A CHORUS OF DIATRIBE
G. R. Scharoubim
An Expatriate Copt.
A mob action was committed against unarmed Copts in Egypt . The Government of Egypt treated the matter with benign neglect. The mob got their cue from the government response and went on a rampage against the Copts in Egypt .
It became clear to the Expatriate Copts that they should not ignore such travesties. And; they organized several demonstration of protest in their adopted lands. This in turn triggered a panic attack in the Egyptian Establishment unleashing a tempest of diatribes and tirades of angry accusations that the Expatriate Copts are patently treasonous.
Well. I have one thing to tell these people; Thank you, thank you and thank you for the feed back. You have confirmed to us that we are on the right track. However on second thought we decided to examine the allegations leveled against us. After all we believe in the freedom of expression and we respect your freedom of expression. However; this is a far cry from believing what you blurt in your shock and dismay.
We as Copts have always believed the; “He Who protects us never dies.” This was and is the premise on which we declined offers of protection form temporal powers. Patriarch Kyrillos IV (Cyril IV) declined the offer of protection by the Russian empire when such a matter was considered a prestige. We the Copts defended Egypt’s right for independence and more than half the delegation that Accompanied Saad Zagloul to the British High Commissioner were Copts and they endured exile in the island of Sychelle .
Again the Copts rejected the inclusion of a clause to protect the Christian minority in the 1938 Treaty of independence and insisted that they can handle the matter with their Moslem brothers (not the Moslem Brothers organization). And what happened after that revealed the very treacherous and treasonous nature of our Moslem brothers. Instead of being grateful for our stance towards them they abused beyond limit the trust that we had in them and told us by the very nature of their actions that we were fools to have any trust in them.
Year after year they infringed on our rights and led a campaign of attrition against the Copts in Egypt , not the least of all Egypt ’s endorsement of the resolution of the Second Islamic Summit to exterminate Christians and Christianity from the Middle East by the year 2000.
Yet, and this is what enforces our faith in the God who protects us; two of the sponsors of the resolution were relieved of their lives. Zulfikar Ali Bhuto was overthrown and hanged for corruption by Ziaul Haq, and Anwar Sadat met his death on the hands of the gang that he actively embraced and trained to carry on the heinous crime.
The Moslems slipped in a state of delusion; they thought that no one, no one will be able to stop them from continuing with their criminal plans. Not a week passes by without another treacherous incident occurs followed by the mythical statement by the government that we are all brothers and such issues should be handled within a family circle. Finally the expatriate Copts had their fill and decided to take a stand on the matter. Dismayed by the indifference posture of the enlightened segment of the Moslems all these years they realized that it is their duty to take action even if it bruises some feelings. After all the lives of our brothers is more precious than the feelings of our hypocrite brothers.
Let me whisper something into your ears; don’t squander your anger on one incident. Save something for the future incidents. We are determined to muscle our rights and wrestle them from your hands by the power of force. We intend to do that and we will. And, let me tell you candidly, it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. It behooves you to save some efforts for the future incidents.
Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world. However, in the past it was limited to the sale of sex. Now the profession expanded to include politics and politicians. There is bound to be some political prostitutes who would align themselves with the ruling regime and who would offer their services to any buyer not necessarily the highest bidder. There is nothing surprising about that. And, they have the same right of self expression that we have. We acknowledge that. However, they do not have the right to speak on our behalf and we will never pick a prostitute to be our spokesperson. Let us have this point very clear. We will pick the people who will speak for us. For the government to have one or more of these lackeys appear in the media to denounce us would have been a laughable joke if it was not for the seriousness of the context. They may speak for themselves. That is fine. But, they should never assume a capacity to speak on our behalf.
One last word for our brothers amongst the enlightened and moderate Moslems. We appreciate your efforts and your input in the matter. We would rather see you have an active role solving the dilemma. Yet to be frank with you, thus far it has been too little too late. And; like everything else; when revulsion builds its momentum, it reaches the point of no return and we will have to act accordingly.
We have waited for you all these years to mediate this crisis but you decided to be mere spectators and to be honest with you we lost faith in you and we can not trust your participation in the matter any more. We sought to help our land avoid tensions but there was no takers to our goodwill. Let me tell those who fantasize about some exotic solution for the problem, bear in mind that being a Copt is an ethnicity not a nationality. Being a Copt is a birth right that can never be taken away from us. We will live Copts and we will die Copts.
Not matter what citizenships we carry we will always remain Copts and we will always have that bond with our brothers in Egypt . We will never be stupid enough to say the Hell with Egypt (Toz fi Masr). It is those people who utter such an ignominy who are the traitors to the country not the expatriate Copts..
G. R. Scharoubim
An Expatriate Copt.