exercised on Copts to go back "behind the walls of the Church" where they resided since late President Anwar Sadat unleashed a set of political moves that opened the doors to sectarianism. Nor is Iskandar underplaying the ordeal of Coptic politicians to be accepted as true representatives of Egyptians. Still, Iskandar is convinced the only way forward is uphill. "And they are not alone, because despite the voices of hatred and discrimination, we have always to remember that there is clear sympathy from the Muslims of this country and we have to remember that when Copts went to churches to celebrate Christmas last January it was young Egyptian Muslim men and women who volunteered to be present at the churches to protect Coptic worshipers and their churches," Iskandar recalled. Meanwhile, Iskandar is convinced that the new constitution of Egypt and the new parliament of Egypt should be a source of inspiration for equal citizenship. The next president of Egypt, he added, should also make sure that he acts as a president of a country of Muslims and Christians -- even if the latter is a minority by number. For Iskandar, however, the end of anti-Coptic discrimination can only be realised when the state decides to act to end all forms of discrimination. "Because it is not just Copts that are being discriminated against, but also the poor -- whether Muslims or Copts -- and women."
