Mideast and North African Ethnic and Religious Minorities Must Fight to Liberate Themselves From Arab Muslim Occupation

This past week, the so-called Islamic State terrorist group attacked a bus in Egypt full of Coptic Christian worshipers and killed nearly thirty of them. It was just another attack in the seemingly endless wave of assaults on the remaining ethnic and religious minority communities in North Africa and the Middle East. The Egyptian Copts are the direct descendants of the original Egyptian population, unlike the current Arab Muslim majority that rules the country today. They are the descendants of the Arab Muslim conquerors that swept through North Africa and the Middle East in the seventh and eighth centuries, exterminating many of the peoples, cultures, languages and religious traditions in these regions. The savage and horrific attacks by ISIL and other Islamist terrorists are just a continuation of the centuries' old campaign to purge the Middle East and North Africa of all non-Arab and non-Muslim elements once and for all.

So what are the remaining non-Arab, non-Muslim people in countries like Egypt to do? I think it comes down to two options. They can abandon their homes and their lands to seek a better life elsewhere. Or, they can stay and fight for their lands and their rights. Over the last century, the overwhelming majority have chosen the first option. I think this is very tragic and sad, because they're basically giving the Muslim Arab occupiers what they want - a region free of non-Arab and non-Muslim people. There is one notable exception - Israel - the nation-state of the Jewish people. Israel's existence proves that it is possible for a country's original inhabitants to take their land and their freedom back from the Muslim Arab conquerors. And I see no reason why the other communities that represent the original inhabitants of North Africa and the Middle East can't do what the Jewish people did. Hence, I don't see why it isn't possible for Egyptian Copts, Assyrians, or any other ethnic or religious minority to reclaim their independence from their Muslim Arab overlords. The Jews are not unique in their ability to overcome overwhelming odds. History is littered with examples of the weak defeating the strong and taking back what is rightfully theirs.

In fact, as I write this, some of the region's minority people are fighting back against Arab, Muslim domination and tyranny. The Kurds of northern Iraq, for example, have managed to gain a wide degree of autonomy for themselves. They are also on the front lines of the war against ISIL. I think it's only a matter of time before they gain full independence. Indeed, I sincerely hope that in the near future, the Kurds, Assyrians, (Coptic) Egyptians and Phoenicians (Lebanese Christians) will join the Jews as peoples who have regained their independence from the Arab Muslim occupation.

See also: End the Arab Occupation