Dear Friends,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
As I write these words, our St. Saviour’s Anglican Church in Suez is under heavy attack from those who support former President Mursi. They are throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the church and have destroyed the car of Rev. Ehab Ayoub, the priest-in-charge of St. Saviour’s Church. I am also aware that there are attacks on other Orthodox churches in Menyia and Suhag in Upper Egypt (photo above), as well as a Catholic church in Suez. Some police stations are also under attack in different parts of Egypt. Please pray and ask others to pray for this inflammable situation in Egypt.
arly this morning, the police supported by the army, encouraged protestors in two different locations in Cairo, to leave safely and go home. It is worth mentioning that these protestors have been protesting for 6 weeks, blocking the roads. The people in these neighborhoods have been suffering a great deal””not only these people, but those commuting through, especially those who are going to the airport. The police created very safe passages for everyone to leave. Many protestors left and went home, however, others resisted to leave and started to attack the police. The police and army were very professional in responding to the attacks, and they used tear gas only when it was necessary. The police then discovered caches of weapons and ammunition in these sites. One area near Giza is now calm, but there is still some resistance at other sites. There are even some snipers trying to attack the police and the army. There are even some rumors that Muslim Brotherhood leaders asked the protestors in different cities to attack police stations, take weapons, and attack shops and churches.
A few hours later, violent demonstrations from Mursi supporters broke out in different cities and towns throughout Egypt. The police and army are trying to maintain safety for all people and to disperse the protestors peacefully. However, the supporters of former President Mursi have threatened that if they are dispersed from the current sites, they will move to other sites and continue to protest. They also threatened to use violence. There have been a number of fatalities and casualties from among the police as well as the protestors, but it seems that the numbers are not as high as expected for such violence. However, the supporters of former President Mursi claim that there are very high numbers of casualties. The real numbers will be known later on.
Please pray that the situation will calm down, for wisdom and tact for the police and the army, for the safety of all churches and congregations, and that all in Egypt would be safe.
May the Lord bless you!
–(The Most Rev.) Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis”¨ is Bishop of the Episcopal / Anglican Diocese of Egypt”¨ with North Africa and the Horn of Africa”¨ and President Bishop of the Episcopal / Anglican”¨
Province of Jerusalem and the Middle EastӬӬ
There have been confirmed reports that the Muslim Brotherhood is attacking Christian churches. Several Coptic Orthodox churches have been sacked and burned.
We are seeing the true nature of the Muslim Brotherhood. All the toys are being thrown out of the pram.
It is very interesting how the Arab Spring, originally initiated by the young protesters armed only with mobile phones and twitter, brought down governments from Egypt to Tunisia. The Muslim Brotherhood joined with them claiming that they were the new moderate face of Islam which respected other religions and the rights of their people.
While Morsi was in power there was apparently a power battle between Morsi and the extreme element in the Brotherhood and those who advised caution and respect. Morsi won and proceeded to gerrymander the constitution, ignore rights of minority religions and seek to bring in a hard line Islamic state in Egypt.
It is interesting also that it is the young Egyptian Twitterati backed up by the army who brought down Morsi and the Brotherhood extremists. This is a pattern one is seeing right across the Middle East as people have turned on the extreme face of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Little noticed has been how arab countries have turned on the unmasked extreme face of the Muslim Brotherhood. By chance I came across a report that in Abu Dhabi in the UAE, Muslim Brotherhood elements have been jailed for insurrection. With the UAE it is always hard to know what is really going on but it does seem apparent that the brotherhood has fallen out of favour. The same is happening in Tunisia, Libya and other countries.
In Quatar which has previously supported the Brotherhood’s moves across the Middle East, notably through its Al Jazeera network, disillusionment with the policy given the emergence of the hard line face of the Brotherhood has led to both the ruler and the prime minister being replaced, a remarkable development.
The only people who are rather slow at catching up are the US and British governments who have continued to support Brotherhood regimes and fighters, notably in Syria and are still talking of supplying them with arms and other military equipment. The thinking seems to be that since Assad has links with Iran and Iran has links with Hezbollah, and Hezbollah is the enemy of Israel, therefore anyone who is opposed to Assad needs support and must be a good guy, even if they are in league with extreme elements with links to Al Quada who are gradually through force of numbers and through assassination of commanders opposed to them taking over the Syrian opposition forces.
Rather late, even the US and UK seem to be waking up to the fact that all is not right.
Meanwhile in Egypt, the considerable courage shown by the young Twitterati and ordinary people who came back onto the streets and the Coptic, other churches, and the traditional and arguably legitimate muslim hierachy of the Grand Mufti and the ancient al Azhar mosque and university and its Grand Imam are being subject to a reign of terror by the ousted Brotherhood.
Prayers for Egypt and for its still sizeable Christian minority, and in particular for the dear Anglicans of Egypt and wonderful Bishop Mouneer.
I don’t think that the US and UK governments are clueless. They are fundamentally liberal/secular governments. As such they are pro-Islamic (because that is anti-Christian) and they are anti-Christian. They are determined to stamp out the Christian World-view.
Thank God, Obama’ s term ends in 2016, but we have to be extremely careful about whom we vote for to take his place. Otherwise, it’ll be more of the same clueless idiocy that we have now…..or are they [i]really[/i] clueless? Perhaps not, and there’s the rub.
As there is no substantive difference in foreign policy between the parties, and hasn’t been since the early 1940’s, I think who takes over is a moot point. He/she will just be another hyper-interventionist.
Amen to Pageantmaster’s eloquent and informative #2. I’ll just add that it’s not just the US and UK political establishment that’s been lamentably slow to catch on to how very un-democratic the Muslim Brotherhood is. Tha same is true of the “mainstream media.” For example, the reporting on this crisis by NPR (liberal National Public Radio) has been very slow to recognize how repressive and extreme the Brotherhood is. The western media establishment is loathe to appear “anti-Muslim.” Any other Americans remember that TIME magazine even chose Morsi as TIME’s “Man of the Year” after his election??
Yes, urgent, sustained prayers, individually and corporately, are needed for our endangered Christian brothers and sisters in Egypt, and especially for our fellow Anglicans, led by the noble and admirable ++Mouneer Anis.
David Handy+
FWIW, my 2700th post on T19