Is it the Christians’ turn to be driven out of Egypt?

Coptic Church burns in Egypt

Most people know that Israel has a sizable Arab minority, about 20% of the population. But surprisingly few people know that about half of Israel’s Jews are of Middle Eastern background.

This dates back to the years following Israel’s War of Independence when the Arab world systematically drove out their Jewish population, a flood of 900,000 refugees, most of whom fled to Israel.

In Egypt, Jews had been in a precarious position since the 1930s when the Nazis started funding the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood launched anti-Jewish pogroms from 1942 onwards while the Egyptian government imposed increasingly harsh legal restrictions on Jews. By 1956 more than half the Jews of Egypt had fled.

Following Egypt’s defeat in its 1967 war against Israel, all Jewish men between 17 and 60 were thrown out of the country or arrested and tortured for years. Some 35,000 Jews escaped to Israel; another 43,000 fled to Brazil, France, the U.S. and Argentina.

They arrived in their new homes destitute, as the Egyptian government confiscated their assets. A few Egyptian Jewish families were wealthy and left behind some impressive properties. For example, the Canadian embassy in Cairo is housed in the stately former home of Ovadia Salem, director of the Chemla department store.

There have been Jews in Egypt for at least 2,600 years, probably for a thousand years longer than that. In the 1920s, there were still 80,000 Egyptian Jews. Today, Egypt’s Jewish community numbers less than 100.

Canadian embassy in Cairo, former residence of Ovadia Salem and his family

Egypt still has a sizable Christian community of 8 to 10 million Coptic Christians, or about  10% of the population. But that number is rapidly shrinking.

Copts have always been under threat and have faced discrimination and occasional violence. Since the overthrow of Mubarak, however, the number of attacks on Copts have greatly increased and became worse after the election of a Muslim Brotherhood government.

Islamists have targeted homes, shops and businesses owned by Copts and killed Coptic Christians outright. In 2011, 93,000 Copts fled in Egypt; since the election of President Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood a year ago, at least another 100,000 Christians have fled. And still the level of violence against Egyptian Christians continues to mount.

In the past few days, Islamist have looted and razed  40 churches and attacked 26 others, in addition to numerous attacks on homes and businesses. Yesterday, Islamists paraded three Franciscan nuns through the streets of Cairo, as if they were prisoners of war. 

None of this is exactly a surprise. While issuing perfunctory condemnations of violence for the benefit of the foreign press, the Muslim Brotherhood has been explicitly threatening the Christian population.

Safwat Hegazy, a prominent Islamic scholar, and a leader of the current pro-Muslim Brotherhood protests, posted a video on YouTube before the army overthrew Morsi’s presidency, saying: 

A message to the church of Egypt, from an Egyptian Muslim: I tell the church — by Allah, and again, by Allah — if you conspire and unite with the remnants [the opposition] to bring Morsi down, that will be another matter…. our red line is the legitimacy of Dr. Muhammad Morsi. Whoever splashes water on it, we will splash blood on him.

After all, the Muslim Brotherhood can’t take on the army, but the Christians are defenceless. The police can’t help them (supposing they wanted to) as their own police stations are under attack. The army has pledged to rebuild the burnt churches, but the army cannot raise the dead. It can’t even prevent further attacks against Christians.

Why do the Islamists target Christians in the first place? Same reason the Islamists targeted Jews: they don’t fit with the Islamist vision of a Muslim Egypt.

The Christians do have advantages the Egyptian Jews didn’t. First, many Muslims don’t share the Brotherhood’s hatred of the Copts and some have even defended them against attacks. Second, the Egyptian government isn’t persecuting the Copts; they only have to fear mobs of Muslim Brotherhood terrorists.

On the other hand, Jews fleeing Egypt had Israel to flee to and the Israeli government to help them. Will any nation step up to help the Coptic Christians?

I don’t think so. I fear they’re on their own.

Algerian embassy in Cairo, formerly the home of Daniel Curiel from http://egy.com/judaica/

Note: For an account of a few other notable properties left behind by the Jews of Egypt and for much more information on the Jews ethnically cleansed from Arab lands, see the Point of No Return blog here.

Two stories from Saudi Arabia: Police arrest dozens for "plotting to celebrate Christmas" & Saudi liberal faces death penalty

Saudi religious police stormed a house in the Saudi Arabian province of al-Jouf, detaining more than 41 guests for “plotting to celebrate Christmas,” a statement from the police branch released Wednesday night said.

The raid is the latest in a string of religious crackdowns against residents perceived to threaten the country's strict religious code.

