Egypt

How are Christians harassed, discriminated against and persecuted?

Christians in Egypt make up about 10 percent of the population. Ethnically they are Copts, and they view themselves as the indigenous people of Egypt. The Copts embraced the Christian faith early on, and the first Christian church grew in Egypt and the rest of North Africa until the seventh century, when Arab tribes forcibly tried to introduce Islam.

Today, the reality is complex for Coptic Christians. On the one hand, freedom of religion is guaranteed by the constitution, and it is also gratifying that the Egyptian president has attended Christmas services several times and stated that Christians and Muslims are brothers. On the other hand, there is unofficial discrimination where Christians are underrepresented as employees in government agencies, the judiciary, and the influential military. Therefore, many well-educated and well-off Egyptian Christians are looking abroad, where they can pursue better careers and fulfill their ambitions.

Egyptian police protect Christian churches, and physical attacks on churches are rare. However, this protection has a side effect, as the police simultaneously control who attends the services. It will thus be registered if Muslims visit Christian churches. Since conversion is not recognized on official ID cards, the status still reads ’Muslim’ even if a person has become a Christian. Therefore, it is difficult for the convert to get past the police checkpoint and visit Christian churches. Furthermore, several priests may be afraid to let converts into the churches, as the congregations may thereby attract the attention of the authorities. Therefore, converts often have to meet in underground churches. Intelligence services especially monitor Christians who share the gospel with Muslims, and they also risk being summoned for interrogation.

Some families may be open-minded and accept, or perhaps tolerate, that a family member has become a Christian, while in other families, conflict may arise, with the family in some cases even casting out converts. A factor that can trigger conflict in even tolerant families is whether it becomes publicly known that a family member has become a Christian. The families must thus navigate an honor-shame culture and will, at the very least, feel a certain pressure to signal distance from the family member who has converted.