By M. Mahmoud –
In 1844, Damietta experienced a general state of sectarian tension and attacks on Christians and foreigners in the city. Every other day, there were sectarian incidents, quarrels between Muslims and Christians, and assaults on Christians and foreigners over the most trivial reasons. Among these incidents was a financial dispute between Basili al-Khouly, a Christian, and Darwish al-Tajouri, a Muslim, which caused a state of uproar and unrest in the city.
A few days later, a monk named Sedhom Bishay was walking in a street, on his way to church, when a mob gathered around him, accosted him, and beat him. They then reported to the city’s Mufti, who happened to be passing by, that the monk was insulting Islam, the Prophet, the Quran, etc., etc.
Soldiers, the Governor of Damietta, Khalil Agha, Sheikh al-Badry, and the Naqib al-Ashraf (head of the Ashraf syndicate) gathered and held a swift, sham trial for the poor monk. They sentenced him to either recant or be flogged to death, meaning he either had to recite the Shahada (the Muslim declaration of faith) or die. The man denied all charges against him and clung to his faith and belief, so the judge decided to flog him to death.
The mob swelled, and the soldiers were unable to control the situation. The rabble dragged the monk, paraded him through the city streets, beating him with whatever they could get their hands on. They made him ride a buffalo backward and continued to beat him until he was on the verge of death. Then, a scoundrel brought boiling tar and poured it over his head, and he died instantly.
The news reached Muhammad Ali Pasha, who consequently decided the following:
- Dismiss the Governor, the Mufti, and the Naqib al-Ashraf.
- Exhume the monk’s body and hold an official funeral for him.
- The funeral procession was to parade through the city streets with church flags raised (for the first time in Egypt since Amr ibn al-Aas).
This was Muhammad Ali Pasha’s reaction to the sectarian events.
Muhammad Ali Pasha wasn’t a university graduate, nor had he even finished middle school, and he didn’t speak a word of Arabic. Yet, he was a true statesman, knowing what national security meant without ever studying it at a military academy. He knew what the dignity of a state meant without graduating from Sandhurst or West Point.
What is happening these days—this laxity and disregard for law and the state—demands a firm, decisive, and conclusive response, and quickly so.
This isn’t just another repeated incident of unruly thugs attacking a Coptic home in an Upper Egypt village that’s over and done with. No, this matter is more like a miniature scenario and a trailer for events that could happen—God forbid—if the state loosens its grip and drops the sword of the law from its hand.
These thugs are just a rehearsal, a sample of a very large current in Egypt of ignorant, fanatical, tense, agitated, hateful people, and those who hate anyone and everyone who is different.
The country is amid extremely sensitive and dangerous internal and regional circumstances, and any small spark could, God forbid, turn into a huge fire that consumes everything and destroys the entire country.
Egypt has countless rabble. Egypt has Muslim Brotherhood members and Brotherhood committees waiting for any misstep from the state to pounce on it and on everyone. Egypt has Daesh (ISIS) and Salafists whose only wish is for the country to fall so they can destroy it completely. Egypt has refugees, most of whom are ideologically and organizationally affiliated with the Brotherhood, with intense hatred for Egypt and everything Egyptian.
Justice and equality among citizens and non-discrimination based on class, religion, or gender are the only safety valve for preserving any nation from collapse.
I hope we wake up and stop with the fabrication, deception, and the well-known Egyptian fahlawa (trickery.) Enough fear of confronting the facts, and enough fear of confronting extremists and corrupt individuals.
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