Arabs Were Not Always Muslim (Copts)

Most of the world today is accustomed to thinking in terms of Arabs=Muslim. But once upon a time, what is now known as the Middle East was a Christian heartland. The echoes of that are reflected in the large numbers of Lebanese Christians in Sydney. More recently I’ve made the acquaintance of some Copts. As the placards and streamers in the video emphasize, they had their issues with Islamism long before September 11. That event, however terrible, did not start history. It simply made more people aware of it.

It was interesting to observe how even the Anglo sympathizers of the Coptic march were reluctant to make the kind of direct allegations of persecution that the Copts made in a matter of fact manner. For example, I have in my hand one of the flyers handed out during the event. It says, “Muslims kidnap the Christian girls, rape them and force them to convert to Islam. The Muslim attack Christian jewelers, kill them and steal the gold … monks in the monastery have been kidnapped, tied to a palm tree with ropes, beaten with electric cables … ” etc. It’s hard to imagine an Anglo handing out a similar leaflet, at least without feeling the worry of being arrested for hate speech clutching at his heart. Clearly if Mark Steyn has said one tenth of what the Copts claimed he would be accused of being a Nazi.

It’s hard to escape the conclusion that there are some things that only a person of a certain race can legitimately utter. The Copts can say these things about Islam because they are not Anglo. One Chinese lady at the demonstration who was taking photos with a really spiffy DSLR was apparently married to a Copt.