United Copts! Good Things Happen When We All Hold Hands and Sing the Same Song
By Sally Bishai (01/29/06)
If I have to say so myself, I am a pretty fearless person.
The best thing my dad ever taught me (and he's chock full of great lessons) can be summed up as "Ana Makhafsh Men Hadd Gher Rabena," otherwise known as "I Ain't Gonna Get Scared Off By No One But God."
Having said that, I must confess that the title I've elected to use today is rather frightening to an anti-hippie like me. Not that I dislike Hippies, mind, I just hate bellbottoms and ironed hair parted down the middle. (On men and women both, though it can look quite pretty, sometimes.)
At any rate, I'd like to direct your attention to the following recent headlines: last month’s
“Mubarak eases restrictions on church building,” as well as the news that “Women and Copts Named Egypt MPs.”
For those of you too lazy to venture over to Copts.com, the headlines tell it all:
Egyptian churches--who, up until now, have had to get President Hosny Mubarak's signature on a decree if they wanted to fix a broken sink or toilet--have now been delegated to their respective governers.
Much discussion has followed this, prompting comments like "I'll believe it when I see it," and "What a bit of good THAT did us! Governers aren't as tolerant of Copts as Mubarak is!".
For those of you who are thinking "So what? They changed a law, they passed a bill. It happens all the time," may I inform you that this most certainly does NOT happen all the time, not in Copt-unfriendly Egypt. (Never mind the fact that we Copts are, in fact, the natives of Egypt, and belong there as much as--if not more than--others who would seek to drive us out. Now, who does that sound like...? It'll come to me, just keep reading.)
But that's not my point here today. Rather, I want to say a big THANK YOU to person who made it happen. (No, not Mr. Mubarak, although thanks to him, while we're at it.)
Oh, it wasn't just one person causing this change, was it? Hmm. I suppose I should go down the list, then.
In no particular order, here is my Roll-Call of Egypt-Changers (Catchy title, eh?):
*God (Well, He has to be first, obviously).
*Adly Abadeer, Michael Meunier, and Milad Iskander, the men behind Copts United, U.S. Copts Association, and American Copts, respectively.
*George Ishaq and the other boys over at Kefaya.
*Egyptians and friends who pray for the Copts and our beloved homeland.
Too bad I couldn't decide on just one person to thank; it would have meant less reading for you! But now that you mention it--oh, I'm the one who brought it up, am I?--how CAN there be a single source behind the recent changes in Egypt?
Muslim scholars Abdel Aziz Abdel Aziz and Dr. Saad Eldin Ibrahim have both (very recently, actually) likened Egypt to a ship, pondering whether it was sinking or not.
Dr. Ibrahim was quick to inform me, during a brief interview at the famed 2nd International Coptic Conference, that Egypt was NOT sinking, that there WAS hope. (He should be on the list, too, I think.)
So who did the most work in the recent ship-rescuing?
Who should get the most credit for these recent changes?
It doesn't matter. Different people can try to dole out a precise amount of praise to each one, perhaps giving one or another more or less credit than he may deserve.
But in the end, it would be pointless; after all, isn't it the cause that is central here?
If a child fell into a lake and all three of his sisters jumped in to save him, don't they all deserve credit for their efforts?
And if only one jumped in, but the other two supported her sisters from the shore--holding her by the leg so she could pull the child to safety--then don't they still deserve some credit?
And futhermore, does it even matter who did what, so long as the child made it safely to shore?
The POINT here is that different people can work on the same problem in different ways.
They might all get a result, they might none of them get a result.
They may all work from different ends--perhaps together, perhaps not--setting up the dominoes that a single person will topple with a well-aimed sneeze.
But in the end, the most important goal should always be CHANGE, and not just any change, but a change for the BETTER.
Hence, let Copts and Coptic organisations and churches and activists in Egypt and the Diaspora hold hands with one another, viewing one another as dear comrades in the struggle to liberate Egypt!
(Oh, I never got back to the whole "Native Americans being pushed off their own land" thing, did I? Never fear! As always, there's more to come... But until then, visit my website or blog for a free download or stream of my new documentary on the Copts—“Children of Kemet: The Copts, Culture, and Democracy of Egypt.”)
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