Coptic Minority - A Source of Hope

Submitted by Ludvikus (United States), Jan 22, 2015 at 20:50

I have a bit more faith is Sisi that you do, Dear Daniel Pipes.

Unlike any other majority Muslim country in Western Asia, or North Africa, Egypt has a substantial Christian minority. Hopefully, whatever his views of mild Muslim practice is, I believe Sisi truly wishes to accomodate this minority.

This distinguishes Egypt from Ataturks Turkey, in which population exchanges took place between Greece and Turkey so that neither country needed to accommade the "other" religion - since this "other" went out of existence. Sisi, on the other hand, is faced with the reality that in his own domain non-Muslims live.

Furthermore, Egypt has a strong non-Muslim ancient history which attracts European Turists, and that's an important industry which requires the consumption of alcohol. Erdigan's preoccupation with Turkey's past does not involve a similar preoccupation with a great civilization.

There was a time, before Nasser, when Alexandria was still a great cosmopolitain city, and center of the progressive Egyptian Muslim tradition mixed with Coptic Christian elements. There is a chance that under Sisi, there will be a return of Egypt as the cultural center of the cosmopolitain Arab world, when Umm Kulthum was the "Taylor Swift" of the Arab World.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umm_Kulthum.

In addition, it looks like Mubarack, and his sons, are going to be rehabilitated, now that Mubarack has been acquitted. Hopefully, this will restore the Egyptian Middle Class, with its strong Western practices, back in place, and Egyptians will again rise to middle class status, freed from the seductive trapping of the Muslim Brotherhood. Of course, this requires that Egypt's dreadful economy be substantially improved as well.

The unknown factor now is the death of the Saudi king yesterday, and whether the late king's success will continue to support the Egyptian economy in its efforts to free itself from the attractions of Salafis as well as the Muslim Brotherhood.

Si I think the jury is still out - and I feel a bit more optimistic that Sisi, being a far stonger ruler than Mubarack, will lead Egypt out of the clutches of extreme Islamist.

,

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