Christians versus Muslims in Modern Egypt: The Century-Long Struggle for Coptic Equality

337 Pages·2003·2.537 MB·English

by  S. S. Hasan

Christians versus Muslims
in Modern Egypt
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Christians versus
Muslims in
Modern Egypt
The Century-Long Struggle
for Coptic Equality
s. s. hasan
1
2003
3
Oxford New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi
São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto
Copyright © 2003 by S. S. Hasan
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
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Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
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without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hasan, Sana.
Christians versus Muslims in Modern Egypt : The century-long struggle for Coptic
equality / S. Hasan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-513868-6
1. Coptic Church—Egypt—History—20th century. 2. Egypt—Church history—2oth
century. 3. Egypt—Politics and government—1970– 4. Christianity and other
religions—Islam. 5. Islam—Relations—Christianity. I. Title.
BX133.2 .H37 2002
281'.72'0962—dc21 2002022039
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Oxford University’s crown jewel
Edward Roger Owen,
with gratitude for his inWnite patience
and loving concern
and
In memory of his friend and mine,
Magdi Wahba,
a Copt who incarnated the spirit
of Egypt’s belle époque
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One can exercise one’s tolerance, out of charity or
out of love of peace, when someone attacks one’s
individual rights. But, as far as our collective rights
are concerned, one cannot, because these concern
us more than personally. They concern the whole
community; for that reason, one must act so that
the strong party does not devour the weaker party.
—His Holiness Pope Shenuda III
The nation has orphaned them, but God hems
them in.
—Mark Gruber, a Benedictine monk
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank His Holiness Pope Shenuda III for opening up
his church to me. Without his endorsement of this project, it would
have been impossible.
The reader might wonder how, as a Muslim—albeit only
nominally—and as a woman, could I penetrate this hermetically
closed universe, which shuts itself oV not only from the gaze of the
enemy and potential informant but also, as a monastic institution,
from that of the female? With regard to the former handicap, I found
that once I had won the pope’s heart and hence his conWdence, his
letter or recommendation was suYcient, in a hierarchic and authori-
tarian context where his least wish is a command for his subordi-
nates to overlook my religious aYliation. It then became a matter of
establishing a rapport with the more open minded bishops, who
would be amenable to engaging in a frank discussion of sensitive
church issues.
As to my gender, I had anticipated that in such an exclusive
male preserve it would be diYcult not only to gain access to the
monks, monk-priests, and bishops hailing from the monasteries but
even more so to get them to take a woman seriously enough to
engage in discussion and to conWde in. And indeed, one of the jokes
that I repeatedly heard from clergy was about an Egyptian pope who
had been foolish enough to conWde in one of the nuns that he had
only one “egg.” When this nun spread the “secret” to her friends in
the nunnery, the story was changed to his having three eggs and so
on down the line until the entire nunnery was buzzing with the
rumors that the pope had thirty-nine “eggs.” This kind of joke and