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Documents on Christian Life 
in Egypt Today 

Published by 
PHOENICIA PRESS 

19 West 4 4 Street, New York 18, N. Y. 
1951 



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Dedicatory Page of FARRIQ TASSUD 

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THE documents here presented tell a tragic story of the decline of tolerance a n d brotherhood in the greatest a n d most a d v a n c e d of the A r a b - s p e a k i n g lands. Throughout the nineteenth century a n d up 
until recent decades, Egypt, under the beneficial influence of the dynasty 
f o u n d e d by M o h a m m a d Ali, w a s the model of progress a n d liberalism 
for the entire Islamic world. The intellectual elite of the n e i g h b o r i n g 
countries f o u n d refuge a n d a field of activity in Egypt. The v a r i o u s 
religious a n d racial elements in the Egyptian population lived at peace 
with each other, a n d w h e n Z a g h l o u l led the revolution of 1919, Copts 
a n d M o s l e m s both responded to his call a n d w o r k e d harmoniously with 
each other for the freedom of Egypt. M o r e than half the Wafdist party 
were, in fact, Copts, struggling together with their M o s l e m brothers. 

The Copts — descendants of Egypt's native Christians — h a d been 
treated with special consideration a n d interest by M o h a m m a d A l i a n d 
the great Khedive Ismail. Their Church, f o u n d e d in the early centuries 
of Christianity, is the remnant of the great, all-embracing Christian 
community of Egypt before the A r a b conquest. The number of the Copts 
today exceeds two million. 

The p a g e s that follow tell a n unbelievable story. In the third decade 
of the twentieth century the healthy b o d y of Egyptian society w a s at-
tacked by the p l a g u e of reactionary religious fanaticism, in the s h a p e 
of the M o s l e m Brotherhood. In the next decade the r a v a g e s of this p l a g u e 
were supplemented by a n o t h e r — t h e nefarious a n d unrealistic P a n - A r a b 
policy foisted u p o n Egypt, in desperation, by the British Colonial Office, 
eager to keep Egypt from its true national objectives. 

The results were tragic. Egypt's national interests suffered a n d the 
Copts became the first victims. Their suffering h a s reached such a point 
that they can no longer be silent. Despite the censorship u n h a p p i l y 
prevailing in present-day Egypt, they are expressing their a g o n y openly 
a n d clearly. 

The material in these pages, translated in each case from the original 
Arabic, describes the dreadful religious, cultural, political a n d economic 
discrimination n o w suffered by the Copts. Each of the articles here in-
cluded a p p e a r e d originally in one of three places: the Coptic-owned 

3 



C a i r o daily, M i s r ; the w e e k l y m a g a z i n e of the Coptic community, Al-
Manarat; or, especially, a remarkable book called Farriq Tasud which 
w a s secretly printed in J a n u a r y , 1950, without mention of publisher or 
press. 

The author w h o w a s d a r i n g e n o u g h to put his n a m e to the book, Dr. 
Michael Z u g h e i b , suffered the consequences in a terrible w a y . A g r o u p 
of M o s l e m youths, living near his town of A b u - G u r g a s , came one Sat-
u r d a y night a n d attacked his home, shooting a b o u t thirty bullets into 
the house. They burned a house or two in a nearby Christian village. In 
one of these a n old w o m a n w a s burned to death. Luckily for Dr. Z u g h e i b 
a n d his family, they h a p p e n e d to be out of town at the time. 

The book h a s been outlawed by the Egyptian government a n d the 
A r a b States. Even the Christian Republic of Lebanon, under the g o v e r n -
ment of Riad Solh, followed the M o s l e m A r a b States in f o r b i d d i n g the 
entry a n d circulation of the book, a s a courtesy t o w a r d Egypt. 

Farriq Tasud is not meant a s an attack on the M o s l e m s , but rather as 
a n a p p e a l to their conscience. It invokes the memory of past brotherhood, 
u r g i n g the M o s l e m s to refrain from persecuting the Christian Copts 
w h o s e ancestors lived in Egypt before the Islamic conquest a n d w h o are, 
therefore, the true sons of the Nile Valley. 

The Copts feel that their Christian brothers in the West do not k n o w 
of their plight. This brochure attempts to m a k e their voice heard through-
out the world, a n d in particular in the United States a n d the city of 
N e w Y o r k — home of the United Nations a n d the Charter of H u m a n 
Rights. 

For the Copts' sake, for Egypt's sake, for the sake of h u m a n freedom 
a n d progress, m a y the message of this brochure find listening ears. 

4 



For the Sake of Our National Unity 
An Introduction to the Book, "Farriq Tasud" 

B y SALAMA M O U S A * 

THIS is a book I should like my Copt brothers to read and then forget, and my Moslem brothers to read and reread and remember. 
I pray that the author will contribute 500 copies of it to dis-

tribute gratis to the members of the Egyptian Senate and Chamber 
of Deputies, to the members of this Cabinet and previous ones, and 
to journalists. But just as ardently I hope t h a t this book will not 
be sent from Egypt to the other Arab countries, for it reveals a 
national disgrace which will discredit us everywhere. 

