Over at Gatestone Institute (via RaymondIbrahim.com), I discuss the fact that, of all Egyptian citizens, it is Egypt’s most indigenous and native population — the Christian Copts — who are most begrudged the right to behave as free citizens:
Hours before the June 30 protests against Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi and his party, the Muslim Brotherhood, began, the nation’s Christians were, once again, singled out for behaving like citizens who have the right to participate in the protests.
In Minya, Upper Egypt, where millions of Christians live, letters addressed to the Copts threatened them not to join the protests, otherwise their “businesses, cars, homes, schools, and churches” might “catch fire.” The message concluded by saying “If you are not worried about any of these, then worry about your children and your homes. This message is being delivered with tact. But when the moment of truth comes, there will be no tact.” It’s signed by “People zealous for the nation.”
Such threats are hardly limited to anonymous letters. During a recent TV interview, Sheikh Essam Abdulamek, a member of parliament’s Shura Council, warned Egypt’s Christians against participating in the June 30 protests, threatening them by saying “Do not sacrifice your children” since “general Muslim opinion will not be silent about the ousting of the president [Morsi].”
Notable in all these threats is that Christian children are specifically mentioned as targets””since they are the easiest and most effective way at punishing “uppity” Copts who think they have the right to protest the Brotherhood and Morsi…