{"id":24365,"date":"2018-12-05T04:22:55","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T04:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=24365"},"modified":"2018-12-05T04:22:55","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T04:22:55","slug":"exclusive-the-pope-of-hope-egypts-tawadros-ii-on-status-of-copts-regional-politics-and-saudi-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=24365","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: The Pope of Hope Egypt\u2019s Tawadros II on status of Copts, regional politics and Saudi reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: The Pope of Hope Egypt\u2019s Tawadros II on status of Copts, regional politics and Saudi reforms<\/h2>\n
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\nCAIRO: It was July 21, 1969, and Neil Armstrong had just taken mankind\u2019s first steps on the moon. In Egypt, 16-year-old Wagih Subhi Baqi Sulayman was transfixed by the achievement. More in hope than in any expectation of a reply, he wrote to the US astronaut asking for an autograph.<\/p>\n

\nA few weeks later, to the young man\u2019s surprise, an envelope arrived containing a signed, color photo of the moon landing.<\/p>\n

\nNearly 50 years later, while the hair is a little more gray, Wagih\u2019s eyes remain very much on celestial matters. Of course, nobody refers to him by his birth name these days. For more than 100 million Egyptians, and to the rest of the world, he is now known as Tawadros II, the 118th Pope of Alexandria, Patriarch of the See of St. Mark and leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.<\/p>\n

\nHe has, sadly, lost the moon landing photo \u2014 but never the memory of those days. With a soft voice and a gentle smile that lasted throughout our interview at St Mark\u2019s Cathedral in the Abbassia district of Cairo, he recalled obtaining Armstrong\u2019s address from a radio program on Voice of America that encouraged pen pals to write to him.<\/p>\n

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\nPope Tawadros receives an Arab News cartoon commissioned in solidarity with Egyptians after a December 2016 attack on a church. The cartoon, by Mohammed Rayes, shows the word Cairo written using the C from a mosque\u2019s crescent and a cross from a church. In picture: Editor in Chief Faisal Abbas and Noor Nuqali, Riyadh correspondent (AN photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\u201cI sent him a letter, telling him I would love to see a color photo of him on the moon, because the newspapers used to publish his photo in black and white. I was surprised when I received the envelope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe teenager had assumed that Armstrong was named after the Nile River. \u201cI was obsessed with his name. In the West, they are used to the name Neil. But here in Egypt no one would call his child Nile, although it is a beautiful name.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe selection of Tawadros II as pope, a complex ritual, concluded in November 2012 and came at a difficult time for Egyptian Christians and the country in general. It was shortly after the collapse of the Mubarak presidency and coincided with the short-lived rule of the Muslim Brotherhood and the rise of Daesh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nOur regions have been established with the existence of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.\u00a0The meetings that the crown prince and Saudi officials are holding are very beneficial to the nation and the Kingdom.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nPope Tawadros II<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nTawadros leads nearly 15 million Copts in Egypt and a further 2 million abroad, according to the church\u2019s registry. They practice a form of Christianity established 2,000 years ago by St. Mark, and, like most Christians and minorities in the region, have endured persecution at various times in their history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nRecently, however, the persecution has become so widespread that the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for an effort to protect Christians in the Middle East. Pope Tawadros agrees the situation is alarming. \u201cEmptying the Middle East of Christians poses a great danger to stability and peace,\u201d he says. \u201cChristianity is deeply rooted in the Middle East.When all our countries were established, Christians and Muslims were there, as well as Jews in ancient history.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe pope describes events in Syria and Iraq, with the rise of Daesh, as \u201cvery painful,\u201d and points out that Christians who had to flee and seek asylum abroad were among the most affected. However, his concerns extend beyond the plight of Christians alone, and he argues that a \u201cweakening of Arab countries\u201d means \u201cthe weakening of Arabs as a whole \u2026 Christians and Muslims alike.\u201d\u00a0