Days before Morsi was ousted in Egypt, NRO editor Kathryn Lopez interviewed me on the situation in Egypt, the Copts, and my new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians
As Mohamed Morsi faces the prospect of an imminent military coup, Raymond Ibrahim, the American son of two Egyptian parents and author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians, talks about the situation in Egypt and its implications, in particular for Christians who already find themselves in a precarious position.
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What could the backlash against Morsi in Egypt mean for the future of Egypt?
RAYMOND IBRAHIM: On the one hand, the average Egyptian has tasted a solid year of rule under the Muslim Brotherhood “” and the majority don’t like it, as evinced by the mass demonstrations currently underway. On the other hand, it is a mistake to think that the uprising against Morsi and the Brotherhood is all about rejecting Islamization and sharia. A great many of those protesting Morsi are doing so less because of his Islamist agenda “” which many are indifferent to “” and more because he and his party have proven to be incompetent, corrupt, and, in short, making the average Egyptian miss Mubarak. Egyptians have been reduced to not having food to eat “” and this is their fundamental concern. All that said, Egyptians have now had a taste of an Islamist government “” which always sounded great, in theory “” and, by and large, they have learned they don’t like it, the hard way.
LOPEZ: What do the Copts need?
IBRAHIM: All that the Copts want is equality “” to be seen and treated as full Egyptian citizens, irrespective of their Christian faith. Under the era of Westernization and modernization, they were indeed largely seen as “regular” Egyptians. But, as Muslims went from emulating the West, to having contempt for it “” I discuss this phenomenon at length in my book Crucified Again “” so too did they begin to reclaim their Islamic heritage, and its teachings, which are fundamentally hostile to non-Muslims, and so Egypt’s most indigenous and native inhabitants “” the Christian Copts “” come to suffer for it… Continue reading and/or order Crucified Again here