The Copts have been oppressed and dispossessed since the Arab-Muslim Conquest of their land, and can be found among the poorest of the masses of a poor country. I remember a child beggar in Aswan who began talking with us, very sweet and funny. After sufficiently charming us, he pointed out that he had no shoes, and that tomorrow was (Coptic) Christmas.. In Cairo there is a Coptic caste that lives in the dump and off the dump (they had pigs to help them turn the trash that only pigs eat, into food that only Christians in the area eat, until the pigs were destroyed by the Muslim Brotherhood about a year and a half ago.). These are not communities with strength and self-confidence, and should be judged with some rachmones.

To end on a fraternal anecdote: Once I and some friends were in the Old City of Jerusalem, and stopped at the Coptic piece of the Holy Sepulchre complex, the Pool of Helena. The friendly monk studying in the chapel area at one point asked us "Are you Jews?" "Yes." His response was an enthusiastic and positive: "Ana baqra' kitab Yahudi!" – I'm reading a Jewish book! He was reading the book of Exodus in a bilingual Coptic-Arabic edition, and read out some verses of the story of the Exodus in Coptic, essentially the language language of Ancient Egypt, to Jews in Jerusalem.

Now they are coming for the Copts. And there is no one left to speak for them – Karma's a bitch, ain't it?

(*Copts actively participate in the Arab national sport of Israel-hatred, and helped facilitate the genocide of Egyptian Jewry. It is very sad to see what's happening there – as with Syria – but make no mistake, these are genocidal anti-semites who are not Israel's friends.)