The life of the Christians of Egypt

The life of the Christians of Egypt

The Copts of Egypt, whose churches targeted two attacks, left dozens of dead and wounded Sunday in Tanta and Alexandria north of Cairo, the largest Christian denominations in the Middle East and one of the oldest.

According to Agence France-Presse, the number of members of this community is estimated at about 10% of the Egyptian population of about ninety million, although no official statistics of the number of them, as the authorities did not mention the religion during the census.

The origin of the Copts dates back to the beginning of Christian history when Egypt was part of the Roman Empire and then of Byzantium after the end of the Greek Ptolemaic rule.

The term "Coptic" refers to the same linguistic roots of the word Egypt, "Egypt" in the ancient Greek language, and began to decline with the Islamic conquest of Egypt, which is now the majority of Sunni Muslims.

Copts are spread throughout Egypt with a concentration in the center of the country. They are distributed among the various social strata, including the poor, some of whom belong to affluent families such as Boutros-Ghali to wealthy people like Naguib Sawiris.

The Copts complain about the weakness of their representation in the government and the parliament. The Egyptian elections are absent from the quota system, but this is compensated by their selection within the group appointed by the president. They also complain of being excluded from many posts in the judiciary, universities and police.

The most prominent attacks on the Copts

- On 1 January 2011 they were attacked by 23 people and 79 injured when a mass at a Coptic church on New Year's Eve in Alexandria, the second city of the country, ended. No one claimed the attack, but activists accused the then interior minister Habib al-Adly of masterminding him.

- On March 8, 2011, 13 people were killed in clashes between Muslims and Copts in the Mokattam district of Cairo, where thousands of Christians gathered to protest the burning of a church south of the capital.

- Two months later, clashes between Muslims and Copts killed 12 people and wounded more than 200 in the popular neighborhood of Imbaba in Cairo, targeting a church and burning others.

- Since the summer of 2013, more than 40 churches and dozens of schools, homes and shops owned or run by Copts have been burned or damaged, Human Rights Watch said, accusing security forces of being absent from such attacks.

- Last December 25 people were killed in a bomb attack on the Patriarchal Church, which is located next to the Cathedral of St. Marks in Cairo, the largest Coptic churches in Egypt.