By Beth Byrd
CAIRO (BP) -– At least six Egyptian Christians have been murdered in a persecution surge following former president Mohamed Morsi’s removal from office July 3.
Christian persecution has intensified, CBS News reported, because Christians supported the ousting of Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader who was elected to office a year ago.
“People from the Muslim Brotherhood are taking it upon themselves to wage jihad to defend Morsi and their religion,” Safwat Samaan, a director at human rights group Nation Without Limits, told Morning Star News.
Attacks on Christians also are coming from Salifis, a faction of radical Islamists who walked alongside Christians and other protestors in support of Morsi’s ousting, said Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom.
“No faction in Egypt had more to lose from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamist rule than the 8 million or so Christian Coptic community, the Mideast’s largest non-Muslim minority,” Shea said. “Without American and Western diplomatic support, the Copts’ fate is looking increasingly grim.”
Read more at http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=40758