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Christmas, New Year, New Constitution

Coptic Christian Fears and Muslim Brotherhood Dreams for the New Year



Cairo, Egypt-With the Christmas/New Year celebrations of Christian Copts, which last until mid-January, a rising fear is spreading among Egyptians that the Muslim Brotherhood is poised to carry out attacks on the Copts. The Muslim Brotherhood considers the Copts the major cause of having them dispelled from power through their support of the Army in the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi. The Christmas Octave is a prime time to find Copts together in celebration--to the Brotherhood both a perfect time to take revenge of Christians through acts of terrorism, and a way to portray the Egyptian Army as a force too weak to face terrorism.
With the date set on the vote for the new Constitution, the Brotherhood--recently classified as a terrorist group--aims to launch a number of bombings and random killings in order to scare people from voting, knowing that most will agree on the new Constitution, especially Christians. The new Constitution bans political parties based on religions, or the use of religious slogans and houses of worship in electoral campaigns, which means the end of many religious parties that were formed after the revolution of January 2011. Egyptians in general and Christians in particular, are expected to turn out in large numbers in support of the new Constitution, which brings to an end the transitional phase which has caused hardship in Egypt and speeds up the election of a new president and parliament. Egyptian Copts know they’re being targeted mainly by the Brotherhood and their followers, yet are determined to vote on the Constitution and prove they will not be intimidated. Coptic websites and social media are wary of trouble on New Year’s Day. They are preparing for young people to coordinate with the police to prevent the passage of cars and motorcycles in an effort to keep terrorists away from streets leading to the churches.

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Intensive preparations are already underway by the Army and Police for traditional Magdi Elshahed celebrations. Security experts have confirmed that IF New Year celebrations this year do not witness bombings… they certainly will witness a state of chaos and security problems with clashes between security forces and elements of the Brotherhood. A senior police source revealed to CFP that the plan to secure the New Year celebrations and beyond, is not based on securing churches only, but also about securing the roads leading to them, and securing the neighbourhoods with wide sweeps to get rid of any “parked cars”. If I were a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the last thing I would do is attack Christians or their churches. Everyone knows that any terrorist operation against the Copts will be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood--not only Copts but the entire Egyptian society, including Christians and Muslims will blame the Brotherhood. Any attempt to bring sectarian strife through the bombings will fail because the relationship between Muslims and Christians in Egypt has become very tight and is more unified than ever right now. For his part, interim President Adly Mansour congratulated the Copts for Christmas, the New Year, and for the birth of Jesus Christ. A spokesman for the armed forces congratulated the Coptic Orthodox, evangelicals and Catholics on their celebrations. He said that even amid the atmosphere of grief and sorrow due to the fall of a large number of police and military members in recent bombings, the armed forces would never forget to give congratulations to the Egyptian Muslims and Christians on the occasion of the birth of Jesus Christ and the coming New Year. There will always be some fanatics who try to create strife between Muslims and Christians, to push both sides closer to a civil war so that they can exploit the chaos to grab power. It comes straight from the concept of divide and conquer. By now everyone in Egypt knows the goal of the Muslim Brotherhood. Meanwhile, I wish everyone, including Muslims, Christians and Jews the very best for 2014.


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Ali Al Sharnoby -- Bio and Archives

Ali Alsharnoby, an Egyptian journalist and deputy editor, worked in many Egyptian newspapers.

Studied at university of Cairo, faculty of law.. and wrote a number of books about the political trends in the Islamic view.


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