When Muslims attack Christians in Egypt: Terrorism or political fallout?

By Jamshid Ghazi Askar

During the days and weeks since Egypt’s military government removed President Mohammad Morsi from power on July 3 and subsequently clamped down on supporters of the ousted Muslim Brotherhood administration on Aug. 14, dozens of Christian churches in Egypt have been burned and desecrated.

“Drenched in sweat and covered in ash, 24-year-old Miriam Nagi has spent the past eight days mopping soot inside St. George’s Church,” Time magazine’s Lauren E. Bohn reported Monday. “… St. George’s Church in Assiut, 320 km south of Cairo, was one of more than 60 churches attacked in a wave of revenge against Christians after the military’s bloody dispersal of two Islamist protest camps in Cairo this month, which killed hundreds of supporters of the ousted President.

“Egypt’s Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the Muslim-majority country, have been caught in the political cross fire and found themselves scapegoats for supporting the military’s ouster of President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need published on Monday excerpts from its interview with Sister Expedita Perez, a Spanish Comboni nun serving in Egypt who believes the Muslim Brotherhood is behind ongoing violence.

“We are being accused by the brotherhood of having overthrown President Morsi,” Perez said. “But we are merely a minority of 12 percent, and in the (anti-Morsi) demonstrations there were over 33 million people. … The Christian community is frightened but has finally woken up, has opened its eyes and begun to emerge from the sacristy and be aware of the situation, and now the Christians want to stand their ground and defend themselves from the terrorists.”

Read more at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865585362/When-Muslims-attack-Christians-in-Egypt-Terrorism-or-political-fallout.html