“The Sisi government is acting as though to restore stability, Egypt needs a dose of repression the likes of which it hasn’t seen for decades, but its treatment is killing the patient.”
Source/Credit: Crux
By John L. Allen Jr. | June 29, 2015
CAIRO, EGYPT – For the vast majority of the eight to ten million Christians in Egypt, it can seem almost absurd to be asked whether the rise of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former army chief who came to power here two years ago, represents a positive development in their lives.
El-Sisi, after all, is the man who deposed a Muslim Brotherhood-led government in July 2013 perceived as a threat here to Christians, who have long complained of discrimination and persecution.
The president’s move was publicly blessed by Pope Tawadros, the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Egypt’s largest Christian denomination, and one certainly understands why. Last year, a Copt was executed by Islamic fundamentalists in the Sinai region who left a sign bearing a chilling final insult on their victim’s body: “Let Tawadros help you now!”
In January, el-Sisi returned the favor by making a surprise visit to Cairo’s Coptic Cathedral of St. Mark for the Orthodox Christmas Mass, a first in Egyptian history, and vowed to treat the country’s Christians as full citizens.
“Let no one say, ‘What kind of Egyptian are you?’” he said that day.
“It’s not right to call each other anything but ‘Egyptians.’ We must only be Egyptians,” el-Sisi insisted.
For many others, Egypt’s new leader can seem a decidedly mixed bag, especially in terms of his commitment to human rights and democracy.
“The Sisi government is acting as though to restore stability, Egypt needs a dose of repression the likes of which it hasn’t seen for decades, but its treatment is killing the patient,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director for Human Rights Watch, in early June.
Among Christians, however, things look very different.
The Rev. Rafic Greiche, a Greek Melkite priest who serves as spokesman for the Catholic Church in Egypt, said he believes el-Sisi would probably draw at least 85 percent of the Christian support in an open vote.
“If you ask a normal Christian in the street, it’s complete love,” Grieche said. “They say he’s the savior of Egypt.”
Yet there are a handful of Christians in Egypt, especially those whose profession is to mind the gap between promise and reality on human rights, who are not convinced.
“It’s all fake,” said Mina Thabet, referring to el-Sisi’s image as a defender of Christians. Thabet is a human rights observer with a Cairo-based NGO called the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms.
“We still face discrimination, violence, and hate speech,” said Thabet, himself a member of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
“It’s the same as under Mubarak, because it’s the same regime,” he said.
Read original post here: Egypt’s Christians caught between a will to believe and weight of history
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