Written by Don Byrd
The candidate representing the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Morsi, has won the Egyptian presidential election. The prospect of an Islamist government, however, has raised many questions for religious minorities including the country’s significant Coptic Christians population. The Washington Post reports that Morsi’s first statements have been unifying:
In a televised victory speech Sunday night, Morsi cast himself as a leader for all Egyptians. He vowed to champion the rights of women and minority Christians, and he voiced conciliatory notes toward the armed forces. In what appeared to be an effort to demonstrate his independence, the Brotherhood announced Sunday that Morsi had resigned from the organization and its political party.
“I will serve all Egypt. There will be no distinction between anybody,” a solemn Morsi said, standing behind a lectern emblazoned with the state insignia. “National unity is the only way to get Egypt out of this difficult time.”
Actions will tell the story here, though, not speeches. A more skeptical take is in the Christian Post’s report .
[M]any are skeptical of Egypt’s future with the Brotherhood in the drivingseat. The group has made well-known its goal to develop an Islamic state dictated by Shariah Law, and many believe Morsi will oversee a slow ebbing away of religious freedoms in the nation. Kurt J. Werthmuller, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom has previously told The Christian Post, “A Morsi presidency would give more license to the Muslim Brotherhood to institute conservative Islamist policies in the country, and this would without a doubt make life more restrictive and discriminatory toward the Coptic Christian minority.”
The good news is that the Egyptian people appear to have finally selected their own ruler through democratic elections. A true democracy, however, requires essential freedoms for all. None is more fundamental than the freedom to worship or not according to the dictates of conscience. This is the next great challenge for Egypt as they begin the process of drafting a constitution, a division of power, and a guarantee of rights.
