User:Ldingley/copt people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Copts (Coptic: rem`nkymi; Greek Αἰγύπτιος; Arabic qubṭi قبطي) are the direct descendants of the Ancient Egyptians[citation needed] who adhere today to the Christian religion. Copts are therefore pre-Arab and pre-Islamic Egyptians. Copts are identified as a native and unique ethno-religious group of Egypt.
File:Newcopts854754.jpg | |
Regions with significant populations | |
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Egypt, Australia, US, EU, Canada | |
Languages | |
Coptic | |
Religion | |
Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism, Protestantism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Ancient Egyptians, Amazigh |
The word Copt was first used by the Arab invaders of Egypt in the 7th century to denote all Egyptians. With time, as most Egyptians converted to Islam, the religion brought by the Arabs, the term Copt became exclusive to those Egyptians who remained Christian and did not intermarry with the Arabs. Thus, Copts are not Arabs; neither are the Egyptians who changed only their religion but not their ethnic and cultural identity, as once before they changed their religion to Christianity without ceasing to be "the direct descendants of the Ancient Egyptians" who certainly were not Christian.
Most Copts (more than 95%) are members of the Coptic Orthodox Church[citation needed], an Oriental Orthodox church that traces its foundation back to Saint Mark the Evangelist in the first century AD. Other Copts belong to the Coptic Catholic Church or to various Coptic Protestant denominations. Other Christian minorities in Egypt, such as members of the Melkite Greek Orthodox Church or the Melkite Greek Catholic Church are mostly descendants of recent immigrants rather than native Egyptians. Thus, the term Copt cannot be used to refer to them.
The number of Copts in Egypt has been subject to some controversy. Coptic sources put forward figures ranging from 14% to 20% (between 10 and 15 million), but the Egyptian government insists that the Copts represent about 6% (4 million) of the Egyptian population. Part of the controversy could be attributed to the increasing number of Copts born outside Egypt and who do not carry Egyptian passports. The number of Copts within Egypt may be very slowly declining due to higher immigration rates caused by harassment and discrimination at the hands of Islamist militants and the Egyptian government, as well as lower birth rates compared to Muslims. The 2006 World Factbook estimates that 7.6 million or 10% of Egyptians are Christian.[1] Regardless of their exact number, Copts represent the largest indigenous Christian community in the Middle East.
Egyptian Copts have occasionally been on the receiving end of violent acts from Islamic extremist groups. Copts have leveled the accusation that the Egyptian government has sometimes been complicit or uncaring in the face of such incidents.
The term Copt has been historically used as to include Ethiopian and Eritrean Christians. This is however is misnomer caused by the fact that the churches of Ethiopia and Eritrea are daughter churches of the Egyptian Church. Nevertheless, the term Copt should be only used to refer to the Egyptian Christians.