Now who could have seen this coming? JUST ABOUT ANYONE FOLLOWING THE RISE OF ISLAM IN AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST, THAT’S WHO!
Even the Leftist Los Angeles Times gets it now:
Muslims and Christians in Egypt made common cause in agitating for the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, but the alliance is fraying. A report by The Times’ Jeffrey Fleishman about the country’s Coptic Christians — 10% of the population — suggests that they are developing painful second thoughts about the “Arab Spring” now that Islamist parties are in the ascendance.
[….]
Clearly Egypt will have to resolve the tension that is already evident between electoral democracy and pluralism. Its international credibility will depend to some extent on the degree to which it abides by international norms of religious freedom. But it is also in Egypt’s domestic interest to protect Christians. Although many Egyptian Christians are impoverished, others — former United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali is an example — are highly educated and affluent and have played leading roles in Egypt’s political and commercial life. Egypt would be poorer without them.
Laws that further institutionalized Islam also would speed the departure from Egypt of those Copts who have the means to relocate. The exodus of Christians from the Middle East, the cradle of their religion, is a sadly familiar story. From the West Bank to Lebanon to Iraq, they have left because of political instability, violence or discrimination. Sometimes they are refugees within their own countries. In 2008 more than 1,300 Iraqi Christians fled the city of Mosul after 14 were killed. Even when Christians stay — as the vast majority of Copts most likely would — their influence and well-being can suffer under an intolerant regime. That shouldn’t happen in post-revolutionary Egypt. [And, why would Egypt be any different then other countries in the region as Islamic supremacism takes root?—ed]
Readers you may not hear the drumbeat about saving the Copts as loudly as you might another group, because the Left (the drum-beaters on resettlement) are invested in the myth that the Arab Spring was a good thing. They won’t be so eager to trumpet the totalitarianism of strict Islamic rule being demonstrated already against the Coptic Christians.