Mona Khalil Biography

Mona Halil Egypt is one of the few countries of the world, mentioned several times in the Holy Scriptures. Here the Prophet Moses increased, here, after the birth of the promised Messiah of Jesus Christ, the Holy Family fled from the Herodov’s persecution, the first Christian hermits launched here, which became the founders of Orthodox monasticism. Today in this ancient country, a difficult political situation reigns, aggravated by a religious factor.

The reasons for its occurrence and prospects of development are told by the Egyptian religious scholar of Mona Khalil. We can say that I am from two halves. I perceive each of the countries as my homeland and speak Arabic and Russian. She studied in Russia, graduated from the philological faculty of Moscow State University. Now I am finishing graduate school, I am engaged in religious problems.

I believe that in total there are no more than one and a half percent of the entire population of Egypt. Most of the Catholics. Protestant denominations belong mainly to foreigners working in Egypt or living here constantly. The believers of each of these faiths have no more than a few thousand people. The share of the Orthodox is also extremely insignificant. Basically, these are ethnic Greeks that did not leave the country during mass emigration in the middle of the 20th century.

We can say that for modern Egypt, the presence of the Alexandrian Orthodox Church is more likely symbolic significance. What is the reason? In Egypt, there is no institution of civil, that is, secular marriage. In Muslims, the marriage union holds Mullah, among the Copts a public wedding is a public act of creating a new family. By the way, marriages between the Copts and the Orthodox according to the rules of the Coptic Church are quite possible and they happen.

But the Coptic Church does not allow their parishioners to get divorced, that is, the life partner choose one and for life. People of the 21st century are no longer forces to observe this religious norm. And it is precisely this circumstance - one of the main reasons, if not the most important, the transition of the Copts to Islam. To the previous Primate of the Coptic Church, his flock has repeatedly treated petitions in t.

Let's see what a newly elected Coptic Patriarch will do with this very important and painful problem. Are there statistics? An objective picture, alas, cannot be compiled. Copts usually complain that Muslims are actively engaged in proselytism, marry with Coptic women in order to convert them to Islam and grow children with Muslims. But the main reason is preferred to remain silent.

I have many friends among the Copts and among Muslims. Once in my presence, one Muslim asked my friend-digit of my friend, why he, despite the fact that he is already a very mature man, is still not married. And he answered her that he was restrained by the thought that with a once chosen girl he would need to live all her life later. For this, she laughed and told the story that when she was small, she studied at a Christian school.

Dad gave it there, although he was a Muslim sheikh. The nuns were taught at school, the girl really liked it there. Once, as a teenager, she asked him: “Dad, how sorry that I am not a Christian! We go to church, so beautifully, they sing so wonderful! And dad, laughing, answered her: "You will grow up and understand how good it is that you are not a Christian." And, ”she continued,“ when I divorced my first husband, I realized: “Thank God that I am not a Christian!

We in Russia constantly hear about the mass outcome of Christians from Egypt. In Russia, there was an idea that the main “watershed” of the population of Egypt runs between the Copts-Christians and Muslims and that all conflicts are based on this confrontation. In fact, this is not at all the case. The main problem of Egypt, which has existed for many decades and has become aggravated recently, is the confrontation between Islamists and secular secular forces.

It must be understood that both Christians and traditional Muslims watch with great concern the strengthening of the positions of radical Islam. Many, indeed, are considering the possibility of leaving the country. Others participate in the political struggle and take possible measures to change the situation.

By the way, falsifications were observed not only in places of compact residence of Copts - mainly the villages in the Upper Egypt area, but, for example, in my district in Cairo. It was inhabited mainly by secular people and it was clear how exactly they can vote. We simply could not do this in our district: the work of the plots was organized so that people stood in line for the urns for hours and many did not manage to vote until the closure.

Cases of clashes between Copts and Muslims took place earlier, even during the time of the President of Mubarak. As it now becomes obvious, many of them were provoked by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Egypt.There was a period of time after the victory of President Mursi, who, as you know, is a representative of the radical movement “Muslim Brothers”, when the Islamists felt that everything was allowed to them.

