An attack against Egyptian Society

As the situation in Egypt continues to unfold, the evening news continues to bring you stories of how hundreds of people have been killed over the past few days by Egyptian security forces firing live rounds against “peaceful demonstrators”. We cannot stress enough that we are against killing – we do not rejoice in the killing of any human being and certainly not innocent civilians. Moreover, we are not against Muslims – we are opposed to extremists. With this in mind, the news reports require some context and background.

As we have said before, despite the common refrain that President Morsi was the first democratically elected president of Egypt, Morsi does not represent democracy. The electoral process was formally democratic but, not merely flawed, it lacked the fundamental substance of truly democratic elections. Yet even if Morsi was democratically elected, his actions once in office disqualify him from continuing in that office and demand immediate and forceful action on the part of the Egyptian military, which is the only institution capable of taking the necessary steps. Finally, seven weeks ago an tens of millions of Egyptians flooded the streets or signed petitions in peaceful protests demanding the military fulfill its responsibility and remove Morsi.

On the other hand, the demonstrations by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Morsi supporters have been far from peaceful. For several weeks the military leaders and international negotiators have tried to negotiate the peaceful removal of the protest camps. As we write this alert, the media are finally giving some attention to the casualties suffered by police after an incident in which 25 police were killed execution-style. But even before this incident, over 70 security personnel had been killed, from the very first minutes of the authorities’ action to remove the “peaceful” camps only a few days ago to just before the attack on police in the Sinai.

The Muslim Brotherhood and other extremists have also taken the Christian community’s support for the army’s removal of Morsi as an excuse to justify unprecedented attacks on Christian targets. Over 40 churches and Christian institutions and countless homes and businesses have been burnt and destroyed in these past days. Three nuns were paraded in the streets like prisoners of war by a Muslim mob that burned their Christian school and attacks such as these are happening daily across Egypt.

The media have covered most of these points in some degree, but the tone and focus of most of the coverage seems to be intended to condemn the actions of the military and promote support for Morsi. We at OFWI are saddened by the deaths and do not condone violence on either side. However, we are deeply concerned about the situation as a whole and about any possible resolution and would like to ask some burning questions:

• Why does the international media ignore or downplay the estimated 30 million Egyptians who filled the streets of Egypt a few weeks ago, demonstrating peacefully and demanding that Morsi step down? In a country of a little over 80 million people, this is nothing short of true democracy in action but we hear very little about it.

• The media focus on the large number of women and children among the hundreds of dead – but why don’t they ask why the Muslim Brotherhood would bring women and children to a demonstration which they know and fully intend will turn violent?

• President Obama has cancelled joint military exercises with the Egyptian army to protest its actions. Will he stand for the will of the people, even if it requires the army to enforce it? Or will he and our other western leaders stand with an Islamist despot determined to make Egypt into an Islamic theocracy where non-Muslims have no place, simply because the man won an election?

Not all Muslims involved in these demonstrations, or even everyone involved in the Muslim Brotherhood, are terrorists. However, the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization is a terrorist organization and its leadership is driving a terrorist agenda. There is no question that the Middle East will collapse if the Muslim Brotherhood wins in Egypt. As pro-Morsi demonstrations spread to Turkey and other Muslim countries and the West debates supporting the “democratically-elected” Morsi, the future of the Christians and peace in all of the Middle East hangs on the outcome of this battle.

Rev. Majid El-Shafie is the founder and President of One Free World International. A Muslim-born Egyptian, he faced persecution in his native country for converting to Christianity. Escaping from Egypt in dramatic fashion, Rev. El-Shafie has dedicated OFW to international human rights work in support of persecuted minorities in some of the most dangerous countries in the world.