Informed observers are increasingly raising the fear that new elections will put the Muslim Brotherhood in control of Egypt’s parliament and the presidency. Of course it will try. Senior Brotherhood leader Sobhi Saleh, who helped write Egypt’s interim constitution, said in a recent video that he expects the new government to be Islamist.
As new demonstrations broke out at Tahrir Square on May 27th—the “Second Day of Rage”—the Brotherhood withdrew its youth from the Revolution Youth Coalition that has pushed for democratic reform. After forming the Party of Freedom and Justice, headed by Muslim Brotherhood politburo leader Mohammed al-Mursi, it revised an earlier promise to contest only 30 percent of parliament seats upwards to 45 percent or more.
News that Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s Islamist president, has promised to uphold his country’s long-standing peace treaty with Israel has been widely welcomed. Revealingly, however, Mr Morsi refused to refer to the Jewish state by name, sticking instead to a generalised statement that his government was “in full respect of international peace treaties”.
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, responded by urging Morsi to put his money where his mouth is. “We hope to see President Morsi receiving official Israeli representatives,” he said. “We want to see him giving interviews to Israeli media and we want to see him in Jerusalem.”
The video above shows raw emotional pain. I could have chosen worse, but I wanted only to convey the distress our brothers are in without exalting the power of the enemy. As it is, it is hard enough to take.
The two year old “Arab Spring” was much-heralded in the western press. It began in Tunisia, which is ironically one of the less oppressive Arab nations, when a street merchant immolated himself to protest government corruption. Such is the human thirst for freedom. These people have access to the Internet now, and they see how westerners live. How you gonna keep them down on the farm?
For many years whenever I would hear that a nation didn’t have the cultural underpinnings for democracy, I thought that was absurd. Self determination is hard-wired in our psyche, I reasoned. But I was naïve of spiritual strongholds that repress truth and freedom. Since then I’ve learned the bitter truth.
“After the victory of the military by this Islamist president, we should not be surprised that they are going to have more restrictions with the press because the Islamist agenda has to start with controlling what is being said to the Egyptian people,, to control the outside and foreign influence on the press and to control anything that doesn’t go in the mainstream wanted and planned by the Islamists,” - Dr. Mansouria Mokhefi, Head of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the French Institute of Foreign Relations in Paris.
We have, and it’s about time to acknowledge it and to accept it because we have no other way to deal with this situation, to accept the fact that the Egyptians have elected the president, who is the first civilian since independence in the 50s, the first non-military and the first Muslim Brother. We have to acknowledge that although this regime claims to be attached to freedom of the market, of freedom of the economy and everything, this is nevertheless the regime which base and roots and philosophy are Islam and what we know about Islam is that it’s different from what we claim as freedom of the press, freedom of expression, human rights and everything. So, once we acknowledge this, we should stop being surprised, appalled by all the restrictions that we are going to be witnessing with this. And this is being said without any judgment. It’s just a go-back to reality, we are dealing with the new dimension in politics, in philosophy in this countries.
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THIS spring, I traveled to the cradle of the Arab uprisings — a forlorn street corner in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, where a street vendor, drenched in paint thinner, struck a match in December 2010 that ignited the entire Middle East. “We have far more freedoms,” one peddler hawking fruit in the same square lamented, “but far fewer jobs.” Another noted that Mohamed Bouazizi, the vendor who set himself on fire, did so not to vote in a democratic election but because harassment by local officials had cost him his livelihood.
As the peddlers vented, prayers ended at the whitewashed mosque across the street. Among the faithful were Salafis, ultraconservative Sunni Muslims vying to define the new order according to seventh-century religious traditions rather than earthly realities. For years, many Salafis — “salaf” means predecessors — had avoided politics and embraced autocrats as long as they were Muslims. But over the past eight months, clusters of worshipers across the Middle East have morphed into powerful Salafi movements that are tapping into the disillusionment and disorder of transitions.
It is my view that whether political Islam is defined as a religious theocratic movement or a political movement in the modern sense of political movements, the currents of political Islam have a position concerning the type of value system which contemporary intellectuals in advanced societies recognise as constituting the foundations of a culture of progress and modernity.
So a conversation must needs be held between some of these value systems and the mentality and behaviour of exponents of currents of political Islam. This is what I shall attempt to do in an essay such as this, which aims to place political Islam side by side with a number of values associated with modernity and progress.
