Gone are the days in the late 1960's. Nasser was in power; the dictatorship kept the streets safe; and Muslim-Coptic conflict was unheard of, in fact unthinkable. That great Cathedral where St. Mark of Alexandria is interred had stood at that time unfinished. Nasser noticed and asked his escort why had construction stopped. The answer came crisp and clear: "Mr. President: the Coptic church ran out of money!!" Nasser's response was historic: "The State should fund the project" And it was done!!
As we know, St. Mark was one of the great four Gospel writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Through St. Mark, and through history, including the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, the land of the pharaohs has always enjoyed a special place in the history of Christianity. In fact, the word Egypt in Greek means the land of the Copts. "Blessed is Egypt my People" (Isaiah 19:25); "Out of Egypt I called my son" (Matthew 2:15); "Egypt is not a country in which we live. It is a country that lives in us" (His Holiness, Pope Shenouda III, who joined his creator on March 17, 2012).
The Vatican released the remains of St. Mark to Egypt, 2 years before Nasser died in 1970, for reburial in his homeland, which lived in him. St. Mark's return to "the land of Copts" for reburial at the great Cathedral named after him in Abbasia, east of Cairo, was a great national day. In fact it was international, as Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and many other world dignitaries also attended. The Ethiopian Church was, and continues to be, a branch of the great orthodoxy of the Eastern Roman Empire from which emerged the Russian, Greek, Syrian and Armenian churches.
Tradition holds that the first church in Christendom was that of Alexandria -established a mere 200 years after Christ. Christ had stayed in Egypt, together with the Virgin Mary, for four years. Hence the title of the heads of the Coptic church as "The Pope of Alexandria and the Patriarch of St. Mark's Bishopric."
That was and remains the indelible link of Egypt to Christianity, as well as to monotheism in general, including Judaism through Moses who was Egyptian-born. But with the destruction of dictatorship in Egypt as result of the Revolution of January 25, 2011, something else was born as an unwanted companion to democracy -chaos. With chaos in the Egyptian street, came the Muslim-Coptic conflict. The Morsi regime was pulverized by the events which began at a village north of Cairo called (Al-Khossouss) on Sunday, April 7, which resulted in the death of 4 Copts, one Muslim, and the injury of many.
But the tragedy of the newly-introduced sectarianism in Egypt did not end there. As the Copts and Muslims were processing from St. Mark's Cathedral for the burial of the 4 Coptic youths, additional blood was spilt. Details of the tragedy are still unfolding. What is clear so far was that the Cathedral was the scene of an ugly confrontation. At the beginning, security was nearly absent. But as additional security forces arrived, the intensity of the melee increased as tear gas canisters were hurled by officers haphazardly into the Cathedral compound. Lack of training? Perhaps.
Morsi called for a prompt investigation and called the attack on St. Mark's Cathedral "an attack on me personally." Al-Azhar, as well as all stripes of political and other institutions, organizations and movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood, raised their voices in anger condemning that dastardly attack. Al-Azhar also cited a prior attack on its own headquarters by "thugs." The very fabric of Egyptian society seems to be coming apart.
One wonders about the Arab Spring as it unfolds in Egypt. Several questions arise: Is there a sectarian conflict in post-Mubarak Egypt? Yes. Are the Copts, who constitute perhaps more than 10% of a population of nearly 90 million anxious about their future? Yes. How do they express that anxiety? They point to their marginalization, especially under an Islamic-oriented regime. That marginalization has been eloquently expressed by a great Coptic writer in New Jersey, Francois Basili. Francois is the son of a famous Coptic priest by the name of Bolus Basili who, though a cleric, was a member of Parliament during the Sadat era, representing both Muslim and Coptic residents of the Cairo district of Shobra.
Have the Copts materially manifested their fear about the ominous trend toward Islamic-Coptic animosity? Yes. One of the great families of Coptic entrepreneurs, the Sawiris Group, has left Egypt, together with their huge investments in telecommunications.
The attack on the Coptic Cathedral is not the only instance of of the vanishing tolerance for diversity and cosmopolitanism in Egypt. Other examples abound. There is a rise in anti-Shiism as manifested by the recent Salafi attack on the residence of the Iranism diplomat in Cairo who is charged with overseeing Iranian interests in Egypt. (There are yet no diplomatic relations between Tehran and Cairo.)
There are constant verbal attacks on the liberal Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Aly Gomaa. Furthermore, there is a spike in acts of sexual harassment intended to shove women out of public life. In a sign of palpable anger, the Pope of Alexandria has left for self-exile in the western desert where the Wadi El-Natroon Convent exists. It is an act intended to say, as the late Pope Shenouda used to say: "God hears our silence!!"
The future looks ominous. But it is not yet definitively desperate. For the land of the Copts, the homeland of St. Mark, the country which lives in the Copts (as well as in the Muslims) is probably trying to rediscover its historic and authentic identity. With revolutions, patience is a great virtue. May the blessings of St. Mark and the moderation of true Islam heal those wounds.
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