On April 29, following a parliamentary decision, the Egyptian government decreed that all pigs in Egypt should be slaughtered. At first, the government cited the risk of swine flu as the reason for the cull. When there were protests against this precaution, and when this justification turned out to be unfounded, as at that time not a single pig in the world was infected with the H1N1 virus, the government argued that it was time to regulate pig farming in the country according to more hygienic rules. As a result, all existing pig herds were to be culled for allegedly poor hygiene and only after a period of three years could pigs be allowed to be kept again.
Compensation amounts of 600, 1,000 and 2,000 Egyptian pounds were mentioned, but as the slaughter progresses, it turns out that the compensation paid out per pig is only 130 pounds. One Egyptian pound is equivalent to just under one Danish krone.
It seems that Egyptian lawmakers have seen the hysteria surrounding the "swine flu" as a welcome opportunity to put extra pressure on the Egyptian Christian minority. All pig farmers in Egypt are Christian and the pigs are mainly kept by poor families whose only livelihood is recycling waste from urban households. Edible waste is fed to the pigs, while plastic, metal and other recyclable waste goes into a finely branched recycling industry that is mainly found in the "waste villages" around Cairo. The best known of these "waste villages" is located at the foot of Mount Muqattam. Here, Christians have built churches and a monastery over the last 30 years. The whole complex is the center of a great revival. The largest of the churches seats at least 10,000 and is shaped like an amphitheater, while the altar section is located in a cavity in the mountain where it is protected from the elements.
The revival meetings attract rich and poor from near and far. I have seen expensive sports cars from Alexandria, 300 km away, parked in the parking lot of the church compound at Muqattam. The owners of this car must be millionaires, but they don't seem to mind sitting in the pews with the poor waste pickers in this village where the stench of garbage is quite noticeable. However, God has also blessed the work of the local pastors with many signs and wonders, including miraculous healings. The revival meetings are conducted as evangelical revivals, but when the pastor steps forward to preach, it turns out that he is Coptic Orthodox like the majority of Egyptian Christians.
However, the Coptic Orthodox faith has always been open to God's wonderful intervention in people's lives, and we must hope and pray that God will also now intervene in the lives of these Christians, which are now in ruins due to a foolish mix of politics and religiously motivated dislike of certain animal species.
