My first contact with the Orthodox Copts in Egypt was in 2005. I made a study visit to Cairo a few weeks ago when, wandering down town, I came across a Coptic church. Sign in to curiosity Egyptology - the Copts are somehow the inheritors of the traditions and language of ancient Egypt were celebrating a baptism. People were intrigued by my presence, but smiled at me and prevented me from making a short film that immortalized the song's melodic vocals and deacons "Bedouin" who women were with her tongue. At the end of the celebration a priest handing out bread, I knew after that was called urban, the bread of the pilgrim. In ancient times, when churches were few, people also walked many miles to attend mass on an empty stomach. At the end of the liturgy of the church distruibuiva hot oven sandwiches to feed the faithful. I took a bite and the priest smiled at me, begging me to take it but with the right hand and his left hand that I had drawn.
Since that time my trips to Egypt multiplied, until 2009, when I married my wife Monica, a Coptic Orthodox whose parents are originally from Middle Egypt. Two uncles, priests, including one who emigrated to the U.S. to escape persecution, Monica's family is very religious and has a long and prestigious family tradition.
The Coptic churches are full of enthusiastic young people, smiling, happy, singing and praying with the heart. I spent my first Orthodox Christmas on January 7 of 2008 was not a vacant commercial and carouse as in Europe. Jesus was born in the anonymity of a stable, ignored by everyone, so there are no lights in Cairo, although the Coptic shops, but sometimes also Muslim, exhibit here and there a Santa Claus or a garland of light. Christmas Eve is a great feast for all the Copts, the liturgy lasts a lot, at least three hours, but the church is overflowing with smiling people. On Christmas morning you wake up at 7; My wife sings in a choir of young people who annually accompany one of them dressed as Santa Claus in a dozen orphanages. For safety, Santa Claus comes down the car in front of the door of the orphanage, sometimes flies a few insults. He sings with the children, his eyes full of tears in front of so much suffering: nuns and volunteers care for these abandoned children, no family. After the long ride to the city, the heart full of tenderness, he finally goes to lunch. My mother-in-law has prepared a legendary 10-pound turkey. It celebrates family, laughing. That's the spirit of Christmas. For
Coptic life in Egypt is not easy. The church was traditionally founded by the preaching of St. Mark Evangelist. The bishop of Alexandria, the patriarch, it soon became one of the most important of the Roman Empire, together with the bishop of Rome, Antioch and Constantinople. The Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) saw the first separation between the Churches: the Coptic community, Armenian and Syriac were separated from the others and became independent, even before the great schism between Rome and Byzantium. Since then, a separate path, but with many shared values: monasticism, founded in Egypt by S. Anthony the Great, the veneration of the saints and the Mother of God Then the persecution. Because while the Church of Rome was heading towards his season's richest and most blatant, that the formation of a state able to compete with the Germanic Empire, the Coptic Church gradually along with the other Eastern churches knew the bitter conquest of Islam. After the first peaceful and democratic libertarian, the regime became oppressive, and oppression were not lacking: the destroyed churches, monasteries raided, forced conversions and discrimination.
The Coptic church is currently enjoying a season of rebirth, though shaken by the recent attacks and violence. However, the bombs are just the tip of the iceberg, the far side and striking a fierce and often petty violence every day. Discrimination are obviously not in the form of law, but it is very easy to circumvent the law. Some examples. In a process where a Muslim fanatic killed a Copt, the court sided have several options: it can indefinitely postpone the hearing, declare the defendant of unsound mind or condemn it but to give him a sentence different from that prescribed for murder. No stopping: applies to everyone, but if the car was parked in a cross attached to the mirror I'm sure is a Copt, and then do the fine: this happens regularly at Christmas or Easter in front of churches. Again: a Muslim who converts to Christianity can not change this status on their identity card (the religion is in fact made explicit in official documents). His daughter, was born a Christian mother and Christian father converted, will be officially Muslim documents, therefore can not marry a Christian. Last year during the fast of Ramadan, some people were even arrested in Aswan for having made the charge during the hours of fasting. The Interior Ministry said, not without unintended humor that was a protest against the Islamic fanatics, to see how it would be hard to live in Egypt if they apply the letter of the Sha're, Islamic law. In 2009 following the panic caused by the media with regard to swine flu, Egypt decided to eliminate all the pigs in the country. The decision went to particularly affect the Christian community, who raised pigs, and also use them to dispose of tons of waste produced by metropli North Africa. The economy of the farmers Copts was brought to its knees while the city was invaded by the waste. A de facto
this attitude of the State towards the Copts joins front, with Christmas greetings to Pope Shenouda III Coptic by the head of state, the presence of members of the Cabinet of the Government solemn celebration of the Coptic Church, the cordial exchange of words between members of the clergy and imams and sheikhs of the most influential mosques, from al-Azhar. Prominent Copts in the Egyptian parliament sitting, the Minister of Economy from 2004 is a Copt, Yussif Boutros Ghali, nephew of that Boutros Ghali at the head of the UN for years, and in turn nephew a prime minister at the time of the monarchy of King Fuad I. One of the richest men in the country, the magnate Naguib Sawiris, owner of Wind, is actually a Copt.
