This article will highlight some recent incidents that support my argument of the Copts’ dilemma. It will also examine the weak reaction by the current regime, the lack of effort to seriously tackle those issues, and it will provide some suggestions for ways forward.
Bishoy Kameel, a Coptic teacher in Sohag, was sentenced to six years in prison for insulting Islam and defaming President Morsi on his Facebook page. This sentence was confirmed by an appeal court in Sohag, and the whole process happened in a matter of days.
Sidst redigeret af Vymer : 8th October 2012 kl. 01:23 PM.
Nu er kopterne af samme baggrund som deres muslimske trosfæller, men deres sprog var anderledes end semitisk omend de er i samme sprogfamile. Hamito-Semitic
Men kopterne er resterne af den kristne kultur som dominerede før muslimerne slog det byzantinske rige og begyndte deres udbredelse af islam. Og har gennem tiderne været mål for religiøst motiverede muslimske ledere med følge.
A member of the influential April 6 Youth Movement, Ahmed Maher, withdraws from Egypt's Constituent Assembly on Sunday, declaring on the group's official website that his decision is part of an agreement with other civil forces on the constitution drafting body.
Maher, together with thirty other non-Islamist members of the Constituent Assembly, froze their membership two days ago, threatening to fully withdraw within 48 hours if their demands were not met.
...
ElBaradei, who founded the Constitution Party, said on his official Twitter account that Morsi had appointed himself as Egypt's "new pharaoh" and "usurped all state power: a major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences."
TV host Bothaina Kamel denounced the president’s decision to protect his decrees from any court as an unprecedented constitutional coup.
Former MP and political science professor Amr Hamzawy believed that the only outcome of this constitutional declaration would be a "complete presidential dictatorship."
"We are facing a scary coup against legislative authority and state of law," he wrote, "It is the complete assassination of democratic transition."
Today, though, the religious ecology of the Middle East looks more fragile than ever, as the Arab spring gives way to Christian winter. Ignorant western assumptions about cultural uniformity are mirrored by Islamists bent on purging other faith groups from their lands. Such intolerance has grown steeply since 9/11 of course, but its roots long predate the disastrous policies of George W Bush.
In Egypt, large numbers of Coptic Christians have moved abroad in response to a tide of discrimination and outright oppression. Though still numbering at least 5.1 million of an 80 million-strong population (according to government estimates disputed by the Coptic church), Copts face many professional glass ceilings, and scores of their churches have been attacked by Salafist extremists. About 600,000 Copts – more than the entire population of Manchester – have left their homeland since the early 1980s. If Mohamed Morsi's new constitution is implemented, the second-class status of Christians will be set in stone. Egypt will stagnate still further in consequence.
The catastrophe faced by Iraq's Christians is more widely recognised in the west, partly because of the media spotlight on individual tragedies, such as the storming of Baghdad's Syrian Catholic cathedral two years ago. More than 50 people were killed, and scores of others maimed, when al-Qaida-linked militants hurled grenades into the building before shooting worshippers at random. In 1990 there were between 1.2 and 1.4 million Christians in the country. Today, it is estimated that fewer than 500,000 remain.
Mr. Morsi and his Freedom and Justice party, backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, insist that they are committed to the democratic system. They say that they will protect press freedom and allow all opposition parties to operate freely. After only a few months in office, however, there are disturbing signs that they may not stick to those promises.
Foremost among them is the increasing pressure being brought to bear on critical journalists. In recent months at least half a dozen prominent editors, writers and cartoonists have been the targets of criminal investigations, many of them launched by a prosecutor appointed by Mr. Morsi following complaints from the president’s office. The charges range from reporting false news to blasphemy; a cartoonist for the independent Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper was accused of the latter after she published a cartoon depicting Adam and Eve.
Et meget anderledes syn på verden. Sikkert derfor at det er så vigtigt for Vesten at øge udbredelsen af disse folks magt i Mellemøsten. Og nej de er ikke onde eller noget. De er bare ikke pro-vestlige værdier og sjovt nok ikke særligt venligsindet overfor os.
Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood warns that a U.N. declaration on women's rights could destroy society by allowing a woman to travel, work and use contraception without her husband's approval and letting her control family spending.
8th October 2012, 08:15 AM
Ægypten - en update
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