A few weeks ago news surfaced about the H1N1 influenza that was spreading from Mexico. This kind of influenza was known but largely ignored. It appeared to be a mosaic of a wild bird form of flue, a human type and a strain found in pigs.

It's interesting to notice that in 2006 the American Association of Swine Veterinarians reported that humans were passing the H1N1 viruses to pigs; this caused widespread illness in swine, especially in the American Midwest. One year later in Ohio an outbreak occurred, sickening many of the pigs but not their human handlers. The cause was a type of H1N1 that was a close match to the Wisconsin strain that may have been spread from human to pig.

Researchers from Iowa State University in Ames warned last year that pigs located in industrial-scale farms were being subjected to influenza infections from farm poultry, wild birds, and their human handlers.

The above was a summary of scientific information published around the world. However, the swine pandemic is spreading around the world as well as the bird flue.

In Egypt however, the swine are handled in small quantities by poor Copts. Those Copts are known as "zabaleen", an Arabic name for garbage man. In Cairo there is an area with the same name where those Copts are living together with the garbage that has been collected.

Copts reached this level of poverty due to the regime ruling the country in the past sixty years. In order for the "zabaleen" to generate extra income, they began to raise pigs. Swine meat is consumed among Christians of Egypt.

In spite of the fact that there is no case of influenza among Egyptians, the regime made the decision to conduct a mass killing of all the local swine. Various international organizations, scientists from Egypt and elsewhere are curious about this fast and drastic decision. The fact is the regime does not care about the health of its population. The main reason is to damage part of the Coptic source of life, the following are a few examples:

• The water is a vital element for mankind; Egypt had a great gift of water which is the Nile. When in the past the Nile water was potable, now the same water is a great danger for the health.
• The government allows the use of certain fertilizers that turned out to be dangerous; in fact various people developed cancer due to eating certain vegetables.
• The level of air and sound pollution is over the limit of the international scale.
• Egypt has the highest number of deaths resulting from the Avian Influenza (H5N1).

The list could be longer but in order to remain on topic, my question is why the government decided to destroy all Egyptian swine?

The answer is simple, its part of the forced Islamization which has been planned for over fifty years.

The Islamization of Egypt started with Nasser by nationalizing Coptic, Jews, and foreign companies. Jews as well as Italians, Greeks, English, and others were kicked out. Copts were treated in a different way but the final result was to force them to leave the country or to become the poorest citizens of Egypt.

The Zabaleen is one of the sad Coptic realities of Egypt . They are the result of discrimination and oppression.

The plan to remove the swine from the land of Pharos has been pending for over three years in the parliament. When the regime found the right opportunity they were able to kill two birds with one stone:

• The pig is an insane animal as per Muslims, killing it satisfied insisting requests made by their leaders.
• Oppressing that trade would result in making the zabaleen even more poor so they would have to leave the country or their religion.

Voice of the Copts is committed to strengthening the voice of those who are suffering in Egypt; we will not stand without exposing the Egyptian regime's plans.

We are calling on the sensibility of the governments of free countries and their congresses. The human rights organizations are to press the Egyptian regime to stop that massacre.

Our efforts will not stop until that massacre stops. Copts in Egypt have the right to live their life with dignity and respect and we will fight to achieve that goal no matter the cost.

www.voiceofthecopts.org