Copts Seek Hate Speech Warrant Against Al-Azhar Authority

As you can easily imagine, this works out very perilously for any Mohammedan of Egypt who feels a spiritual attraction to Jesus and the teachings of the Coptic church.

It isn’t so great for those born into the church either. Which brings us to the third noteworthy thing here. The Copts have been silently taking it on the chin (and everywhere else) for centuries, for their faith. They are dhimmis, second class citizens (think n-word). Murderous riots are common and the Copts are always on the receiving end. While this legal move — the hate speech warrant — may be a small thing, it might also be part of something quite new, and potentially very big. It may just be that the Copts are beginning to stand up for their rights.

And that brings us to the point. What we are seeing here seems rare. Do you know of a B’Hai resistance? An Assyrian rights group? How about the National Association for the Advancement of Malaysian Buddhists? On the contrary. The Catholics are disappearing from Lebanon, the Christians of every description from Bethlehem, and others from around the middle east. Can you think of the last big international meeting on Christian rights in the middle east that made headlines? How about that happened at all?

There is little means of telling. But it is just possible that this attempt to bring suit is an indication that the concept of rights, of equality before the law, of the responsibility to struggle for one’s own rights, are leaking through to the oppressed of the Mohammedan regions. It will be a while before we know. But there may be some small basis for hope.

Sadly, while the world is obsessed with the media shell game — with the alleged shortage of katyusha rockets in Hamas’ Gaza strip, and the inconveniences that the border wall in Judea poses for aspiring assassins — the very real and bloody travails of the Copts get little attention.

While the silence of the legacy media is to be expected in this matter, the seeming disconnectedness of the rest of the Christian congregation is rather puzzling.

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