Editing Religious persecution (section)

====Persecution of Copts====
{{Main|Persecution of Copts}}
{{Category see also|Persecution of Copts}}
The persecution of Copts is a historical and ongoing issue in [[Egypt]] against [[Coptic Orthodox Christianity]] and its followers. It is also a prominent example of the poor status of [[Christians in the Middle East]] despite the religion being native to the region. [[Copt]]s are the [[Christ (title)|Christ]] followers in Egypt, usually [[Oriental Orthodoxy|Oriental Orthodox]], who currently make up around 10% of the population of Egypt—the largest religious minority of that country.{{Efn|In 2017, the ''Wall Street Journal'' reported that "the vast majority of Egypt's estimated 9.5 million Christians, approximately 10% of the country's population, are Orthodox Copts."<ref name=RoccaKholaif>{{Cite web|last2=Kholaif|first2=Francis X. |last1=Rocca |first1= Dahlia|title=Pope Francis Calls on Egypt's Catholics to Embrace Forgiveness|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/pope-francis-calls-on-egypts-catholics-to-embrace-forgiveness-1493464066|access-date=2023-01-02|website=Wall Street Journal|date=29 April 2017 | url-access= subscription}}</ref> In 2019, the Associated Press cited an estimate of 10 million Copts in Egypt.<ref name=Elhennawy>{{Cite web|date=14 November 2019|title=Egyptian woman fights unequal Islamic inheritance laws|url=https://apnews.com/article/religion-ap-top-news-laws-international-news-islam-a115f4d4a86c4f9b8cdb0802ccf3e5e5|access-date=2023-01-02|website=AP News|first=Noha | last= Elhennawy}}</ref> In 2015, the ''Wall Street Journal'' reported: "The Egyptian government estimates about 5 million Copts, but the Coptic Orthodox Church says 15–18 million. Reliable numbers are hard to find but estimates suggest they make up somewhere between 6% and 18% of the population."<ref name=WSJ2015>{{cite news|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2015/02/16/5-five-things-to-know-about-egypts-coptic-christians/|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=16 February 2015|title=Five Things to Know About Egypt's Coptic Christians| last= Fitch | first=Asa | type= blog | url-access= subscription}}</ref> The ''[[CIA World Factbook]]'' reported a 2015 estimate that 10% of the Egyptian population is Christian (including both Copts and non-Copts).<ref name=CIA2015>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/egypt/|title=Egypt |work=The World Factbook |date=11 February 2022 |publisher=[[Central Intelligence Agency]]}}</ref>}} Copts have cited instances of persecution throughout their history and [[Human Rights Watch]] has noted "growing religious intolerance" and sectarian violence against Coptic Christians in recent years, as well as a failure by the Egyptian government to effectively investigate properly and prosecute those responsible.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2010-01-24|title=Egypt and Libya: A Year of Serious Abuses|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2010/01/24/egypt-and-libya-year-serious-abuses|access-date=2023-01-02|website=Human Rights Watch|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Egypt's Persecuted Christians">{{cite news | last = Zaki | first = Moheb | title = Egypt's Persecuted Christians | newspaper = The Wall Street Journal | date = 18 May 2010 | url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703745904575248301172607696 | access-date = 4 June 2010 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100603203131/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703745904575248301172607696.html | archive-date = 3 June 2010 | url-access= subscription }}</ref>

