Torches burned behind the St Mary and Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church in East Victoria Park during the evening of Friday 4 November. The 27 flames symbolised the lives of those killed at a protest in Cairo on 9 October against the increasing persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt.
The candlelight vigil was interrupted as a car drove past the church and a man leaned out the window to shout something in Arabic. Parishioners shook their heads and muttered “Muslim”.
It seems not even in Australia Coptic Christians can escape the ripples of the religious tensions in Egypt. Violence towards the country’s Christian minority has escalated over the past 10 months since the deposing of former strongman Hosni Mubarak.
Australian-born Steven Sawiros, 17, told The Record at the Victoria Park vigil that his extended family had fled Alexandria, Egypt’s second-largest city, to the United States on a tourist visa. They were now applying for refugee status.
He said if the US government rejected their application they would have no option but to return to face possible persecution in Egypt.
In Alexandria many Coptic girls had been kidnapped and made to convert to Islam, he said. The church near his aunt’s house had been bombed and his cousin now carried a taser for protection when out in public.
Even in their homes, Coptic Christians were targeted. Christian homes and businesses are looted and burned.
The leader of the St Mary and Archangel Michael parish, Fr Abram Abdelmalek, said these were dark times. “It has been called the Arab Spring that is supposed to bring the hope of a brighter future for Egypt. I’m sorry to say this Arab Spring has become a Coptic winter,” he said.
“The difficulty is grounded in an Islamic vision for society which affords a clearly defined place for non-Muslims and specifically including Christians. Not all Muslims are seeking to implement this vision but many are and there is no coherent alternative vision being offered to Muslims in Egypt today.”
Fr Abram Abdelmalek told those at the vigil there had been 27 separate incidents of violence against Egypt’s Copts this year.
The same kind of international pressure that was exerted against the white apartheid regime in South Africa needed to happen again to save the Coptic Christians in Egypt, Fr Abdelmalek said.
“I wonder every day if I will ever hear the president of Egypt stand up in parliament and say sorry for the persecution of indigenous Copts,” he said.
“What happened a month ago was no less than crimes against humanity.”
Fr Luke Sorsok, of St Mark and St George Coptic Orthodox Church in Wanneroo, said Egypt’s economy was suffering due to the escalating violence. In his parish there were now three families who had escaped Egypt this year.
Many of those seeking asylum in Australia and elsewhere were qualified doctors, engineers and pharmacists, he said, who faced employment discrimination in Egypt.
Among those at Friday’s vigil was an ex-Muslim who converted to Christianity. He said he was “taught in school to kill Christians” and survived being poisoned by a Muslim for converting to Christianity.
The vigil was one of many held simultaneously around Australia, organised by the Coptic Orthodox Archdiocese of Melbourne.
In Melbourne, a vigil at Federation Square attracted an estimated 1500 people.