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At Large
What Kind of Revolution?
Since Mubarak’s ouster, Egypt’s Coptic Christians have been under seige.
Ugly reality has dashed the high hopes of the “Arab Spring.” Although the dream of democratic reform lives on, only Tunisia appears on course. In Egypt, the fall of Hosni Mubarak has encouraged religious intolerance and persecution, especially against the Coptic Christian community.
Once a great civilization, Egypt long
ago turned into an impoverished backwater. Only a large population
and strategic location today deliver geopolitical importance. Hosni
Mubarak ruled for three decades, but under him the Egyptian people
enjoyed neither prosperity nor liberty. In fact, Mubarak was
exhibit A for America’s foreign policy conundrum: stability or
democracy? He held the Muslim Brotherhood in check, maintained a
cold peace with Israel, and kept the Suez Canal open. For that he
was richly rewarded with tens of billions in “foreign aid,” which
he used to build an authoritarian kleptocracy — one that treated
the needs of most Egyptians as an afterthought. Washington
occasionally pushed for reform, but never too hard, lest stability
be sacrificed.
Mubarak counted among his
victims the Coptic Christians, who make up around ten percent of
the population. They predate Islam, but today are a disadvantaged
and increasingly threatened minority. Rather
like Saddam Hussein and the Assad family, Mubarak seemingly cared
little for religion. However, he left more room for Islamic
extremists to act and compete for political support by victimizing
religious minorities.
While the “government does not
actively persecute or repress Christians, a prejudicial legal
framework has created a permissive environment that allows Egyptian
officials and private individuals to discriminate against
Christians freely and with impunity,” noted Michele Dunne of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The U.S. State
Department called the status of religious liberty in Egypt “poor.”
State added that Christians and Baha’is faced “personal and
collective discrimination, especially in government employment and
their ability to build, renovate, and repair places of
worship.”
Moreover, the regime “sometimes
arrested, detained, and harassed” those “whose beliefs and/or
practices it deemed to deviate from mainstream Islamic beliefs and
whose activities it alleged to jeopardize communal harmony.”
Government-controlled media and government-funded mosques encourage
violence. The authorities do little to stop the
kidnapping of young Coptic girls, who then are forced to marry
Muslims.
Converts are at particular risk.
Despite some recent progress, the government traditionally refused
to provide new identity documents to converts as well as Baha’is.
Worse, noted William Inboden of the Strauss Center for
International Security and Law, “Egyptian converts from Islam to
Christianity, though very few in number, suffered particularly
heinous treatment — including imprisonment and sadistic
torture.”
Equally disturbing, noted the
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom,
“violence targeting Coptic Orthodox Christians remained high.” But
the Mubarak government rarely punished the attackers. Indeed,
International Christian Concern noted that it was common for the
government to arrest “Coptic victims alongside the perpetrators of
the violence.”
Even when the Copts did not end
up behind bars, they did not receive justice. State explained that
the Mubarak government sponsored “informal reconciliation sessions”
which “generally prevented the criminal prosecution of perpetrators
of crimes against Copts, precluded their recourse to the judicial
system for restitution, and contributed to a climate of impunity
that encouraged further
assaults.”
About the Author
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author and editor of several books, including The Politics of Plunder: Misgovernment in Washington (Transaction).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (28) | Leave a comment
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Clint| 7.13.11 @ 6:12AM
Dr. Ron Paul,
“Our military’s purpose is to defend our country, not to police the Middle East.
“As the President prepares to send even more support to Egypt, we should be reminded that it was our foreign aid that helped Mubarak retain power to repress his people in the first place. Now we have to deal with the consequences of those decisions, yet we keep repeating the same mistakes.
“I am not the only one who can see the absurdities of our foreign policy. We give $3 billion to Israel and $12 billion to her enemies. Most Americans know that makes no sense.
“We need to come to our senses, trade with our friends in the Middle East (both Arab and Israeli), clean up our own economic mess so we set a good example, and allow them to work out their own conflicts.”
oldfart| 7.13.11 @ 7:40AM
There is one truth in the Middle East - they hate us if we don't give them money and hate us if we do? So why should we continue to play the sucker. If the eco-freaks would let us we don't need the middle east - right now they are just cheaper - at the moment.
Walterp| 7.13.11 @ 9:32AM
It's called "jizyah." Ransom that supposedly protects us from their attacks. Throughout history they have done what they are doing in Egypt. Brutalize, kill, and enslave non-muslim populations. Because the victims were/are not islamic it is acceptable (Holy Quran). Clinton the idiot bombed the wrong side in the Balkans. Obama the muslim has been silent on this "democratic process" in Egypt.
canuckistani| 7.13.11 @ 10:15AM
Copts have insinuated themselves into every aspect of Mubarak's regime for the last 30 years. They are survivors. 10% of a population of illiterates and thieves.
