28 June - 4 July 2001
Issue No.540
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 June - 4 July 2001 Issue No.540 |
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Beyond the slur
After reaching unprecedented levels last week, the fervent reaction of the Coptic community to the Al-Nabaa slur has left Copts seeking redress for other, more general, grievances, reports Nadia Abou El-Magd
A week after the independent weekly Al-Nabaa published lurid details and pictures of the personal life of a defrocked monk, touching off an angry outcry by Copts, Sunday mass went smoothly at the Abbasiya Cathedral, the seat of Pope Shenouda III. After mass, dozens of Copts headed over to the cathedral's courtyard "to hear the latest news," explained 30-year-old Theresa Gouda.
The Sunday prayers coincided with the opening of the trial of Al-Nabaa's chief editor, Mamdouh Mahran. Many among the gathered youth, who apparently expected the State Security Misdemeanours Court to hand down a sentence on the same day, were angry to learn that hearings were adjourned for a week. Bishop Yoaness, an aide to the pope, sat on the stairs outside the cathedral with an angry crowd of about 500, urging reason. Senior police officers and anti-riot police hovered at the entrance of the cathedral and in side streets.
"Time is not important; the outcome is what counts," Yoaness urged, explaining that it is legally impossible for any court to issue a verdict on the first day of the trial. "We should demand our rights only; we shouldn't ask to be spoiled," he added.
Some protesters carried banners citing incidents of sectarian strife dating back to Al-Zawya Al-Hamra, some 30 years ago, and ending with Al-Nabaa, wondering what would come next. "When things like this happen, they weaken our sense of belonging to this country," Salah Sedki, 26, told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Yoaness was clearly hoping to stave off a repeat of last Wednesday's uproar, when Pope Shenouda's weekly address was cancelled. The modest notice posted at the entrance of the cathedral did not prevent more than 20,000 people from gathering inside, however, and fierce demonstrations erupted.
The angry protesters were contained by hundreds of anti-riot police, but a group of them did manage to climb the wall surrounding the cathedral compound, hoisting a banner calling upon the international human rights movement to intervene, while some of them began hurling stones at the police. Police used water cannon to disperse the demonstrators and some security men, in turn, climbed the wall and hurled stones back. Bishop Yoaness and other priests pleaded for calm and for people to leave by the back door of the cathedral. Around 50 demonstrators, five police officers and 20 rank-and-file policemen were injured, and 21 demonstrators were arrested.
"There were things that shouldn't have happened last Wednesday [20 June]," Yoaness told the crowd. "The boys shouldn't have started throwing stones at the police; there shouldn't have been banners calling for intervention by international human rights organisations. The Church should not be used as a platform for such things," he said.
Yoaness told the Weekly that the pope's cancellation of his weekly meeting, usually attended by some 7,000 people, was out of concern for people's safety, not because of pressure from security forces.
In his second appearance on Egyptian television last week, Pope Shenouda said that Copts "have some grievances" and affirmed his opposition "to foreign intervention in solving Copts' problems."
Abdel-Moneim Said, director of the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, wrote on Monday that Coptic youths have changed, not only because their Muslim counterparts have changed, but because the world is changing with them. "The issue is not to curse who started the [sectarian] strife; the issue is why the elite remained silent, and whether resentment continues to smoulder."
Many were shocked by the unprecedented Coptic fury displayed over the Al-Nabaa story, and some have dismissed the uproar as "over-reaction and hyper-sensitivity" on the Copts' part. But others say that Al-Nabaa was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Secular writer and Copt Kamal Zakher Moussa told the Weekly that the Al-Nabaa article "is the direct, but not the main, reason" for the tumult. "The economic crisis has cast its shadow on the situation."
According to Moussa, in addition to their own problems, Coptic youths are suffering, like Muslims, from unemployment and lack of cultural sophistication. Therefore, "the religious solution is not the ideal solution; the solution should be political this time around," he added.
After 21 Copts were killed last year in sectarian strife in the Upper Egyptian town of Al-Kosheh, at least 100 intellectuals issued a statement containing 10 recommendations to prevent recurrence of the incident. "What took place in Al-Kosheh was not an external conspiracy, or the work of some invisible hand; it is the outcome of an impaired education system, deformed media, incompetent security measures and discriminatory practices and policies against Coptic citizens," the statement said.
Diaa Rashwan, managing editor of the annual State of Religion in Egypt Report, issued by the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, believes that the protests mark "the explosion of the Copts' accumulated feelings of frustration over the last quarter century." However, Rashwan argues that there is no such thing as "a purely Coptic issue." "The matter should be considered as part of the problems of Egyptian society as a whole and the government's mishandling of them."
It is not in the interest of Copts to provoke the Muslim majority by demanding foreign support. This, according to Rashwan, complicates an already delicate problem. To the dismay of some of the crowd at the cathedral on Sunday, Bishop Yoaness emphasised: "We should not forget that we are living in an Islamic country." The crowd applauded, however, when he added: "We are not enjoying our rights 100 per cent, but things have been improving remarkably in the past three or four years. Hopefully, the government will take our anger into consideration."
"If the court hands down a strict sentence, nobody will dare imitate Mahran," Yoaness told the Weekly as he left.
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