There is no ambivalence in the press statement released by the Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis, the 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 East. “At last, Egypt is now free from the oppressive rule of the Muslim Brotherhood!” he writes in Mabruk ya Misr (Congratulations, Egypt!) on July 3, 2013.
Bishop Anis does not see recent events — the overthrow and removal of office of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi — as a military coup. “The Armed Forces took the side of the millions of Egyptians who demonstrated in the streets since the 30th of June against President Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood,” he says. “The Armed Forces responded to the invitation of the people to intervene and force the President to step down at the request of the people of Egypt,” he continues. Anis and the 30 million Egyptians who marched against the Muslim Brotherhood last week see the result as a People’s Revolution, created by the people of Egypt — Christian and Muslim alike.
Meanwhile, most of the Western media continues to refer to the Egyptian people’s fight for freedom as a coup. According to Middle East and terrorism expert, Dr. Walid Phares, the Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) is doing a masterful job in capturing the narrative. “Very smart ‘talking points’ concocted by the Muslim Brotherhood consulting firms to blame the so-called ‘rising anti-Americanism’ on the anti-Morsi revolt,” Phares reveals. These talking points are now flying “through news agencies into the main newsrooms worldwide arguing that now both sides are ‘anti-American,’ hinting that the previous situation was better for US interests.”
Wrong! exclaims Phares. What is really happening, he explains, is that “the international Islamist lobby plus the business network of the Ikhwan, which has already mobilized CNN and the New York Times to blast the Egyptian people and army, is trying to fool the public and unfortunately uninformed journalists and bloggers.” In reality the Egyptian people love the people of America. They are shocked by President Obama’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, but they do not hold the people of our nation responsible.
Rather than listen to the propaganda spewed by the Muslim Brotherhood and their Islamist friends, and, unfortunately, most of the media, seek out the reports and comments of people like Bishop Anis, as well as the leadership of the Coptic Church — who speak for the Christians and other minority faith groups. Listen to the continuing coverage and commentary by Dr. Phares, beginning with the links to articles at the end of this blog post. And listen to others who are recording the history of the fight for freedom and democracy in Egypt, such as Egyptian political activist and writer, Cynthia Farahat. On her website, Farahat has shared an interview with an unbelievably articulate and intelligent twelve-year-old Egyptian boy, explaining why he has been protesting against the Muslim Brotherhood in Tahrir Square. There is also good information from Voice of the Copts and MidEast Christian News.
Several moves by the Egyptian Armed Forces signal hope for the future, according to Anis. He tells how Field Marshall Abdel Fattah el-SiSi “invited His Holiness Pope Tawadros II and The Grand Imam of Egypt Dr. Ahmed el-Tayyib, and other political leaders, to discuss the roadmap for the future of Egypt.” As a result of the meeting, he says, “it was announced that the head of the constitutional court will be an interim leader of the nation” and that “the current controversial constitution is now suspended.”
“As soon as Field Marshall Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced this, millions of Egyptians on the streets went around rejoicing, singing, dancing, and making a lot of fireworks,” said Bishop Anis. “I have never seen Egyptians rejoicing in such a way! They deserve this joy as they insisted to write their own history!” he declared. The only solemn note in the bishop’s statement was to ask for prayer for the healing of the divisions in Egypt that had taken place with the ascendency of the Muslim Brotherhood, and for protection against violent backlash from the supporters of Islamic supremacism.
The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Statement
Statement of Solidarity by U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt
Video in Arabic, explained by Dr. Phares: “A video shot by Egyptian citizens shows (clearly) Muslim Brotherhood militiamen, one of them holding the flag of al Qaeda isolating teenagers trapped on a roof, capturing two of them, and throwing them off the roof in the back.”
From Voice of the Copts: “Morsi Supporters Threaten Violence, Civil War.”
From Walid Phares: “Nile of Democracy will Flood Jihadists of Egypt.”
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