Forms of social protest in the Coptic Community during the rule of the Patriarch Yosab II (1946-1956)
The Coptic Patriarch Yosab II (1946-1956) failed to meet the expectations of his reform-minded flock. On the contrary, for many of his contemporaries he became a symbol of corruption. At that time many Coptic intellectuals criticized the poor state of the church, and among them was Nazir Geyyid, a Cairo University graduate, who was destined to become a Pope in 1971. As the social life of the Coptic community was growing more intensive, the demands to grant the Egyptian Christians equal rights with their Muslim compatriots sounded more and more vociferous. The overthrow of the monarchy in 1952 stirred up public discussions about future forms of the Egyptian state. One of the prominent champions of equality between Copts and Muslims was a young Coptic activist Ibrahim Hilal, the founder of “The Coptic Nation” group. The organization’s agenda was supported not only by reformminded Coptic youth, but also by a number of the hierarchs of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The regime’s change generated hopes of changes in the church, and the success of the 1952 Revolution pushed many Copts to consider revolutionary methods of bringing them in. In July 1954 a group of conspirators headed by Ibrahim Hilal kidnapped the Pope and made him sign resignation. Very soon the attackers were arrested and the Patriarch freed. Ibrahim Hilal and his co-plotters were condemned in court, but by the beginning of 1955 all of them were granted amnesty. In September 1955 the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church removed the Patriarch from his office. After more than half a century in an interview to an Egyptian newspaper Ibrahim Hilal admitted that his plot against the Pope Yosab II had been organized with consent of some members of the Synod.