CAIRO: Ilias Tadros wakes up each morning before the sun rises, heads to his local cafe, puffs away on his shisha pipe and reads the newspaper. Almost daily he is disgusted at what he reads. Often, he says, the morning tea and smoke ends in frustration and anger at the country he calls home. “I love my country, but it is getting out of hand,” he says, sipping his still steaming black tea. “What really upsets me is that we Egyptians don't seem to want to change out attitude and create something better. Everyone complains, but nobody wants to do anything,” the 34-year-old pharmacist argues. The most recent incident to get under his skin was the killing of a 60-something Christian man in an Assiut governorate in upper Egypt, some 300 miles south of Cairo. According to the press reports Tadros is reading, Egyptian police reported an “honor” killing in the village and have increased their presence in the area in order to curtail any possible backlash. Sources said that members of a Muslim family attacked and killed the man after his son allegedly distributed a CD that contained images of the family's daughter, which they said were disrespectful and “hurt her honor.” The sources added that a rumor is spreading in al-Tahwila village in the governorate about a young Christian man who was distributing a CD “containing images that distorts the reputation of a Muslim girl, who was having a relationship with him, and he started to distribute this CD after disputes erupted between them.” Police reported that girl's family went to the boy's home, but did not find him present, so they attacked and killed the father in retaliation for the “honor” of their daughter and family. Three people have been arrested in connection with the murder, but Tadros feels uncertain that any criminal action will take place. “We live in a society that does nothing to help its citizens, so why would I expect much to come out of this now?” he asks. Christians make up an estimated 10 percent of Egypt’s 80 million people. Although the two communities live in relative peace and coexistence, in recent years, especially in the northern Delta region and southern Egypt, Copts and Muslims have fought more regularly. Last summer, massive upheaval took place in Mansoura in the Delta region a few hours from Cairo, after a local Muslim boy was stabbed to death by a Coptic street vendor. In the aftermath, hundreds of Muslims then attacked homes of Coptic Christians in the area, forcing police to enter the town and establish a curfew to quiet the city. In Bani Sweif, a similar confrontation left at least 6 people injured and police frantically attempted to calm the rising tensions, also last summer. Clashes there began after a priest decided to turn a social services building for Copts into a small church. Muslims attacked the priest's house and attempted to burn it down. Seven security vehicles were sent to maintain order by surrounding the village and the priest's house. “The cause behind the recurring attacks in the issue of building churches is the regime and I blame the government before extremists for not solving the problem,” said Naguib Gobrail, a Coptic lawyer in Cairo. Permission for churches is controversial in Egypt, where by law the president must give final say in the use of a certain space for religious purposes. Rights groups argue that because the president delegates authority in the matter to local officials, Copts have been forced to use illegal places for worship. Many Muslims argue that it is not the idea of having Christian places of worship that bother them, it is the manner and place where they are established. Mona, a 62-year-old mother, asked why a church is being built directly in front of a mosque. “What is the point of that? They [Christians] know that it will create tensions among the population and this sort of in-your-face religion needs to end,†she argued. George Ishaq, a Kefaya (Enough) opposition leader and prominent Copt, said that there are a number of solutions to the ongoing problems facing the country’s religious groups. He said that whenever he meets a group of Copts he tells them to stop complaining about the discrimination they receive at the hands of the government and “start to move.†This, Ishaq argued, is the means of creating a society that will breathe life into the stale religious dialogue that is persisting in Egypt. “We live in a country where the government doesn’t give anyone their rights, so people need to be realistic,†Ishaq continued. Hossam Bahgat, the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, in an earlier interview, agrees with Ishaq on one level, but says that the systemic avoidance of these issues by the government is allowing for the continued role of politics and religion to play out in a violent manner. “Certainly, the media does exaggerate some of the instances, but the facts on the ground show that there is a real problem that is going on and because the government did nothing in the 1970s and 1980s it has allowed the conservativeness of Saudi-style Islam to take hold in Egypt. People feel threatened for whatever reason and religion gives them a reason to take their frustrations out on the other group,†he argued. Whatever the causes for the increase in violence, Bahgat and Ishaq agree on at least one thing: that the government must move quickly to begin to stem the flow of violence that is based on sectarianism. “The government must act, but everyone must understand that this will not solve the situation quickly, it will take time and Egyptians must be willing to make the first move if the country will move forward,†continued Bahgat. BM
