We’ve heard many calls to unify the Copts abroad in order to serve their Coptic cause. However the Egyptians were not big fans of immigrating, many Copts have decided to change this in the twentieth century that about 2 million Coptic Christians have already immigrated out of Egypt and others are still waiting. The new phenomenon came with the increasing suffering of the Copts, especially after the revolution in 1952. This revolution tried to change the Egyptian identity by imposing more Arabic and Islamic aspects, in addition to many terroristic attacks that targeted the Copts leading them to be marginalized in all walks of life.
At the time many Copts have immigrated, the rest of them have severely suffered. However, the Coptic immigrants have always supported their home land and their persecuted brothers. Now, the persecuted Coptic Christians suffer even more, and we are in bad need to unify our efforts in order to be more effective.
This vision does not aim to establish a new Coptic foundation, but rather to determine our goals and dreams, and find out how to achieve them. I hope that this article may inspire the Coptic activists and have something to do with their unification.
In1963, the American activist Martin Luther King threw his historic speech in which he called to put an end to racism in the United States. In 2008, his four children witnessed the election of the first African American president of the United States. Great achievements always start with a vision or a dream.
We, the Coptic immigrants are Christian Egyptians who had to leave their home land for some reason or another. However many of us have a dual citizenship, we have never forgotten about our rooted Egyptian one. Though we are practicing Christians of different sects, but most of us believe in the Nicene Creed.
Violence is not our way. We always claim our rights peacefully inside and outside Egypt. We feel responsible for our cause, but we don’t insult people for this cause. We do not exclusively represent the Copts, but volunteer to defend them.
We are not hostile to the Egyptian government, and understand its vital role in solving the problem. However, we don’t’ trust it very much. We need to communicate with it for the sake of the Coptic cause. This is from one hand.
From the other hand, we try to encourage the government to care better for the Coptic rights. We don’t blackmail it as we claim our rights and nothing more.
We want to take the initiative to solve the problems of our brethren in Egypt after we carefully study them. We accept diversity and make use of arguments in order to get better solutions, as we always believe that “disagreement ruins not amicability”.
We also believe that Egypt is a unified country and should always be. Muslims and Christians should live together in Egypt.
However it’s our right to communicate with foreign countries and entities for the sake of our cause, we refrain from communicating with hostile entities to our country as we are part of Egypt. We seek freedom of worship as well other freedoms.
We respect our Church and obey it in all spiritual matters, but we do understand that she has nothing to do with our political activities.
Though we seek equality among all Egyptians and demand a civilian state that separate religion from politics, we demand the religion to encourage the good relationships among citizens.
We believe that fanaticism is a main calamity in Egypt, and should be denounced within the curriculum, religion institutions, the constitution, law as well as the media.
We should give great concern to study our Coptic history and language in our public schools and universities as an important part of our identity.
We don’t seek profit and never accept money from any suspicious organizations that work against Egypt. Young people should participate and be allowed to have leading positions, using the help of the elderly and seeking their advice.
I hope our dreams come true that the Coptic Diaspora will only praise Egypt all over the world and work for its good instead of complaining about the injustice our brethren face in Egypt.
