Apparently, all Arabs are Muslim, that's what some of my friends and classmates seem to believe. That's news to me, because the Coptic Christian community is very much alive in places like Syria, Egypt and Lebanon, even though we're constantly hounded by Islamists. My name is Marianne Shafik and I'm the daughter of Egyptian immigrants living in Ottawa, Ontario. My parents, Elijah and Faiza Shafik left their hometown of Sohag, Egypt, for the bright lights of Ontario, Canada, in 1989. Even back then, Christians were being persecuted by the Muslim majority and many of us started leaving for places like Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America and Canada.
My parents didn't flee Egypt simply because of general anti-Christian sentiment, they fled because there was a price on my mother's head. What the Muslims won't tell you is that while anyone who joins Islam is welcomed into the faith, those who seek to leave are in mortal danger. The Law of Apostasy declares that all those who leave Islam for other faiths must be slain. It's ironclad, and has been in effect since the earliest days of the faith.
My mother Faiza Shafik ( nee Suleiman ) was born into a Sunni Muslim family in the town of Sohag. One day, she met my father Elijah Shafik, a young Christian man from the Coptic faith. They fell in love, and soon began meeting in secret. In Egypt and pretty much everywhere in the Muslim world, Muslim women are jealously guarded and protected. It's as much for the woman's protection as it is for the honor of her family, mainly her father and brothers, and later, her husband and sons. Yet somehow, my mother did the unthinkable. She fell in love with a Christian man and left Islam to be with him.
When my mother's relatives, my maternal grandparents, found out, they actually tried to kill her. Mom and dad ran away, moving from place to place. It's against the law in Egypt and every other Muslim country for a Muslim person to convert to another religion. I don't care how liberal and progressive the Muslim person may claim to be, they have nothing but hatred in their heart for those who leave the religion. Take Turkey for example. It's the most Western-style of all Muslim nations and it's supposedly democratic and progressive. And yet, any Turkish man or Turkish woman who decides to leave Islam for Christianity, Judaism, Paganism, or Atheism, will face the death penalty. This in a country that claims to have religious freedom and democracy enshrined in its constitution. Ha! Don't believe these lies. You cannot have a functional democracy and Islam in the same nation. It just doesn't work.
Now, you might wonder where I am going with this. Let me explain. I was born at Ottawa's General Hospital on January 31, 1989. Six months after my parents moved to Canada as refugee claimants. It would be another five years before they accepted our claim, after thousands of dollars spent on attorney fees, appeals and things of that nature. In 1998 my mother and father finally took the Oath of Citizenship and became 'real' Canadians. Not a day goes by that we don't worry for our safety as a family.
Things aren't safe in the West, no matter what the governments of the world would have you believe. My best friend Heather Vincent and I had an argument about that just last week. We've been pals since our halcyon days at Saint Catherine Academy in Ottawa South. Heather is just under six fee t tall and willowy, with caramel-hued skin and dark hair. Born to a Haitian father and French Canadian mother, she's easy on the eyes and quite bright too. In the criminal justice program, we're among the top students.
Heather is dating a Persian guy named Rahim whom she met in her World Religions elective. Rahim seems like a charming guy, but he's a devout Muslim and Heather's a lapsed Catholic. I've seen the way he looks at the cross around my neck and I can tell he doesn't like it. I've had guys like that hit on me. I always tell them where to stuff it. Why? I know all about their tactics for wooing women of other faiths. At first, they're uber-friendly and generous. They shower the woman with attention. And they present her with a heavily filtered version of their faith, if they bring it up at all. Once they've seduced her, they try to bring her into the fold. That's when the "if you love me you'll convert to be with me" convo takes place. Lots of Jewish, Christian, Buddhist and Sikh girls have been brought into Islam this way. It's called Romeo Jihad. Spreading the faith via seduction. Won't work on me because I see right through their snake charm...
