Background:
The topic of this interview is the situation of young Copts in Egypt and the challenges they face in society.
Side A:
Bishop Mūsā starts out with numbers; informing the reporters that the youth make up 35% of the Egyptian population. Two million or more of these are Copts, divided into the categories rural, urbanised, immigrants and labourers. Egyptian youth has many problems, but he stresses that they are nice and active people. In his opinion they suffer from the media, especially the internet and their frequent travelling to the west. This gives them new inclinations in life: materialism, liberalism and attacks concerning religion, moral life, holiness and sanctification. The Coptic youth in Egypt are generally religious and committed to traditions but now all things are agitating, because of the “invasion coming through the media and the revolution of information and communication”.
Second, they suffer from the economy, as youth unemployment is high and they cannot start projects, buy a flat or get married. This is because of population growth, despite the church’s and the government’s efforts to implement family planning. The priest believes this leads to disturbances in the youth’s moral and psychological life. Also, there are high levels of illiteracy in rural areas, where it can amount to 50-60%.
Fundamentalism is another problem, which leads to disturbances on the social and financial level. Coptic youth can suffer more, as they may have attacks against their faith in the media, books, gatherings and schools. They might also struggle to get jobs or posts in universities, despite the great fairness of the constitution and the government, Bishop Mūsā says. He sees their greatest need to be the strengthening of their faith, something that the church puts a lot of effort into with their youth magazine, youth workers magazine, pamphlets, booklets, books and meetings, in their 25 000 churches. Each church has youth meetings where they teach, edify participants’ Christian faith and ask them to participate in church life. They teach them how to behave as a young person as well as how to be on good terms with their Muslim brothers and sisters by pushing them to contribute to social life. They also try to change their mentalities from searching for a job to starting a new private productive project and train them for this.
Another problem is smoking cigarettes, as it is dangerous for their health and also for their spirituality, as it is addictive. They try to prevent them from taking any drug. Alcoholism is not very prevalent, something he sees as a blessing from Islam as it is not readily accessible. They also attack alcohol from the side of the church, as it is dangerous for their health. However, sexual immorality is increasing, in his opinion due to crowdedness, poverty, films, and media. Therefore, they speak a lot about holiness. Youth leaders support and council the young people and they have training centres for them both in Cairo and Alexandria where they get different kinds of useful courses. “The Best Life Program” is an important program as it makes youth aware of the dangers of drugs, whenever they discover a case, they refer them to this centre and they get rehabilitation.
Additionally, Copts are emigrating from Egypt, however, in small numbers. This is not because they don not want to leave, but because it is hard to immigrate. Also, everyone is suffering because of the economic situation, not only Copts. They try to discourage the youth from leaving and encourage them to at least stay in the Middle East. Now there is half a million Copts outside Egypt, 300 000 of them in the US and Canada. Less of them are now in the Middle East because of Iraq and the Gulf troubles. The reason the proportion of Christians is decreasing in Upper Egypt is not only because of emigration to the cities but also because the Muslim population is increasing quicker than the Christian, as the Copts have better family planning. Also, rich Christians are suffering from terrorism in villages and therefore leave to Cairo or go abroad. Now, there are also a lot of projects in the districts, in order for it to be possible for young people to stay in their provinces.
Side B:
Pope Shinūda’s weekly meetings with the youth are well-attended. The bishop believes the reason for this is that he was the bishop of Christian education for 8 years, and that he was the first bishop for youth and Sunday school. He started these weekly meetings then and continued it when he became the pope. He is a very good preacher and teacher who speaks in depth and in a very spiritual and biblical way. Also, he is a popular man, friendly with ordinary people, even the uneducated, and he speaks in simplicity. A good percentage of young Copts are very committed to the Christian life and to serving others. Some villages do have problems of not being reached by the church, but this is due to human negligence. He does not like the congress action “pretending to take care of the Christians in Egypt”. He sees it as an attempt to agitate the regime because the government is taking a hard stance against Israel. He does not want them to be supported by the Americans, as that would lead to them not being seen as true Egyptians. However, they need the West to support Egypt generally, as they do have problems, although not because of the president, as he is fair. He continues to stress that he is not speaking politics. He feels that Muslim-Christian relations have changed after Khomeini assumed power in Iran, but stresses that Egyptian problems have to be solved inside Egypt.
The second interview is with ʿIzzām Zakariyyā, a youth worker volunteering in the Coptic Church. He feels that the Coptic youth want to improve themselves, but that they face unemployment, challenges defining their career, settling down and having a family. However, in his impression, these challenges face the entire Egyptian youth, every day, his Christian and Muslim friends alike. He and his colleagues help young people with their spiritual life by drawing them to church and getting closer to their personal life. He specifies that they don not just come up to people in the street and ask them to come to a lecture, as no young person would accept that. They go deep into their personal life and help them get out what is bound up inside them and then they will consider to coming with. They also teach them how tradition is not rigid but symbolic and alive and that it is something that frees their minds and souls.
