Andrew and Mario. A Tragedy taking place in the 21st Century

By Medhat Aweeda

Copts United Canada

Published in the Civilized Dialogue issue 1995 dated August 2, 2007

Dear reader, believe it or not. This is true story presently taking place in Alexandria, Arab Republic of Egypt. You may answer the raised question: Are the Copts really persecuted in Egypt or not ??

The Egyptian authorities deny the existence of persecution towards the Copts and claim that all Egyptians are equal.. And even the liberal Egyptians say: yes, there are problems concerning the Copts but they (the problems) do not mean persecution to the Copts. All of them blame the Immigrant Copts claiming that these are damaging Egypt by promoting abroad the idea of persecution to the Copts.  While saying that, all of them chose to forget that they are the ones who disgracefully harm and damage  Egypt by the discriminating the Egyptians on the religious believes.

Here  is a real  and true  problem occupying the Egyptian public concern.

A mother of a twin boys Mario and Andrew, aged 13 years old. The father converted to Islam in the year 2000, left the house,  let  the two kids along with their eldest brother George and married another woman of  Islam, letting behind the responsibility of raising the three boys to the   praiseworthy lady (their mother) who assumed the full responsibility and devoted her life for the children. When she went to the court asking the father for the expense cost charges to help her to raise the boys, the court denied her request on the basis that she refused to accept to be the second wife (as per the Islamic sharia law). And refused to go to (the House of obedience - the house that the Moslem husband usually prepares for the woman to force her to submit to him

as per the Islamic sharia as well).

The mother put her burdens on and trust in God Almighty and the life went on naturally. The two boys are have excelled in their studies being in the first year in the preparatory stage. They have examined the first term with high marks.

By the beginning of the second term, their tragedy started.  The father submitted a new birth certificate showing that the two boys are Moslems. Consequently, he demanded that the twin should be examined in the Islamic religion syllables, instead of the Christian religion  ones. The two boys have been forced to be examined in the Islamic religion. In  the day of  the examination related to the religion syllables, they both didn't answer any of the questions.  Prior to the second term examination, the little family, accompanied with Counselor  (Attorney at law) Naguib Gebraeel, approached the concerned  Department  of  the Ministry of Education and submitted an application to allow the two boys to be examined in the second term in the Christian religion syllables.

The application,obviously, has been refuted, which made Counselor Gebraeel to approach the Higher Administrative Court submitting all the evidence and the supporting documents that show the Christian faith of the boys including the Christian marriage contract between the mother and the father who has converted afterwards to Islam.

The decision of the Higher Administrative Court was very disappointing tyo the the hopes of the two boys and to the family as the court stipulated that as the father has converted to the Islamic religion, the two children are subordinately follow their father as the Islamic religion is the upper religion.!!!!

Counselor Gebraeel, once again, approached the Ministry of Education in Cairo and requested a solution for this problem: either to allow the children to be examined in the second term in the Christian religion syllables or suspend the examination in the religion so that to avoid wasting one complete school year.  Once again, the answer was refusal.

The matter which forced the two boys to go in the day of the examination where they gave them the questions in the Islamic religion which they know nothing about . their cried out loud against the injustice and oppression (persecution). One wrote :'I AM A CHRISTIAN' and the other wrote : 'MY RELIGION IS

CHRISTIANITY'. They both didn't lose their will under the beg of the supervisors to just write any thing in the answer notebook to avoid fail and wasting one year in their lives.

The two boys were brave enough .. they refused all the pressures preferring to fail while being Christians rather to succeed if considered Moslems.

The question now is: what is the fate and destiny of these two children and the consequences as regards their education future.?? For whose benefit these very young boys are exposed to such pressures?? Is this the equality?? Is this the justice ??  where are the citizenship rights stipulated thereupon in the first article of the Egyptian constitution.

I call upon the public conscious in Egypt and all over the world to give all the support possible to these two boys as there is another case shall be judged  in Sept. 2007 by the Higher Administrative Court.  I hope that the Egyptian conscious shall wake up and support the boys and to influence the decision of the court letting the chosing of the religion to them  and to allow them to be examined in the Christian religion syllables.

I call upon the Minister of education to issue a humanitarian decision  regarding the syllables of the religion to avoid losing one school year  regardless of whatever took place during the second term and the second chance for the second term (annex).

Now dear reader, who are those who disgrace Egypt? Is it the Egyptian regime or the Immigrant Copts? The answer is very much obvious and clear, isn't it ??

For further information please contact the Copts United Canada :

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This message should travel world to make everyone aware how badly Christians are treated in the Middle East , particularly in Egypt and Iraq.

For further information please contact the Copts United Canada :

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