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Well, I truly hate to
have to say that I told you so, but--since that
earlier article was written--Coptic Churches have
indeed been burned down, and Copts have been
murdered, maimed, and intimidated at an accelerated
pace. The situation has deteriorated, and it always
has been tenuous and iffy for all native, non-Arab
(and especially non-Muslim) populations living in
Arab-conquered lands.
Some background…
While dhimmitude primarily refers to the plight of
conquered, native Christian and Jewish populations
(the People of the Book), Arab subjugating racist
attitudes often also extended to those non-Arab
peoples who--in order to jump on the winning
bandwagon, escape special taxation, and so
forth--became Muslims. And those who were not ahl
al-Kitab most often either converted or were
massacred. Think Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists, in
particular, as jihad was waged in the name of the
Dar ul-Islam to points east.
Since dozens of Copts were recently murdered and
deliberately mowed down in the streets, the plight
of these folks in Egypt deserves further attention…
While there are Berbers in the west, black Nubians
in the south, and once upon a time Egypt had a
substantial population of native Jews, the Copts are
by far the largest pre-Arab, non-Arab population in
the land. They are the native people, descendants of
the Pharaohs, who, after being subjected to the rule
of the hated Byzantines, were conquered in the 7th
century C. E. as Arabs burst out of the Arabian
Peninsula and spread in all directions.
Today, there are probably somewhere between ten and
thirteen million Copts in Egypt--depending upon
whose numbers you use. As we've seen above, as
Christians, they, with the Jews, were tolerated, to
a degree, as "People of the Book"--as long as
certain rules of the conquering Arab Muslim road
were adhered to. The latter have been referred to as
dhimmitude.
The best approach for the Copts over the centuries
has been to keep a low profile, pay the obligatory
special taxes, prove usefulness, quietly accept a
perpetual, subservient status, and find ways to
ingratiate and prove loyalty to the Arab Muslim
majority and its rulers.
The new urgency of this topic brought back memories
of some famous quotes I had come across during my
own doctoral study days.
In Amos Elon’s Flight Into Egypt (New York, 1980),
he reviewed encounters with the late President
Sadat’s Foreign Minister, Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
The latter would later become Secretary General of
the United Nations.
A Copt, it was largely believed that Boutros-Ghali
was selected by Sadat for this post precisely
because of his unquestioned, assured loyalty.
Centuries of dhimmitude could be expected to have
done its thing…and it did.
Follow carefully some excerpts regarding this famous
Copt’s advice to Elon, a prominent Israeli
journalist:
In his office, there is a map of the Middle East on
which Israel is still blacked out…Israel must
integrate by accepting the nature of the area…that
nature that is Arab…In a tape of a long discourse
delivered in 1975 to Professor Brecher he proclaimed
that…in the vast area between the Persian Gulf and
the Atlantic Ocean everyone had to be Arab or risk
continuing strife…Still, Boutros-Ghali felt that
there might be a solution. How?…Well, Israel could
become an Arab country. Most Israelis were (Jewish)
immigrants from Arab countries anyway (pp.84-91).
To learn more about all of this, other scholars,
besides the essential Egyptian Jewish scholar, Bat
Ye’or, have also made important contributions. One,
in particular, Professor Albert Memmi, a Tunisian
Jew, wrote a short but powerful work also exposing
firsthand, like Bat Ye’or, dhimmitude--and what
needs to be done about it. Memmi supported Tunisia’s
struggle for independence from France, and the mere
four lines on the opening page to his book, Jews And
Arabs, say it all…
To my Jewish brothers
To my Arab brothers
so that we can all
be free men at last…
Compare this call for mutual respect to
Boutros-Ghali’s pathetic advice.
In fairness, in contrast to Copts who daily fear for
their very lives in Egypt, a reading of what they
have to say about these things when they flee abroad
is telling as well.
In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe authored a famous
antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in which she
wrote of the blacks’ expected servile behavior
towards their white masters.
Unfortunately, as we've seen in the words of Sadat's
Foreign Minister, this is also the Arabs’
predominant idea of “tolerance”…creating scores of
millions of Uncle Boutroses--be they Copts, Kurds,
black Africans, "Berbers," native kilab yahud (Jew
dogs), pre-Arab Lebanese, etc. and so forth.
Given their own tragic plight in a land where their
ancestors lived and ruled for millennia before Arabs
ever invaded and conquered both, there is yet
another aspect of the Copts' story which too often
gets whisked under the rug--for a number of reasons.
Since my wish is for a better future for all of the
region's diverse peoples, I won't remain silent.
You see, if there are problems with the Arab Spring
regarding freedom, democracy, and such due to Muslim
intolerance and the rise of Islamist groups such as
the Muslim Brotherhood, then the following nasty
reality must also be addressed…
Simply put, non-Arab, Christian Copts don't need
Arab Muslims to teach them how to hate Jews...Their
own faith has taught them to hate the G_d-killers
for centuries before Islam's Muhammad ever entered
into the picture.
As just one example of the problem, Saint John
Chrysostom of Antioch--one of the early Church
Fathers, is beloved among the Copts.
Here's a taste of Chrysostom's teaching in Homily 1,
some sixteen centuries ago.
The Jewish people were driven by their drunkenness
and plumpness to the ultimate evil; they kicked
about, they failed to accept the yoke of Christ, nor
did they pull the plow of his teaching. Another
prophet hinted at this when he said: "Israel is as
obstinate as a stubborn heifer " ...Although such
beasts are unfit for work, they are fit for killing.
And this is what happened to the Jews: while they
were making themselves unfit for work, they grew fit
for slaughter. This is why Christ said: "But as for
these my enemies, who did not want me to be king
over them, bring them here and slay them."
Here's an excerpt from Homily 6...
You {Jews} did slay Christ, you did lift violent
hands against the Master, you did spill his precious
blood. This is why you have no chance for atonement,
excuse, or defense.
And, moving into modern times, listening to the
Copts' Pope Shenouda III is like hearing a speech
from the best anti-Semites of any stripe have to
offer.
So,Copts have had more than one reason to join their
own often murderous, abusive Arab neighbors in their
mutual antagonism of the Jew: Besides joining their
fellow Muslim Arab Egyptian neighbors in targeting a
common, demonized enemy (to help divert attention
away from their own vulnerable positions), an even
earlier animus towards the alleged G_d-killers has
been ever present as well.
At a time when the lives of Egypt's truly native
people are becoming increasingly endangered due to
Muslim intolerance, is it not long overdue for
relations between two of the region's most ancient
peoples--the Copts and the Jews--to finally overcome
this problem themselves?
Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has
done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern
Affairs. He has created and conducted counter-Arab
propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured
on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has
publicly debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles
and op-eds have been published in dozens of
newspapers, magazines, academic journals and
websites all around the world. Visit his
website at
http://www.geraldahonigman.com/
Gerald A. Honigman, a longtime contributing writer
and columnist
for ekurd.net. Honigman has published a major book,
"The
Quest For Justice In The Middle East--The
Arab-Israeli Conflict In Greater Perspective."
By Gerald A. Honigman for eKurd.net, October 31, 2011. You may reach the
author via email at: honigman6 (at) msn.com.
Copyright © 2011 ekurd.net.
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