It is my belief t h a t when our Moslem brothers read this book 
and note the complaints of the Copts, they will rise to help them 
achieve justice. There may be some Moslems who have not freed 
themselves from injurious old traditions, and there may be some 
Copts who are still attached to old traditions which are more bad 
than good. Yet, I feel certain that everyone who reads this book 
will feel personally responsible for the f a t e of the Copts and will 
feel that he must raise his voice and make all the world understand 
the necessity of quickly doing justice to the Copts — before extreme 
bitterness takes hold of the Copts and outweighs their national 
spirit. That way lies destruction for us all. 

Unity between the Moslem and Copt was the symbol of the 1919 
revolution, and we used to cry out: "Long live the Crescent and 
the Cross." I heard learned men f r o m Al-Azhar speaking in the 
churches and I saw and heard priests greeted by Al-Azhar. This 
unity should have been with us today, but new developments have 
deflected the tide of our history. It is the mission of the author of 
Farriq Tasud to warn us of these changes and the dangers to 
Egypt in them. 

The British were careful to create a r i f t between the Moslems 
and the Copts. They cannot be blamed f o r t h a t : from the time of the 
Romans to the present, imperial power has been built on the old 
maxim: " F a r r i q Tasud" (Divide and Rule). Hence, we saw the 
British working to bring about a virtual Moslem monopoly on 

* Salama Mousa, himself a Copt, is one of the outstanding Arabic writers in present-day Egypt. 
5 



certain of the higher offices, like those of deans, school adminis-
trators, school inspectors and teachers of the Arabic language. 
THESE divisions and discriminatory practices should have been abrogated a f t e r the revolution, but to our regret they were not. 
My belief is that, if not for the dictatorial, vested interests which 
always found it advantageous to work hand in hand with the 
colonial power, the Wafd, given the opportunity to rule democratic-
ally, would have done away with these divisions and discriminatory 
practices. Instead, we find new regulations working f o r divisions 
and rifts, like the religious aspects of the compulsory education law. 
This has broken the hearts of the Copts and filled them with anger, 
f o r their children are now obliged to memorize the Qoran and to 
learn the Moslem religion. As a logical consequence of this religious 
aspect of education, Copts now find themselves barred from the 
35,000 elementary teachers' posts in Egypt. This is a shameful thing, 
and it is the duty of every honorable Moslem to protest against it 
and to attempt to change it by all means. 

Take the case of the special school of banking. Up to a short 
time ago, the pupils admitted to this school must either have com-
pleted the preparatory school of science to which no Copt is now 
admitted, or must have had one of the following: an elementary 
teacher's diploma, the second diploma of Al-Azhar, a commercial 
diploma, or a B.A. or B.S. degree. When it became evident t h a t a 
large number of Copts had a B.A. degree, the latter was no longer 
accepted as a pre-requisite for admission to the School of Banking. 
It has become almost as impossible f o r any Copt to be admitted, 
as it would be if the School of Banking were a branch of Al-Azhar 
or banking and accounting were Moslem religious functions. Oh 
Moslem reader! What do you say to this? Why is it t h a t the Copts 
should be deprived of the opportunity to become bankers? 

The author mentions a large number of Coptic schools which 
used to serve all the sons of Egypt, both Moslem and Copt, and 
which have been closed by order of the Ministry of Education on 
strange and unbelievable grounds. He also protests against the im-
position of Moslem religious education on all children in the schools, 
whereas special Christian training f o r the Copt children is for-
bidden. 

Here I beg to differ with the author. What I learned f r o m 
Voltaire, Comte and other philosophers and f r o m the history of 
European liberation movements, makes me believe t h a t religion 
must be separated f r o m the state, and t h a t the government has no 
right to teach any religious belief at all in public schools. The task 
of schools is to impart learning and science, while religious instruc-
tion should be left to the parents. 

6 



What grieves the Copts particularly is the workings of the 
conversion to Islam, resorted to by Christians who cannot otherwise 
divorce their wives or husbands. We all know t h a t these conversions 
are not genuine. Still the courts accept them and facilitate divorce 
f r o m the Coptic partner. The poor divorced wives, in these cases, 
are deprived of any support for themselves and their children, 
since they do not adhere to their husbands' new faith. 
THE study of the Arabic language has become a Moslem domain, and the Copts are excluded from it. Those few Copts who have 
acquired a literary diploma with a specialization in the Arabic lan-
guage, find the Ministry of Education not disposed to appoint them 
teachers of the language. There is no other nation on this planet 
which links language with religion! If the ministers of education 
responsible f o r this, had had a little national consciousness, they 
would have known t h a t language has a social value as well as a 
cultural one, and they would have made every effort to encourage 
the Copts to learn the Arabic language and to love its literature. 
Keeping them from studying Arabic literature is like cutting them 
off from the national spirit o f Egypt. This is sheer madness, 
oblivious to the f u t u r e interests of the country. 

Foreign nations established f r e e schools in Egypt to teach their 
languages to the people and make them love their cultures. But 
our ministers of education do not seem to understand that the Copts 
should learn to know and love Arabic! It seems they want the Copts 
to remain alien to Arabic, neither teaching nor studying it. In the 
Academy of the Arabic Language there has not yet been a single 
Copt, though there are Moghrabi, Syrians, Iraqi and Lebanese mem-
bers. More than that, there even was an Iraqi monk! . . . 

The author gives the details of many other privations and 
grievances — like the regulations on the building of churches. He 
mentions the many university exchange missions from which bril-
liant Copt students are excluded, and he mentions sixty high offices 
in the Ministry of Health which Copts cannot fill, including four 
directorships, twelve heads of offices, seven assistant heads, twenty-
six district directors and eleven district deputies. He also men-
tions the exclusion of Copts from the National Broadcasting Station 
which does not even mention anything about the Christian holidays 
and festival ceremonies. All this is true, and the government must 
stop this order of things and correct it! 

