Church sources disclosed that Pope Tawadros II called for the continuation and development of the citizenship committee within the Coptic Orthodox dioceses all over Egypt. The citizenship committee, which was established by the Holy Synod, is headed by the Bishop Bulā of the Tantā Diocese. It was the same committee that had prepared the list of candidates nominated for the former People’s Assembly, calling on Copts to support these candidates. The sources told al-Watan, that the Church considers the formation of the next parliament as crucial, seeking to reach a balance within it versus an expected control of the Islamic current. With regard to constitutional amendments, the Churches had proposed and submitted to the presidency.
The most notable amendment proposed by the Churches is Article 219 on sunnah equating the unanimously approved Article 2 on jurisprudence provisions of Islamic sunnah. Other proposals concern the law on building houses of worship, the civil status law for Copts, as well as the new Church regulation on the patriarchal election in the future. Further, the Church stressed that it will stick to the decision not to interfere in political actions, asserting that it does not monopolize its flock in its voting decisions. However, it is logic that the Church and its flock will not support Islamist candidates, focusing, thus, on candidates from the liberal movements. The sources revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood is seeking the support of the Church, obviously manifested through placing a number of Coptic parliamentary candidates on their lists. However, the Church refused the coordination sought by MB leaders, so not to give them the opportunity to exploit the name of the Church in their electoral campaigns.
The Church, further, hopes that its representatives Dr. Sāmih Fawzī and Suzy Nāshid in the national dialogue, which has been initiated by the presidency, will meet the approval of the Shūrá Council on the proposal placing women and Copts on the top of the parliamentary election lists to ensure a balanced representation in the Lower House. However, the Islamist Shūrá members partly approved the concerns of women’s representation while they rejected it for the Copts, arguing that that might create discrimination, which they reject. Concerning the electoral list, Copts said that the Church will not endorse someone from the National Salvation Front.
According to the source, the Church fears that other liberal movements are seeking a secular system, which does not adopt the basic religious values shared by Muslims and Christians alike. The Church has decided not to endorse any parliamentary candidates, leaving this decision to Coptic activists and political movements.
For his part, the Coptic political activist, John Talꞌat, said that the Copts would welcome any civilian bloc to face politicized Islam, and therefore [would] support the unified list of the National Salvation Front, especially that the former Egyptian Bloc list presented is not valid any more after dissolution of the former parliament (Mustafá Rahūmah, al-Watan, Jan. 5, p. 6). Read the original text in Arabic.