No major business deal there does not have the fingerprints of a Copt. Sharm Al Sheik being the best example of this.
They are the only Egyptians that can sit down and have a "drink" with an infidel group, the only ones that can deal with Turkey - the gatekeepers of Arab commerce in Europe, and the only ones that can dance with Tel Aviv when the Muslims lose their nerve.
Mubarak was especially savvy in this area as he knew the bench strength of Muslims in these areas of commerce was a void, and cleverly manipulated Coptic support in lieu of partial security.
The new regime will soon realize how deep a hole they are in and the spectacular absence of expertise they have before them if the Copts are not brought along.
Walterp| 7.13.11 @ 10:27AM
Nothing I have read to date even remotely suggest that Islamist want Copts to do anything but go away. Dance with Tel Aviv? Gatekeepers of commerce with Europe? Where did you hear these things? According to your sources are Islamist trying to peacefully coexist with Israel also?
CalMark| 7.13.11 @ 3:48PM
What an ugly, hateful post.
Copts are a small minority. Amazing power they have for evil.
Unlike Muslims, huge in numbers but incapable of wickedness unless goaded into it by the West, which they charmingly and no doubt affectionately call "The Great Satan".
Paul Nelson| 7.14.11 @ 3:40PM
"Muslims incapable of evil" bwhahaha sick joke there sonny
JK| 7.13.11 @ 11:38AM
I wish the world would turn around and watch what is happening when Muslim extremists are left to multiply and become a majority. And whats even worse is that they are turning against themselves, Salafiis turning against Bahaais.
The way we are going maybe America and the rest of the world will become Egypt, where the Muslim becomes majority and everyone not Muslim having their ears cut off and killed.
megapotamus| 7.13.11 @ 1:44PM
This is another phase of the religious cleansing islam demands. Jews were burned out of every muslim country decades ago. Where there is no foreign infidel they define the less rabid muslims as kaffir. The Copts need either to get out or secure themselves a territory within Egypt that is politically and militarily defensible. Considering Egypts new fleet of 125 Abrams that sounds like a tall order.
LMajito| 7.13.11 @ 3:42PM
it is kafir not double ff...with double ff the word would the equivalent of the n word in usa
Nobama is Goodbama| 7.13.11 @ 6:23PM
Irrelevant. The orginal American English spelling of mozlem was "musselmen".
Besides, there are few one to one corresponding letters between the English and arabic alphabets.
Dave Williams| 7.13.11 @ 1:58PM
Intolerant muslims....now THERE's a real shocker.
John| 7.13.11 @ 3:25PM
Does the American spectator have to publish a quoto of these islamophobic articles to please uncles aipac, Zionist. Copts have lived under muslim rule for 1500 years. And they will continue to live for another 1500 years. There are more Copts today I'm Egypt then ever before. The Muslims of egypt are the descendants of the Copts. The descendants of the beduin army from the deserts of Arabia are very small by comparison. The salafists are very small minority in the Muslim world. Then tend to target Muslims more than any other group. Under mubaraks dictatorship extreme ideologies were able to prosper in shadows. Freedom will bring a strong light on these people that will burn them away. egypt, egyptions. Long may they prosper inshallah .
CalMark| 7.13.11 @ 3:46PM
You're obviously Muslim, and obviously can't handle the truth.
That makes you, and people like you, a big part of the the problem.
"Who us? Nooooo! Islamaphobe hateful Americans! Shut up! Everything is fine, we tell you, fine!"
Occam's Tool| 7.13.11 @ 6:56PM
CalMark: I must, unfortunately, disagree, because I am genetically coded by eutely to only have 302 Neurons. I am C(lint) Elegans, a free living round worm. I love Ron Paul!
I think a policy of Non-Interventionalism will solve everything, and not expressing our disgust of their behaviors will certainly keep the Coptic Christians alive and healthy. My name is C. Elegans, and I have 302 neurons, thanks to eutely.
I am a devout Catholic who won't do a damn thing to protect my fellow Christians from massacre, but don't you dare call me non-Christian! I'm sure the Copts will be fine because the new Egyptian Government is bound to be secular and not want to violently impose Sharia Law and Dhimmitude on Copts. I have 302 happy, cheerful neurons, and I, as a hermaphrodite, self fertilize to reproduce!
