Egyptian Copts living in the US have not been spared racist assaults that Middle Easterners and others have been subject to since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. However, they have been collecting donations for both the families of the victims and the Afghans.
The New York Times quoted Rev. Mikhail E. Mikhail of St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church as saying after Sunday service, "We'll send them to the White House," explaining that envelopes he held had a dollar each given by children in the church's Sunday school, a response to President Bush's plea that American children contribute to rebuilding Afghanistan.
Down the hall, volunteers were selling American flags, red-white- and-blue mugs and lapel pins to raise money for New York families who lost loved ones in the September 11 terrorist attacks, said the paper.
“But some members here - as well as other American Christians of Middle Eastern background - have felt the sting of the backlash that has affected American Muslims.”
Nationwide, at least two shootings have been linked to racist motivations.
One St. Mark member, Fakry Gaid, said that after the attacks, someone spray-painted anti-Arab graffiti on his grocery store. "They write the bad words on my store," Gaid told the Times.
Angie W. Sherry, a member who is a lawyer, said she had written to a local principal seeking help for another member whose son was enduring taunts from boys at his school that he looked "like Osama" - a reference to Osama bin Laden. Her letter, Sherry said, "was to make the school aware of the harassment."
In recent decades, many Copts, a minority in their homeland, have immigrated to the United States and Canada. When Father Mikhail arrived in 1975, he was one of 14 Coptic priests in the North American archdiocese. Today, there are 145, he said.
While they are still outnumbered in the United States by Muslims of Middle Eastern origin, other Middle Eastern Christians have settled here as well, coming from churches in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere, according to the paper.
Since September 11, the harassment has not been confined to one region. In New York, the Rev. Khader N. El Yateem, pastor of Salam Arabic Lutheran Church in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, told the paper three families in his congregation had suffered harassment. The majority at Salam Arabic Church come from Syria, said Pastor El Yateem, a Palestinian Christian who has worked to build ties in his area between Christians and Muslims.
Reflecting on the harassment, Pastor El Yateem said he believed the bigotry was directed against Middle Easterners in general, regardless of religion. "We've had Christian families that have been attacked more than Muslim families in Bay Ridge," he said.
Other churches have responded with supportive phone calls, letters and prayers, Pastor El Yateem said.
The Arab League and Arab and Muslim organizations in the US have set up hot lines as a channel for victims of racism.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference last week condemned terrorism, but also denounced anti-Muslim acts in the US and Europe – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
