Coptic-Muslim Tensions Still Running High; Overseas Copts Getting Involved

Sorry to keep coming back to Egypt, but as I've said before, I write what I know. Tensions between Copts and Muslims in Upper Egypt have been running high since the Christmas Eve killings, and now Security has arrested 28 Copts and 14 Muslims in the rioting and burnings that took place in Bahgura (or Bahjura). There's also a newer video of the immediate shooting aftermath on YouTube which is fairly graphic and therefore I'm not embedding it; if you really need to see it you can go here. And Al-Masry Al-Youm has a chronology of sectarian violence in Egypt since 1972. It's not comprehensive or complete, but it's better than anything the official press (or "semi-official" as Al-Ahram is always referenced) would publish.

As the story at the first link above shows, Copts abroad are getting into the debate now. There's some danger here. So far the government has been promising to mete out justice to the killers (remember a policeman also died). But when the overseas Coptic community starts denouncing the Egyptian government, the government sometimes has a tendency to go into the bunker.

As you'll see in the linked story, Morris Sadek of the National American Coptic Assembly has called for the United States to intervene and even noted that Copts were better off under French and British occupation and asked for those countries' intervention too.

I have enormous empathy for the Copts, but this was a local Muslim-Christian vendetta, and since Napoleon's dead and so's Anthony Eden, the British and French reference is only going to alienate Egyptian nationalists (including many Copts). The American intervention idea? Not going to happen. When a minority, however ill-treated, seems to be calling for foreign imperial intervention against its own government, that suggests an uncertain grasp of reality. But it's mostly Copts abroad, or some like Sadek who move between the US and Egypt, who can get away with saying these things.

Back in 1981 when Anwar Sadat deposed Pope Shenouda, it was in part a response to his embarrassment at Coptic demonstrators he encountered on his visit to Washington to see Ronald Reagan shortly before. If Copts abroad get too noisy, the government is likely to react badly. A minority, in the real world of the Middle East, is better off not defying the government.

If the perpetrators are not brought to justice, there will be plenty of grounds for protest. But calling for foreign intervention? That won't happen, so if overseas Copts want to protect their co-religionists at home, don't throw fuel on the smoldering embers. Things are already bad enough.