The author does not forget the Moslem Brotherhood and the 
"Shabab Muhammad" (Mohammedan Youths) with their shameful 
incitement against the Copts. It should be mentioned here that the 
government of the late Nuqrashy Pasha finally became aware of this 
danger, and we hope that these chapters of the regretful drama 
played by the Moslem Brotherhood will not be repeated in the f u t u r e . 

7 



It is good t h a t our brother Moslems should know all the facts 
in this book. It is compulsory reading if we are to breathe in purity 
and cleanliness. To keep silent on these grievances and persecutions 
will harm the Copts at present and the Moslems in the future. It will 
harm the Egyptian nation irreparably and will eventually dis-
member it. 

A f t e r thanking the author for his efforts, I urge him once more 
to present this book f r e e to all the deputies and senators and to all 
the members of the present cabinet and previous cabinets, as well 
as to journalists, in order that this subject be discussed and com-
mented upon f o r the benefit of the Egyptian people. Our people is 
still good and healthy at heart, but to keep us so, our progressive 
leaders must keep us united, well knit together, f a r from division 
and dismemberment! 

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8 



Discrimination in Politics 
B y MASAAD SADEQ* 

1 CANNOT imagine how the Wafd Party prepared its list of nominations to the Egyptian Senate, and on what basis it chose 
the names of its nominees! 
The Wafd seems to have forgotten that there are Copts qualified 

f o r nomination, and that this nation and people are composed of 
two elements, Moslem and Copt, so that neither of the two should 
be ignored in national representation. 

Perhaps the Wafd did not remember t h a t there are Copts who 
should be taken into account when the nominations are made, and 
perhaps no one bothered to remind the party of the existence of thé 
Copts. Maybë modern Egypt has no place for the Copts any more. 

But do the Wafd leaders believe that no one paid attention to 
their negligence and to this discrimination? 

Do they believe that the Egyptian people read the lists of 
nominees without noting something strange about them? 

It was only natural f o r this question to arise : "Isn't there more 
than a single Copt nominee? And can it be that all the electoral 
districts, with the exception of one, have no more Copts in them?" 

Three million-Copts studied the lists and read the names once, 
twice and three times, and they did not know if their eyes had 
deceived them. 

These three million Copts did not pass by the lists in silence and 
quiet. No, on their lips was a bitter smile, remembering with pain a 
past happy era when the Wafd had many Copt members, deputies 
and senators. 

May God have mercy on that time and on Saad Zaghlul. 
If Saad Were still alive, would he have kept silent at the painful 

grievances ôf the Copts? 
We would have kept silent except f o r the fact that this is one 

in a series of painful events. In the Chamber of Deputies the Copts 
today have only ten deputies among hundreds, while in the past, in 
a smaller Chamber and with fewer electoral districts, We had tens 
of deputies! 

How has this happened? We are receiving a smaller and smaller 
representation — and what grieves us particularly is the fact t h a t * Masaad Sadeq is co-editor of the influential Egyptian daily, Misr, owned by the great Coptic family of Al-Menqbadi. This article appeared in the issue of March 23, 1951. ; 

9 



this is happening under a Wafd government from which the Copts 
in the past always expected justice and equality! 

I always used to direct the Wafd Party's attention to the in-
justice of previous elections when we Copts got only ten deputies 
instead of a score or more. I used to ask the Wafd to see to it t h a t 
in the completion of the Majlis and the elections f o r the Senate, the 
Copts should have a f a i r representation. Now I must remind the 
Wafd of its past glory, when no separation existed between Moslem 
and Copt. 

The Copts and The Council of State 
„ B y MASAAD SADEQ* 

EVERYTHING pertaining to us Copts is becoming a concern of the Council of State, as if we were foreigners who recently came to this land from the desert. We must submit to fatwa 
(interpretation of the Qoranic laws), to plans and to decrees which 
limit our rights in Egypt. 

The rites of worship in our churches have gone on in the same 
manner for many, many centuries in the land of this valley. We 
Christians pray in our churches and bring offerings which are a p a r t 
of our worship. It has been thus for the past two thousand years, but 
in these latter days the Ministry of Religious Affairs has put its 
finger into our churches and asked even to supervise the offering 
boxes. In order to do this, it asked the Council of State for a fatwa 
and got i t ; only when the Coptic Patriarch protested, was the fatwa 
amended. 

Our churches used to be built wherever the f a i t h f u l wished. 
They are the houses of God for His worship. In them the Christians 
prayed for themselves and for their fellow-men. Churches were 
always built in the land of this valley — before Islam and a f t e r 
Islam. Churches were built in the neighborhood of mosques or else-
where, and no one ever set any conditions as to where they could be 
built. But now, in this twentieth century, people are forging chains 
and irons to limit the freedom of worship of the Christians and 
deprive them even of the liberty to build churches. Things are being 
done which were not done even in the Dark Ages and these things — 
these conditions and chains — are in the hands of the Council of 
State! 

Minarets and church steeples rose to the skies, relating the 
grace of God to the faithful. Bells used to ring, calling them to 

* This article appeared in the February 17, 1951 issue of Misr. 
10 



prayers, and the people used to build and renovate the churches 
whenever there was need. 

