Background:

This Conference was held at the Ibn Khaldūn Center for Development Studies in the event of the second conference on minorities. Several speeches were given especially on the Coptic rights in Egypt and related to the Muslim Christian incident of 1996 in Kafr Dimyān (Delta) and the terrorist attack inʿIzbat Aqbāṭ (Assyut).

*For more information on the Ibn Khaldūn conference, please refer to the tapes: Conference Ibn Khaldūn on Copts rights I, III, IV, V and VI

http://arabwestreport.info/en/conference-ibn-khald%C5%ABn-copts-rights-i

http://www.arabwestreport.info/en/conference-ibn-khald%C5%ABn-copts-rights-iii

http://arabwestreport.info/en/conference-ibn-khald%C5%ABn-copts-rights-iv 

http://arabwestreport.info/en/conference-ibn-khald%C5%ABn-copts-rights-v 

http://arabwestreport.info/en/conference-ibn-khald%C5%ABn-copts-rights-vi 

Side A:

The first speech in this recording is the second part of Mr. Ramzī Zaqlama’s speech (for the first part, please refer to tape 1). He dedicated his speech to explain the Muslim Christian incident of 1996 in Kafr Dimyān. He cited all the facts he collected during his visit to Kafr Dimyān after the incident and he compared these facts to the official reports. Thus, Mr. Zaqlama denounced the fact that some verses of the Qur’ān are misinterpreted in a way that contribute to the marginalization of Egypt’s Christians as well as some of the fatwās published back then in the Azhar newsletter that calls for takfīr of all  Christians.

The second speech of Sāmiḥ Fawzī focused on the identity crises that faces the Copts. Sāmiḥ Fawzī, journalist and human rights activist, explained the impact of recurring incidents and Christians’ struggles on their collective sense of identity. He also referred to Dr. Rafīq Habīb’s book “Misr qadima bayna al-taghrybwa al-takfīr” in which he examined multiple aspects of the diminishment of Coptic identity as a reaction to the movement of the Islamization of the society.

Side B:

In the second part of his speech, Mr. Sāmiḥ Fawzī, instisted on the fact that the answer for a solution is not in the hands of the government and the State. Any chance for change should come from the society through the civil society.

The chance for change was examined next by Dr. Hūdā Zakariyyā, Professor of Sociology at Zaqazīq University as she highlighted the mechanisms of the internal discord within the Egyptian society and how religion in the latter was a motivation toward the protection of the nation since the time of the ancient Egyptians and through all phases of the history until the seventies when extremist movements became the easy and the only refuge for the marginalized youth generations.

Finally, Dr. Sa‘d al-DīnʾĪbrāhīm, founder of the Ibn Khaldūn Center for Development Studies commented on the speeches referring further to the beginnings of the political Islam back in the seventies. He added that in his book “Maʾzaq al-fikr al-ʾislamy” he demonstrated how the term Copt was misused to refer only to Christians while it means all Egyptians and how such confusion has impacted the Egyptian identity.

*For the continuation of Dr. Sa‘d al-DīnʾĪbrāhīm's speech consult tape III.