Can Coptic people identify as Arab?

My guest is Fr. Anthony Mourad, a priest at St. George & St. Anthony Coptic Orthodox Church in Ottawa. We discuss Lent, fasting, discipleship, how Fr. Anthony was called to the priesthood, the origin of the ministry 'Coptic Orthodox Answers', Coptic and Arab culture, iconography, how to feel God's love, and so much more.

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[JohnMinehan-lxts]

At least in the US, a lot of Arab American are Christians, Syrians, Lebanese, etc., in part since many came here fleeing persecutions.

[Suryoyoz]

I belong to the Syriac orthodox church (sister church to the Coptic). I found this conversation interesting and similar to our own, we are also the indigenous people of Mesopotamia (Iraq, Syria and Turkey) but not all speak our language (Aramaic) some speak Arabic even tho we are Arameans/Assyrians and not arabs.

[GeorgeFares-kkmc]

Beautiful explanation thank you Abouna

[MiroAMalek]

Copts and Arabs are two different ethnic groups. I respectfully disagree that every Copt has Arab blood. It is more likely for a modern Copt to have European blood due to the Christian communities of Armenians, Italians and Greeks that lived in Egypt. As you know, Christians and Muslims do not intermarry in Egypt. There is also a false assumption that Egyptian Muslims are Arabs, when in fact they are mostly the descendants of Copts who converted to Islam after the Arab conquest – which consisted of a few thousand soldiers and did not alter the genetic makeup of Egypt. However, Egyptian Muslims generally like to identify as Arabs because Arabic is the language of the Quran. Egypt has been Arabized culturally and politically, but not ethnically. And BTW, Egyptian music sounds nothing like the music of Arabia.

[kenyareads]

Two questions:
1) I enjoy Christian music from Egypt. Some singers identify themselves as Orthodox, some as Evangelicals and some as Arab Christians. Are the Arab Christians also Copts? Or does Egypt have a sizeable Arab population that has converted to Christianity?

2) You brought up the interesting topic of interracial marriages of Copts with other groups, e.g. Chinese. Are you hinting that the present day Copts may be the product of interracial marriages with other groups of people who may have lived in Egypt in the past, perhaps Cushites? I am wondering if this could explain why some Egyptians seem to have hair that looks orange, while most others look typical Arab. Orange/somewhat blondish hair and almost white skin is sometimes observed in descendants of interracial marriages between black and white.

[CopticPrince-hhyi]

I am a Copt not an Arab.Copts has no Arabic blood this is a fact .Copts are a distinctive ethnical group you can differentiate easily between Copts and arab Egyptians (as the Majority of them like to be called) through any ancestry test. the arab Egyptians DNA are influenced by arab mass migrations in the 10th century and mass Sub-Saharan African slavery trades in 14th and 15th century. regarding the language if Copts have a choice they would choose coptic over arabic but they are forced to learn arabic in schools.I don't think that you one that is not living in Egypt would understand what I am talking about .In the End what i mean that in 2024 every one having the Egyptian nationality can be identify as Egyptian and have the same rights but also Copts should be proud of their ethnicity and be able to learn there ancestors beautiful language and rich History.

[andrewternet]

Lmao of all the videos to blow up on your channel Andrew :P

[MarthaFam-thpx]

Copts are Not Arabs. This is historically and ethnically inaccurate. Copts are the indigenous people of Egypt. Copts are simply Egalitarian. Nothing else. Be who you are and don’t run away from it. If a person “identifies” a rhinoceros, it doesn’t make him a rhinoceros. To “identify “ as something and to ignore facts is relativism and an untruth.

[minasoliman]

Well, the question can be reframed: are Copts “American” or “Canadian”? The question needs to be asked what is an “Arab” as Abouna rightly answers. People who have a knee jerk reaction that they’re not “Arabs” define it as people who persecuted the Coptic church. Nevertheless, culturally we can’t escape being “Arabs” in influence, just as much as today we can also identify as Americans or Canadians as much as St. Paul who was primarily a Jew was also a Roman.

[shadyagwa]

Copts are simply Egyptians .. Egyptians are simply Egyptians .. I would like to ask the Father from Canada if he identifies himself as British because he speaks English or American because his culture and life style majorly belongs to USA? We have our own Egyptian culture, life style, traditions and even spoken language which mainly belongs to Egypt.

[JS]

Non of these “Arab” countries are not even Arab. Arab means from the Arabian peninsula. What does Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, or others have to do with the Arabian peninsula??

[dr.banoub]

Arabs are a tribal people unlike ancient Egyptians and the purest most direct descendant Copts. Egyptians have never identified by tribes as tribal cultures are unsophisticated, therefore, primitive to ours.

[hany.girgis]

Copts are officially not Arabs -- a Copt is by definition a non-Arab, since the name "Copt" was coined by Arabs (from Aigýptios) and was meant to identify local Egyptians who were not Greek and not Arab. If Americans identify people only by language, then they should also identify Brazilians as Portugees since that's the language they speak. It's not about what others identify you, but how you identify yourself.

[liliqua]

It's a bit inaccurate to say it's only linguistic as an "Arabic language" and then use Google Translate as an example.

Google Translate is for Modern Standard Arabic, and this has never been any Copt's native language, much less anyone's native language.

Arab is solely a sociopolitical identity. There were no "Arabs" in Egypt before the Nasser era.

[eluemina]

A priest of the Coptic Orthodox Church saying this has to be the biggest disgrace I have seen in a while. He needs to go educate himself on multiple topics.

[littlecousin]

The term "Arab" depends partially on self-identification. Muslim Egyptians might consider themselves Arab and yet they descend from the same people that Copts do, the difference is that, down the line, they converted. Arabs were the conquerors after all, so the non-Arabness of Copts crystallized post-conquest as a facet of "resistance." Said non-Arabness is in contrast to what an Arab was at the time, which different than what an Arab is post-WW2. Post-WW2 has taken a more sociopolitical flavor, rather than the ethnolinguistic nature it had under the Ottoman Empire.

In any case, most Egyptians do not speak fluent English, or don't care enough to view videos like these in English. While Copts are on average more educated, most people who are answering here are probably diaspora.

[joeyoussef]

I identify myself as a coptic or Egyptian not Arab but maybe I have influenced by Arab culture with many cultures in Egypt also but still I am not Arab as identity

[teshikajikatoshikachi]

Wrong from the 1 min. Just because Google say there is only arabic language it doesn’t have to be true.
So I’m gone! 👋

[MESSI-fxob]

Copts are not solely disgruntled over mistreatment, if they were I’d be the first to stand with them

The root of this Coptic problem comes from a sense of regret and lose over the conversion of Egypt

Coptic angst can always be traced to religious revivalism

In this sense Copts are no different than the people they criticize, they just lost the culture war

Also you do not become Egyptian because of genetic lineage and you do not become a non-Arab because you are a genetic descendent of people who practiced ancient Egyptian culture

Ancient Egyptians did not care for genetic background they cared for culture, if you were culturally assimilated you were Egyptian, so when you try and make this “I’m genetic child of the ancients so I’m Egyptians” argument know ancient Egyptians would have found that argument worthless

[faiga]

Egyptians are Arabs, some Arabs are Christians not only copies are Arabs Christians.
Stop dividing people. We are all humans.