Copts Pay the Price

Like other pretend-republican Arabic-speaking strongmen, Hosni Mubarak, 82, ailing, and soon to reach his 30th anniversary in power, wants to establish a family dynasty.

And why not? Hafez al-Assad anointed his son Bashar ruler of Syria. Saddam Hussein intended to have a son succeed him (until U.S.-led forces so rudely intervened). Dictators in Libya and Yemen harbor similar intentions.

For Hosni to maneuver his banker son Gamal, 47, with no base of power, into office requires fending off two powerful rival forces. The military has dominated Egypt since the coup d’état of 1952 and plans to stay in power. The Muslim Brethren, repressed by the military since 1954, await their turn finally to make a bid for power. In addition, the U.S. government has great influence on the course of events.

As Egyptians await the demise of the sickly Hosni, so infirm he can barely walk of his own accord, speculating and worrying about what comes next, he plots away. Judging from the evidence – and we write this with caution – it appears he has decided to maneuver Gamal to power on the back of Egypt’s Christians, known as Copts.

This conclusion emerges from assorted evidence. First, many assaults on Copts have had ties to his regime:

Second, Muslims rarely face legal prosecution for murdering Copts. In the second Kosheh Massacre in 1999, for example, no Muslim was charged for the killing of 20 Copts while, contrarily, one Muslim was sentenced to 13 years in prison for accidentally killing a fellow Muslim.

Third, security forces physically attack Copts who protest their persecution while allowing Islamists overtly to threaten Copts with mass murder without intervention. Finally, state-sponsored religious media incite Muslims to violence against Copts.

Offering up Copts brings the would-be Mubarak dynasty two advantages: it conveniently deflects Islamist violence away from the regime and it permits Mubarak père to remind Egyptians, Americans, and others how he is needed to fight Islamist terror and bring stability to Egypt; thus did he immediately respond to the bombing of a church in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve killing 23. An Egypt on the brink of anarchy, further, could trigger a U.S. intervention along lines the lines of Yemen, further enabling Gamal’s ascent.

In the same spirit, the Mubarak regime recalled its ambassador to the Vatican after Pope Benedict XVI called on international protection for the Copts following the bombing in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve. In reaction, the government declared that it “will not allow any non-Egyptian faction to interfere in its internal affairs under any pretext.” It called the Coptic question “specifically an internal Egyptian affair.”

The Coptic gambit has worked; American policy has capitulated to Mubarak, as two June speeches by American politicians at universities in Cairo demonstrate:

In 2005, speaking at the American University in Cairo, then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on the people of Egypt to demand democracy of their government: “The day is coming when the promise of a fully free and democratic world, once thought impossible, will also seem inevitable.” Referring to decades of martial law in Egypt, she demanded the day “when the rule of law replaces emergency decrees.” She called on the Mubarak regime to “fulfill the promise it has made to its people—and to the entire world—by giving its citizens the freedom to choose.”

Of course, Mubarak hated this speech.

In 2009, speaking at Cairo University, Barack Obama reversed these calls. He announced that “No system of government can or should be imposed by one nation by any other” and modestly declared that “America does not presume to know what is best for everyone.” Later in 2009, U.S. ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey went further, noting that “many Egyptians are very free to speak out” and giving the regime a pass on the Coptic issue, asserting that to the extent problems exist between Muslims and Christians in Egypt, these “are cases of discrimination” unconnected to government actions.

This is unmitigated, sycophantic nonsense. Instead, Washington needs urgently to convey several messages to Mubarak the Elder: Drop the dynastic pretensions. Reduce the militarization of society. Combat lawful Islamism. Protect your Coptic subjects.

Ms Farahat is a Cairo-based activist. Mr. Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.

As an Egyptian political activist, writer and researcher, Cynthia Farahat was under long-term surveillance by Egypt’s State Security Intelligence Service before seeking political asylum in the United States in 2011. She was co-founder of the Misr El-Umm (2003-06) and the Liberal Egyptian (2006-08) parties, which stood for secularism, anti-Islamism, and peace with Israel. Farahat previously worked with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty in Cairo, the Center for Security Policy, and Coptic Solidarity. She has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives and received an award from the Endowment for Middle East Truth and the Profiles in Courage Award from ACT for America. Farahat is co-author of two books in Arabic and, among other journals, has published in the Middle East Quarterly, National Review Online, and The Washington Times. Follow Cynthia Farahat on Twitter @cynthia_farahat
Daniel Pipes, a historian, has led the Middle East Forum since its founding in 1994. He taught at Chicago, Harvard, Pepperdine, and the U.S. Naval War College. He served in five U.S. administrations, received two presidential appointments, and testified before many congressional committees. The author of 16 books on the Middle East, Islam, and other topics, Mr. Pipes writes a column for the Washington Times and the Spectator; his work has been translated into 39 languages. DanielPipes.org contains an archive of his writings and media appearances; he tweets at @DanielPipes. He received both his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard. The Washington Post deems him “perhaps the most prominent U.S. scholar on radical Islam.” Al-Qaeda invited Mr. Pipes to convert and Edward Said called him an “Orientalist.”
See more from this Author
A Weaker U.S. May Compel Allies to Increase Strength
October 7 Changed Everything in Israel, They Said. But Did It?
The Array of Threats Facing Israel Make It Unlike Any Other Contemporary State
See more on this Topic
I recently witnessed something I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, August 16, 2024, a group of pro-Hamas activists packed up their signs and went home in the face of spirited and non-violent opposition from a coalition of pro-American Iranians and American Jews. The last time I saw anything like that happen was in 2006 or 2007, when I led a crowd of Israel supporters in chants in order to silence a heckler standing on the sidewalk near the town common in Amherst, Massachusetts. The ridicule was enough to prompt him and his fellow anti-Israel activists to walk away, as we cheered their departure. It was glorious.