Copts between the rock of Islamism [Islam] and a hard place
Islamization Watch
The oldest Christian community faces harsh new pressures
A read through this – is almost like reading an obituary of the Coptic Church and although the Muslim invasion occurred long ago it should be a reminder of freedom lost and restrictions imposed if Islam were to be allowed to make significant inroads into free and democratic societies.
The unbearable depredations of dhimmitude
The first two months of the Coptic new year have been a sombre time for Egypt’s ancient Christian community. The new year fell on the inauspicious date of September 11. And a spate of attacks on this large and downtrodden community by Islamist extremists or villagers giving a religious pretext to petty quarrels have provoked accusations of officially tolerated discrimination and heightened fears that Islamists will be emboldened to undercut the laws that promise religious freedom and legal equality in Egypt.
Related:
What makes you think you can come into this brothel, boy?
Forced Islamization of Christian Conscripts in the Egyptian Army
Newslinks:
- Support drops for UN resolution on religious defamation
- Spanish bomb plot trial under way
- Push to Build Mosques Is Met With Resistance/Denmark
- Muslims with peaceful machetes and clubs attack Christian worship service in Uganda
- Clinton gives a speech in Israel: ‘Obama is not an enemy of Israel’
Clashes broke out in Kafr al-Barbaqri, a Nile delta town, in July after a shopkeeper stabbed a teenager to death in a dispute over an empty soda bottle. The Christian grocer had refused to give the Muslim boy a partial refund, and in the ensuing argument the grocer struck the boy with a knife, leading to his death. Dozens of Muslims went on the rampage, setting fire to the grocer’s house and the one next door, leading to 30 arrests.
A month earlier 18 people were wounded in fighting in a village south of Cairo after a Coptic priest celebrated Mass in his home. In August two Copts were arrested “for security reasons” after reporting to the police that they had been attacked by a mob.
The incidents usually stem from petty quarrels in villages where prejudice against Copts has been growing as the influence of Islamist extremists has eaten away at former tolerance of this religious minority. Copts complain that the State frequently fails to protect their rights, and that some officials actively connive in discriminatory measures against them.
A wave of anti-Coptic feeling prompted the recent mass slaughter of pigs in Egypt, officially sanctioned to stop the spread of swine flu. Many Copts work as rubbish collectors in the big cities, and pigs are used to feed on discarded food and remains. The move appeared to be directed at the Copts while reinforcing the Muslim view of pigs as unclean.
Copts are the oldest and largest Christian community in the Middle East. Representing between 10 and 20 per cent of Egypt’s population of 80 million, they claim descent from the church brought to Alexandria by St Mark during the reign of the emperor Claudius, and call themselves the Church of St Mark. For centuries Copts formed the majority in Egypt, until the advent of Islam in 641, when most were forcibly converted or became Muslims to avoid heavy taxes imposed on them. [Islamic jizya tax,Quran 9:29]
What makes you think you can come into this brothel, boy?
Brothel Jihad. “Egyptian Christian Man Attacked By Mob for Frequenting A Muslim Brothel,” by Mary Abdelmassih for AINA, November 12: via JW
(AINA) — A state of fear has gripped the Christian inhabitants in the Upper Egyptian town of Mallawi after a Muslim mob tried to kill a Christian man for frequenting a Muslim-run brothel. Christian inhabitants are staying indoors, have closed their businesses, and are keeping their children — especially girls — away from schools. They fear wide-scale Muslim violence against them, similar to the violence which took place against Christians in Dairout on October 24,2009. (AINA 10-27-2009).
The latest incident in Mallawi was prompted when a Muslim mob learned of the presence of a Coptic man inside a Muslim-run brothel. A group of Muslims broke into the brothel, dragged him to the streets where he was stabbed 16 times. “Acid was thrown on him, before being stabbed. He was taken to Minya General Hospital where his condition is still very critical,” said Wagih Yacoub of Middle East Christian Association.
The 23-year-old Copt Mina Emad Shoyeb was taken by the Muslim driver Mohamad to a brothel run by the Muslim widow, Ragaa Mosaad Ismail, together with two Muslim prostitutes, 23-years-old Eyman Ismail Abdelmalik, and 25-years-old Maha Kamel Aly. According to Copts United Mohamed had agreed on a fee of 200 Egyptian Pounds for the services of one of the prostitutes, Maha, but decided later that he wanted to pay only half of that amount, an offer Maha refused. The Copt Mina decided to pay the full fee. Mohamad left the brothel, and enticed the neighborhood Muslims to revenge for their honor for harboring a brothel in their midst, which is frequented by Christians. This prompted Muslims to congregate, break into the brothel and carry out their attack.
Reports coming out of Mallawi said that since yesterday evening, November 10th,several Muslim mobs have been wandering around the town streets, vandalizing and looting property belonging to Christian Copts; State Security forces were called in to contain the situation.
Yacoub also said that business life in Mallawi has come to a stand still and Bishop Dimitrious of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Mallawi, Ansena and Ashmonein, advised students in Deir Abu Heness, Deir Barsha and all the areas East of the Nile Delta, to avoid going to school for fear of Muslim repercussions against them….
