A webinar sponsored last week by the Presbyterian World Mission, discussed the recent events in Egypt and told why Egyptian Christians are encouraged by all that has happened.
Amgad Beblawi, area coordinator for the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, gave a little background to the events of the past year.
Beblawi said that after the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Mohammad Morsi was elected as president in June 2012, “he failed to fulfill his campaign promises.” Morsi appointed only members of the Muslim Brotherhood to top positions in the country, his tactics included intimidating his opponents, and he “oversaw the adoption of a controversial constitution, one that would virtually turn Egypt into an Islamic state.”
Many Egyptians opposed the new constitution “with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on the streets,” said Beblawi, but the president not only showed no flexibility, he also gave himself “additional powers to ensure the judiciary system would not be able to derail his agenda.
“That is when Egyptians felt they had to oust Morsi, who they had just elected democratically,” he said. More than 22 million signed petitions calling for the end of the Morsi regime.
PHOTO BY LOCAL CAIRO PHOTOGRAPHER
A member of the Muslim Brotherhood spray paints the door of the Saint Fatima Church near Tahrir Square. He spray-paints “Islameya,” which means “Islamic” and is short for masr Islameya. In this context, on that door, it’s “Egypt is Islamic.”
On the one-year anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration – June 30 – demonstrations took place across Egypt, said Beblawi, adding that the number of demonstrators was estimated at between 4- to 15-million. Following three days of continuous demonstrations, the Army overthrew Morsi.
“This was perceived by people outside Egypt as a coup,” he said. “Inside Egypt it was not considered as such. Most people supported this move by the Army, and felt, in fact, that the Army was responding to their demands.”
Beblawi said that approximately 5 to 10 percent of Egypt’s population continued to back Morsi after the overthrow and they staged sit-ins, which turned into protest camps in the middle of Cairo. Not only did the camps cause problems with traffic and sanitation, it “became clear that the Morsi supporters were stockpiling weapons in their camps,” he said.
When mediation between the Muslim Brotherhood and the government failed, security forces began on Aug. 14 to clear out the camps. Fighting between the protestors and security forces resulted in 900 deaths. Islamic militants reacted by destroying several government buildings, approximately 80 churches and Christian businesses, two Bible Society shops and a few Christian schools, said Beblawi.
“It is important to note here that 2011, and again last month, the Obama administration was slow to recognize the people’s right to demonstrate or demand change in the government,” said Beblawi. “In both 2011 and August 2013, the American administration seemed to be not on the side of the people, at least that was the perception of the Egyptians.”
Egyptian Christians extremely encouraged
Ramez Atallah
Ramez Atallah, the general director of The Bible Society of Egypt, also spoke during the webinar.
When Morsi was elected, said Atallah, “the worst fears of Egyptian Christians were realized … When June 30 came and people went out in the streets by the millions …. We realized in a surprising way as Christians, that we were in the vast majority of Egyptians who did not want radical political Islam in Egypt and that most Muslims in Egypt wanted the kind of country that we would be comfortable with.”
“Since June 30, Egyptian Christians have been extremely encouraged. They feel loved, cared for and supported by a majority of Muslims in their country, and they feel hope for their future,” he said.
“In general, Christians in Egypt very much support the present government and are extremely disappointed that people in the West are getting a very selected, media-censored view of what is happening in Egypt,” said Atallah.
When asked how the church in Egypt has responded to challenges during the past two years, Atallah said he would prefer to focus on the past two weeks, “because something very remarkable happened in the last two weeks – 80 churches, orphanages, schools, two Bible Society books shops and so on were viciously attacked by Muslim rebel supporters.”
“When that happened our worst fear was that Christians — whose property had been destroyed, whose churches had been burned to the ground, whose Bibles had been burned in the streets — would react violently,” he said.
The Evangelical, Orthodox and Catholic denominational representatives all told their people that “We as Christians do not respond violently. We will love those who hate us, and we will we respond as Jesus would want us to respond.”
Atallah said that he has not heard any retaliation by the Christians. “The testimony of Christians in Egypt is remarkable because of the restraint … We are proud and thankful and praise the Lord for the reaction of Christians to the vicious attacks of the past weeks.”
A planned attack
Atallah said the violence against Christians all happened in the south of Egypt, away from the western television cameras.
“It was very carefully choreographed. It was a planned attack. They had marked the churches and shops,” he said, adding that the Muslim rebel supporters did it “far from eyes of CNN and BBC, because they still want to pretend they are a peaceful group.”
Atallah said that there is a need today for American Christians to be in Egypt “to interpret to the church in an unbiased way what is really happening on the ground. I’ve been interviewed by about just about every channel and radio station I can, and it’s a very difficult task because they don’t believe what I say. It is completely opposite of what is shown: The fact that we, as Christians, are delighted by what’s happening. We feel it is a new era in Egypt.”
He noted that there are several evangelical Christians in the government’s new cabinet. “We feel very excited in this time. It is a right step in Egypt.”
Atallah said that Americans in Egypt can also help the Egyptians understand that the “American church does not represent necessarily what we see as the politics of America, which frustrate Egyptians today … There is an anti-American government in Egypt that has not been there in the last 30 years.”
Adding to what Atallah said, Beblawi decried the misunderstanding and antagonism between the Mid East and America today. “It’s been classified as a clash of civilizations … at the same time the church is one. Jesus says He has only one flock. The body of Christ is one. The body of Christ cannot be divided. That includes the church in the Mid East and the U.S.”
In this context, he asked, “What is the role of the church? I see the church not as an American church and a Middle Eastern church but as one Church. The role of the Church should be clear. We cannot have Mid East Christians on one side of a clash of civilization and American churches on the other side of that clash of civilizations. … It behooves us as American Christians to educate ourselves and inform ourselves to the reality of the Mid East as well as the reality of the American policies and role in the Mid East in the last few decades.”
The webinar’s host then asked a question that had been sent in by a viewer. “Our moderator indicated that he views the army as the problem behind the situation. How can we help people understand?”
“Let me take you back to World War II,” said Atallah, when Hitler was the democratically elected president.
“If the German Army had the courage to do with Hitler what the Egyptian army had the courage — in response to the Egyptian people – to do to Morsi, then we would have avoided World War II and the useless killing of 50-million people including 7-million Jews.”
He continued that “all Christians and most Egyptians are very grateful to have the Army protect us from this political autocrat who was taking over the country … We feel we have been saved from a Hitler.”
Atallah ended his remarks by saying that Egyptians are “grateful for stability of Egypt under the present situation … Pray for us. Believe that God’s work is way beyond the news you are seeing … I think the answer is in prayer, not in politics obviously.
“Please, please, let’s not be anti-Muslim. There are many wonderful Muslims … and we are delighted in Egypt to find out that the majority of Muslims are peace-loving people who want to work alongside Christians.”
For more information on the situation in Egypt, visit the web site of World Mission, a part of the Presbyterian Mission Agency of the PCUSA.