WORLD NEWS - AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST: Spotlight falls on Egypt's handling of its Coptic Christian minority: Muslim-Christian relations are a sensitive issue in a state which is battling an Islamic opposition. Heba Saleh reports:
Financial Times; Feb 16, 2001
By HEBA SALEH

Acontroversial verdict in a case of sectarian violence in southern Egypt has turned the spotlight on the state's handling of the relationship between the country's Muslim majority and its Coptic Christian minority, who are estimated to make up about 10 per cent of the population.

Twenty Copts and one Muslim were killed at the beginning of last year in the village of Al Kosheh in the worst sectarian clashes in Egypt's recent history. Despite official promises of a full and public investigation, Copts were outraged last week when a court failed to find any of the 96 defendants guilty of murder.

Four people were convicted of lesser charges and given sentences ranging from one to 12 years. The prosecution had presented a weak case, failing to establish the responsibility of individual defendants for specific acts.

The light sentences re-awakened Coptic criticism that the state was insensitive to their plight and would rather not be seen to be siding with its Christian citizens, even if they had been wronged. "This verdict means Christians cannot live in safety. It also means there is no justice or law," said Bishop Wissa of Balyana, whose diocese includes Al Kosheh.

"The judge may have imagined that a lenient verdict would restore harmony to the village," said Mamdouh Nakhla, a Coptic lawyer who represented 38 of the Christian defendants. "Emotions are now charged and the Copts of Al Kosheh are thinking of revenge."

In an apparent response to Coptic anger, the prosecution now says it plans to appeal against the verdict. Pope Shenouda III, the Coptic Patriarch, normally reticent about commenting on sectarian issues, said last week that the church intended to find ways of appealing - a right normally reserved for the prosecution or convicted defendants.

Muslim/Christian relations are a sensitive issue in Egypt, where the state has been battling an Islamic opposition which accuses it of straying from God's path.

"We still feel that whenever policymakers are facing a difficult decision to correct the situation of the Copts, they take into account whether it would provoke Muslim extremists," said Youssef Sidhom, editor of Watani, the Coptic newspaper. "But this weakness in the state's behaviour makes the extremists feel stronger."

Mr Sidhom and others, however, acknowledge that the state has taken some steps to address Coptic grievances. This year schoolchildren are learning for the first time about the Coptic phase in Egypt's history, long ignored by schoolbooks which skipped 600 years from the Pharaohs to the Islamic conquest. At Christmas and Easter, state-owned television now carries live broadcasts of the Coptic mass. A recent TV soap opera created controversy by delving into the issue of mixed marriage and exploring some of the sensitivities between the two communities.

A decree by President Hosni Mubarak has also removed the requirement for presidential assent every time repairs need to be carried out on a church, but the president still has to approve requests for new churches.

He has never withheld approval, but Copts say it takes an age for requests to reach him, and many never get there.

The main Coptic gripe, however, remains that they are under-represented in the administrative elite, and that a glass ceiling often exists in universities, public administration and the security services. Mr Sidhom said Copts who resorted to the courts got a fair and impartial judgment, but they then came up against a problem which faced all Egyptians - the difficulty of enforcing court decisions.

Analysts place some of the blame for the under-representation of Copts on their own attitude which shies away from politics and public life. They say the church became the only institution in Coptic life, especially with the rise of Islamic milit-ancy during the 1970s and 1980s.

"The response should have been more mixing between the two communities, but the young now go to church not only for spiritual purposes but also for entertainment, sports and culture," said a political analyst.

Many, however, charge that this withdrawal is the result of the weakness of both civil society and the distrust of an electoral process that has often been rigged.

But as it continues to grapple with the issue, the Egyptian state has had to allow a debate to emerge about Muslim/Coptic relations, even if it is not conducted at the forefront of public life.

"We were like a sick person who denied his illness, but who now speaks about it openly and asks for treatment," said Mostapha Al Fekki, a senior official who used to be a presidential aide.

Copyright: The Financial Times Limited