And today we must have a permit to build the steeples, and they 
must have certain limits in height and length, and bells are not 
permitted or, if with great insistence, we get some, the sizes are 
children's sizes. Church cannot be built or repaired without a new 
permit, and in most cases the church crumbles into ruins before the 
permit is obtained. These permits, too, must come a f t e r presenta-
tion to the Council of State. 

IN accordance with ancient precedent, the Copts chose their religious council, the Majlis Milly, but the Council of State 
ordered a new Majlis and gave the government the right to appoint 
the members representing the Copts! 

Then in the Senate the Minister of the Interior, Fouad Sera-
jeddeen Pasha, rose to amend the list of the Majlis, and to say 
that its decisions cannot be enforced. Do you know why? Because 
these decisions, according to him, cannot be executed before they 
are presented to the Council of State. 

And this Majlis Milly, the decisions of which the government 
presents to the Council of State, has been established according to 
the recognized law of the land. The government, therefore, should 
be obligated to enforce the decisions of the Majlis, in quite the same 
manner as decisions coming from other tribunals are enforced. But 
it seems clear that the government does not want to do this. 

The decisions or finding of the Majlis are legally equivalent to 
decisions passed by other tribunals. They used to be so, but sud-
denly in the year 1950 they are no longer considered binding. 

A poor woman must now wait months until she can get a deci-
sion by which she can get maintenance for her and her children 
from her husband, for, a f t e r the decision of the Majlis, the Council 
of State must give its approval even for this. 

Yesterday a Christian wished to go back to his religion, a f t e r he 
had embraced Islam, and the Ministry asked the Council of State to 
approve, but the Council issued a fatwa that he cannot, and why? 
Because there is a clause in the Egyptian constitution which says: 
"The religion of the State is Islam." The Council of State issued 
this fatwa on the basis of a clause in the constitution, conveniently 
forgetting the other clauses which proclaim equality for all Egyp-
tians and freedom of worship and religion. 

The Council of State can easily make this fatwa apply to all t h e 
religious affairs of the Christians. It only has to say: "The religion 
of the State is Islam." Who knows? The Council of State may yet 
apply this fatwa to the exercise of all Christian rites in the churches 
and to the teachings of the Holy Gospels. 

11 



Are All Egyptians Equal? 
B y R A M S E S J I B R A O U I * 

THIS is the case of one Emile Tadros, who proclaimed his con-version to Islam and then wished to go back to his original Christian faith. He applied to the Minister of State to have 
his official religious listing changed back to Christian in the govern-
ment records. The Ministry of State then turned to its Privy 
Counsellor to ask whether such a change was possible. The answer 
of the Counsellor was set forth in terms of Fatwa No. 12-1-40, 
interpreting the constitutional law on this point. The fatwa reads: 

Inasmuch as Clause 139 of the Constitution of Egypt states 
that the religion of the state is Islam, 

And inasmuch as Islam does not recognize reconversion, 
reconversion (i.e. return to Christianity) is against the public 
laws. 

Accordingly, we do not accept, nor do we agree to the 
demand on the part of Emile Tadros that his religious regis-
tration be changed in the official records. 

We have always been proud of our country's constitution and 
relied upon it in all disputes. We say t h a t this fatwa is to be re-
spected because of the authority behind it. But it cannot be accepted, 
because it is wrong and is a menace to logic, freedom, and equality 
in this country.-

The Constitution states in Clause 12 that "freedom of f a i t h is 
absolute," Yet here is our colleague on the Council of State saying 
in effect: "There is no such thing as freedom of faith," because 
the Constitution, in his interpretation, denies freedom of f a i t h 
to both the born Moslem and the converted Moslem. This interpre-
tation of the Constitution takes from every Moslem the right to think 
and reflect on the t r u t h of his faith or to be convinced by the t r u t h 
of any other faith. It forbids the converted Moslem to go back to 
his. original religion which is well established in his heart on a 
strong foundation, and which may sometimes be shaken by a strong 
wind but cannot be uprooted altogether, so t h a t when the wind 
becomes calm, the convert goes back more confirmed to his original 
f a i t h ! 

His Excellency, the Counsellor, says that the basis of t h e f a t w a 
is the clause which says t h a t the state has a religion, and t h a t 
religion is Islam, and that Islam, in his opinion, permits the non-

* Ramses Jibraoui is an'eminent Egyptian attorney. This article appeared in the March 5, 1951 issue of the Coptic weekly, Al-Manarat Al-Misriyat. • 
12 



Moslem to become Moslem, but forbids the converted Moslem to go 
back to his own original faith. 

Thus whenever a Christian in this country is the victim of pres-
sure, coercion, persecution, and deprivation on account of his 
religion, he is told in justification f o r this state of things: "Have 
you forgotten that the state is religious, and that the privileged 
persons are those belonging to a particular religion ?" 

EVIDENTLY this Constitution gives and takes away freedom of faith purely in the interest of Islam. It decrees equality and 
forbids it in the interest of Islam, and all the rights it sets forth 
uppiy only to the Moslems and Islam. 

We may gather also from this fatwa that our beloved Moslems 
are still enjoying the rights emanating from their conquest of Egypt 
in the seventh century — that they are still exercising the rights of 
the conquerors over the original inhabitants. Our Moslem fellow-
citizens, if they proclaim brotherhood, equality of rights, and free-
dom of religion, do so only in jest. 

