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« Links February 13th to February 15th | Main | Bidoun Winter 2008: Souffles and Maghrebi counter-culture »
Tuesday
12Feb2008

AJE: Copts

al-Jazeera English ran some rare incisive coverage of Coptic issues in Egypt a few days ago, good questions from the interviewer (notably on the census and church-building) with interesting interventions by Michael Mounir, the prominent US-based Coptic activist. Also discussion of church-issues etc.





That was part 2, you can find part 1 here.

Reader Comments (8)

Coptic demands are quite inconsistent. On the one hand they demand a larger representation in th ehouse of parliment- while on the other hand, they press for writing religon off the i.d card. If Egypt is going to be a fully secualr stae, though I doubt there is such a thing in the entire world, then copts have no right to aske for assigning a specific number of seats to them.

February 12, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterAmre El-Abyad

Until Egypt does become fully secular, which realistically will not happen in the near future, Copts have to address the reality of the country and demand more representation to at least account for their percentage of Egypt's population. 5 members out of four hundred and something is hardly realistic or fair. I do however agree that Copts need to engage in Egypt's political process for themselves, run for elections, and work within the system to change it, along with the government's help, not just demand rights alone.

February 13, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterAmir

[...] prominent US-based Coptic activist,” notes The Arabist, from Egypt, and links to the video here. Share [...]

February 13, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterGlobal Voices Online » E

thank you for the post.

may discrimination against copts be stopped.

i wrote a piece on this subject sometime back as well worth sharing here.

http://mysticsaint.blogspot.com/2007/11/stop-discrimination-against-egyptian.html

peace.

February 14, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterMysticSaint

There is no discrimination against copts in egypt

February 14, 2008 | Unregistered Commenteramre el-abyad

None. None at all.

February 14, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterjose

There is no discrimination against copts in egypt?

And this did not happen, I guess
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4366232.stm
and countless other incidents with Copts and Bahai.

You mean, there is no 'little' discrimination. The fact is that these people are in grave danger from an ever more radicalized Muslim Egypt.

Many Egyptian blogs have focused on this issue (including Muslims and also here at Global Voices). Good for them!

The situation of the Coptic community in Egypt has also been widely reported in the international press.
http://www.nysun.com/article/31121?page_no=2&access=558301

Muslims need to do some real soul-search about how they treat other people, minority religions , women, gays , etc... where they dominate. When it comes to Islam and human rights, I have seen nothing but hypocrisy from Muslims. Everywhere they dominate, Muslim persecute and oppress other religions.

That's it for now

Kactuz

PS: I have even written about this..
http://www.kactuzkid.com/copts.html

February 18, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterjay kactuz

go to hell with your anti-muslim garbage website

i've seen nothing but hypocrisy from the world's greatest superpower and the EU

just because you managed to find some random single event doesn't mean that copts are discriminated against

egypt is not a perfect country and you'll never find an egyptian who thinks so, but in general the population is damn proud about its history and its diversity

even the most advanced countries in the world have problems with minorities

however, after taking a look at your website it's clear that you have an agenda that would only cause more problems between people of different religions

"...Not Muslims. Even
when they know something is untrue, they
promote it as truth, because truth is less
important than promoting Islam. Thus, we
have lie after lie, without shame." -- Taken from this moron's website

February 27, 2008 | Unregistered Commenter0

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