by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n It is not enough that the Egyptian government\u00a0facilitates persecution of the Copts<\/a>, Egypt’s indigenous Christian minority. Now the government is interfering directly with the church’s autonomy concerning doctrine. According to the\u00a0Assyrian International News Agency<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n The head of the Coptic Church in Egypt has rejected a court ruling that orders the church to allow divorced Copts to remarry in the church. In a press conference held on Tuesday June 8, Pope Shenouda [III], reading from the statement issued by the Holy Synod’s 91 Bishops, including himself, said: “The Coptic Church respects the law, but does not accept rulings which are against the Bible and against its religious freedom which is guaranteed by the Constitution.” He went on to say “the recent ruling is not acceptable to our conscience, and we cannot implement it.” He also said that marriage is a holy sacrament of a purely religious nature and not merely an “administrative act.”<\/p>\n Though little reported in the West, this issue is rapidly boiling over. There is even talk that, if he does not submit to the court’s ruling, the pope will (once again<\/a>) be imprisoned. What is behind such unprecedented governmental interference with the Coptic Church’s autonomy?<\/p>\n Reading Egypt’s national newspaper,\u00a0Al Ahram<\/em><\/a>, one gets the impression that, by trying to make divorce and remarriage easier for Copts, the Egyptian government is attempting to “liberalize” Coptic society \u2014 only to be challenged by an antiquated pope not open to “reform.” It quotes one Copt saying that the “Pope’s limiting divorce and remarriage to cases of adultery is unfair. It is against human nature.” Even\u00a0the manager<\/a>\u00a0of the Centre for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance claims that his position “exposes Pope Shenouda’s desire to impose his will over the Christian community” (a curious statement, considering that some\u00a010,000 Copts<\/a>\u00a0recently demonstrated in support of the pope, and that the Catholic and Orthodox churches \u2014 which guide some 1.5 billion Christians \u2014 hold similar views on divorce and remarriage).<\/p>\n At any rate, lest the reader truly think that the Egyptian government is becoming more “liberal,” there are a few important facts to remember:<\/p>\n First, according to the Second Article of the\u00a0Egyptian Constitution<\/a>, Sharia law \u2014 one of, if not the most draconian law codes to survive the Medieval period \u2014 is “the principal source of legislation.” This means that any number of\u00a0measures contrary to basic human rights<\/a>\u00a0are either explicitly or implicitly supported by the Egyptian government, including polygamy, the obstruction ofchurches<\/a>, and institutionalized discrimination against non-Muslims and females in general. Put differently, Sharia law can be liberal \u2014 but only to male Muslims, who (speaking of marriage and divorce) can have up to four wives, and divorce them by simply uttering “I divorce you<\/a>”\u00a0thrice<\/a>\u00a0(even via “text messaging<\/a>“).<\/p>\n Moreover, the Egyptian government \u2014 again, in accordance to Sharia law \u2014 prevents Muslims from converting to Christianity.\u00a0Mohammad Hegazy<\/a>, for instance, tried formally to change his religion from Muslim to Christian on his I.D. card \u2014 yes, in Egypt, people are Gestapo-like categorized by their religion \u2014 only\u00a0to be denied<\/a>\u00a0by the Egyptian court. (Many<\/a>\u00a0other<\/a>\u00a0such<\/a>\u00a0anecdotes<\/a>abound<\/a>). In other words, while the Egyptian government portrays itself as “modernizing” the church’s “archaic” position on divorce and remarriage, it \u2014 the government, not Al Azhar, nor some radical sheikhs, nor yet the Muslim mob \u2014 prevents (including by\u00a0imprisonment and torture<\/a>) Muslims from converting to Christianity.<\/p>\n As for those who accuse Pope Shenouda of behaving no better than “closed-minded” radicals, consider: he is not forcing a law on individual Copts; he is simply saying that, in accordance to the Bible (e.g., Matt 5:32), and except in certain justifiable circumstances (e.g., adultery) Copts cannot remarry in the church: “Let whoever wants to remarry to do it away from us. There are many ways and churches to marry in. Whoever wants to remain within the church has to abide by its laws.”<\/p>\n If this still sounds a tad “non-pluralistic,” know that at least Copts have a way out: quit the church. No such way out for Muslims: Sharia law \u2014 Egypt’s “primal source of legislation” \u2014\u00a0mandates death<\/a>\u00a0for Muslims who wish to quit Islam.<\/p>\n Nor has the inherent hypocrisy of the government’s position been missed by Egyptians: “The Pope evaded answering\u00a0a question presented by a reporter<\/a>\u00a0in the press conference on whether the court would dare order Al Azhar [Egypt’s highest Islamic authority] to agree to a Muslim marrying a fifth wife and not only four, comparing it to the interference of the Court in the Bible teachings through its recent ruling.” A good question, indeed.<\/p>\n Finally, the grandest oddity of this situation is the fact that, for all its inhumane practices, Sharia law does, in fact, permit\u00a0dhimmis<\/em>\u00a0to govern their communities according to their own creeds, a fact not missed by the\u00a0pope himself<\/a>, who “pointed to Islamic Law, which allows religious minorities to follow their own rules and customs.”<\/p>\n In short, the Egyptian government is behaving even more intolerantly than its medieval Muslim predecessors who, while openly oppressive of Christians, at least allowed the latter to govern their own, personal affairs according to Christian doctrine. As Pope Shenouda\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0at the emergency Holy Synod, “the ruling must be reconsidered, otherwise this will mean that the Copts are suffering and that they are religiously oppressed.”<\/p>\n