The [[Muslim conquest of Egypt]] took place in AD 639, during the [[Byzantine Empire]]. Despite the political upheaval, Egypt remained a mainly Christian, but Copts lost their majority status after the 14th century,<ref name="FA">{{cite periodical|last1=Shea|first1=Nina|title=Do Copts have a future in Egypt|journal=Foreign Affairs|date=June 2017|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/egypt/2017-06-20/do-copts-have-future-egypt|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620201311/https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/egypt/2017-06-20/do-copts-have-future-egypt|archive-date=20 June 2017|url-access=subscription}}</ref> as a result of the intermittent persecution and the destruction of the Christian churches there,<ref>{{cite book|title=Middle East, Region in Transition: Egypt| first=Laura S. |last= Etheredge|year= 2011| isbn= 9789774160936| page =161|publisher=Britannica Educational Publishing}}</ref> accompanied by heavy taxes for those who refused to convert.<ref>{{cite book| page= 72 | title= History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria III, Agathon to Michael I (766)| translator= Basil Evetts | series= Patrologia Orientalis, vol. 1 | date=1910}}{{pb}}Cited in {{Cite periodical | doi= 10.1553/medievalworlds_no6_2017s196 | work= Medieval Worlds | number= 6 |date= 2017 | pages= 196–216 | last= Simonsohn | first= Uri |title=Conversion, Exemption, and Manipulation: Social Benefits and Conversion to Islam in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages |url=https://www.medievalworlds.net/0xc1aa5576%200x00372f27.pdf|quote= ʿUmar is depicted as having ordered that "the poll-tax should be taken from all men who would not become Muslims" | quote-pages=201–202}}</ref> From the [[Muslim conquest of Egypt]] onwards, the Coptic Christians were persecuted by different Muslims regimes,<ref>{{Cite web| date= October 2017 | author=((Minority Rights Group International)) |title=World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples – Egypt : Copts of Egypt |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/49749d2b2d.html|access-date=15 June 2020}}</ref> such as the [[Umayyad Caliphate]],<ref>H. Patrick Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World. Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 219.</ref> [[Abbasid Caliphate]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Goddard|first=Hugh|title=A History of Christian–Muslim Relations|date=2000|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=1566633400 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Bq2oLEvHzl8C&pg=PA71 |page=71|access-date=<!-- print source: 20 January 2016 -->}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Frank |last=Feder |chapter=The Bashmurite Revolts in the Delta and the ‘Bashmuric Dialect’ |title=Christianity and Monasticism in Northern Egypt: Beni Suef, Giza, Cairo, and the Nile Delta |editor-first1=Gawdat |editor-last1=Gabra |editor-first2=Hany N. |editor-last2=Takla |year=2017 |publisher=American University in Cairo Press |pages=33–35}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author-link=Ira M. Lapidus |first=Ira M. |last=Lapidus |title=The Conversion of Egypt to Islam |journal=Israel Oriental Studies |volume=2 |year=1972 |page=257}}</ref> [[Fatimid Caliphate]],<ref name="Robert Ousterhout 1989 pp. 66-78">Robert Ousterhout, "Rebuilding the Temple: Constantine Monomachus and the Holy Sepulchre" in ''The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians'', Vol. 48, No. 1 (March 1989), pp.66–78</ref><ref name="Saunders2002">{{cite book|author=John Joseph Saunders|title=A History of Medieval Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_d2KAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT109|date=11 March 2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-93005-0|page=109}}</ref><ref name="Rustow2014">{{cite book|author=[[Marina Rustow]]|title=Heresy and the Politics of Community: The Jews of the Fatimid Caliphate|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MGWsBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT219|date=3 October 2014|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-5529-2|page=219}}</ref> [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk Sultanate]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Teule|first1=Herman G. B.|editor1-last=Thomas|editor1-first=David|editor2-last=Mallett|editor2-first=Alex|title=Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History, Volume 5 (1350–1500)|date=2013|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004252783|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dgy7SN3ZixsC&pg=PA11|chapter=Introduction: Constantinople and Granada, Christian-Muslim Interaction 1350-1516 |page=10}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Coptic Identity and Ayyubid Politics in Egypt, 1218–1250| first= Kurt J.|last=Werthmuller |year= 2010| isbn= 9780805440737| page = 76|publisher= American Univ in Cairo Press}}</ref> and [[Ottoman Empire]]; the persecution of Coptic Christians included closing and demolishing churches and [[forced conversion]] to [[Islam]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Cave Church of Paul the Hermit at the Monastery of St. Pau| first=William |last=Lyster|year= 2013| isbn= 9789774160936|publisher=Yale University Press|quote= Al Hakim Bi-Amr Allah (r. 996—1021), however, who became the greatest persecutor of Copts.... within the church that also appears to coincide with a period of forced rapid conversion to Islam}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Coptic Papacy in Islamic Egypt (641–1517)| first=Mark N. |last=  Swanson|year= 2010| isbn= 9789774160936| page =54|publisher=American University in Cairo Press|quote= By late 1012 the persecution had moved into high gear with demolitions of churches and the forced conversion of Christian ...}}</ref><ref>ha-Mizraḥit ha-Yiśreʼelit, Ḥevrah (1988). Asian and African Studies, Volume 22. Jerusalem Academic Press. Muslim historians note the destruction of dozens of churches and the forced conversion of dozens of people to Islam under al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah in Egypt ...These events also reflect the Muslim attitude toward forced conversion and toward converts.</ref>

Since 2011 hundreds of Egyptian Copts have been killed in sectarian clashes, and many homes, Churches and businesses have been destroyed. In just one province ([[Minya Governorate|Minya]]), 77 cases of sectarian attacks on Copts between 2011 and 2016 have been documented by the [[Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights]].<ref name="Eltahawy-nyt-12-16">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/opinion/egypts-cruelty-to-christians.html|title=Egypt's Cruelty to Christians|date=22 December 2016|work=The New York Times|last1=Eltahawy|first1=Mona|access-date=22 December 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161222173411/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/opinion/egypts-cruelty-to-christians.html|archive-date=22 December 2016 | url-access= subscription| type= opinion}}</ref> The abduction and disappearance of Coptic Christian women and girls also remains a serious ongoing problem.<ref>{{cite book|author=((United States Congress Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe))|title=Escalating Violence Against Coptic Women and Girls: Will the New Egypt be More Dangerous than the Old? : Hearing before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, Second Session|date=18 July 2012|publisher=Government Printing Office|location=Washington, DC|url=https://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo55657|access-date=8 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2012/10/15/sectarian-tensions-rise-in-wake-of-crime-boss-death/|author1=Basil El-Dabh |title= Sectarian tensions rise in wake of crime boss death|date=15 October 2012 | work = Daily News Egypt |access-date=2 January 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019020027/https://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2012/10/15/sectarian-tensions-rise-in-wake-of-crime-boss-death/|archive-date=19 October 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.premier.org.uk/content/view/full/928769|title=Newlywed becomes 8th Egyptian Christian woman to be kidnapped since April|author=Eno Adeogun |date=9 May 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014141429/https://www.premier.org.uk/content/view/full/928769 | archive-date= 14 October 2019 | url-status= dead}}</ref>