The conception of the modern state: modern Islamists are unable to understand or accept or even admire the modern state system, which is the product or the result of centuries of political, cultural, social and economic struggle over the course of human progress. When the Prophet took ill (during the last days of his life) he tasked his close companion Abu Bakr al-Siddīq with deputising for him in leading the prayer. When the Prophet passed away shortly afterwards, a large number of Muslims considered that this entrusting of the leadership of the prayer constituted an indication from the Prophet that Abu Bakr was to be his preferred successor. And this is what in fact took place in the aftermath of the problems associated with the Saqīfa compact (saqīfat banī sāʽda)[2]. From the very first day Abu Bakr became “the Prophet’s ‘deputy’” or successor.
Persecution of Christian Copts in Egypt on Rise as Muslim Brotherhood Consolidates Power
By Michael Terheyde
Christians in the Middle East need our help as well as our prayers
President Mursi said he was going to be the president of all Egyptians, including the Copts. As we watch events unfold in Egypt, we have to ask ourselves, was that just a big lie, a ruse to gain power and Islamize Egypt? Does President Mursi mean to govern the Copts as a free and equal people or as the dhimmi class? Some Copts fear a return to the days of the dhimmi class and the jizya tax, as Islamist groups seem emboldened since the Muslim Brotherhood's rise to power.
A Coptic Christian woman prays
KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - There is growing fear among the Coptic Christian community as open violence escalates against them in Egypt. According to reports, this violence is in response to a letter calling on Muslims to kill Copts. Again, the world watches to see if Egypt's new president, Mohammed Mursi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, intends to follow up on his promise to be the president of all Egyptians.
Steadily burgeoning [2] evidence [3] indicates that one of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, Huma Abedin, despite Ms. Clinton’s protestation [4], was inadequately vetted for either family, or personal ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Diligent, open [5] source [2] investigation [3] has already uncovered and documented numerous alarming connections. One can reasonably infer that a serious, formal Congressional investigation of the overall extent of Muslim Brotherhood influence operations—as requested [6] by Representatives Bachmann, Gohmert, Franks, Westmoreland, and Rooney—might yield even more disturbing findings.
The rigours of Ramadan observance ensure that as Ramadan progresses frustration accumulates. This, merged with religious zeal, produces an incendiary mix. On Wednesday 25 July a dispute erupted in the village of Dahshur on the southern outskirts of Cairo, after a Coptic launderer inadvertently singed the shirt of his Muslim client. The Muslim agreed to return in the evening to settle the claim but returned in the afternoon with a vengeful mob. With a large crowd of armed Muslims besieging his home and laundrette, the Copt threw a Molotov cocktail from the roof. It hit and severely burnt a Muslim youth passing by. When he died in hospital on 1 August, Muslim Brotherhood clerics, instead of rising up as peacemakers, incited Islamic hysteria and vowed collective punishment. The ensuing Islamic pogrom left 16 Copts injured, numerous Coptic homes and businesses torched and the only church in the village vandalised. This violence included threats to shoot all Christians dead and convinced some 120 Christian families they had no choice but to flee. Only one elderly Christian woman remained, receiving sanctuary in the home of a Muslim neighbour.
Yesterday, there was another attempt to break into a church, after demolishing the church of Atfih, burning the church of Embaba, demolishing the church of al-Marinab in Aswan. This time the story happens in St. George church in al-Badrasheen village, Giza, in addition to burning and looting the properties of the Copts. Losses are estimated at more than 3 million EGP, not to mention the horror and panic that children of the Copts have experienced since the beginning of the incident. I can call it: organized forced displacement for the Egyptian Christians, which targets forcing them to leave Egypt and travel to other countries.
Among the biggest losers from the current Arab political upheavals are the Christian minorities of the Middle East.
Long before the Arab Spring, Iraq’s historic Christian community had shrunk dramatically, as tens of thousands fled threats and bomb attacks by Islamist militias. The flood of refugees pouring out of Syria includes many of that country’s Christian minority, who fear a radical Islamist takeover if President Bashar Assad falls.
Meantime, most of Egypt’s Coptic Christians, who make up 10 percent of the population, are deeply worried by the election of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi as president. “There is a feeling that democracy has been a disaster for us,” says Samia Sidhom, managing editor of Watani, a newspaper that serves the Coptic community. (The Coptic church dates back 19 centuries and is based on the teachings of St. Mark, who took Christianity to Egypt.)
