A nation cannot live in cultural vacuum (black circle): you either occupy your national space with your own culture (blue circle) or it will be filled in by a foreign culture (red circle), often that of your enemy
How much I would like to drill into the heads of my people that no nation lives in cultural vacuum: a nation is composed of human beings, and human beings are in need of a certain culture to live on. Culture is not just essential to mankind, but mankind cannot be imagined without some sort of culture even in its primitive stages. Culture is composed of the beliefs in regard to the world in general and the divine; what is right and what is wrong; the way to treat each other, marriage, family, women, and children; the world view that determines the type of friends and enemies and decides allegiances and enmities. These sets of values, beliefs, traditions, customs, etc., are encoded, and passed on from one generation to the next, in religion, laws, language, literature, music, etc.
Fill in your national life with your own culture, to determine how you behave and live and what sort of civilisation you build, or risk having a foreign culture occupying your national space and determining for that; and decide for you what kind of men and women you become.
You cannot have your own culture without having your own language, literature and music. Let in the language, literature and music of others, particularly those who are intent on destroying your unique identity, and you shall lose your cultural independence, and be assimilated to that foreign culture.
The Copts must have their own language, literature and music, or they will humiliatingly feed on the culture of others that make these others what they are. In clearer words: the Copts must replace the culture of the Arabs and Muslims that dominate their lives, by reason of them being ruled by a majority of Arabs and Muslims, by creating their own culture, not just in religious areas, but in every area in which culture is important. Have your own language, literature and music; and drive away the culture of the Arabs and Muslims.
I must add a note of explanation here: this writer does not call boycotting the study or knowledge of the culture of the Arabs or even enjoying some aspects of it; nor does he paint all Arab culture with tar. He, however, calls for creation of a special vibrant national culture for the Copts that can determine the way they live and treat the world and each other without influence from Arab and Muslim culture. Let Arabs have their culture; and let Copts have theirs. Let us try to understand each other’s culture; but let us stop trying to assimilate the other into one’s culture through dominance.