If this fatwa is the true interpretation of the Constitution's 
clause on the- religion of the state, then the clause should be taken 
out of the Constitution and religion should be separated from the 
state to give the Moslems and Christians equal rights. If this is not 
done, then the Constitution is not worth the effort put into its 
making nor the paper on which it was written and the ink used in 
writing iti A constitution like that is not worthy of the name or of 
the honorable preamble which began it, or the noble signature 
which was stamped on i t ! 

If this fatwa is faulty- in cause and effect, then another fatwa 
must be given in an official proclamation correcting the present 
government policy and proclaiming that all Egyptians are equal 
before the laws of the state. This should be put into execution 
immediately. Christianity should be as highly regarded by the 
government as Islam is now. Christian prayers should be broadcast 
as Moslem prayers are. Moslems should be permitted to become 
Christian without any penalizing of property rights or any viola-
tion of inheritance. Civil service jobs should be available to all 
Egyptians without discrimination on religious grounds. Severe 
penalties should be imposed on all those who differentiate between 
citizens on account of their religion, or call for such discrimination, 
or t r y to impose their religion on others by material or mental 
coercion. 



The Restrictions on Coptic Churches* 

IN February, 1934 Al-Azby Pasha, Deputy Interior Minister of Egypt, issued a decree listing ten conditions governing the building of Christian churches in Egypt. This decree claims to 
derive its validity from the fact t h a t the government is entitled 
to control places dangerous to the public safety. Somehow our 
churches are suddenly included among these dangerous places. 

The ten conditions are thoroughly dictatorial and tyrannical. 
Their objective is simply to put obstacles in the way of building 
new churches and repairing and remodeling old ones. An intermin-
able length of time — more than a decade, in many cases — now 
passes between the presentation of the application and the granting 
of the permit f o r building a church. Very often people who apply 
for a permit become so disgusted that they abandon the project of 
building or repairing. No such nonsensical laws and conditions 
ever existed or exist today in any country of the world. 

What has the irrigation bureau or the railroad bureau to do 
with the building of churches? And why should churches be put 
in a class by themselves, so sharply distinguished from mosques, 
cemeteries, other public places? And what difference does it really 
make whether a church is in a Moslem district or a Christian 
one — the subject of the third condition? Are we by any chance 
in India where there are special places for Hindus and others f o r 
outcasts? Even in India this has been changed. Maybe our govern-
ment wants to demonstrate that the citizens of this Egypt of ours 
are actually divided, though God has united them in one nation, 
living in the same dwelling places and doing business together! 

There are no special districts for Moslems and others for 
Christians in all the villages and towns of the country. We find 
Moslems, Christians and others in the same city, dwelling in the 
same building. Why then this dangerous division between the two 
which gives our country a bad name, externally and internally? 

The fourth condition is still more strange. It takes it f o r 
granted that churches must not be built near the dwellings of 
Moslems. Can they tell us why a church cannot be built in a street 
where Moslems live? 

The fifth condition asks: "Is there another church f o r the 
same people in the town?" As if the existence in a town of more 

* This detailed account is taken from Farriq Tassud, p. 83, if. 
14 



than one church is an evil and must be stopped! A similar restric-
tion is never applied when anybody asks f o r a permit to open a 
wine shop or a dance hall! 

The sixth condition stipulates investigation of the distance 
between the town where the church is going to be built and the 
next town which has a church, implying that the people can travel, 
take their provisions on their back and go looking for a neighboring 
town which has a church. 

The seventh condition asks how many persons will attend this 
new church, meaning that a small group of Christians have no 
right to worship and pray. Only Egypt, it seems, thinks that way. 
We read in the newspapers that the Japanese government, a 
government which does not have a heavenly religion, permitted 
fewer than a hundred Moslems in one of its towns to build a mosque. 

AS a result of these conditions, no new Christian churches are built and the old ones are crumbling to dust. The hierarchy 
of the Christian churches in Egypt have more than once protested 
against these conditions, have more than once appealed to the 
King, to the cabinet, to all the important ministries — but to no 
avail. 

Here are some examples: 
The Church of Kafr-Al-Sheikh has been waiting to be built 

since 1936. 
The Church of Kafr-Sheshta was closed and there was no chance 

to reopen it, but to our surprise something queer happened and 
His Excellency, Badawy Pasha Khalifa, Deputy Interior Minister, 
gave permission f o r it to be opened two hours on the night of 
holidays, prescribing t h a t it should be closed afterwards. Surely, 
wine merchants are f r e e r than Christians in this country. Can this 
happen in any country in the world but Egypt? 

As f o r the Church of Port Fouad, on January 20, 1940 the 
Copts of Port Fouad presented an appeal to the Ministry of the 
Interior to permit them to build a house of worship for themselves. 
They were told unofficially to go ahead. The land was purchased, 
a society was formed. The Patriarch blessed the project. Here we 
are in 1950, and still no official permit can be gotten. This particular 
project was given more publicity than any other because a few 
Copt attorneys made it their business every once in a while to 
demand the permit f r o m the proper authorities. But the result was 
the same in their case as in the others. 

The church of A j a has needed repairs f o r the past twenty 
years. It is in ruins now. Why? The cause is that on the next corner 
from the church there is a Zawiat, a little mosque for the Moslems. 

