wannabepriest

David Keen has been highlighting the activities of the UK Border Agency today and, in particular, a story written by Paul Vallely writing in the Independent about the detention of children by that agency and the impact on their mental health. 1300 children were held in immigration centres in 2008-9 here in the UK. Moreover, the Royal College of Paediatrics and the Royal College of Psychiatry’s study into the mental health of children in such centres showed that EVERY SINGLE ONE of the children displayed some signs of distress and 73% had developed significant emotional and behavioural problems since being detained. Not one of them had previously had such problems. Paul Vallely writes:

All the children seen by clinical psychologists presented as being disorientated, confused and frightened. More than half, who had previously been well behaved at home and in school, had developed conduct problems.

It is nothing short of shameful that this kind of treatment of families and children should be happening in the UK.

However, I want to focus on another aspect of Paul’s story. I want to focus on the Egyptian Coptic Christians, Hany and Samah Mansour, and their five kids under ten who fled to the UK after a campaign of persecution by a group of Islamic fundamentalists in Egypt. The fundamentalists had friends in the secret police who tortured Hany. The British Government in its wisdom has decided that Hany and Samah Mansour are lying about the persecution and so they raided the Mansour house at dawn, forcing the Mansour’s five kids from their beds, in order to deport them. Currently, after some horrific treatment from a number of agencies in our Government, the Mansours remain in limbo awaiting a judicial review of their case.

In my early twenties, I visited Egypt on three separate occasions and was delighted to get to know a number of Christians in Cairo, most of whom were Copts. Egypt is held up as the more moderate face of the Islamic world, and indeed, for the most part it is more moderate than many places in the Middle East. Nevertheless, I got to know some locals and I still consider one particular couple to be good friends. It didn’t take very long to work out and understand that Copts in Egypt are a persecuted people.

The very good friend I made was roughly my age, academically gifted, spoke excellent English and yet could not get a job (even amongst Western multinational companies) because the Muslim employees of such companies that interviewed him could tell he was a Copt.

The churches I visited during my time in Egypt always had police guards. It was hard to know if they were to prevent attacks from without or to corral and identify the Copts within.

Coptic women are sometimes ‘disappeared’, forced to convert to Islam and forced to marry a Muslim. Christian Solidarity International produced a report (downloads PDF file) about the situation.

For others, like Hany, the persecution is more violent. The Copts celebrate Christmas on January 6 and, mostly unreported by British media, six Copts died on Christmas Eve this year when Muslim gunmen opened fire on a congregation as they left church in Nag Hammadi (famous to academic Christians and Dan Brown readers as the place in 1945 where local farmers found a sealed earthenware jar containing many ancient manuscripts including the only complete Gospel of Thomas). The day before Christmas Eve, Christian houses and shops had suffered arson attacks in the neighbouring town of Baghura.

Names can often be a giveaway – Girgis (George), Yousef (Joseph) or Maryam (Mary) although many Abrahamic names are common to both Muslim and Christian communities. However, the biggest giveaway for every Copt (even if you don’t know someone’s name) is the coptic cross tattoo that each Copt has on their wrist.

It is an ancient tradition in that church and, in that sense, not something imposed upon them by their Muslim world. You might imagine that they would choose not to identify themselves in such a way if it brought with it such persecution. However, the sad truth is that the practice has taken on a modern edge in that the Copts know that such a tattoo, particularly for their women, is something of a safeguard against abduction and forced marriage. It is hard to remove a tattoo from the wrist, given the delicate skin and arteries, and so the families hope that the difficulty of removing the tattoo will force potential captors to look elsewhere.

People in the UK immigration office could take five minutes on Google to realize that Egyptian Coptic Christians suffer persecution. Anyone with an ounce of common sense might look at the Mansour’s application for asylum and query why Hany would give up a thriving business in the Luxor Hilton Hotel to bring his family to live in Moss Side, Manchester. I don’t suppose he did it for the weather.