The common sentiment is more varied. Friends of my wife's Muslims have also become my friends, because of their sincere affection and unconditional: it's nice to exchange greetings for Christmas and Ramadan, to be called IFT (by breaking the Ramadan fast at sunset) go along with the Coptic Museum in Cairo or attending a wedding at the church or the mosque. Compliance with these soul sincere relationships. But beyond that? A guardian of the Theban necropolis in Luxor, the world famous archaeological site in the winter of 2008, ignoring My wife was Christian, he started yelling in Arabic against "those dogs Jews and Christians." More than once a man spat on my wife or my mother-in-law at the sight of the crucifix. Attending the Copts emigrated to Italy, I heard dozens of these stories of oppression and abuse. Shortly after the explosion last night in Alexandria, while on Facebook multiplied messages of solidarity of our Muslim friends, who also changed the profile photo with the Egyptian flag in mourning and a symbol of national unity - a cross embraced by a crescent - and while still burning the cars in front of the church, groups of Muslims shouted exultantly the formula of the Islamic faith, "Allahu Akbar! La ilaha ala Allah. " From this substratum of intolerance arise the frequent abduction of young Coptic girls, forcibly converted by the Islamic fanatics, the expropriation of lands, destruction of homes and businesses, terrorist attacks. Just last Christmas in Naga Hammadi, Upper Egypt, eight young Christians were killed at the exit of the cathedral after Mass Christmas, a Muslim who was passing by was also a victim of the fire of bigots. The Copts began to protest and twenty-two young Christians were arrested without apparent reason in the following days, while investigations into the massacre continued slowness and silence of the authorities. After this fierce attack today Alexandria have chased rumors that the police knew and did not want to prevent the attack, it seems that on many churches in Egypt, and on this attack in particular, will be written "Expect a nice surprise for Christmas and New Year" . Even in Egypt, Coptic sources of information that the police and ambulances attended the scene of the massacre are only five hours after the attack and four injured people were transported to the public hospital leave hours without relief, until the two are not bleeding to death. A bomb has exploded to scare the faithful and get them out, two more exploded shortly after take in the full stream of people leaving. My wife called abuna Angelos, the priest who takes care of the Coptic community in Scandicci, near Florence, was crying, her sister lives in the street of the massacre and did not go to church tonight because he did not feel well.
Similarly, the distrust of the Copts against the Muslim majority is striking. The two communities do not attend much, but without arriving at a proper segregation. Copts Copts and serve only married preferably in Coptic-owned shops, perhaps to avoid being cheated or treated less well than other customers. Discrimination in the private sector are often very open, as in the ad sales of the popular food chain Mo'men Egyptian, urging the Copts to not appear in the selections for the staff.
in Baghdad last October, a group of extremists killed a sixty-Syrian Catholic faithful during mass. They demanded the release of two women wrongfully held captive in Coptic monasteries after their alleged conversion to Islam. The obsession with the monasteries often slips into the ridiculous. So many times I have heard the ravings of people who believe that Pope Shenouda breed of dogs for use against the Copts who want to convert to Islam or in the monasteries there are hidden weapons ready for an upcoming "revolution Coptic." My wife says the only weapons of the monasteries are the poles of the older monks. If clashes between Christians and Muslims have so far been an internal matter to Egypt, fueled by centuries of mistrust and intolerance, often born to single episodes of discord and degenerated into violent attacks spontaneous hour scheduled time, it seems now to assist the infiltration of terrorists outside , who acted the same al-Qaeda in Iraq. Obviously want to destabilize the country, already exhausted by the economic crisis (a kilo of sugar or flour, the net exchange rate, cost more to Egypt than in Italy!), Frustrated by corruption and omnivorous, dall'appiattimento of Information and Culture, a country tired living the final phase of a dictatorial regime that attempts to personal effort to sustain and to propagate. Extremists ride the rapid radicalization of the Islamic country, fodder for decades of migration to and from the Gulf area: more and more veiled women on the street, the increasingly popular Islamic greeting salam aleikum instead of the more secular Sabah el-Kheir. Distant the Fifties, when the women of Cairo, of whatever faith, walking in a miniskirt! The presidential elections this year 2011, which will probably field a man bearer of great hopes, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Nobel Peace Prize Muhammad al-Baradei, will bring change for the better for Egypt?
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