Egypt's expatriate community should be part of its future, writes Samir Sobhi One can forget how far America has influenced the way we live. Who hasn't been affected by American movies? Who as a child hasn't been riveted by Wild West films and tales of Indians and cowboys? On my desk is a copy of Al-Mokhtar, the Arabic edition of The Readers Digest, dated March 1944. In it a writer named William Hard dreams of a world in which America leads a community of nations through a period of lasting peace. I am translating him back into English: "Once peace is achieved, the US should avoid making any alliance with individual countries and seek to establish a global union encompassing all countries, big and small, backward and advanced, good and bad. Alliances with individual countries in time of peace can be lethal for they antagonise those left out." Former US vice-president Wallace once said that America could be a key player in world politics simply because its history is free from colonialism and its prejudices. The prominent Egyptian writer of the inter-war period, Mohamed Hussein Heikal, agreed with this assessment. "Mankind aspires to a lasting peace to follow the war now raging in five continents. Ordinary people want peace to prevail through understanding and knowledge." Writing in 1944, Heikal, who wrote Hayat Mohamed (The Life of Mohamed) and Thawrat Al-Adab (Literary Revolution), speaks of the changes brought about by modern communications: "At present, contact among people in various countries has become the norm, for communications have brought them close in a way that till recently would have been unimaginable." Following World War II, Arab immigrants to the new world lost their interest in Latin America. Those who could make it to the US wasted no time. Right now, there are 500,000 or more Copts living in the US, 100,000 or more in Canada, and 300,000 or more in Australia. About a million more Copts live between Europe, Latin America and New Zealand. There are over 10,000 Coptic doctors in America, 700 Coptic academics, and thousands of engineers and businessmen. Copts gravitate to Los Angeles, New York and New Jersey in the US. In Canada, they are concentrated in Toronto and Montreal. In Australia, the majority of Copts live in Sidney and Melbourne. In the US, the Copts have formed the Coptic American Association. Its founder, Shawqi Keras, was so moved by the sectarian incidents in Al-Khanka in 1972 that he decided that the Copts needed to organise. The Coptic community has built numerous churches abroad. In Europe, the Copts have 74 churches, in the western hemisphere 121 churches, in Africa 67 churches, and in Asia 15 churches. The Copts have monasteries in the US, France, Australia, Germany as well as in Sudan, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Clerical missions and Coptic churches are common in Australia, the US, Britain and Canada. Coptic emigration began in earnest in the 1960s and is still going strong. According to Selim Naguib, the first wave was made up of successful capitalists and engineers. The second wave was in the 1970s, and consisted of well-educated, middle-class professionals. This wave, too, achieved a reasonable level of economic success and academic recognition. Then came a third wave that was less fortunate, partly because it was modestly educated and partly because the new world, including America, was beginning to suffer from joblessness. In Al-Aqbat: Al-Nashaa Wal Seraa (The Copts: The Beginnings and the Conflict), Malak Luka addresses the sensitive question of the loyalties of the expatriate community: "Immigrants are often torn between their original country and their adopted home. Their feelings might therefore conflict with their responsibilities and obligations." Others argue that the expatriates are forever tied to their roots. "The loyalty of Coptic expatriates to Egypt cannot be doubted. The Copts are an embodiment of the original Egyptian people who have been tied to Egypt throughout its old history. The Copts will never betray a country that their forefathers had died for. Let's not forget what happened during the 1973 War, when the Coptic community stood with Egypt in body and soul," says Munir Beshai. As I think of successful doctors and academics, people like Selim Naguib, Shawqi Kras, and Saad Mikhail in the US, or Sobhi Fouad and Naki Malak in Australia, I wonder why we cannot invite Coptic expatriates to a conference in Egypt. I posed the question to Mustafa Abdel-Qader, a former minister known for his interest in Coptic affairs. "Wouldn't it make sense to see what Coptic expatriates think of the country's major projects, such as Toshka?" "Yes we should do that," Abdel-Qader replied. "Actually, we need to invite the children of the expatriates too, for they need to know this country and they need to be part of its future."
