Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


    November 29, 2011

Egypt's Coptic Christians Fear Fewer Rights After Elections

   Elizabeth Arrott | Cairo
   Residents of the Cairo settlement of Manshiet Nasser collect garbage in
   the streets of the neighborhood. The settlement, populated by Egyptian
   Christians, is where Cairo, Africa's biggest city, dumps its garbage.
   Residents then sort it out. They are known
   Photo: AP
   Residents of the Cairo settlement of Manshiet Nasser collect garbage in
   the streets of the neighborhood. The settlement, populated by Egyptian
   Christians, is where Cairo, Africa's biggest city, dumps its garbage.
   Residents then sort it out. They are known as "zabbaleen", literally
   trash people, (File).

   With Islamist groups expected to do well in Egypt's parliamentary
   elections, many Coptic Christians are concerned that their limited
   rights will come under greater threat.
   The trash of millions of people collects in Cairo's Garbage City, the
   narrow lanes filled with plastic, metal, wood - anything the district
   residents can resell to eke out a living.
   The slum, on the outskirts of the capital, is home to a large Coptic
   Christian community. Many are trash collectors, or zabaleen. And above
   the squalor is a testament to their faith - the largest Christian
   church in the Middle East, cut into the hillside that begins the
   plateau east of Cairo.
   For Christians, Egypt is the land revered for sheltering a young Jesus
   and his family. But it has long been the province of an Islamic
   majority, a fact that some Coptic Christians say Muslims are quick to
   point out.
   Said, who gives only his first name, says Christians are discriminated
   against.
   He says Coptic Christians do not have the same rights as other people
   in the country, and that others look down on them as if they are not
   human. Said says discrimination was institutionalized under the old
   government, with restrictions on church construction and the ability to
   change one's faith. The current military government has proved no
   better, he says, cracking down on a Coptic protest march last month, in
   a violent night that left 25 people dead.
   Now, some Christians say, it can only get worse. The elections that
   started this week are expected to favor Islamist parties, including the
   conservative Salafis.
   Medhat Sa'ad, a resident of Garbage City, fears that if Salafis are in
   charge, a woman walking on the streets without a veil "could be
   slaughtered."
   Although Salafi-inspired violence has dominated newspaper headlines in
   recent months, some experts say widespread fear is not justified.
   "I know a lot of people, even very practicing Muslims, who take their
   faith very seriously, who do not want to see this kind of
   interpretation of Islam being overrepresented in parliament. I would
   say, in general, most Egyptians are more leaning to the more moderate
   interpretation of Islam or moderate involvement of Islam in political
   life," political analyst Rania el-Malki says.
   Even if extremist views prevail, some Coptic Christians in Garbage City
   say they will never leave.
   Adel Gad el-Rab is a former garbage collector who says God protects
   everyone in Egypt. When reminded that the country's once thriving
   Jewish community is all but gone, he declares he will never leave
   until, as he puts it, he goes to "his homeland in heaven."
   El-Rab says the people here are the poorest in Cairo. "We are the
   garbage collectors," he says, "but we live on a mountain of faith."