Dhimmitude
Associations and usage
The associations of the word “dhimmitude” vary between users:
- Bat Ye’or originally defined dhimmitude as the condition and experience of those who are subject to dhimma, and thus not synonymous to, but rather a subset of the dhimma phenomenon.
- It may be simply a replacement for the — compared to dhimmi — relatively little known noundhimma and carry the same meaning. This has already widely happened in French usage (where “-tude” is a productive suffix, too)
- A more recent pejorative usage variant of “dhimmi” and “dhimmitude” divorces the words from the historical context of jihad and applies them to situations where non-Muslims in the West are allegedly championing Islamic causes above others’; “dhimmi” is synonymous with “Quisling” within this context. See, for example, the site Dhimmi Watch by Robert Spencer.
Sample views
Bat Yeor’s definition:
“As for the concept of dhimmitude, it represents a behavior dictated by fear (terrorism),pacifism when aggressed, rather than resistance, servility because of cowardice and vulnerability. The origin of this concept is to be found in the condition of the Infidelpeople who submit to the Islamic rule without fighting in order to avoid the onslaught ofjihad. By their peaceful surrender to the Islamic army, they obtained the security for their life, belongings and religion, but they had to accept a condition of inferiority, spoliation and humiliation. As they were forbidden to possess weapons and give testimony against a Muslim, they were put in a position of vulnerability and humility.”[6]
Bernard Lewis, Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, states that
“If we look at the considerable literature available about the position of Jews in the Islamic world, we find two well-established myths. One is the story of a golden age of equality, of mutual respect and cooperation, especially but not exclusively in Moorish Spain; the other is of “dhimmi”-tude, of subservience and persecution and ill treatment. Both are myths. Like many myths, both contain significant elements of truth, and the historic truth is in its usual place, somewhere in the middle between the extremes.”[7]
Robert Spencer author of the The Myth of Islamic Tolerance defines dhimmitude as :
- Dhimmitude is the status that Islamic law, the Sharia, mandates for non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians. Dhimmis, “protected” or “guilty” people, are free to practice their religion in a Sharia regime, but are made subject to a number of humiliating regulations designed to enforce the Qur’an’s command that they “feel themselves subdued” (Sura 9:29). This denial of equality of rights and dignity remains part of the Sharia, and, as such, are part of the legal superstructure that global jihadists are laboring through violence to restore everywhere in the Islamic world, and wish ultimately to impose on the entire human race.[8]
Egyptian Christian women forced to marry, convert to Islam
This is an ongoing story. We have chronicled many instances of the persecution of the Copts here. Note that it is “facilitated by the Egyptian government.”
“Egyptian Christian women forced to marry, convert to Islam, reports say,” by Cindy Ortiz for the Baptist Press, December 14 (thanks to JW):
WASHINGTON (BP)–Coptic Christian women in Egypt are being forced to marry and convert to Islam and that oppression is part of a larger pattern of persecution against Christians facilitated by the Egyptian government, according to two recent reports.
“Cases of abduction, forced conversion and marriage are usually accompanied by acts of violence which include rape, beatings, deprivation of food and other forms of physical and mental abuse,” said a new assessment by Christian Solidarity International and the Coptic Foundation for Human Rights.
At the same time, the 2009 U.S. State Department report on international religious freedom noted the Egyptian government fails to prosecute crimes against Copts and even has taken a hand in destroying church property and, in one case, a government official reportedly raped a woman who had converted from Islam to Christianity….
Egyptian sex traffickers entice Coptic Christian women from low-income families by promising an escape from poverty, then force the women into Muslim “marriages” or outright slavery, according to the CSI/CFHR report.
“Such abuse remains covered in a cloak of silence and tacit acceptance, even though it is against the constitutional affirmations of civil rights,” the report said….
Since Islam is the “religion of state” in Egypt, conversion to Islam is easy, while returning to Christianity is unacceptable, the HRW report said. The Civil Status Department, which issues national identity cards, sometimes refuses to give Coptic women a new card identifying her as Christian since it is considered apostasy for a Coptic woman to leave Islam, even to return to her religion of origin.
Egyptian law requires every citizen to have an identity card for purposes such as voting, employment and education.
Most of the cases of Coptic women being coerced into marriage are not reported and “observers, including human rights groups, find it extremely difficult to determine whether compulsion was used, as most cases involve a female Copt who converts to Islam when she marries a Muslim male,” the State Department report said.
In two examples of coerced conversion, CSI/CFHR reported Nov. 10:
– An Egyptian woman was raped and beaten since she would not have sex with the man she was forced to marry. The Coptic cross on her wrist was later removed with acid.
– Another woman was forced to marry a Muslim lawyer and work for him in “slave-like conditions” for five years.
John Eibner, CSI’s chief executive officer, urged President Obama in a letter to combat the trafficking of Christian women and girls in Egypt and to make sure the U.S. makes this issue a priority in its relations with Egypt.
“Trafficking of Christian women in Egypt is not a new phenomenon…. But this problem has now reached boiling point within Egypt’s Coptic community, which views it as symptomatic of a much broader pattern of religious persecution,” Eibner said in his letter.
Indeed.
