In Egypt churches are being burned again. This happens there from time to time when there is a national crisis or when a member of the Coptic minority is in a dispute with someone from the Muslim majority. Why? Because being a “true” Arab means being Muslim. In the eyes of many in Egypt (and other Muslim countries) Islam is the cultural-national glue of Egyptian society, just as Judaism is the cultural-national glue of Israeli society. Those who do not belong to the ruling religion still have civil rights, but in the deeper sense they are considered foreign.
This viewpoint is paradoxical, as in both countries the “foreigners” are the members of the majority. In Egypt, just like in Israel, the religious minority was there before the majority. Christianity was the dominant religion in Egypt before Islam. The Copts are part of an ancient population that was already there when the Muslim conquerors arrived in the 7th century. Coptic Christianity did not arrive with the colonialists. It is ancient and deep-rooted, like the non-Western Christian movements in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. In all of these countries, the Christians are in a bad situation. In other Muslim countries their situation is very bad (according to estimates, close to a million Christians were murdered in Sudan).
Things weren’t always like this. Historically speaking, Islam is a more tolerant religion than Christianity. Until the 20th century a Christian who lived in an Islamic country was far better off than a Muslim who lived in a Christian land. All this changed in the modern age. The West adopted a standpoint of religious tolerance and blurred its Christian identity. The Muslim world, on the other hand, tightened the bond between nationalism and Islamism. » | Aviad Kleinberg | Sunday, August 25, 2013
