What is the mystery of the number of Christians in Egypt?

An old debate has been raging about the numbers of Christians in the Egyptian arena. According to the latest government statistics, the percentage of Christians is about 5% of the population, according to the last census included religion in 1986, church leaders see the proportion of about 15% according to an internal census carried out by the church.

Although identity cards and birth certificates show religion, the number of Christians in Egypt remains one of the most controversial secrets from time to time.

The latest is the announcement by Pope Tewadros II that the Christian population in Egypt is about 15 million, plus two million outside it in about 60 countries around the world.

In an interview with Saudi Arabia's Arab News, Tawadros said last Tuesday that the church does not have a census, but there is the so-called ecclesiastical membership, which records those who belong to the Church through baptism.

According to the latest census released last year, Egypt has a population of 104.2 million, of whom 94 million and 798,000 are internally displaced and 9.4 million live outside, an increase of 22 million in the last 10 years.

Tawadros told the "Arab News" Saudi Arabia that the number of Christians in Egypt 17 million (Saudi Press)

why now?
"This is the twentieth time that the Pope repeats this speech, a repetition that raises questions about its significance and insistence on it. Secondly, it does not provide any evidence or document, Third: All statistics since the British era determine the percentage of Copts in Egypt by about 6% of the total population.

"Why does the state insist on concealing the number of Christians, while they declare them with figures that are not official, and raise a lot of confusion about its objectives and significance?"

Ahmed Al-Masri also asked why there is a difference in the ratio, even though the national ID card has the religion? "The ratio means you can recognize a strike on the computer in seconds in the Civil Registry Manager."

Old controversy
The controversy over the census of Christians in Egypt is not new, as the issue is raised from time to time, especially with the absence of official census "modern" issued by the government or the church.

But in October 2010, former Pope Shenouda III said in televised remarks that "the church knows the numbers of Egyptian Orthodox by means of (the lists of the lack) which is an internal census of every Christian family in the church," adding that the number is 12 million, "We can know The number of our people, and we do not care about the number declared. "

Shenouda's remarks aroused wide reactions at the time. The Christian thinker Gamal Asaad, a former member of parliament, called for the declaration of the census to be considered a declaration of the division of the state, which is very dangerous to Egypt and will lead to a catastrophe.

Rare official announcement
However, the most prominent step in the file of the ratio of Copts came in September 2012 and in the atmosphere of freedom and openness that followed the revolution of 25 January 2011, when the former head of the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics, Major General Abu Bakr al-Jundi, the number of Copts 5 million and 130 thousand, On the percentage recorded in the 1986 census, the latest population census includes religion, where the proportion of Christians about 5.7%.

The soldier explained that the Copts are "the highest social in Egypt and the most emigration and the least childbearing," stressing that these statistics "documented and can not be denied."

The statements made by the soldier aroused strong condemnation in Christian circles. "The president's announcement about the number of Copts is not correct in my estimation.

For his part, the Bishop of Shubra al-Khaima, Bishop Marks, said that the number of Christians in Egypt ranges between 15 and 18 million, adding that the Coptic census is known to the church, but we did not collect it.

The head of the evangelical community, Rev. Safwat al-Bayadi, also rejected the declaration of Major General El-Jendi, stressing that the announcement of the number of Christians is contrary to the UN Declaration of 1985, which stressed the lack of reliance on statistics on religion or question about it.

This controversy over the numbers of Christians pushed the rights activist Nejad Al-Borai to criticize the "extreme sensitivity" in any talk of knowing the number, calling for the government's commitment to transparency in all its data or statistics, and not to leave things to the point of confusion and media controversy.

Thousands of Copts attend mass in Minya for funeral of Coptic attack victims in Egypt (Reuters)

The problem of religion
The Egyptian government says that the crisis of the number of Christians in some parts is due to the problem of religion in modern census forms, according to previous statements by Major General Abu Bakr al-Jundi.

The most recent census was based on the characteristics of the population according to the religions in Egypt until 1986. The percentage of Christians was about 5.7%, after which Egypt committed to apply the UN Convention not to address religion in the census forms, and this item is optional.

Egypt has conducted the census three times since the publication of the international concepts of the United Nations, and the answer to the "religion" is optional, where the citizen can leave it empty.

However, in the 2017 census, and with the adoption of electronic data registration, the forms included specific options that citizens should choose between and can not leave empty. The choices are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or other religions.

Despite the previous statements by the general of the soldier that the Public Mobilization and Statistics Agency is "fully prepared to limit and monitor the religion of the Egyptians in the next census, the question of religion is one of the questions to be answered if the Egyptians agree."

The Book of the State and the Church Monitor the numbers of Christians in all population statistics since the English occupation of Egypt (Al Jazeera)

Average ratio historically
In his book "The State and the Church" issued in 2011, the Egyptian historian Tariq al-Bishri monitored the proportion of Christians in all population censuses since 1897.

The human study showed that the percentage of Christians in Egypt was 6.3% in 1897, 6.4% in 1907, 8.1% in 1917, 8.3% in 1927, 8.2% in 1937, and 7.9% In the year 1947, more scientific methods were introduced in the census method. The 1960 census showed that the percentage of Christians was 7.3%, 6.7% in 1966, 6.24% in 1976 and less than 6% in the 1986 census. .

He pointed out that the government abstained in the following two censuses in 1996 and 2006 to broadcast the number and proportion, after the Copts raised the Diaspora faced the political system as usual retreat and concealment, according to his description.