“Muslim and Christian villagers hurled fire bombs at each other south of Cairo after a Christian laundry worker burnt a Muslim’s shirt,” that was the piece of news I woke up to one Ramadan morning this year. And Ramadan memories came flooding through my head.
I can recall my mother’s closest friend, a lady who I visited more than I did my own family. Tante Aziza, may she rest in peace, was a devout Copt living across town from our house. My mother and Tante Aziza shared a trait; being very religious. Tante Aziza would fast the whole 250 days of Coptic fasting without flinching. And because she did that, our fasting and hers would mostly coincide and we would all fast both ways. No food or drink all day, then break our fast to vegan foods. Hard hard days, but we came through. We spent our feasts together, we had Christmas trees and Ramadan lanterns in both houses. Tante Aziza would bake kahk (Muslim feast cookies) and bring them to us because mum didn’t, and mum would prepare a big meaty meal to celebrate the end of Coptic fasting.
The Muslim Brotherhood is on the rise. The Islamist group is spreading across the Middle East. The question is whether it has infiltrated the Obama administration, especially the State Department. Led by Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a band of House Republican conservatives is investigating the reach of the Muslim Brotherhood. For this, they are being vilified not just by the liberal media, but by the GOP establishment. Our ruling class refuses to confront the reality of radical Islam.
In particular, Washington’s elites are circling the wagons around Huma Abedin, a top adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Ms. Abedin is a classic Beltway insider. For years, she has served as a close aide to Ms. Clinton. Ms. Abedin is also married to disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, New York Democrat. She is widely known on Capitol Hill — including among Republicans. She is a life-long liberal apparatchik, an ambitious political climber who has done favors for both parties. This is why when Ms. Bachmann — along with four other members of Congress — wrote a letter to the State Department’s Office of Inspector General asking if a proper background check was conducted prior to Ms. Abedin’s appointment, the stalwart conservative was excoriated. Liberals are calling Ms. Bachmann “Joseph McCarthy with lipstick.” House Speaker John Boehner and Sen. John McCain have denounced her as “irresponsible” and “reckless.”
Mohamed Morsi's choice of prime minister confirms Egyptian fears
The appointment of Hisham Kandil, from the outgoing cabinet, is a bitter reminder that the revolution is far from complete
Mohamed Morsi, centre, is likely to appoint Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, left, as defence minister. Photograph: Sherif Abd El Minoem/AP
Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, has lived up to the worst expectations of him. He may be an experienced old cadre in the Muslim Brotherhood and a dogged parliamentarian, but his choice of prime minister confirms what many suspected: he lacks imagination and flare.
This was never an ARAB spring, it was Islamic revival and Domination = Annihilation of NON MULSIMS
Coptic group calls for protest against proposed constitutional changes
Maspero Copts United calls for demonstrations against recent proposals by Salafist parties that would make Islamic Law 'sole source' of legislation in Egypt's next constitution
Ekram Ibrahim
Amid ongoing negotiations over Egypt's new constitution, Maspero Copts United – a Coptic-Christian revolutionary movement – announced its rejection of recent proposals to make Islamic Law "the sole source" of Egyptian legislation.
In a few hours, and after a week of wait, we will finally get the presidential results. There are two presidential candidates that are so close in terms of votes that it makes half of the country hostile to whomever is coming. The two dueling camps both now have their own spots for massive protests, after having the Shafiq supporters move their protest spot to Nasr City. The imagery on TV, presenting the dueling protests, were something that occupied the entire night capturing in live video imagery how divided this country is at the moment. The situation in Egypt has turned hilariously complex, to the point that if you detach yourself completely from the fight, You will be able to see the fascinating design that’s taking shape, and what the very near future holds for us.
Three years after Obama appeared in Cairo to praise Islam, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Mohammed Morsi, the country’s new Islamist president, and urged the army to turn over power to him. In three years Egypt had gone from a stabilizing influence and a regional ally to a blossoming Sunni Iran. If Egypt’s transformation had been an isolated incident, it would still have been a foreign policy disaster, but it was actually part of a chain of such transformations with Islamists coming to power in Tunisia, Islamist thugs sweeping across Mali to enforce Sharia law and the Muslim Brotherhood emerging as the dominant force in Syria’s rebel council and likely transitional government under the auspices of Turkey’s AKP Islamist rulers.