Arab Christians living in Canada and America are still targeted by the Muslims, especially if we dare speak out about the persecution faced by our people in places like Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and Lebanon. Even though the Republic of Lebanon has a Christian president and Christian politicians occupy positions of power within the government structure, the Christian population of Lebanon finds itself alone, surrounded by hostile nations. Fortunately, lots of Christian refugees from Syria and Egypt have been flooding Lebanon, giving a much-needed boost to the Christian population over there.
I have been to Egypt twice. Once for the funeral of Grandpa Elias Shafik, my paternal grandfather, and once right after the Arab Spring. That's when the Islamist government of Morsi took power and anti-Christian sentiment rose to an all-time high. There have been daily attacks on churches and other Christian places of gathering since then. Many of the rebels fighting against Assad in Syria are Islamists, and they target Syrian Christian towns and villages. Of course, you won't read about that in the Boston Globe, the Ottawa Metro or watch it on CNN. Someone highly placed sees to it that Americans and Canadians don't learn Jack about the war being fought against Christianity worldwide.
As you can imagine, this irks me. I'm very active politically and socially at my school, Carleton University. I'm a criminal justice student so it kind of works. When I tried to get an invitation for a Christian preacher from Syria to speak about his experience at the hands of Western-backed Islamist rebels, it was denied to me. Landed me in the dean's office. Apparently, a lot of people at school feel that Canadian students shouldn't learn about what the friends and relatives of their Muslim classmates are doing to folks of different faiths in their ancestral homelands.
Feeling deflated after the rejection from a certain school official, I sat in the library, staring at my computer screen and blasting university bureaucracy on my Facebook page. I didn't notice when someone sat next to me, and quietly observed me for a while before saying something. Hello Miss Shafik, came a deep, masculine voice. I looked up and found myself looking at a tall, dark-skinned young African man. Hi, I said hesitantly. To be honest, the dude startled me. I was lost in thought, as it were. I am Paul Lokuron of South Sudan, the young black man said simply, extending his hand. I shook it. Good to meet you, I said, smiling faintly.
Paul and I talked a bit, and he told me some of my Facebook posts had him alarmed. I glared at him. I guess my eyes must have conveyed hostility for he smiled nervously and told me he was on my side. I looked at Paul dubiously. A lot of people are surprised at how pushy I can be. I'm five-foot-seven and weigh one hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet. A short and skinny, bronze-skinned, brown-eyed and black-haired Egyptian-Canadian chick wearing a Coptic cross around her neck and Goth clothes. That's me. I'm not the most intimidating person in the world, but if you insult my Egyptian heritage or my Coptic faith, I'll GET you. Explain, I said, crossing my arms. Paul nodded, and did as I asked him.
As Paul told me about himself and his views, I found myself relaxing a bit and nodding. In the past I've been accused of lacking empathy for those with vastly different viewpoints, and it's something I'm working on. I get so passionate about the defense of the Arab Christian community worldwide that sometimes, well, I can be a bitch about it. I'm that chick with picket signs and slogans, chanting with my fellow protesters outside the Saudi Embassy. Last year, when news broke out that a Saudi woman caught reading a Bible had her hands mutilated, the international community was incensed and so was I. Nations like the U.S. and Canada consider themselves allies of the Saudi people. They don't know how much the Christian faith is hated in the Heartland of Islam. Go over there with a cross around your neck and they'll treat you worse than Nazi Germany did the Jews. And yet Muslim immigrants are always pleading for accommodation from Western governments. How about they show some real tolerance by building churches in Saudi Arabia? Ha! That would be the day!
Anyhow, where was I? Oh yeah, Paul and I were having a little chat. Dude told me about the persecution of black people, especially Christians in Sudan, which led to the split. Sudan and South Sudan were once one nation but are now separate and sovereign states. In Sudan, a lot of people of Afro-Arabian descent have built an interesting culture, and they're predominantly Muslim. In South Sudan, they're predominantly Sub-Saharan African and follow a number of faiths, from African paganism to Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and in some cases, they adhere to various forms of ancestor worship and animism.
