Local Copts Host Interfaith Service, React to Protests in Egypt

While many Egyptians will be celebrating the departure of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak this weekend, the scene at St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church of Chicago in Burr Ridge will be more somber.

An interfaith memorial service is scheduled in honor of the 24 Egyptian Christians killed and the more than 100 injured in a church bombing on New Year’s Eve in Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city. It will be held on Saturday, Feb. 12 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the church. 

“It’s our chance to unite with other [Christian] faiths, to show there are no bad feelings to Muslim Egyptians. … At the end of the day, we’re [all] just Egyptians,” said Mary Alexander-Basta, St. Mark’s social events committee organizer.

The service is also part of the Coptic tradition to honor the dead 40 days after their passing. Other faiths will be joining the Copts in a demonstration of unified respect for those who have died and as a means to denounce the acts of violence in the region. Members of the Egyptian Consulate, representatives from other Orthodox churches and Chicago's Muslim community will be present. The event is open to the public.

Located at 15W455 79th St., St. Mark’s draws approximately 500 Egyptian Christian families from the Chicago area, southern Wisconsin and northern Indiana.

“[The memorial] is a celebration,” Mariam Girgis said. Girgis is also on the social events committee and is helping organize the event.

The service comes at a volatile time for the St. Mark’s community and the Egyptian people.

After 18 days of protest in Egypt, the majority of it in Tahrir Square, Mubarak handed the military control of the country Friday morning. The day before, he had announced that he would transfer power to Vice President Omar Suleiman, rather than step down.

Because of recent events, the organizers at St. Mark’s had debated whether or not to cancel the event. They wanted to avoid making the memorial service political, Alexander-Basta said. Now, however, “we’re hoping to have enough chairs,” said the trim, 15-year member of the church.

Mubarak had been in office for 30 years, with a lock on power in a country with economic difficulties including high unemployment. Mubarak has been both dictator and friend to the West, at the cost of close to $2 billion from the United States annually since 1979, according to the Congressional Research Service.

“Some want Mubarak to go, and some don’t,” Alexander-Basta said yesterday, before the president stepped down. She and Girgis both wanted Mubarak to stay until September and to have Egyptians elect a government, rather than have extremists take over.

She added that while Mubarak is a dictator, the lifestyles of Egyptian Christians could suffer if his resignation leads to the take-over of fanatical Muslims. Copts could suffer more violence, like the New Year’s Eve bombing, and female Copts might be forced to cover their faces with veils, despite not believing in this practice.

She and Girgis agreed that an ideal government would be one run by the people, for the people and include a Democratic constitution. They want a government created without religious influence.

“We want across-the-board equality,” Alexander-Basta said.