ICC Note:  In an article published by Gatestone, a dissident Muslim writes about the abuse of Coptic Christians by Islamic extremists and asks why more moderate Muslims in Egypt are not defending the rights of their fellow countrymen. He points to the words of Mohammed’s Egyptian wife, who reportedly instructed a special kindness towards Coptic Christians. Instead of receiving kindness and support from their neighbors, the situation of Egypt’s Christian community has especially deteriorated over the years.         

07/09/2018 Egypt (Gatestone Institute) – We have seen and recoiled from the horrific footage of Coptic Christians beheaded by ISIS in 2015 in Libya and the repeated bombings over the past two decades of Coptic churches in Egypt. We read about the Maspero massacre in 2011, when Egyptian military tanks, deployed to protect peaceful Christian demonstrators, instead rolled over them, crushing many to death. And we continue to receive reports of Coptic girls abducted, compelled to convert to Islam and forced into marriages with Muslims.

Each time there is news of another act of hate-filled violence against the Copts, or other religious minorities, we shudder. When there are attacks against Yazidis in the Fertile Crescent, the Baha’is in Iran and Christians and Ahmadis in Pakistan, we ask how Muslims can affirm these crimes against humanity perpetrated under the banner of Islam.

Apart from condemning the visible/demonstrable bigotry and violence — and from appealing to Western governments for assistance — Muslims opposed to Islamist extremism are at a loss about what needs to be done to hold the governments of Egypt and other Muslim-majority states accountable for their failure to protect their religious minorities from the sectarian violence that is regularly directed at them.

Here, regarding the Copts in Egypt, are a few preliminary observations that might serve as a proposal for how Muslims and non-Muslims, working together, might find a way out of this terrible situation and ensure their mutual survival and peaceful co-existence:

Egyptian Muslims are primarily, and fundamentally, responsible for the worsening situation of the Coptic Christians in Egypt. As Egypt’s overwhelming majority population, Muslims have the responsibility to secure the rights of the Copts as a religious minority.

The violence, and incitement to violence, directed by Egyptian Muslims against the Copts — especially those organized sectarian campaigns by the Muslim Brotherhood and related groups — are crimes against humanity and should be treated as such by the international community

As part of their religious obligation, Egyptian Muslims bear an even heavier responsibility to secure the well-being and protect the rights and dignity of Coptic Christians. In persecuting the Copts, Egypt’s Muslims are shredding the directives of the Quran on respecting and protecting Jews and Christians as the “People of the Book.” According to the Quran, each one of us will be held accountable for our deeds on the Day of Reckoning. It is not for God to forgive the wrong an individual does to another unless the wrongdoer has sought and received forgiveness from the victim. In accordance with their own beliefs, then, Egypt’s Muslims are undeniably guilty for the wrongs they have done to the Copts and will most certainly be held accountable on the Day of Reckoning.

The tragedy of the Copts is hugely amplified when we take into account their unique status in the history of Islam: due to the very special and intimate relationship that the leader of the Coptic Church was instrumental in arranging between his people and the Prophet Muhammad.

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For interviews with Claire Evans, ICC’s Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org.