Kamil Samaan is traveling through Switzerland at the invitation of ACN (ACN) to provide information about the situation of Christians in Egypt. On March 13th he visited the parish of St. John the Baptist in Romanshorn to celebrate mass together and report from his homeland.
Kamil Samaan began his training at the Franciscan seminary in his hometown of Assiut when he was just twelve years old. After his military service near Suez in the 1970s, he was ordained a priest in 1978. He worked as a pastor in Egypt for several years before further studies and his doctorate took him to Rome. Having returned to his homeland, Kamil Samaan now runs a children’s home in Cairo and is a professor of the Old Testament. He belongs to the Coptic Catholic Church, which is similar to the Coptic Orthodox Church in liturgy and spirituality, but is in full communion with Rome.
Christians only make up around 10% of Egypt’s population. However, Kamil Samaan explained that this small minority represents a kind of microcosm of global Christianity. All major denominations and rites of Christianity are present in this small minority. Despite their small numbers and the marginalization they experience, Christians are strongly present in education, health and development aid in Egypt. The Catholics alone, who number no more than 300,000, run 182 schools in Egypt. These projects are always accessible to all religions and are usually free. However, this means that Christians are dependent on support from abroad.
Kamil Samaan takes the opportunity to thank the people in Switzerland and the aid organization ACN.
Kirche in Not (ACN)
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Christians in Egypt: second class citizens
The country on the Nile has a long and eventful history, which has included Christianity for almost 2,000 years. Since the 7th century, Christians have lived as a small minority among Muslims. But to this day they are treated as second-class citizens. In the media, all non-Muslims are referred to as “kuffar” (infidels). And in politics, important strategic positions are reserved primarily for Muslims. This marginalization has only increased in recent decades.
In the 1980s and 1990s, many Egyptians emigrated to oil-rich Saudi Arabia in search of work, where they came into contact with Islamic-Wahhabi thought and brought it to Egypt. Since then, Egyptian Christians have been increasingly marginalized in society.
Violence and harassment
There are repeated attacks and attacks on Christians in Egypt. Children are excluded, women are harassed on the streets and they are repeatedly driven away by extremist Muslim mobs because of allegedly blasphemous behavior. Muslims who convert to Christianity experience the worst persecution.
The situation was particularly bad between summer 2012 and summer 2013, when the Muslim Brotherhood was in power under President Mohammed Morsi. Since the presidency of Abd al-Fattah As-Sisi, things are looking better for Christians, for example churches can be built again. But even under As-Sisi, the attacks continue, especially in rural regions. (ACN)