Evil in Egypt

As you probably already know, the Egyptian government (i.e. the army) has been in the news recently for killing a number of Christian protestors who were condemning recent church burnings and demanding equal rights with Muslims.  You can read a little more about it here.  This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who mind hasn’t been shut off by the media’s recent love affair with the new Egyptian since Mubarak’s ousting.  After all, I expect nothing less of Muslims than insidious persecution of other religions.  Such is the domineering nature that the Muslim faith has taken since it’s creation by the warlord/prophet Muhammad.  Slaughtering Christians is just maintaining the historic status quo for Muslims (not that Christians haven’t done the same on occasions).  For those of us who were worried that the new Egypt might not be all that free for some, this is the first affirmation of that belief. 

"Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith."

Alexis de Tocqueville

As I believe I’ve said before, democracy doesn't work without a populace that widely embraces Christianity or at the very least adheres to Christian values.   Without people that have an interest in the common good and playing by the rules, Democracy just doesn't work.  After all, people without values are more likely to exploit the system and cause problems for everyone else, which is easier to do in a democracy where everyone has all those freedoms.


Of course, along the same lines, christian politicians (and politicians in general in fact) are more likely to recognize things like objective morality and have a less liberal interpretation of the constitution, and therefore less likely to twist words, work the system, and make life worse for everybody else.

However, most importantly, if the majority of the people are christian, they themselves will be more likely to support fair treatment for minority groups (despite what they tell you on CNN).  People with Christian values will want to treat others fairly because our idea of fair here in the west was forged by the Christian church.  With a majority that does not hold such values (and Muslims are a prime example because they hold values quite different from Christian values, unlike most atheists who tend to steal christian values) one can expect suppression of minorities and the creations of what is still a "rule of many" but is certainly does not offer the "liberty and justice for all" that has come to define the more popular definition of democracy.

Now, on a slightly different strain, it turns out that Obama has come out with a statement encouraging the Egyptian copts, who are being slaughtered by the dozens, to practice "restraint".  Here's an article on the subject.

President Obama has responded to the Egyptian military’s massacre of Coptic Christian protestors in Cairo Sunday with a pointedly even-handed statement that calls equally on Christians and the military to show restraint. 

“The President is deeply concerned about the violence in Egypt that has led to a tragic loss of life among demonstrators and security forces,” Obama said in a statement released this week. ”Now is a time for restraint on all sides so that Egyptians can move forward together to forge a strong and united Egypt.” 

Incredibly, Obama is not only equating the deaths of peaceful protestors and their killers, but he is suggesting that Egypt’s increasingly persecuted Christian minority should show as much “restraint” as their tormentors and refrain from vigorously objecting to the growing abuse. 

More than two dozen people, most of them Copts, were killed as security forces attacked demonstrators protesting the burning of a church. 

The Egyptian military has denied the killings, but news reports, eyewitness accounts, and videos posted to the Internet contradict the claims, with footage showing armed personnel carriers ramming through crowds of protestors and a soldier firing at them. The dead, according to forensic reports, were either crushed by being run over or were shot. 

Three soldiers are also said to have died, but this appears to have occurred as protestors were fighting for their lives. There can be no mistaking that this was a slaughter of civilians. 

The church burning was only the latest in an escalating series of attacks by Islamists against Christians and their churches. 

Obama’s statement does say that “the United States continues to believe that the rights of minorities – including Copts – must be respected.” But the moral equivalence given to the demonstrators and military signals that the White House is not yet serious about curtailing the anti-Christian violence and preempting additional brutal action by the military. 

In another sign of unseriousness, Obama notes reassuringly “Prime Minister Sharaf’s call for an investigation,” even though Sharaf has already blamed the violence on a foreign consipiracy.
“It is difficult for us to consider what happened in Egypt in the past hours is due to sectarian strife, but what is for certain is that it is one of the pieces of this plot,” Sharaf said. 

Some analysts fear that the Egyptian military may be promoting violence in order to give it an excuse to crack down and increase its power.

It's bad enough that the Egyptian Christians have to put up with this, but does our President really have to wink at it like that and blame the Christians as much as their killers?  It seems like just months ago that Obama was protecting peaceful protesters with air and missile strikes.  Oh wait, that's completely different.  Those were Muslims (some of whom almost certainly had ties to terrorist groups) who were being shot, not Christians.  I'm not saying that I agree with this, but the people who claim that Obama is a Muslim are looking righter and righter every day.  Next statement it will probably be all the Christians fault and he'll be sending troops to Egypt to help the Egyptians persecute their Christians.  After all, it's hard to imagine his poll numbers going down any further no matter what he does.

Thanks to Viewpoint for the article.