There is an Arab saying, “First the Saturday people and then the Sunday people,” which is often heard chanted at anti-Israel rallies organised by the PLO/PA.  This is commonly held to refer to the deliberate eradication by Islamic regimes, everywhere they take root, first of Jewish and then of Christian kufar who refuse to convert to Islam.

Bataween, editor of “Point of No Return”, a blog mainly dedicated to creating awareness about the plight of Jews in Arab countries, informs us that Jews have almost been wiped out in Muslim countries (see also here).  The “Saturday people” have been almost completely eradicated.  Consequently – there now being very few Jews in Muslim countries – it would seem that Egyptian Muslim agressors are earnestly engaged in a murderous enactment of the second part of the saying.

Bataween has written on CiFWatch about the merciless persecution of Christians by Muslim regimes everywhere in the Middle East.   Elsewhere on “Point of No Return”, we are told that every three minutes a Christian is being tortured in the Muslim world. In 2009 more than 165,000 Christians will have been killed because of their faith, most of them in Muslim countries.

There has been a Coptic Christian presence in Egypt since 60 CE.  Coptic Christians in Egypt represent between 15% and 20% of the population.

Coptic Christians are often targeted for abuse and violence from Muslims.  I strongly recommend to readers one case example, quoted on the Copts’ web page, which gives an insight into how Copts are often treated under what passes for Egyptian law.  It is touching not only because it describes the despair of the relentlessly persecuted, but also because of its faith that something will actually be done by the Muslim authorities about the ill-treatment of the complainant’s nephew, Zaky.    Of course in this case as in countless others, nothing was.  Zaky disappeared in September 2009 and was likely killed.    The case example also gives us an insight into how sharia-influenced law in Muslim countries discriminates against kufar/dhimmis:

Dhimmi status is based upon the supremacist belief that Muslims are superior to any other religious group (“Ye are the best community that has been raised up for mankind” 3:110), and that Christians and Jews who had not accepted Islam should be conquered, humiliated, and, in the past at least, subjected to the payment of the tribute poll tax, the jizya, not payable by Muslims  (9:29: “fight against those who have been given the scripture and… follow not the religion of truth until they pay the tribute readily, being brought down”).

Dhimmis enjoyed no political rights of any kind.  Their testimony in court against Muslims was not permitted although Muslims could testify against dhimmis (Friedman, 2003, pp 35-36).  This meant that they could not defend themselves in court against false accusations against them by Muslims unless they hired Muslim witnesses and resorted to other forms of bribery.  More can be found here about the status of dhimmis in Muslim countries.   This gives the lie to the argument that Muslims, Jews and others, lived together contentedly (see also Bat Ye’or‘s scholarly exegesis).

Very much in this vein, the persecution of the Copts continues in Egypt.   In March, 2009, the Copts’ web page carried a graphic photograph of the burning alive of a 25-year-old Coptic man by a Muslim man after a rumour about a relationship between the young Copt and the Muslim’s sister.  The young Copt subsequently died of his burns and his father was also knifed to death by a Muslim mob when he arrived at the scene.   The Muslim man and those who knifed the victim’s father were arrested and charged with murder but a subsequent blackout of information meant that nothing was heard about the outcome or if there was ever a trial.  Given the dhimmi status of Coptic Christians it is doubtful that there was one.

More recently, in November 2010, a Muslim mob set fire to ten Coptic Christian homes in southern Egypt and several people were arrested.  Once again this violence began after a rumour about an alleged relationship between a young Copt and a Muslim girl – locals spotted them together at night inside the village cemetery, according to officials.  Given what happened to the young Copt in 2009, it is an advance that both were put under police custody while the authorities investigated, but will anyone be prosecuted for the fire-setting which destroyed the homes of the dhimmi Copts and what are the odds on the survival chances of the young Copt when (if?) he is released from protective custody?

The list of gratuitous violence against Copts in Egypt would turn the stomach of anyone.  There follow some examples, again from the Copts’ own web page:

In November 2009 Muslims rioted because of an allegation that a Christian young man had raped a young Muslim girl. That riot reputedly destroyed 65 shops in the area and caused over $1 million in damage (6 million Egyptian pounds). In the town of Farshoot alone, about 80 percent of Coptic businesses were destroyed. Coptic Christians, however, asserted that the story was fabricated in order for Muslims to justify their attack, and indeed security forces found no evidence to support the fabrication.

Subsequently, in January 2010, a group of gunmen in several cars opened fire on Christians exiting a church in the Southern Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi on Christmas Eve. The drive-by shooting incident left six people dead and another nine injured. Among those reportedly killed were a young man and his fiancé and a 14-year-old boy. Local sources say the gunmen wanted to kill Bishop Kirollos of the Nag Hammadi Diocese, who had publicly defended Coptic Christians after the November 2009 Muslim riot.  (Source for both: The Voice of the Copts).

To those readers who are nervous about my writing about a subject which on the surface has little relationship with Comment is Free, I would offer the following:

Since 2009 there have been only four articles on CiF about the persecution of the Copts by Egyptian Muslims, although the Guardian itself has mentioned the latest incident.  Three of the articles were by Khaled Dhiab and one by Nasreen Malik.  The first CiF article, by Khaled Diab on 17 October 2009, was the usual vacuous nonsense we have come to expect, which said all the “right things” but clearly lacked passion.  (A subsequent article of his on 12 May 2010 and entitled “So What If Egypt’s Copts Find a Book Insulting?” appears to confirm that his first was merely an exercise in triteness.  I look forward to a similar article about Muslims and their hypersensitive insult triggers, but I shan’t hold my breath). Dhiab’s third, on 15 September 2010, had more gravitas, but proof that it was dumbed down for the Guardianista audience can be found here.   Readers who compare the CiF article with that of the Chronikler will find that a paragraph about corruption in Egypt has been edited out, no doubt because it conflicted with the Guardian World View.

Nesrine Malik had another bash at addressing the problem in the “Beliefs” section, in an article which attracted only 22 comments.

By contrast CiF obsessed about Israel in 648 articles in 2009 (although, interestingly, there have been only 252 articles so far in 2010).

I have much creature feeling for the Coptic Christians in Egypt, and indeed for all Christians and other minorities who, because of their dhimmi status, have the misfortune to find themselves at the mercy of the laws of Muslim countries which routinely infringe their human rights.  The plight of Coptic Christians and the outrages perpetrated against them should be brought to the world, as is that of the few remaining Jews in Muslim countries.

Jews at the mercy of Muslims have Israel and the Law of Return guarantees sanctuary to them.  Coptic Christians in Egypt, however, and other Christians in Muslim countries, often have nowhere to else to go.