Tyson and Samia Nettles Reflect on their Recent Trip too Egypt

Some weeks before the unrest, our own parishioners Samia and Tyson Nettles were in Egypt.  Samia’s father is from that region and they were visiting family over Christmas.  Here is Tyson’s report:

My wife Samia and I traveled to Egypt over the New Year’s holidays after Christmas with our domestic families for a vacation and to visit with some of her family there in Cairo and Alexandria.

Egypt is a third-world country and 91% Muslim. Most of the women wear hijab (head scarves) or abaya (the cloaks leaving only slits for the eyes).  Only 8% of the population are Christian (Coptic Eastern Orthodox) and less than 1% are other types of Christian such as Anglican.   Despite being formerly under British control until recent history, this nation of 83 million people has only 13 Anglican churches and less than 10,000 Anglicans church members (0.01% of the population) – much less than the Anglican total population of Charleston County (pop. 350,000).

Although Samia has been to Egypt many times, this was one of my first times being a serious ethnic or religious minority. For Egyptians, seeing me, a blonde hair, blue-eyed Westerner in jeans and tennis shoes, strolling through the markets, might be akin to an Arab Sheik standing in line for a sub sandwich at the Harris Teeter on East Bay.

I played golf at a private club in Alexandria and watched awkwardly while play came to a halt as many of the golfers headed to the on-course mosque for prayers.

While we were in Alexandria, a midnight mass on New Years Eve at a nearby Coptic church was struck by a car bomb. Twenty three Christians died that night.

We did not find out about it until early the next morning when we were set to travel by train from Alexandria to Cairo. The tension in the air at the station was palpable. Our Egyptian family picked us up at the Cairo station, and we began to make our way to the hotel along a busy downtown street along the Nile. (Traffic slowed to a crawl like the first day of the South Eastern Wildlife Exposition on Meeting Street in Charleston.) We found out that the Cairo Coptic Christians were rioting and protesting at one of the government offices near our hotel because of what they believe to be the government’s discrimination towards them.

Thousands of riot police in full arms with shields and batons lined the street.

For the remainder of the trip, we were careful about where we went and what was going on.  Even in then most Western and “Christian” parts of Cairo (Zamalek – where most of the Western Embassies are) with Starbucks and English bookstores

All of this was a stark reminder that the comfort, safety and security we often take for granted here as Anglican Christians in Charleston is a true blessing.

~ Tyson Nettles