Fast Facts & Historical Overview at a glance:
Copts represent 10% of the Egyptian population, which account to approximately 6 million. The minority is a strong and united economic force, driving the Egyptian economy to steadily flourish (Naguib Sawiras and Samir Sawiras as marker Christian businessmen and investors). It has also provided a well- educated elite to fill important posts in Egypt (such as Botros Botros Ghali Former UN Secretary General). The word “Copt” (“Qibti” in Arabic) is derived from the Greek word “Aegyptios, meaning Egyptian; which became synonymous with Egyptian Orthodox Christianity. Many believe in the evident parallels between Coptic Christianity and ancient Egyptian religion, which made it easy for Egypt to smoothly converse to Christianity. For example, the “ankh” was ancient Egyptians’ symbol of eternal life, which is very similar in shape to the Coptic Cross.

There are also sculptures dating back to 1400 of Isis carrying her infant Horus in a very similar manner to Virgin Mary embracing her Infant Christ. The year 27 BC marked a great change in Egyptian history, as Egypt became under the Roman rule. Egyptians were profoundly restricted in autonomy, and hence, faced a great sense of spiritual void. The overall religious situation in Egypt drove Saint Mark the Evangelist- one of the 12 Apostles- to introduce Christianity to Egyptians around the first AD, for Alexandria to become one of the first Patriarchs. However, Christianity represented a threat to the Roman Empire because new Christian believers no longer regarded the Emperor as a deity. Consequently, brutal events of massacres, and torture of Christians followed to reach its maximum during Emperor Dioclentian’s ruling. So, Christians decided to adopt the Coptic calendar known as “the martyr’s calendar” to commemorate the mentioned period of torture, also marking the beginning of Christianity in Egypt. In 324 AD, Constantine issued a decree ending the prosecution of Christians and calling for tolerance. By the 4th century Christianity became the official religion in Egypt, with much of the scripts and literature written in Coptic Language. However, in AD 451 Egyptian Christians decided to split from the Orthodox Church after it had proclaimed the dual human and divine nature of Christ (believing only in Christ’s divinity). The latter resulted in creating a united, and nationalistic Christian community, increasingly writing in the Coptic Language to create spectacular art. Moreover, it was Egypt that gave birth to the monastic tradition with Saint Anthony’s Monastery, near Hurghada marking its beginning to spread to the entire world later on. Internally, the tradition spread for Saint Catherine in Sinai and Wadi Natrun near Alexandria to become marker tourist monasteries.

In 641 AD, Arab general "Amr Ibn Al-Aas" and his forces entered Egypt to create a new Arab and Islamic capital far from the one in Alexandria. The witty general was fully aware of the Coptic struggle with Byzantine rule, and so, the Copts didn’t resist the invasion on hope of a better life under Islam. Consequently, Muslims decided to lessen the tax burden levied on Copts, and vowed not to interfere in their creed. Amr Ibn-al-Aas built the first mosque in Egypt in Old Cairo, which still stands up to our present day as a symbol of magnificent co-existence. Ever since, Christians and Muslims have grown as a single, united entity with a matchless sense of nationalism, surfacing in life-changing historic events (Saad Zaghloul’s revolution in 1919). Today, both religions celebrate together various events (Coptic Christmas 7 January and Mulid Al Nabawi; Prophet Mohamed’s Birth and Ramadan etc), exchanging gifts and greetings countering any false claims about the existence of intolerance in Egypt.

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