The Church of Al-Qasaseen has never been built, despite 15 



innumerable petitions, recommendations and appeals. A church is 
evidently less important in the eyes of the Egyptian government 
than a grocery store, a mill or a cinema theater! 

Church steeples must conform to a law t h a t severely limits 
their height. Church bells must not ring lest they disturb peaceful 
citizens. We wonder whether the government has ever considered 
the fact that radio broadcasts disturb peaceful citizens, too, both 
day and night. 

We conclude this chapter on the churches by a still stranger 
fact. His Honor, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Banna, Director for Re-
ligious Affairs in the Prime Minister's Office, is today the arbiter 
and the head of Coptic religious affairs in the country. These affairs, 
it goes without saying, are of a purely Christian nature. No Moslem 
was ever an arbiter of Christian religious affairs! Today the man 
who interprets our Coptic religious laws is not of the church and 
knows nothing about the church. No wonder t h a t our protests and 
appeals do not find a listening ear and do not bring us justice! 

• 

"Even This Post They Begrudge Us" 
B y PROFESSOR LABIB A L - M E N Q B A D Y * 

EGYPTIAN government policy in recen years has been aimed at depriving the Copts of government offices. No Copts are appointed any more. The government has gone even f u r t h e r 
than that, for it is beginning to dismiss those Copts who were 
appointed years ago and who have given proof of their skill and 
zeal in the service. 

Why is the appointment of Copts so rare and impossible? 
Some say it is high policy; others say it is a matter of population 
statistics; still others say the time of the Copts has gone and they 
have no more rights in this country. The conclusion we have arrived 
at is that we Copts have become foreigners in our own country or 
are considered foreigners. Foreigners' cannot of course enjoy the 
rights of citizens.-

This is a very sad state to endure with resignation and the 
hope t h a t God may come to 'our help! But alas! It seems that the 
awaited help is f a r from coming. 

We have suffered in our prestige and we have ceased to feel 
* This article appeared originally in the March 3, 1950 issue of Misr. 

16 



blow a f t e r blow. Our voices have become weak, and we do not raise 
them to demand our rights. 

We were a progressive and healthy people, and today our pulse 
is weak and there is almost no blood in our veins. 

Petty disputes take all our time, and evil elements rule our 
feelings. Thus, we cease to think, and to perceive what the others 
intend to do to us! 

But is there any doubt? Is it not their aim to make us low, 
degraded, and miserable? I say this confidently and loudly a f t e r 
having learned that the government has decided to appoint one of 
our Moslem brothers as director of the Coptic National Museum! 

We suffered in silence when we were deprived of civil service 
employment, despite the Egyptian Constitution's guarantee of 
equality to all the Egyptian nationals! We have patiently endured 
the closing to us of employment opportunities in business com-
panies, and the persecution and discrimination we encounter in 
the liberal professions! 

We were very patient in the hope that a day would come 
when our brothers would change this evil policy of prejudice which 
benefits no one and makes enemies of brothers. 

It seems that our silence has been interpreted as weakness 
which made our brothers even more greedy and led them to deprive 
us also of this office of directorship of the Coptic Museum the only 
symbol of national pride left to us. 

0 no! O masters! Our national pride cannot permit us to leave 
this inheritance in the hands of others or to be silent any more. 

We have the most able persons to fill all kinds of offices, jobs 
and professions. Will you not at least leave us this office so that 
we may have some little cheer in the midst of our suffering? 

17 



The Plagues of Arabism in Egypt 
B y R A M S E S J I B R A O U I * 

WE read in the Egyptian press, a few days ago, that Egypt intends to settle Arab refugees from Palestine in the Sinai peninsula, and that she is to use the technical help of Ameri-
can experts in order to provide the means of existence for these 
Arabs there. 

We know, and everyone in the world knows, t h a t Egypt is 
over-populated; that she is threatened with near starvation because 
the land cannot produce enough food for its inhabitants; that she 
cannot continue to produce enough food because the Egyptian 
masses are still reproducing like rabbits, and our number increases 
more quickly than the amount of cultivable land. 

How is it, then, that when we ourselves have no room to breathe 
and no room for expansion except in the wildernesses surrounding 
us, we choose the most fertile of them, the richest in minerals and 
resources, and propose to give it to so-called relations, some million 
foreign Arabs? How is it t h a t at the same time we are tightening 
the ropes on the throats of foreigners born in Egypt who have been 
living in it for tens of years, and who have shown their superiority 
in learning, progress and production, and been good tax-paying 
citizens ? How is it that while we refuse to give these people among 
us Egyptian citizenship except in very acute cases, we open the 
door wide to a million Arabs with no scientific knowledge, a r t or 
culture and no abilities at all? Shall we take the bread out of our 
sons' mouths and give it to these Arabs ? Shall we deprive ourselves 
of the necessities of life for their sake, increasing our misery in the 
present and making our f u t u r e even darker? 

They are a million Arab plagues! They will reproduce them-
selves quickly, adding more plagues, increasing our troubles. 
Already, f o r their sake, we have lost our good name and much of 
our revenue (175,000,000 guineas) which we spent in a war that 
was no concern of ours at all. And today we are spending more 
millions on arms for these Arabs' sake because a state of war — we 
don't know why — still exists between us and the State of Israel. 
Nor dare we forget the thousands of our youths whom we sacrificed 
in that war, and the many thousands more that we are making ready 

* This article appeared in the April 2, 1951 issue of Al-Manarat Al-Misriyat. 
18 



for the boiling cauldron of war in the cause of this Arabism which 
has fallen on us so suddenly in this cynical age. 
THESE Arab plagues are now increased by still another, for we read in Al-Ahram lately that the Secretariat of the U.N. has 
asked the Egyptian government for assurances that it will pay its 
share, 71/100, of the $55,000,000 total earmarked for the help of 
these Arabs. This means that the share of Egypt is 38i/2 million 
dollars! 

