Last Wednesday, February 9th, Egyptian President el-Sissi swore in Boulos Fahmy, the first-ever Coptic Christian to head the country’s highest court, Al Arabiya reports.
Judge Boulos Fahmy is the 19th person to preside over the Supreme Constitutional Court since its founding in 1969. President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi picked the 65-year-old Fahmy from among the court’s five oldest of 15 sitting judges, as is prescribed by law. Fahmy, who headed the court’s General Secretariat since 2014, succeeds Judge Saeed Marei, who retired over health reasons.
The decision ties into President el-Sissi’s broader, if slow-going, attempt at empowering Christian citizens and defending their interests, such as his appointment of the first-ever Coptic Christian woman to provincial governor in 2018, and the allowance of churches to be built after decades of restrictions. Egypt holds the largest Christian community in the Arab world (an estimated 10% of a population of 102 million), and is no stranger to discrimination and hate crimes being levelled against it.
Moushira Khattab, head of Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights, hailed the decision as “historic” and “a giant move” in the field of political and civil rights. Ishak Ibrahim, an expert on Christian affairs in the country, was more skeptical and said that the move “will not have a significant impact on eliminating discrimination and ensuring the opportunity for all citizens with justice and equality.” He added that “we’ll be able to say there’s a significant improvement when we find the percentage (of Christians holding posts) has moved from around 2% to a percentage close to their numerical one.” Despite el-Sissi’s endeavors, Christians remain vastly underrepresented in Egypt’s state institutions.
Since taking office in 2014, many Egyptian Christians have come to regard el-Sissi as their protector. He is known to frequent the Orthodox Christmas Liturgy as a show of solidarity with his Copt constituents.
It was in Egypt that Christian monasticism had its birth. Through the teachings and writings of Desert Fathers such as Saint Anthony, it popularized the virtues of submission, simplicity, and humility. By the end of the 5th century, there were hundreds of monasteries within the Egyptian desert, with thousands of cells and caves that housed reclusive religious monks. To this day, a great number of its monasteries are still flourishing and draw countless pilgrims.
