ABOUT 10 PERCENT OF EGYPTIANS BELONG TO THE COPTIC FAITH, MAKING THEM THE MIDDLE EAST'S
LARGEST CHRISTIAN MINORITY.
BUT THEY HAVE BECOME TARGETS OF VIOLENCE SINCE THE
REVOLUTION THERE THREE YEARS AGO.
MANY CHURCHES WERE DESTROYED IN A RAMPAGE LAST AUGUST AND COPTS REPORT REGULAR INTIMIDATION.
WITH ELECTIONS IN MAY AND THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE EGYPTIAN MILITARY AND ISLAMISTS CONTINUING,
MANY COPTS ARE WORRIED ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THEIR ANCIENT CHURCH.
VOA RELIGION CORRESPONDENT JEROME SOCOLOVSKY VISITED A COPTIC CHURCH OUTSIDE WASHINGTON,
AND HE TALKED WITH ON ASSIGNMENT'S REBECCA WARD ABOUT THE COPTS' STRUGGLES AND
THEIR HISTORY.
COPTS CONSIDER THEMSELVES THE ORIGINAL CHRISTIANS, THE ORIGINAL EGYPTIANS.
THEY SAY THAT THEIR CHURCH WAS FOUNDED BY MARK THE EVANGELIST, ONE OF JESUS'S DISCIPLES,
WHO WENT
DOWN TO EGYPT WAY BACK WHEN AND FOUNDED THE CHURCH.
AND THEY'VE HAD A TOUGH TIME EVER SINCE, PRETTY MUCH.
THEIRS IS A STORY OF PERSECUTION THROUGHOUT THE 20 CENTURIES OF THEIR EXISTANCE.
PAUL GIRGUIS IS AN AMERICAN-BORN PRIEST AT ST.
MARK'S COPTIC ORTHDOX CHURCH IN SUBURBAN WASHINGTON.
SINCE THE BEGINNING HE SAYS, COPTS HAVE KNOWN SUFFERING.
"THERE WAS AN EMPEROR WHO SAID 'I'M GOING TO MASSACRE THE CHRISTIANS UNTIL THE BLOOD
IN THE STREETS REACHES TO THE KNEES OF MY HORSE.'"
COPTS ARE ENDURING WHAT SOME CALL THEIR LATEST POGROM SINCE THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION THREE
YEARS AGO.
THEY SAY THAT THE VIOLENCE, THIS LATEST WAVE OF VIOLENCE, BEGAN WHEN THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
CAME TO POWER.
AND OF COURSE THERE WAS A COUP AGAINST THE BROTHERHOOD ABOUT A
YEAR AGO.
AND THINGS HAVE GOTTEN BETTER, BUT NOT ENTIRELY.
AND THEY'RE STILL CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR FUTURE.
FOR EXAMPLE, WHEN THE SECURITY FORCES IN EGYPT HAD A CRACKDOWN
AGAINST THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ENCAMPMENT, IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS SCORES OF CHURCHES WERE
ATTACKED, SOME BURNED TO THE GROUND.
AND A COUPLE WEEKS AGO, A YOUNG COPTIC WOMAN
WAS ATTACKED BY A MOB AND MURDERED.
AND THEY SAY THIS HAPPENED BECAUSE SHE HAD A CROSS HANGING FROM THE MIRROR IN HER CAR.
WHAT ARE THE COPTIC CHRISTIANS THAT YOU SPOKE TO SAY ABOUT WHAT THEY'D LIKE PERHAPS THE
UNITED STATES TO DO, OR THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST THIS
VIOLENCE?
WELL THE MAIN THING THEY WANT IS MORE PRESSURE ON THE GOVERNMENT IN CAIRO TO PROTECT COPTS.
THEY FEEL THAT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS NOT SPOKEN OUT AS MUCH AS PERHAPS
SOME LEADERS IN EUROPE, WHO ARE NOW.
PRINCE CHARLES DID TALK ABOUT CHRISTIANS IN THE MIDDLE EAST IN PARTICULAR; POPE FRANCIS
HAS BROUGHT ATTENTION TO IT.
THERE'S LOBBYING
GOING ON, THERE'S AN ORGANIZATION CALLED COPTIC SOLIDARITY THAT'S ACTIVE HERE IN CONGRESS
LOBBYING MEMBERS.
PRESIDENT OBAMA DID MENTION CHRISTIANS AND COPTS IN HIS SPEECH
AT THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST LAST FEBRUARY.
BUT THERE ARE CHRISTIAN GROUPS IN THE UNITED STATES WHO SAY HE HASN'T FOLLOWED UP ENOUGH;
THAT HE ACTUALLY SPENDS MORE TIME
TALKING ABOUT PERSECUTION OF GAYS ABROAD THAN HE DOES ABOUT CHRISTIANS.
NOW WHAT IS THE POPULATION OF COPTIC CHRISTIANS IN EGYPT COMPARED TO THE REST OF THE POPULATION?
WELL THE ACTUAL FIGURE IS HARD TO COME BY.
HISTORICALLY, THE GOVERNMENT HAS PLAYED DOWN THE NUMBER OF COPTS THERE.
IT'S BELIEVED THAT AT LEAST TEN PERCENT OF THE EGYPTIAN
POPULATION IS COPTIC.
NOW, THERE'S BEEN A BIG EXODUS SINCE THE ARAB SPRING TO PLACES LIKE THE US AND EUROPE AND
AUSTRALIA.
AND THEY DON'T HAVE, OR DO THEY HAVE THE SAME RIGHTS AS MUSLIM CITIZENS OF EGYPT?
RIGHT.
AS CITIZENS, THEY DO HAVE THE SAME RIGHTS AS MUSLIMS.
IT'S MORE, AS FAR AS I KNOW, ORGANIZATIONALLY COPTS HAVE ALWAYS HAD, CERTAINLY IN THE MODERN
ERA, HAVE HAD
RESTRICTIONS PLACED UPON THEM.
THEY COULDN'T JUST BUILD A CHURCH ANYWHERE, THERE WAS A LOT OF RED TAPE, THERE WERE LIMITS
ON THE HEIGHT OF CHURCHES.
SO IT'S BEEN A
COMMUNITY THAT'S SEEN ITSELF AS SECOND-RATE CITIZENS.
I THINK ONE OF THE INTERESTING THINGS AS FAR AS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE A COPT IN EGYPT, I
HAD AN INTERESTING
CONVERSATION WITH A YOUNG COPTIC WOMAN OUT AT THE CHURCH IN FAIRFAX.
SANDY SALAMON WAS OUT IN CAIRO WITH HER MOTHER AND AUNT.
"THE LOOKS, THE LANGUAGE, THE, EVEN THE BODY LANGUAGE.
IT WAS VERY THREATENING BODY LANGUAGE WITH THE CLOSENESS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE INTERACTING
WITH YOU."
COPTIC WOMEN DO NOT, ARE NOT VEILED.
AND WITH MORE AND MORE MUSLIM WOMEN IN EGYPT BEING VEILED, IT'S EASIER AND EASIER TO DEFINE
THEM, TO IDENTIFY THEM.
AND MANY OF THEM
SAY AS A RESULT OF THAT, THERE'S MORE HARASSMENT.
AND THEY SEE IT AS PART OF AN EFFORT, EXPLICIT OR IMPLICIT, TO DEGRADE THEIR COMMUNITY, TO
HUMILIATE THEM AS A PEOPLE.
ALL RIGHT, JEROME SOCOLOVSKY IS VOA'S RELIGION REPORTER.