Al-Azhar University, which Obama described in his Cairo speech as “a beacon of Islamic learning,” is part of the mechanism by which Coptic Christian women and girls are kidnapped, raped and forced into Islam. It was also this “beacon of Islamic learning” that Dr. Muhammad, the head of its Department of Islamic Preaching and Culture, declared that Jews are the source of all evil.
This is the beacon of the new Islamic world order that Obama’s disastrous pandering enabled. But it began even earlier. Obama’s first visit outside the hemisphere, after a few obligatory European summits, was to Turkey where he addressed a parliament dominated by Islamists. When Obama arrived in Istanbul, the AKP was working to eliminate Turkish secularism and replace it with its own brand of Islamism. Its attack on the Turkish Constitution was still controversial and many Turkish patriots continued to speak out against it.
وقال الخرباوي في تصريح لـ"صدى البلد"، إن جماعة الاخوان قدمت ضمانات قوية للادارة الأمريكية بالحفاظ على مصالحها، إلى جانب رغبتها في أن يكون الرئيس الجديد للبلاد يتمتع بقاعدة جماهيرية عريضة.
Joel Brinkley: In Egypt, Morsi's silence speaks volumes
Mohammed Morsi has been Egypt's president for less than a month, and already senior clerics in his country and around the Islamic world are loudly calling for the demolition of the pyramids, Egypt's most important tourist attraction and among the Seven Wonders of the World.
Saudi Sheik Ali bin Said al-Rabi'i called them heinous "symbols of paganism." In recent days, similar calls have been echoing through Egypt and the region, including one from a Bahraini sheik who urged Morsi to "destroy the pyramids and accomplish what the Amr bin al-As could not." He was referring to the Prophet Muhammad's companion who conquered Egypt in the seventh century but didn't have the technological wherewithal to accomplish the task.
USA Collaboration with Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood
Protested In Germany
Egyptian Dr. Seti Shenouda Guendi Opposes US Alliance
with the Terrorist Group in a Letter to President Obama
Delivered Nov. 18, 2011 to the American Consulate in Düsseldorf
Mr. President Barak Hussein Obama
US Consulate
Willi-Becker-Alle 7
Düsseldorf, Germany
Millions of Egyptians are very disturbed by the recent news of secretive communications between the United States and the militant Muslim Brotherhood (MB) Organization aiming to help MB’s conspiracy to rule Egypt.
On June 30, 2011 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton disclosed the existence of such talks (the French News Agency; same date). MB spokesman Mr. Mahmoud Ghozlan immediately issued a confirmation welcoming the talks and acknowledging they had been going on for years. During that period the MB had categorically and repeatedly denied any deliberations with the US.
US Department of State spokesman Mr. Mark Toner announced on July 1, 2011 that his government would continue the secret dialogue with the MB. It had started in 2006.
النرجسية تعني حب الذات نسبة إلي أسطورة يونانية ورد فيها أن ناريس أو نرجس كان آية في الجمال، فعشق ذاته عندما رأي وجهه في الماء.. أول من استخدم تعبير النرجسية هو المحلل النفسي «سيجموند فرويد» والنرجسية لها أشكال متعددة، فهناك شخص نرجسي بسبب مظهره الخارجي وآخر لثقافته ودرجته العلمية أو بسبب حسبه ونسبه، وكل هؤلاء لا يشكلون خطرا علي المجتمع بل الخطر الحقيقي يكمن في النرجسية الدينية.
فالصفة الأساسية للشخص النرجسي هي عشقه لنفسه لدرجة يتضاءل أمامه الآخرون، فيري أنه الأذكي والأجمل والأفضل، ومن هذا المنطلق تجده يسخّر الآخرين لأغراضه وأهدافه بلا قيد أو رادع، وهو لا يحتمل النقد ولا يريد سوي سماع كلمات المدح والإعجاب من الآخرين.
If Egypt's government does go Islamist—and early presidential election results indicate it will— millions of powerless Christians will be seen as troublesome and unwelcome infidels, not just by "extremists," but by the government as well: the first step to genocide.
Earlier, after the first presidential elections of May 23-24, any number of Islamists denounced them, bemoaning that it was the Copts who were responsible for the secularist candidate Ahmed Shafiq's good showing.