I find myself completely confused by all this. All the essential 
projects f o r improvement of Egyptian conditions have either been 
stopped because of our abject poverty, or are making the slow 
progress of a tortoise. Ignorance and disease are still killing our 
minds and bodies; millions of us do not eat more than one very 
meager meal each day; our hospitals are empty of doctors, and if 
we find some, there are no medicines! Our lords make us live like 
beasts of burden without a definite goal or plan, except the goal of 
Arabism, Arab unity, Arab federation and other Arab aims which 
are in the interests of the British and the Arabs. As f o r intelligent, 
progressive Egyptians, they are all the losers f o r i t ! 

And what is left for us to do? We must now forget our misery 
again and concern ourselves with the Arabs of Morocco, as if it 
were our destiny to turn our heads toward the Arabs of the East 
and those of the West until we see double or our heads leave our 
bodies altogether! We have had enough plagues, but our leaders 
now wish us to suffer the plagues of the Arabs of the East and the 
West, as well as our own! 

It seems that we must burn in order to light the way for 
Arabism! This is to be our high ideal! All honor to such honest 
nationalism, befitting the sons of the Pharaohs and their great 
leaders! 

O, you Egyptian patriots! Do not be surprised if our sons 
to-morrow will revolt against us and will damn us in f u t u r e genera-
tions f o r the legacy we bequeath them of ignorance, disease, misery 
and other Arab plagues! 

19 



If We Are Exiled from Egypt . . . 
B y A L - Q U M O S S E R G I U S * 

The writer tells the story of how in a depressed mood he felt 
compelled to leave his desk in Cairo and take a rest at Suez where 
his daughter and her husband live. His depression was due to all 
the letters he had been receiving from his readers complaining and 
describing their miserable life in Egypt, their own land and the 
land of their ancestors. At Suez he thought inevitably of the ancient 
exodus of the sons of Israel from tyranny in Egypt, when they left 
a great, rich land, a land of plenty, happiness and civilization, for 
a barren desert. Then this question came to his mind and is formu-
lated in the article as follows: 

WE R E the people of Israel more miserable then in Egypt, than the sons of the Copts are now ? When the sons of Israel were thrown out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, they found 
a desert to take refuge in. But f o r the Copts, still pursued and 
persecuted by their countrymen, what escape is there, what deserts 
will give them refuge? 

Israel, which was pursued to the Sinai desert, did not pass 
forty years there f o r nothing. This period was a period of study 
and research on the nature of the land. They entered the promised 
land and were exiled to Assyria, then came back to their land, and 
afterward they wandered all over the earth till now they have 
returned and are beginning to make the deserts into gardens and 
paradises by means of the learning and resources they have acquired 
in their exile . . . 

But if we are thrown out of the land of our forefathers, Egypt, 
will Israel let us take refuge in the Sinai desert of our land? Or 
will they stand before us, forbidding us to rest our feet on the 
edge of the desert, while our countrymen push us from the back 
and we find no heart with pity on us except the Red Sea willing 
to take us to its bottom and to deliver us from a life worst than 
Hell? 

Some say that Israel may welcome the Copts if they are thrown 
out of Egypt and make their home in Sinai, because Israel will 
understand what good neighbors the Copts are. Together they 
might develop the desert which would become the land of the Copts, 
its natural owners. 

* Al-Qumos Sergius is a dean of the Coptic Church. He is editor and publisher of Al-Manarat Al-Misriyat, Cairo Coptic weekly, in the February 19, 1951 issue of which this article appeared. 
20 



Those who say this base their belief on fantastic interpreta-
tions. They say "Don't you hear our brother Moslems on their 
holidays, when their sons and daughters travel back and f o r t h in 
the trams shouting: 'You Christians! You Jews! Your faces are 
like monkey faces!' " 

All these insults, people say, are levelled at us within the 
hearing of the police — and while the whole people of Egypt look 
on without shame, does anybody tell them to stop? No! . . . This 
indicates that many of our Moslem compatriots share this attitude 
toward us! This is a crime that should be punished by law! 

Inevitably, therefore, some Copts conclude that as long as the 
faces of Christians and Jews are considered alike in their resem-
blance to monkeys, then a day may come when, indeed, the Sinai 
desert will be cultivated, and great forests will grow within its 
borders. On the trees of those forests the monkeys of Jews and 
Copts will jump and gambol together, both groups sharing the love 
for work and culture and mutual benefits! 

Those t h a t say such things merely wait for an indication from 
the Egyptian government that they should leave Egypt, so t h a t 
they may find a little respite from their sufferings and at the same 
time protect Egypt from becoming known as a shameful persecutor 
of Christianity. Then the Copts would enter into extensive negotia-
tions with those t h a t are concerned, and thus their misery would 
end, while their compatriots would be relieved of them. 

Nothing is surprising in this land of miracles! 