The host of the alleged Christmas gathering is reported to be an Asian diplomat whose guests included 41 Christians, as well as two Saudi Arabian and Egyptian Muslims. The host and the two Muslims were said to be “severely intoxicated.”

The guests were said to have been referred to the "respective authorities." It is unclear whether or not they have been released since.

The kingdom, which only recognizes Islamic faith and practice, has in the past banned public Christmas celebrations, but is ambiguous about festivities staged in private quarters.

Saudi religious police are known to detain residents of the kingdom at whim, citing loose interpretations of Sharia and public statements by hardline religious leaders to justify crackdowns.

Saudi Arabia's head mufti Sheikh Abdel Aziz bin Abdullah had previously condemned “invitations to Christmas or wedding celebrations.”

A member of the Higher Council of Islamic scholars in Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Mohammed al-Othaimin recently prohibited sending holiday wishes to "heretics" on Christmas or other religious Christian holidays.

'Apostate' at risk of execution

On Thursday, the Beirut-based Gulf Center for Human Rights reported that Saudi human rights defender Raef Badawi is at risk of execution on apostasy charges.

Badawi is co-founder and editor of the Liberal Saudi Network. When he first appeared before the district court in Jeddah, he was charged with “insulting Islam through electronic channels” and “going beyond the realm of obedience.” The Judge then referred the case to the higher Public Court on an apostasy charge, which carries the penalty of death.

The General Court in Jeddah proceeded with apostasy charges on December 22.

Badawi was arrested this June after the Liberal Saudi Network called for “a day of liberalism” in Saudi Arabia, which included a conference that was later canceled after a warning from authorities.

Earlier this week, controversial Saudi novelist and political analyst Turki al-Hamad was arrested for criticizing Islam and the royal family in a series of tweets.

Al-Hamad is an outspoken liberal who writes about sexuality issues, underground political movements and religious freedom. The offending tweets suggested that Islam be rectified in the same way that the Prophet Muhammad is said to have revised earlier Abrahamic religions.

(Al-Akhbar)

Christianity 'close to extinction' in Middle East

Christianity 'close to extinction' in Middle East

By Edward Malnick

The Telegraph (Britain)

Christianity faces being wiped out of the "biblical heartlands" in the Middle East because of mounting persecution of worshippers, according to a new report.

The study warns that Christians suffer greater hostility across the world than any other religious group.

And it claims politicians have been “blind” to the extent of violence faced by Christians in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The most common threat to Christians abroad is militant Islam, it says, claiming that oppression in Muslim countries is often ignored because of a fear that criticism will be seen as “racism”.

It warns that converts from Islam face being killed in Saudi Arabia, Mauritania and Iran and risk severe legal penalties in other countries across the Middle East.

The report, by the think tank Civitas, says: “It is generally accepted that many faith-based groups face discrimination or persecution to some degree.

"A far less widely grasped fact is that Christians are targeted more than any other body of believers.”

It cites estimates that 200 million Christians, or 10 per cent of Christians worldwide, are “socially disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their beliefs.”

“Exposing and combating the problem ought in my view to be political priorities across large areas of the world. That this is not the case tells us much about a questionable hierarchy of victimhood,” says the author, Rupert Shortt, a journalist and visiting fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford.

He adds: “The blind spot displayed by governments and other influential players is causing them to squander a broader opportunity. Religious freedom is the canary in the mine for human rights generally.”

The report, entitled Christianophobia, highlights a fear among oppressive regimes that Christianity is a “Western creed” which can be used to undermine them.

State hostility towards Christianity is particularly rife in China, where more Christians are imprisoned than in any other country in the world, according to the report.

It quotes Ma Hucheng, an advisor to the Chinese government, who claimed in an article last year that the US has backed the growth of the Protestant Church in China as a vehicle for political dissidence.

“Western powers, with America at their head, deliberately export Christianity to China and carry out all kinds of illegal evangelistic activities,” he wrote in the China Social Sciences Press.

“Their basic aim is to use Christianity to change the character of the regime...in China and overturn it,” he added.

The “lion’s share” of persecution faced by Christians arises in countries where Islam is the dominant faith, the report says, quoting estimates that between a half and two-thirds of Christians in the Middle East have left the region or been killed in the past century.

“There is now a serious risk that Christianity will disappear from its biblical heartlands,” it claims.

The report shows that “Muslim-majority” states make up 12 of the 20 countries judged to be “unfree” on the grounds of religious tolerance by Freedom House, the human rights think tank.