About Us
Learn about the Coptic people and their plight.
Who are the Copts?
- Copts are the indigenous people of Egypt, fulfilling the UN definition stating that “Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them.”
- Copts are over 15 million strong (12-15% of the population) and loyal citizens of Egypt. The descendants of Ancient Egyptians, they have lived in their homeland for several millennia.
- Copts are the largest Christian and largest non-Muslim community in the Middle East.
- Copts are proud of our land that protected a young Jesus and the Holy Family, and fostered the growth of the Church from its earliest days.
- Copts became some of the earliest followers of Christianity after St. Mark brought the Gospel to Egypt, and was home to many of the greatest Christian theologians, including: Athanasius, Anthony (of the desert) and Cyril the Great.
- Copts have survived centuries of horrific persecution since the first Arab Muslim invasion in the 7th Century to the Memlouks, and Turks. They lost countless lives to rulers intent on forcing them to convert to Islam through torture, imprisonment, unbearable taxation, starvation, cruelty, and every method conceivable to lure them away from their faith.
- In the modern era where most of the world understands the values of liberty and human rights, Copts are still subjected to systematic discrimination by the Egyptian government, a radicalized society, and Islamists who threaten our very existence as they consider us the primary obstacle in their ambition for Islamization and national/ global domination.