There are those who claim that the Islamization of Egyptian society reflects "the will of the people." But history teaches us that the "will of the people" is not always beneficial.
Egyptian identity, like so many others, made up of several layers, begins in Ancient Egypt, a civilization that flourished for nearly thirty centuries. Further layers derive from the Coptic Age, when Egypt in its entirety was an Eastern Christian society. Then there are countless layers from the Islamic and Arabic-speaking Egypt.
There are still more layers deriving from modern Egypt, the founder of which, Mohamed Ali, ruled from 1805 to 1848, and whose kingdom continued for over a century after his death.
Egyptian women fear fewer rights, more harassment after elections
As Egyptian run-off presidential elections approach, fears are mounting over the protection and rights of women amid prevalent sexual harassment and political repression. Egyptians fear returning to the female oppression of a distant past.
The run-off elections are to be held on June 16th between Ahmed Shafik, the last Prime Minister under ousted President Hosni Mubarak, and Mohamed Morsi, Chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.
The Freedom and Justice party holds a majority in parliament, and is known for its conservative Islamic values. These include having women work from the home as a good wife and mother and dress in the traditional headscarf. A Muslim Brotherhood ideal would be for Egypt to be under Sharia law, but they say they will not implement it unless the people of Egypt want it.
Women say they would be better off under the rule of Mubarak since rights are being taken away, such as the right to divorce, instead of being more given. Parliament is also discussing proposals to reduce the marriage age for a girl to 14 and a custody law that will give children over eight to fathers.
This mental, intellectual and cultural stagnation represents not only a danger for humanity, but for the Muslims themselves, in that, among other limiting features, it places them and their societies in a state of enmity, even war, with the rest of humanity.
Forty years ago, one of the subjects offered for a Masters degree in law was Islamic Jurisprudence -- a massive, purely human endeavour, whose founder, the Grand Imam Abu Hanifa al-No'man, defined it as the science of extracting practical rulings from legal proofs.
The subject extended beyond the four established legal schools – the Hanafite, Malakite, Shafi'i, and Hanbalite – and even beyond the legal schools founded by other Sunni sects that have since fallen into oblivion -- and into the realm of Shiite jurisprudence. The school of Muslim theology I admired most was the Mu'tazalites and their offshoots -- especially the ideas of Ghilan Al-Demeshky, who challenged the doctrine of predestination on the grounds that it denies man's responsibility for his deeds, good and bad, and which led me to ask a number of nagging questions.
The term Pakistan was coined in 1933 by Indian Muslim student Choudhury Rahmat Ali while studying at Cambridge. In Now or Never he argued that India’s Muslim minority needed their own homeland to be safe from Hindu majority tyranny:
“The ideals which move our thirty million brethren-in-faith living in these provinces to make the highest sacrifices are fundamentally different from those which inspire the Hindus. These differences are not confined to the broad basic principles – far from it. They extend to the minutest details of our lives. We do not inter-dine; we do not inter-marry. Our national customs, calendars, even our diet and dress are different.”Choudhary Rahmat Ali
Dear Secretary H. Clinton ... I am aware that you know very little about Islam, the history of Muslim people, Islamic Jurisprudence, Political Islam, the literature and march of the Muslim Brotherhood, Wahhabism and the (impossible to be changed) agenda of Egypt's MBs. http://bachmann.house.gov/uploadedfiles/ig_letter_odni.pdf I also know that your boss (like yourself) knows very very little about all the domains that I just quoted. You (and your country) shall not bear the consequences of a policy that have been worked out by those who know very little about these Islam related subjects.
Egypt to pick Islamist or military man as president
Christians and secular liberals anxious about personal freedoms - and the fate of Egypt's vital tourist industry - will fret about a promised Brotherhood push for Islamic law
CAIRO (Reuters): Egyptians must choose between a Muslim Brother or an ex-military man in a presidential run-off that highlights the stark rifts in a nation united in euphoria when Hosni Mubarak fell 15 months ago, first-round results indicated on Friday.
With most votes counted, the Muslim Brotherhood said its candidate Mohamed Mursi had topped this week's polls and would compete in next month's second round with former air force chief Ahmed Shafiq, who served as Mubarak's last prime minister.
Woman, two children beheaded in Afghanistan honor killing
Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide.
A manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni
orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni
Islam, says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a
human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not
subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or
mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2). In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.
