Problems on Hold: The New and Improved Ethnic Cleansing Strategy

The article in the title link is by Mr Youssef Sidhom, the editor of Watany. Mr Sidhom is someone I have a lot of respect for. He never shies away from speaking the truth as you can see from the concluding paragraph of the article. But first let's look at two of the cases listed in the article:

* Adel Ragheb Sourial was born in Daqahliya in 1929. Upon applying for a new ID, the Civil Register office contacted him to say that there was a discrepancy between the data in the papers he had submitted with the application and the data on the computer. The computer data cited Mr Sourial’s parents as Muslims while the papers listed them as Christians. Mr Sourial asks: “What can I do to prove the veracity of the data on my official papers? They are authentic, and were issued, approved, and employed by State apparatuses. Why does the Civil Register Authority reject them now instead of using them to correct the computer error?”

* Hikmah Mahfouz Youssef Ibrahim was born in Alexandria in 1971. Ms Ibrahim applied for a new ID, and was wary of the procedure, the problems of which she had heard of so much. The Civil Register did not disappoint her; it lived up to its reputation and issued her an ID which cited her and her parents’ religion as Muslim, contrary to their actual Christian religion. When she complained, she was told to submit their birth certificates. Since both parents are dead and Ms Ibrahim does not have their birth certificates, she submitted their death certificates—the last official papers that concern them—which cite them both as Christian. The Civil Register clerk rejected the death certificates as proof of the parents’ religion. Ms Ibrahim submitted the ID cards of her six siblings, in all of which the same parents are listed as Christian, but the clerk still rejected them. Ms Ibrahim cries: “Why should I have to pay for a computer entry error that is definitely not my fault?”


And now the concluding paragraph of the article which contained one more case:
* The same story was repeated with Manal Anwar Moawed Shehata, who was born in Cairo in 1969, but Ms Shehata’s problem was further complicated because one of the original documents she submitted was written in such poor handwriting that the word ‘Christian’ could easily pass as ‘Muslim’. As to why this particular document—to the exclusion of all the others cited above in the other similar cases—was taken into consideration by the Civil Register clerk, is inexplicable. And could this document lead to the Islamisation of the entire family, or deprive Ms Shehata of her much-needed computerised ID?

No Mr. Sidhom, it's not really inexplicable at all. It's a classic symptom of the disease that has gripped the psyche of our nation. Perhaps it is fulfillment of Mohammad Anwar elSadat's promise in the Summit of Islamic Nation in the 1950's: that Allah willing, we will either eradicate, convert or humiliate all the Copts of Egypt. Perhaps this is how the government ensures the number of Christians in Egypt is misrepresented.

I suppose burning of churches and attacking innocent civilians could attract a lot of attention. But forced conversions of minors, falsifying official ID papers...it's a modern, bloodless form of ethnic cleansing. I shudder to imagine what else is up their sleeve!