The main attacks and insulting comments on the streets then sounded not so much Christians as the secular people of dressed people - men who do not wear beards, and women without a hijab, and we have a lot of such. Now the situation is improving. Currently, and this is very important, ordinary people have ceased to identify the concept of “secular” with the concept of “atheistic”.

The atheist in the eyes of any Muslim is a sinner. For a long time, the attitude towards any secular people, as blasphemers that should be either exterminated or subdued, dominated. The political and economic situation in Egypt is worsening every day, and a significant part of the inhabitants, in the that way, I want to emphasize that the “Bad Muslims and the good Copts that are oppressed by them” is not true in the Russian media.

In this regard, all sorts of attempts to help Copts from the outside can only harm them. They are already perceived in Egypt as the “fifth column”, which is explained by the great public activity of the Coptic communities living abroad, especially in America. The calls of these communities to foreign states to intervene in the political situation in the country are very harmful to the Copts living in Egypt itself, and do not help improve relations with Muslims.

The position of Koptov is as follows: we live in our country with our brothers, and we do not need someone else to solve how we live with them. Let me give you an indicative example: once on one of the days of the revolution, information was received that the police were going to disperse its supporters with tear gas and water bodies. It was on Friday. And then Kopta, holding hands, surrounded the Tahrir Square with a living ring to allow the Muslims to make a Friday prayer.

The next Sunday, the Copts staged a prayer service on Tahrir and, in turn, Muslims guarded them. Nobody ordered them, it was a real popular initiative, it came from the heart of people. The funeral of one of the Koptov-Christians who died during protests, on October 10, many remember the explosion that sounded on New Year's Eve in one of the Alexandrian churches and claimed the lives of several parishioners ...-This event happened a year ago-in January of the year, and since then nothing of the kind happened.

But, I must say that it caused a very noticeable response in the Egyptian society. The main social network in Egypt is Facebook and our January revolution is often called Facebook. Immediately after the attack on the Christian church, an active newsletter to Internet users of the message began through Facebook by Facebook: “Brothers and sisters! Let's all go out on January 7th at Christmas and stand with a live shield around all Christian churches-both Coptic and Orthodox, and say terrorists: if you want to kill our Christian brothers, then kill us with them.

” The newsletter was addressed to Muslims. And people came out. This really took place almost throughout Egypt. Muslims in crowds went to Christian temples and stood around them during the entire Christmas service. Now this stream has decreased significantly, as people are simply afraid. How safe is foreigners in modern Egypt? Basically, these are Russians and Germans. The danger to foreigners is massive manifestations and processions, which are now passing weekly.

Those who protest against the Islamist government go to the streets; Of course, the Islamists bring their like -minded people on them. Salafites bring their supporters to the places of mass shares in whole buses and often clashes flash between them and opponents of the regime. Of course, a foreigner who at that moment at the epicenter cannot be safe.

But all tourist guides know well when and where such events take place, and try to accurately pass them with their group. On the Krasnomorsk coast, everything is calm. Temple of VMF. Previously, this building belonged to the Alexandrian Patriarchate. The temple is very beautiful and it has a wonderful choir. The parishioners are mainly women, mainly the wives of the Egyptians, as well as employees of the embassy and other Russian organizations working in Egypt.

There are representatives of Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus among parishioners. Sometimes the Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians go there. Almost the entire Egyptian culture of the second half of the 20th century was formed by Russian thought. Modern Egyptian literature came out of Dostoevsky, the Egyptian theater - from Chekhov. Our interaction laid the foundations of science and culture in our country.

Most of our creative intelligentsia, military, doctors, teachers received education and scientific degrees in the Soviet Union. When in new Russia, training became not only paid, but also very expensive, Egyptian students made a choice in favor of Europe and America, the cost of education at the universities of which turned out to be comparable to Russian.There was a period during the Chechen wars, when the Western media did everything possible for Russia in the Arab world to be perceived as an enemy.

This story began during the war in Afghanistan, when the Americans were able to promote the Russian-Antiaslam them very well, then there was Yugoslavia, then Chechnya.