A little over two hundred and fifty years ago, in 1744 to be precise, an alliance was forged between Mohamed ibn-Saud and Mohamed ibn-Abdul Wahab, whereby the former agreed to rule according to the doctrine preached by the latter. A succinct statement made by Mohamed ibn-Abdul Wahab shortly after the deal was struck expresses the essence of his doctrine, which is known as Wahhabism: “Blood, blood, destruction, destruction.” These four simple words summarize what was and what continues to be the message of Wahhabism. The partnership between the two men led to the first incarnation of the Saudi-Wahhabi state. Anyone who, like me, has read the nineteen books written by Mohamed ibn-Abdul Wahab will realize that he belongs more to the realm of proselytism than to that of Islamic jurisprudence. The first Saudi state lasted from 1744 until 1819, when Ibrahim Pasha, Mohamed Ali's eldest son, led a military expedition which destroyed the state, razed its capital, Al-Dir'iyah, to the ground and captured its prince, Abdullah ibn-Saud, sending him first to Cairo then on to the capital of the Ottoman state where he was executed.
Egyptian women worry about rights under new Islamist president
CAIRO — As fireworks lit the sky after Egypt
elected its first Islamist president last month, Nadeen Gamil, who had
endured years of sexual harassment, knew that the battle for women’s
rights had taken an ominous turn.
While thousands celebrated in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt’s
revolution, women were intimidated and rhetoric intensified that
President Mohamed Morsi’s victory would herald an increase in piousness
and hijabs: “Tomorrow, Morsi will cover you all up, your days are over.”
The Historical Responsibility of the Silent Majority
By Tarek Heggy
I have no doubt that the shape, nature, essence and direction of Egypt's political future will be determined by the silent majority. That is, of course, only if they adopt an active role and participate in all the forthcoming elections [starting with the People's Assembly, followed by the Shura Council, then the referendum on the new Constitution and, finally, the presidential elections]. This scenario will place Egypt on the road to progress, stability and prosperity. If, on the other hand, the silent majority stay away from the polls, Egypt will find itself slipping back into Middle Ages mode, all hope of progress and prosperity destroyed by apathy. What I call the silent majority is made up of most moderates [those who do not mix politics with religion], leftist groups, Nasserites and non-Muslims. I believe that most of those who belong to the silent majority did not vote in the referendum held on March 19, 2011, leaving the way clear for the “yes” voters. And, as we have seen in the period following the fall of Hosni Mubarak [who caused more harm to Egypt and its people than any other ruler in the country's history] the Islamists – who voted yes in the March 19 referendum – never shy away from going to the polls. Discipline, dedication and obedience are qualities they possess in abundance so that when their leaders direct them to take part in any election or referendum they comply without hesitation. The point I am trying to make here is that most of those who abstained from voting on March 19, 2011 [26 million Egyptians] would have said no if they had bothered to go to the polls. Most are proponents of a civil state which observes a clear separation between politics and religion and in which the relationship between the state and the people is based on citizenship regardless of any other consideration, religious or otherwise.
Mursi faces challenge to bring Egypt's Copts on side
By Muhammad ShukriBBC Monitoring
Coptic Christians make up a sizeable minority in Egypt
One of the toughest challenges that will face Egypt's new President, Mohammed Mursi, will be relations with the country's Coptic Christian community.
In the presidential run-off election, Copts, who make up about 10% of the population, voted overwhelmingly for Mr Mursi's rival, former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, motivated by concerns about having an Islamist as head of state.
In Part Three of his book, In the Aftermath of the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 , under the heading “A Paroxysm of Bloodshed and Terrorism”, the noted Egyptian historian Abdul Rahman al-Rafi'i wrote: “Contributing to the dramatic rise in the murder and crime rate was the adoption by terrorist elements in the society of the Moslem Brothers of militant violent political action as a means of overthrowing the political order. There is no doubt that the aim of these elements was the seizure of power by the Society. It is equally clear from the statements made by Hassan el-Banna, the Supreme Guide of the Society of the Moslem Brothers, that he believed he would one day reach power.”
Informed observers are increasingly raising the fear that new elections will put the Muslim Brotherhood in control of Egypt’s parliament and the presidency. Of course it will try. Senior Brotherhood leader Sobhi Saleh, who helped write Egypt’s interim constitution, said in a recent video that he expects the new government to be Islamist.