Christian Leaders, Where Are You? 
An Editorial from the March 5, 1951 issue of 

"Al-Manarat Al-Misriyat" 
Demonstrations and parades have recently been organized by 

professors of the Al-Azhar University, the famous Moslem Uni-
versity of Cairo, in which the professors presented their complaints 
and grievances to the King of Egypt and to the various Moslem 
embassies in Cairo, claiming that they are not treated fairly and 
squarely, and demanding compliance with their requests for higher 
wages and better security for them and their Moslem students. In 
the light of these demonstrations, the editor of Al-Manarat, the 
weekly magazine published in Arabic as the organ of the Copts, 
editorially addressed the Christians of Egypt. Since they are now 
enduring a wave of persecution ranging from discrimination to 
physical and moral injuries, the editor turns to them and, asks them 
to parade and demonstrate before the Christian embassies in Egypt 
like the Moslem professors of Al-Azhar who took their case to the 

21 





Moslem embassies of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, India, 
Indonesia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Yemen, Saudi 
Arabia, and the General Secretariat of the Arabic League. The 
professors claim that what they are protesting is not a matter of 
allowances, salaries, etc., but a far more fundamental matter: the 
persecution of Islam. 

The text of the editorial follows: 
OU Christian religious leaders, where are you? Are inequities 
in salaries and subsidies more dangerous than the perils 
threatening you, your religion, and the Christian people which 

gave you leadership, and which you see everyday drowning in waves 
of persecutions? 

You see them with your own eyes, and you touch them with 
your own hands, and the cries of our suffering sons pierce your 
ears in their pain and agony! . . . 

Your churches are closed, and the f a i t h f u l are driven out a f t e r 
being insulted and beaten. Obstacles are put in the way of building 
your churches, till it becomes actually impossible to build them. 
Your children are forbidden to learn their religion in school, though 
Moslem children are taught theirs. Your children's teachers insult 
the Christian religion shamelessly and deliberately, in the hope of 
shaking their belief and making them easy prey for conversion to 
Islam! 

You see how Christian boys and girls are kidnapped and 
coerced to embrace Islam by all hellish ways, while the Council of 
State issues the fatwa that no one who embraces Islam can go 
back to his previous religion. If, by chance, a Christian, a f t e r 
embracing Islam, should go back to Christianity and then die, he 
is taken by force and buried in the Moslem cemetery a f t e r the usual 
prayers in the Mosque. His fortune is then seized and given to the 
Moslem Waqf (fund) because his return to Christianity is not 
valid according to Moslem law! . . . 

Christians cannot be civil service employees now, and they 
cannot even be employed in industrial companies founded by Chris-
tians and with Christian capital. In their little businesses they are 
subjected to excessive taxes in many forms, until they are forced 
to abandon their commerce and industries and end up by wandering 
about or being imprisoned in jails where they are painfully mal-
treated. There is nothing that can lighten their sufferings in prison 
except conversion there and then to Islam. 

You see with your own eyes, 0 Christian leaders, how you, and 
your Christian people with you, have become outcasts, in this day 
and age when even the outcasts of India have become f r e e and the 
negroes of America are acquiring all their civil rights! . . . 

Radio broadcasting is forbidden to you and your religion, but 
23 



the country listens freely on its radios to evil songs, immoral mono-
logues and bad words. I t is your gospels and your masses t h a t are 
judged to be damaging. What is more, with your own ears you hear 
insults to your religion on the radio broadcasts t h a t come to your 
homes, and these go on in spite of all your protests! 
W E Christians today have no natural rights, and we have become foreigners in our own country, while every foreigner who enters 

the country is considered a citizen as long as he is a Moslem, and 
has the right of civil service employment, the right to acquire land 
and property, and the right to be master of the native Christian 
citizen! 

All this persecution should make you rise up and do something. 
Does not this call for your summoning a general Christian confer-
ence to consider this deliberate program of persecution aimed at 
Christians, a program which increases in intensity whenever the 
oppressors' minds find new ways and means to force the Christians 
to abandon their religion and embrace Islam, in order to escape 
bitter misery, permanent threats, and painful maltreatment and 
attacks ? 

Of what are you afraid ? Why not follow in the footsteps of the 
Ulema of Al-Azhar and ask the help of the ambassadors of the 
Christian countries in Egypt, presenting to them the notes and 
reports and the pictures of theWarious persecutions, and asking 
them to make these known. The persecutions meted out to the 
Christians in this country have no equal in all the countries of the 
world — not only the civilized world, but even the so-called savage, 
barbarian countries. All other countries of the world leave their 
people f r e e to worship the God they want and the religion they 
prefer, as is their natural right! 

Can it be t h a t you are more patriotic than the Moslem pro-
fessors of Al-Azhar? Or is it t h a t you are more wise and more 
zealous f o r your country than they? 

What will the people say about you, and what will your excuse 
be if you fail to follow the Ulema of Al-Azhar and do not go and 
present your complaints to the Christian embassies? . . . 

We are waiting for every religious leader to tell us of his readi-
ness to call such a conference, and to demonstrate before the 
Christian embassies and the Moslem ones, too! 

If this is not done, then we — the clergy, priests, deacons — 
will call and organize a Christian conference. We will demonstrate 
and parade before every embassy, Christian and Moslem. We will 
go to America, if necessary, to make the Christian world a witness 
to our fate, and we will tell them t h a t Egypt has no Christian 
leaders who cherish and are zealous f o r their religion and their 
people! 

24