Joseph Fahim, an editor of the Cairo-based webzine The Egypt Monocle, has a tribune on the reaction of Egypt’s Copts (who are some 15-20% of the country’s population) to Muslim Brother Mohamed Morsi’s accession to the presidency. They’re fearful. Well worth reading.
(h/t Hussein Ibish)
Thanks for the link. Excellent article. Until now, I would have said the same thing to my friends as Fahim said to his family about the Brotherhood and for basically the same reasons. After Morsi’s terrifying speech, I think Fahim is exactly on the money. « Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop ». I would not want to be a Copt in Egypt today.
The situation of the Copt’s aside, I must say that after the rather extended charm offensive by the Muslim Brotherhood in the run-up to the election, Morsi’s pledge to work to free Omar Abdel-Rahman (the guy convicted of plotting to blow up buildings in New York City) came as a shock to me. Morsi did more in that one sentence to turn Americans against him and the Muslim Brotherhood than Pamela Geller, Sean Hannity or Fox News could have done in ten thousand years. Gratuitously alienating public opinion in America was an act of astonishing arrogance and stupidity, especially for a group that will almost certainly need American support to keep from being crushed by the army. It seems almost suicidal. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/29/mohamed-morsi-sheikh-us?newsfeed=true)
I don’t know how many ordinary Americans paid attention to Morsi’s speech but one group in the US that certainly did – and will have taken note of his pledge on Omar Abdel-Rahman – was the Congress. Morsi will be well advised not to push the issue.