My name is C(lint) Elegans, and I love Ron Paul! If the Copts get massacred that's not my problem, because even though I'm Catholic, and therefore, a Christian, you heathen Jewboy ToolJobs, I am in no way bound to defend my friends in the presence of their enemies. If they get killed by secular Islamic fanatics (everyone claiming to be a Christian is secular, of course, except for me and the Pope, who I know is impressed by my fanatical loyalty to him---I'm a devout Catholic who sits by when little Jewish girls get their heads cut off or Coptic Christians get massacred.) This is because I am genetically coded to have precisely 302 Neurons, just like my hero Ron Paul!
********************************************
Thanks, CalMark, I just had to get that out. To the Catholics reading this, I don't get involved in who is or is not a Christian, and my slashing was directed at the Nematode, not Catholicism.
CalMark| 7.13.11 @ 8:55PM
Catharsis is often good for the soul. Speaking as a layman.
Few things embarrass us Catholics like Mr. 302 Neurons. I cringe when I read his rants, especially the ones referencing religion.
As a Catholic, I have to wonder: where exactly IS the Pope? He needs to speak out, loudly and firmly, against radical Islam and in defense of his own people.
Nobama is Goodbama| 7.13.11 @ 6:19PM
To "John" aka mohamed aldurahman aziz:
You have no idea what a sook-load of taqquiya drivel your comments sound like to an informed Infidel.
John| 7.13.11 @ 6:40PM
Disinfomed infidel. When you stop burning women and children alive in afpak, then we'll talk. The entire Sunni Arab community has been either murdered or driven out. Talk about freedom. You're having a laugh. Keeping thousands of people in secrect death camps. Talk about liberty. You're having a laugh. I pray that the debt ceiling is not increased (:national sucide). At least the rest of the world might get some releif. You are about as informed as a kuala.
CalMark| 7.13.11 @ 8:50PM
Hmmm...is this extreme satire?
If I missed it earlier, mea culpa.
If it's not satire, I guess the fella's true colors have come out.
Fredrick Ward| 7.14.11 @ 9:34AM
When Islam is scoured from the earth everyone will be able to live in a more peaceful world. That day cannot come soon enough. You support murderers, rapists, and all manner or thuggery. That is the plain, and simple, truth. Instead of writing such stories like this the world should pay back the Islamic community for all it's atrocities a thousand fold by wiping them out.
Nobama is Goodbama| 7.13.11 @ 6:15PM
The "arab spring's" defining moment: The mass izlamic gang rape of Lara Logan, an uncovered female Infidel.
Tony in Central PA| 7.13.11 @ 9:32PM
The so - called Arab Spring did not begin the persecutions of Christians in Muslim countries but it seems likely to make things much worse because the best organized groups in the wake of the collapse of the autocracies are Islamist.
Once again it seems that without the threat of violence, Islam is nothing.
POST American| 7.13.11 @ 10:35PM
----America has one final task before its
own collapse is completed and RED China
is brought in as 'world enforcer', and that's
to 'bring in' (ie franchise slums, porn and
EUGENICS) the recacitrant Middle East.
UNDENIABLE
weddingdress | 7.15.11 @ 4:56AM
When Islam is scoured from the earth everyone will be able to live in a more peaceful world. That day cannot come soon enough. You support murderers, rapists, and all manner or thuggery. That is the plain, and simple, truth. Instead of writing such stories like this the world should pay back the Islamic community for all it's atrocities a thousand fold by wiping them out.
Richard Baker| 7.15.11 @ 5:47PM
If it weren't for oil the region would be almost totally ignored, and for good reason. Other than oil, they produce almost nothing beyond strife and human degradation. In the movie "Lawrence of Arabia", the actor portraying General Murray describes the Arabs as "nothing but a nation of sheep-stealers." Tell me where there's been a change since then in the Arab "ethic."
Thomas O. Meehan| 7.17.11 @ 6:20PM
Whatever the actor said, it was Bismark who said it about the whole Balkans.
Johnny D | 7.15.11 @ 9:16PM
As Christians, the Copts are dhimmis according to the Quran and Hadith. This status permits--in fact encourages--their Muslim neighbors to persecute, attack, and kill them. If we want to be in touch with reality, we need to accept this situation as it is and stop hoping that all will be cumbaya in Egypt. Those in Egypt who follow orthodox Islam will continue to pursue the poor Copts until they are fully subdued, forced out of their nation, or killed in the name of Allah (Quran 9:5, 9:29). Thus the notion of an "Arab Spring" is a fallacy because there is nothing in Quranic Islam to indicate any possibilty of peaceful co-existence between Muslims and non-believers. The sooner we in the West accept this reality the better off the Copts will be.