CAIRO: George Fahim sits at his desk pointing at the photos on the wall. Surprisingly, they are not of any Islamic leader or the Coptic Pope, instead they are photos of American Evangelical preachers. Pat Robertson leads the list, with a massive portrait perched above Fahim's head. The professor says these are his heroes. It is a sign of the growing Evangelism in Egypt. “We are group of people who are strong in our faith and we won't let the Islamists take over this country. Only through Jesus Christ will people find salvation,” he told Bikya Masr recently. The former religious studies professor in Europe now spends his time writing a book on the need for Jesus Christ in one's daily life. The institutions are on the front lines of the battle for souls and the American Evangelical Christian churches, of which Fahim is a member, and missions that have spread across the North African nation are growing rapidly, gaining converts from the Christian populations. Unlike the Catholic missions in Egypt who offer services to both Muslims and Christians in an open fashion, Evangelical churches in the country deal mainly with Coptic organizations, which is making resentment among the masses grow. “There is often stigma surrounding the Christian organizations here, especially with us refugees, but the Catholic services are the most open and most in the community don't have a problem with them,” said Abdullah Osman, the director of the Somali refugee organization SOMO. “But, at the same time, we understand that many Christian organizations try to convert Muslims,” he told Bikya Masr. Whether it is simply misunderstood perceptions or well-founded disapproval of Christian, and the largely American expatriate community, churches Egyptians are tired. “I believe it is these churches that have created much of the problems between the Copts and us [Muslims],” said Mohamed, a 25 year-old Master's student at Cairo University. “They get all the foreigners to come here and then those same foreigners start to talk about how bad the Muslims are, pointing at ‘look at what they did' as if we are some savage they have come to save,” he said. His assertions, whether correct or not, highlight the ongoing anger being directed at Western churches in Egypt that are seen as proselytizing first and conducting community programs second. Nancy Wagih, a spokesperson for the Evangelical Church of Egypt, said that while at the beginning of any Christian organization in the country the aim was to develop among the already present Christian groups, this has changed in recent years. Talking of outreach programs, she told Bikya Masr that the church “started out as predominantly a Christian development for Christians, but has moved outside the church recently to encompass all Muslims and Christians.” Programs aside, foreign attendees to these institutions often espouse a belief that the issues facing the Coptic-Muslim relations would be alleviated if the Muslim community would “stop discriminating against the Christians,” as one churchgoer said. He argued that the ways Muslims treat the Coptic population is a form of oppression. “What we see here, and what the ministers and church says is that the Muslim community wants to ensure the Copts cannot grow, cannot establish their holy places,” he began, asking not to be named, adding that “in other countries this would be seen as outright oppression of a minority group, but here, when the Copts try and do something, Muslims simply attack them.” The blame game seems to be picking up, with many of the foreigners living in Egypt who subsequently hold the strings in terms of money and development siding with their fellow Christians. The American, who works in Cairo, said that Islam is also an evangelical institution that aims to convert. “Look at history, Islam has been a religion of conversion and now, by not allowing the Copts to build their churches and continue their faith openly, they are doing the same thing today as they have done for centuries,” he argued, letting thousands of years of Islamic tolerance of ‘Peoples of the Book' go to waste. Islam has long stated forced conversion is not allowed and that Christians and Jews should be allowed to practice their faith openly and without contestation. Fahim argued that without a strong belief in Jesus Christ “all non-believers will face hell, so it is extremely important that these churches and people like me are out their spreading the gospel.” BM
