A Christian-free Middle East is just around the corner.
(NOW Lebanon) — “We don’t feel as safe as before,” said Georges Nader, an Egyptian Copt who lives in Cairo. A year after the revolution that led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, Nader said that the number of Egyptians Copts fleeing the country was on the rise.
“Half of my family is in Canada or the US, and they are trying to get us out of the country too. We are just waiting for the right opportunity,” the 25-year-old told NOW Lebanon.
Last fall, the Egyptian Coptic Church’s lawyer Naguib Gibrael estimated that some 100,000 Christian families had left the country in the preceding months, and that since Mubarak’s ouster, sectarian strife has escalated in the country. […]
Though on paper, Egyptian Christians and Muslims are equal by law, many admit that Copts, who make up approximately 10 percent of the country’s population, are often discriminated against. Between 2008 and 2010, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) recorded 52 cases of Coptic-Muslim conflict. Many fear that with the new Islamist majority in parliament, things will only get worse.
“At first, Islamic figures will come across as protectors of their Christian brothers, but that is solely about reeling in support,” said Georges al-Sanady, a 25-year-old engineer from Cairo. Sanady says that after paying lip service to equality, the Islamists in power will try to enforce Sharia law.
“It will not happen overnight, but Christians are not buying this, regardless of their social class,” he said.