The army chief-turned-presidential candidate, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, is the miracle that Egypt's 8 million Christians have been waiting for after weathering an Islamist leadership, but supporting a potential dictator could be dangerous.
When Field Marshall Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Egypt’s defense minister, declared on national television that he was stepping down to run for President, it put an end to months of fevered speculation. Nine months ago, in a similarly televised appearance on July 3, 2013, Sisi announced that he had just overthrown President Mohamed Morsi. He was flanked by Egypt’s two most important religious leaders, the Grand Sheikh of al Azhar Mosque and Pope Tawadros, head of Egypt’s Christian church. It was supposed to be an encouraging statement — Egypt’s two faiths united on one stage, standing by a military man who decided that a secular coup was better for the country’s stability than the rule of an Islamist, no matter that he was the country’s first freely elected president.
For Egypt’s eight million Christians, many of whom had fervently prayed for God to deliver them from an Islamist leadership that threatened to write their rights out of the country’s new constitution, it was a miracle. They hailed al-Sisi as a messiah, the only one who could have saved them. But that slavish mixing of religion and politics also made them a target. Within days the full brunt of the Islamists’ rage was directed at Egypt’s Christians in one of the worst spasms of communal violence the country has ever seen. Sixty-three churches were burned, Christian orphanages and businesses were ransacked, and graffiti assaulting Egypt’s Christians as “dogs of Tawadros” was scrawled across the ruins. In October, unknown gunmen opened fire on a wedding party at a Cairo church, killing five, including an eight-year old girl. “It felt like we were at war,” says parishioner Nagah Sehata, who was in the church office when he heard the gunshots.Read the rest of the story HERE.
If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.
1 comment:
The military taking over in Egypt was an amazingly lucky break for every non-Muslim on the planet. The Obama admin. did everything possible to screw it up, but it worked out okay, at least for now. I wonder if there were any patriotic Americans working behind the scenes to help the Egyptian military. Obama has not had the time to clean out all the patriots in the US Govt.
Post a Comment