The Weak, Poor Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians Have No Supporters at All!

Published in January 1, 2017

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

1- Representing the International Quranic Center (IQC), located in VA, USA, we, Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, present our best wishes for all Christians worldwide on the first day of the new year A.D., especially for the weak, poor ones among the Egyptian Orthodox Christian Copts.

2- We have repeated many times we personally, and the same goes for all of our fellow Quranists, belong to the category of the weak, poor ones on earth, and we defend them in our writings as a peaceful intellectual jihad drawing us nearer to Our Lord Almighty God. We do not seek to flatter or gratify any mortals by what we are writing here, and we also do not fear any human being who might harm, slander, or rebuke us. This is a very important aspect of our Islamic peaceful intellectual jihad by which we seek to please God and implore Him to reward us on the Last Day. 

3- We personally are fed up with so many statements of denunciation issued by us previously whenever terrorist attacks or criminal aggressions are inflicted on and suffered by the weak, poor Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians inside Egypt. Though we are no longer participating in political activities, we have participated in the demonstration of angry Coptic American-Egyptians before the White House, organized by the Coptic American-Egyptian political activist Mr. Magdy Khalil, when we have been invited to join it. At the same time, the Coptic Orthodox pope in Egypt, Tawadros II, has tried his best to stop and thwart this demonstration, when he was ordered to do so by his masters the military leaders ruling Egypt. When a terrorist suicide operation occurred in a cathedral in Cairo, Egypt, in Dec. 2016, we have not written a statement to denounce it because words failed to express our deep sorrow; we can no longer bear statements of denunciation carrying empty, meaningless words, as no solution will emerge anytime soon in the horizon. The state of affairs in Egypt is virtually the same as far as Copts of Egypt are concerned; the affluent class/retinue among the Copts (i.e., clergymen and businesspersons) are enjoying luxuries of life, and they are controlled by the Pharaoh, the ruling Egyptian tyrant, whereas the weak, poor Coptic citizens suffer (in the same way like their brethren the weak, poor Muslim Egyptian citizens) from soaring prices, injustices, and other inflictions.            

4- Egyptian history can be summarized in one black sheet with few words written on it as follows: impoverished Egyptian people suffering slavery-like, despicable, unjust working conditions to produce crops and fruits for others to enjoy them. Meanwhile, the Pharaoh ruler rides the backs of his cronies, businesspersons, and clergymen, who in their turn ride the backs of the weak, poor ones among Muslim and Coptic citizens.    

5- Based on our reading of the Quran, we as a Quranist know that Moses' Pharaoh had persecuted the minority of Israelites whom God mentions in the Quran as being among the Egyptian people at the time as they lived in Egypt in that era. Simultaneously, Quaroon the Israelite rich man was one of the biggest most powerful allies and  cronies of Moses' Pharaoh, and thus he betrayed his people the Israelites. Quaroon helped Moses' Pharaoh massacring babies of the Israelites and persecuting and torturing men and women of the Israelites. When Moses' Pharaoh and his cronies and retinue died by being drowned by God, Quaroon confiscated their treasures as he knew their hiding places, and he ended up being punished by God Who caused the earth to cave in on him along with his mansion and treasures.        

6- It is the same policy adopted by every Egyptian Pharaoh/ruler who followed the footsteps of Moses' Pharaoh: to persecute and terrorize cruelly the minority in Egypt to serve as example to the silent majority which is incited against the minority to persecute it and to commit acts of discrimination against it; the minority would seek to enlist the aid of the tyrant and learn to be submissive to him. In his turn, the tyrant would choose some persons among the minority to invest his wealth and increase it, and those persons in that case among the Coptic minority are Coptic millionaires and billionaires and the Coptic clergymen. The latter participate in that process and  lucrative business using their ill-gotten money collected from the weak, poor Coptic citizens who have no 'safe haven' but to cling to their Coptic patriarchs in churches. When any signs of rebellion would appear within the weak, poor citizens, the Coptic pope would readily come to the aid of the tyrannical ruler; this has occurred many times in history and until now. For instance, the Coptic pope stood against the rebellious Coptic Beshmurians within the Beshmurian revolt against Arab Abbasid rulers and oppressive taxations (c. 830 A.D.) as he sided and stood, along with his clergymen and cronies, with the Abbasid caliph Al-Maamoun and his military troops. This revolt was suppressed and Coptic Beshmurian rebels were quelled, crushed, and defeated, as some were killed and some were enslaved, until the rebels were scattered and the rebellion ended.            

