The U.S. Department of State, in the International Religious Freedom Report 2009, reveals what human rights organizations already knew: one of the main sources of religious persecution is the failure to ensure justice using laws already in place. In other words, do nothing and let the most violent and lawless rule the land through intimidation. “The status of respect for religious freedom by the Government declined somewhat during the reporting period, based on the failure to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of increased incidents of sectarian violence,” says the report.
Translating that government-speak into real life, what this really means is that haters of Christians in Egypt have little to fear from the government if they burn churches, kidnap and rape Christian girls and women, and spark riots where Christians and their homes and businesses are attacked.
I grew up in the Deep South of the U.S. in the days when American cities suffered numerous race-related violent incidents and riots. These events didn’t just happen. They occurred because the police in these racist-strongholds quietly stood back and let it all happen. They let the mobs rule the land.
Police in Egypt are no different. They just let it all happen. And, sometimes, adding insult to injury, they arrest the victims and torture them in order to appease the mobs, so those same mobs won’t turn their fury on the government.
How many Americans have been to Egypt as tourists? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? I’m sure it’s a very large figure, because Egypt is a strikingly beautiful country, with a people that have an extraordinarily gracious and delightful manner, because they are blessed with age-old customs of hospitality that put many Americans to shame. If the government of Egypt decided to change one thing – applying an even-handed, equal application of the law to all its citizens – truly this country would be a beacon of hope, a light of inspiration for noble ideas that have inspired the human race since the dawn of civilization and the earliest attempts to codify human behavior into laws. Instead, through the default of inaction, they continue to allow a small minority of trouble makers to rule this land.
I found, in growing up in a racist community in the deep South, that it didn’t take very many scary people to frighten a whole lot of people for a long time. Those willing to set fires, break windows, and beat up innocent people on the streets don’t have to number in the tens of thousands to effectively rule a country through fear.
How can we get Egypt to change? We start with our own government in the U.S. We write letters and call our politicians and explain to them that we care about Egypt’s citizens. It’s important to us that they receive an equal application of justice under their country’s legal system.
We then go on to inform people in the U.S. what the real situation is in Egypt. Many Americans tend to adopt, by simple default, a very skewed view that is promoted by the uninformed seeking to sensationalize fears following 9/11. This view leads some Americans to believe that most Muslims are dangerous, and that the Middle Eastern countries are pretty much all Muslim. Well, there are millions of Christians in the Middle East. And, there are millions of peaceful Muslims in the Middle East. There are a lot of Muslims who have been taught that Christians are infidels. Most of these Muslims, though they may certainly practice some levels of discriminatory behavior toward Christians as a result of the way they were trained as children, are peaceful, albeit prejudiced people. They are no different, in their actions, from many U.S. Southerners in the 1950s who treated African Americans with contempt and hatred because they were taught that way as children.
It’s so important that Americans understand this basic fact: Most people just want to live a peaceful life with access to enough resources so they can provide for themselves and their families. A small minority seek to be change agents through using intimidation, and fear tactics. These tactics quickly disappear when the law is evenly applied and corruption in the government is not tolerated.
Prejudice can be addressed, as it was in the United States, by enforcing reasonable laws seeking to guarantee basic human rights. We still have a long ways to go in the U.S., particularly in the way we treat minorities in our justice system. There is a great disparity in how African-Americans and Caucasian Americans are handled by the criminal justice system, and it’s been difficult to change this because it’s just so ingrained in people’s minds. The prejudice is often at a subconscious level, as research has shown. But, I can certainly say there has been a huge difference from the way things were in the 1960s in the Southern U.S., when fear reigned among minority communities.
Egypt is a great country filled with noble, highly intelligent, friendly people. It’s time, as Americans, that we show the world we can love Egypt and Her people, and we can help them conquer the same demons of prejudice and sectarian violence that have plagued our country in the past, by encouraging them to be lawful and just to all their citizens. Foreign aid to Egypt could stress these vital points, and we could encourage the country to accept foreign aid-funded programs that would, through teaching and patience, show the Egyptians a better way toward a more prosperous country.
Jan