Egypt was turned upside down after Netherlands had granted asylum for the prosecuted Coptic Christians in Egypt. It was a great chance for many anti-Copts politicians, journalists or Islamists to attack the Copts and accuse them of treason as well as defaming Egypt. Many public figures have condemned asylum seekers claiming that Egypt has no racial discrimination at all, and said that Netherlands is trying to interfere in the Egyptian internal affairs, affecting its national solidarity badly!
Everybody was talking with an exaggerated sense of patriotism ignoring the right to seek asylum if someone suffers in his own homeland form the state or other citizens for political o religious reasons. This request is beeing examined carefully by the country that grants the asylum to decide later whether to grant it or not. It's not then about treason, but rather about serious problems that need to be solved before we ask asylum seekers to stop trying to stay alive!
I should remind those who attack the Copts for asylum seeking that many Muslims have sought asylum as well, even more than Christians, but we have never heard anyone accusing them of treason or defaming Egypt. Furthermore, some of them have decided to continue on being terrorists in European countries that had granted them political asylum. Therefore, they were called heros and symbols of struggle and jihad!
Unfortunately, this is another form of schizophrenia that we suffer from here in Egypt. If the asylum seeker is Muslim, then he deserve the right to seek asylum along with our sympathy, but if he is a Coptic Christian seeking the missing safety, then he is but a traitor and renegade that only deserves death!
It's very easy for someone whose life, his family, and property is safe to claim that Egypt is a very safe place that has no discrimination based on religion, sex...etc. It could be private or public problem that threatens someone's life, but this person has to react to it immediately. What if his people can't or not willing to help him?
I've received an email from a Coptic Christian man who lives in Assiut and it is apparently full of pain and sorrow. He says: My family and I are suffering from religious prosecution and our lives are being threatened. This started as I have a cross hanged on my door. So, Islamists have attacked me as well as my old mother with white weapons, and I was taken to a hospital and I have a medical report that describes my injuries. Police were reported and investigations were held with the perpetrators, who later were set free, and are threatening and attacking my family and me every now and then.
Will Egyptian authorities and Egyptian Council for Human Rights do something for this man and many others who have the same problem? If not, we have to blame ourselves first, before blaming them for seeking asylum.