7- Coptic bloodshed that occurred in Dec. 2016 terrorist crime, and within other incidents of persecution, is to be blamed on Tawadros II first before the terrorist criminals and the tyrannical ruler. If Tawadros II would perform his duty as a ''shepherd'' toward his ''flock'' by defending the weak, poor Copts who donate money to enrich him as a pope and increase the wealth and power of the Coptic Orthodox Church, he must voice Coptic grievances and sufferings outspokenly worldwide to frighten the tyrant. Tawadros II must courageously defend Coptic rights especially their religious freedom in building churches and performing rituals freely, just like their brethren and fellow citizens the Muslim Egyptians. If Tawadros II would do this, the West will support him and side with him, and the tyrant who receive orders through phone calls from occidental capitals will be afraid. Copts are being massacred by Wahabi terrorists within terrorist operations and by the military on some other occasions, in order to divert the citizens from their oppressive reality and their impecuniousness. Tawadros II remains silent and stands against Coptic activists who call for human rights and political rights and convey cries and screams of persecuted Copts to the West. This proves that Tawadros II is a Judas Iscariot who betrays the Coptic community and serves very well the military tyrant. We personally urge every Copt to be outspoken and vociferous in exposing such betrayal; eventually, tyrants and popes are mortal human beings along with their cronies and henchmen who live off ill-gotten money stolen from the sweat and blood of the weak, poor ones among the citizens, especially the ones massacred in terrorist operations.             

8- It is a very strange phenomenon that among the oppressed and persecuted Copts as a minority in Egypt – the country of wonders – there are many Coptic Egyptian millionaires and billionaires; their number within the class of other non-Coptic Egyptian millionaires and billionaires does not match the percentage of Copts among the Egyptian population at large. Our possible explanation for that phenomenon is clear and simple: those Coptic millionaires and billionaires are servants and cronies of the tyrannical ruler, who gives them loans and credit facilities etc. to invest money within projects serving the financial interests of the tyrant and his cronies. Of course, this applies to all businesspersons working to serve the financial interests of the tyrant and their own; still, Coptic businesspersons have yet another source of financing their investments; namely, ill-gotten money of the Coptic Orthodox Church never used to help the poor and the needy, but collected from the sweat of toiling millions of weak, poor Copts to enrich clergymen who invest such stolen money in projects owned by Coptic millionaires and billionaires. Let us not forget that revenues of the Coptic Orthodox Church (estimated to be billions of $) within its branches in the USA, EU, and Australia are private property of clergymen headed by Tawadros II, and these clergymen need to invest such billions, under the auspices, approval, and close watch of the tyrant, via Coptic millionaires and billionaires. In contrast, Catholic and Protestant churches in the West collect money of donations to spend on charity work for the benefit of poor Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. worldwide, within transparency measures. As for the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, we never heard of any charity sponsored by it inside Egypt, especially in Upper Egypt villages whose people suffer abject poverty; rather, the Coptic Orthodox Church does not care about anything else apart from making use of their sweat and blood and getting their tithes and donations for the sake of the Church. On the other hand, we are thankful for the Egyptian Evangelical Protestant Church sponsor many charity and non-profit works to help the needy especially in Upper Egypt. Instead of feeling ashamed of themselves for not acting in the same way, clergymen of the Coptic Orthodox Church take great care to fight and oppose protestant churches in Egypt to stop their charity works.         

9- Hence, we assert here that Coptic millionaires and billionaires as well as Coptic Orthodox clergymen live in one realm, whereas the weak, poor Coptic citizens live in another separate realm. After each tragic event suffered by Coptic citizens, such as aggressions, massacres, sabotage crimes, terrorist explosion or burning down of churches, etc., Sunnite and Coptic clergymen shamelessly hold gatherings and meetings to exchange embraces and kisses, routinely   denouncing the tragic event with the same meaningless words, and after conferences and media coverage, each of them would be drive his own fancy car to reach his luxurious home in his realm, waiting eagerly for the next tragic event (that would massacre more of the innocent, weak, poor Copts in churches) to get ready to enter into the limelight again to get famous by more media coverage. All such clergymen should be punished by the law!  

10- We, Quranists, have learned from the Quran that the poor, the penniless, the impecunious, the impoverished, one's neighbors, and travellers in a country have rights to be respected, especially rightful shares of donations, zakat, and charity as well as kind treatment. God in the Quran does not specify the religious affiliation of these categories that must be helped; hence, we are to focus on helping our fellow human beings within such categories regardless of their faiths and beliefs, as God has honored the children of Adam above all other creatures and beings created by Him.   

11- Tyrants ride the backs of clergymen who in their turn torment and ride the backs of the weak, poor ones in a given society, and it is a shame and a disgrace that such state of affairs has been going on for centuries in Egypt and elsewhere, making the weak, poor ones get used to it as if it were a natural thing or fact in daily life; some of those weak, poor ones might verbally abuse us, as they would be indignant because of our attacking their holy cow worshipped by them! 

12- We personally do not fear being blamed by others when we assert this truth: cursed be all tyrants, and cursed be all clergymen!

SIGNATURE:

Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour

VA, USA