In the midst of the abundant flow of reports about electoral
violence and allegations of vote rigging, news about the pope’s backing
of the Wafd party nominee stood out by raising questions about a
potential shift in the Church’s decades long support of the ruling
National Democratic Party.
The church has made no official announcement concerning what party
appeared on the pope’s ballot.
However, Naguib Gobraiel, the church’s
lawyer, confirmed that the ruling party’s reluctance to field a
considerable number of Coptic candidates, coupled with violent clashes
erupting in southern Cairo, must be the driving force behind Pope
Shenouda’s III decision to refrain from backing the ruling party.
“It is not logical to vote for a party that opened fire at [Copts],
marginalized them and let them down,” Gobraiel told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
The Coptic minority constitutes nearly ten percent of Egypt's
population of 80 million. Copts frequently complain of religious
discrimination including legal restrictions on the construction of
churches and an alleged ceiling on the number of Copts permitted to
attain high public office.
This week's poll came on the heels of sectarian violence that rocked Giza last week.
In an unprecedented move, thousands of Copts took to the streets to
hurl Molotov cocktails and stones at the police in protest over the
suspension of construction at a local church. Police responded with tear
gas and rubber bullets that killed two Christians.
For his part, the 87-year-old pope blamed the violence on local
authorities, reportedly warning them in his weekly sermon, “God is
patient but when He gets angry, His anger can be scary.”
A few days
after uttering these words, the Coptic patriarch cast his ballot in
support of the Christian candidate Rami Lakkah who ran under the liberal
Wafd party’s banner for a professional seat in a northern Cairo
district, affirmed Gobraiel.
According to Karima Kamal, a Coptic columnist, Pope Shenouda’s ballot
marks a new episode in the evolving relationship between the regime and
the church. To Kamal, the violence that broke out in Upper Egypt
earlier this year precipitated a relative fallout between the two
parties.
“The Church used to have the feeling that the ruling regime and the
NDP were protecting it against the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis,” said
Kamal, adding that the church once encouraged Copts to support the NDP.
“But what happened in Naga Hammadi showed that this protection does not
exist.”
The year began with a drive-by shooting that left six Copts dead
outside a church in the southern province of Naga Hammadi.
Worshippers
were coming out of the Coptic Christmas eve mass last January when
violence broke out.
Additionally, the run-up to the poll was marred by Coptic
disappointment with the NDP nomination of only 10 Copts on its official
list. Adding fuel to the fire, the NDP fielded Abdel Rahim al-Ghoul, an
NDP member of the outgoing parliament whom Copts implicated in last
year’s violence in Upper Egypt.
“The nominations were quite comical,” said Kamal. “Copts do not have
the same loyalty to the NDP anymore and the Pope cannot any ask them to
vote for the NDP any longer.”
“I expect the relationship between the church and the regime to witness more divisions in the coming period,” she added.
Yet, for Kamal Zakher, a prominent Coptic writer, the pope’s ballot
does not hold political overtones. “It is not about him voting for
Al-Wafd, it is more about him voting for a Christian candidate. This
vote cannot have any political dimensions.”
The pope is too “diplomatic” to escalate tensions with the ruling regime, contended Zakher.
“The pope has faced many crises since 1971 until 2010. This makes him cautious,” added Zakher.
The state has co-opted The Coptic Church since the 1952 military
coup. The Patriarch Kirollos VI was held to represent the Coptic
community and promoted loyalty to the state among his followers.
In 1971, Shenouda III was ordained pope near the same time Anwar
Sadat became president. By the time of Sadat’s assassination, the
relationship between the regime and the church witnessed a drastic
shift.
In response to Sadat's policies that emboldened Islamist groups and
culminated in the eruption of sectarian violence, the Church began to
embrace anti-establishment discourse.
Eventually, Sadat put the pope under house arrest at the Monastery of
Saint Bishoy where he remained for five years. The experience of
detention marked a turning point in the Pope's strategy vis-à-vis the
state, according to experts.
Upon his release by Mubarak in 1981, Shenouda repaired relations with
the ruling regime and expressed Church support of President Mubarak in
presidential races.
“Any attempt to reproduce the scenario of 1981 by any of the two
parties [ruling regime and church] will lead to the eruption of violence
on a large scale,” said Nabil Abdel Fattah, an expert with Al-Ahram
center for Political and Strategic Studies.
“Neither the state nor the church want things to reach that level,” added Abdel Fattah.
In the midst of sectarian strains, the US State Department issued an
annual report on religious freedom in Egypt earlier this month. The
report lashed out at Egypt for discriminating against religious
minorities, including Copts.
The criticism came at a time when the ruling regime is preoccupied
with Western concern over electoral violations that marred this week's
parliamentary race.
"The moment is ripe for Copts to exercise pressure," said Abdel
Fattah. He was reluctant, however, to pledge Copts will succeed in
gaining increased civil rights. "The state will heed few of the Coptic
demands ahead of the presidential elections."
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