Christian Persecution in Egypt

egyboy

with all of the persecution in egypt, i would like to know your ideas on what the copts should do. should they leave egypt for the muslims like some say, or stay in egypt, the origin of the copts?

im reminded of Matthew 5:10-12, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

my personal opinion is "rabena yostor!" and i am for the copts remaining in egypt

so what do you think?

please pray for me and my weakness

godislove260

There are several things one should keep in mind here:

Persecution implies a lot. Are Copts treated unfairly in many circumstances in their own country? Yes But they do they get killed when they walk down the streets? Do we get asked the question: convert or die? etc. What I mean to say is we should not blow things out of proportion. What happens in real life is the fault of the whole society, including the Copts... Unfortunately, not all Copts are true Christians, I've heard and seen Copts (both outside and inside of Egypt) who come nothing short of extremism. They teach their children to hate muslims and not to befriend them... (just as some muslims do)
Also the Copts are becoming more and more isolated from society, which again is partly their own fault...

So to say simply the good innocent powerless Copts are being persecuted by Nero and his soldiers is not correct. The world is simply not black and white.

What happens is that some university professors might give you a lesser grade for being a Copt even if you deserve more , yet still, many Copts go to university and get good grades and graduate to become succesful... There are some places (supermarkets for example) that are known to hire muslims only to work for them (but guess what, there are also Copts who hire Copts only, which could be justified by saying: otherwise they won't have work so we have to help our own, but I'm sure once a well qaulified decent muslim applies for a job and finds he is being refused for his religion, a new coptic-hating extremist is born..)
It is harder to build and restore churches indeed, but as you said Egyboy 'rabbena beyostor', God works always in His church

Now about the whole Coptic girl kidnapping and converting thing... I cannot deny that that happens simply because I cannot prove or disprove it, however one must not hang all cases on that scenario. Some girls, yes, probably even Coptic girls, fall in love with boys and having a bad atmosphere at home, decide to run away with him etc etc and yes, some people simply don't care about religion, and converting to them isn't such a big deal

And then of course there is the discrimination in evangelizing, and converting. There is nothing to excuse that, it's plain unconstitutional and against all human rights... (but when God wants to reach a soul, He does it and when someone becomes Christian, it's the hart that matters not the papers..)


Things have gotten worse in the way of thinking that people have in general, the islamization and arabization of Egypt have left many muslims viewing themselves first as muslims, part of the Umma, then arabs and then egyptian... but extremism grew both ways, the whole society is at fault for allowing things to get that bad...

In conclusion I would like to add, we have a government that is filled with corruption and that often ignores the needs of its people, Egypt has millions of people (amongst whom there are muslims) living in places not fit for human inhabitance, the whole government education system is a mess, the judicial system has its many flaws, the government has money, Egypt is not such a poor country, but the wealth is not being divided fairly, causing frustration, there are not enough jobs, so we have many youths feeling worthless and not being able to contribute to society etc.

The discrimination against Christians in Egypt is only one amongst many problems, and any change must come from within society, I know I must have given a pretty grim picture, but what I didn't mention is that there are still many (both muslims and christians) who speak out against corruption, extremism, etc. There are still many who defy society and stick with their beliefs even if they pay for it with their lives  (eg Dr. Farag Fouda, the martyr of the word as he is called). There are still many muslims who are best friends with copts... and most importantly, there is still God, who blessed Egypt with His presence once and never left it since, there is still a God to whom all can call out with supplications, a God in whose hands all things are...

So what should the Copts do? realize that they have a powerful God
                                        and from that realization strive to be good Christians, knowing that their light will shine

Leave or stay? it is not always the best thing to do to immigrate... some people lead a happier life in Egypt than outside of it (agains, it's not all black and white) this is something which should be looked at from person to person

egyboy

Thanks for your response, Godislove. I understand what you mean, but the problem is that many of the Copts and Muslims in Egypt do not. rabena yostor.

please pray for me and my weakness, and for our brothers in Egypt.

gregorytheSinner

I only skimmed the thread, didn't really divulge myself into it, but I must say as a person living in Egypt, I really do believe that the actions of many in the land of immigration, if not create problems, make existing problems worse.  What I've seen is exactly what Godislove, wrote about.  I think its an insult for us to even use the word 'persecution' with our current situation.  Real persecution was seen during Diocletion's era, the Fatimid era, and more recently the late 70s-80s.  The problem with Egypt nowadays, is the "submerged prejudice" which is found on both sides, the Christian and the Muslims, but is not talked about.  And this prejudice, is what usually causes the brief moments of friction, that and ignorance.

Personally in my opinion, the COC was never an aggressive church to demand for it's rights (like so many rioters do in the lands of immigration).  Instead we used prayer as our means of getting things done.  I believe we should stick with what we know best.