Posted on 05/05/2009 11:21:14 PM PDT by Masti
The word Copt is an English word taken from the Arabic word Gibt or Gypt. The Arabs after their conquest of Egypt in 641 A.D. called the indigenous population of Egypt as Gypt from the Greek word Egyptos or Egypt. The Greek word Egyptos came from the ancient Egyptian words Ha-Ka-Ptah... The word Copt or Coptic simply means Egyptian, however the Muslim population of Egypt calls themselves Arabs. In contemporary usage, the word Copt or Coptic refers to the Christian population of Egypt. The Arab's oppression led the Copts to several rebellions, [source], Coptic: an Afro-Asian language descended from ancient Egypt, and spoken by the Copts. [source]
During the rise of pan-Arab nationalism in the 1950s and 1960s, the economically prosperous Copts, who then represented 20 percent of the population but held more than 50 percent of the nations's wealth, saw their businesses and factories nationalized under the socialist government of Gamal Abdel Nasser. Many of them left as a result. [source] [source]
Cairo's poor Copts are known as "zabaleen", an Arabic name for garbage man. In Cairo there is an area with the same name where those Copts are living together with the garbage that has been collected. Copts reached this level of poverty due to the regime ruling the country in the past sixty years. [source]
From early writings, many medieval Arab writers, tended to include unsubstantiated and racist negative commentaries about the Copts. [source] A Copt -- i.e. a descendant of Egypt’s now subjugated, ancient, pre-Arab Christian people [source]
In a statement by 'copts-united' it decries: discrimination takes place through security harassment and media campaigns against Shiites, Copts and Bahais... [source]
Critics argue that a Pan Arabist will always suppor Arab unity and "Islam" at the expense of non-Arab and non-Moslem peoples. one would direct and manipulate the Western taste for self criticism, and all that does is deflect the world's attention from Arab and Moslem atrocities committed against Christians, Kurds, Jews, Israelis, Coptic Christians, non-Arab Sudanese, etc. [source]
Though, current actively Anti Copt attacks stems more often from Islamism, especially by Islamic groups [source] [source] [source] [source], and persecution comes often even from Egypt's government. [source] [source] [source] [source] [source], Egyptian Reformist Thinker Tarek Heggy: 'Egyptian Copts are Oppressed, Oppressed, Oppressed' [source]
From a Lecture Delivered by a Coptic Bishop In Hudson Institute, Washington (July, 2008) entitled: "The Experience of the Middle East's largest Christian community during a time of rising Islamization", where he talked about how the Arab invasion of Egypt in 639 A.D. has altered the identity of Egypt through Arabization and forced conversion to Islam, and the lasting impact on the Christian minority in Egypt. He said, "The Copts have been always focused on Egypt; it is our identity, it is our nation, it is our land, it is our language, it is our culture. But when some of the Egyptians converted to Islam, their focus changed away from looking to their own [language and culture]. They started to look at the Arabians, and Arabia became the main focus," adding that, "if you come to a Coptic person and tell him that he's an Arab, that's offensive., reemphasizing: We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians. Declaring: "I am very happy to be an Egyptian and I would not accept being an "Arab" because ethnically I am not." The Bishop went on to say, "that means shifting the identity of the nation, to belong to Arabism and to the widespread Arabic area …and this is a big dilemma for the Copts who kept their Christianity, or, I rather say, that they kept their identity as Egyptians [who have] their own culture, that of old and real original Egypt trying to keep it, The process of Arabization and Islamization are still actively working till now upon Copts, The Bishop argued that the Egyptian culture has been taken from the Copts and attributed to the Arabs, that the process of Islamization is still on-going, and that the Christian child has "to study the history of the victorious Islamic invaders, which means that as a little kid you have to praise the Arabic troops that came to your country." ... [source], like Assyrians, Armenians & Jews, the Copts are of the very few middle eastern indigenous communities to be surviving the Arabs/Muslims' forcible assimilation of non-Arabs, Non-Muslims. [source]
Egyptian pig farmers have clashed with police in Cairo, as they tried to stop their animals being slaughtered.
Hundreds of people at the Manshiyat Nasr slum threw stones and bottles at police who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
The government wants to cull all the nation’s pigs, a move UN experts say is not necessary to prevent swine flu.
Egypt’s pigs mostly belong to the Coptic Christian minority who say the cull has reignited religious tensions.
The authorities initially said the pig cull was a precaution against swine flu but now describe as a general public health measure.
There have been no cases of swine flu reported in Egypt.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8031490.stm
(never allow a crisis go to waste...take away the livelyhood of the Copts.)
Coptic Christians take part in a midnight service to celebrate Christ's resurrection, at the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, April 26, 2008. The Coptic Church is the native Christian church of Egypt, and has a doctrine similar to Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox churches.
Notice that the women are separated from the men.
This is exactly why I posted this, because it reminded us all of their plight in Islamic Arab Egypt. one link is embedded about this story in my post (about “garbage collectors”).
I have saved your home page to refer back to, it’s a regular goldmine of links and information.
This in particular caught my attention:
So writes an Assyrian as well: ...about the Arab/Muslim civilization. As an Assyrian, a non-Arab, Christian native of the Middle East, whose ancestors reach back to 5000 B.C., I wish to clarify some points you made in this little story, and to alert you to the dangers of unwittingly being drawn into the Arabist/Islamist ideology, which seeks to assimilate all cultures and religions into the Arab/Islamic fold. [...] There are minorities and nations struggling for survival in the Arab/Muslim ocean of the Middle East and Africa (Assyrians, Armenians, Coptics, Jews, southern Sudanese, Ethiopians, Nigerians...), and we must be very sensitive not to unwittingly and inadvertently support Islamic fascism and Arab Imperialism, with their attempts to wipe out all other cultures, religions and civilizations. It is incumbent upon each one of us to do our homework and research when making statements and speeches about these sensitive matters. [193]
Your link to the letter Peter BetBasoo wrote to Carly Fiorina is on MY home page.
Thanks so much, and... tahnks to FR that due to its high ranking site, this info is available to any goggler.
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