Coptic Solidarity International, which has been holding large conferences in Congress and drawing a significant bipartisan support, said in their press release: “we are disappointed by the stand of the Working Group, particularly that some of its members were strong supporters of the freedom forward policy under the Bush Administration and have in the past and under their respective think tanks, exposed the Islamists’ determined push against democratic forces in the region. Especially disappointing is that experts known for their support to civil society continue to support an elusive, fully discredited, “Islamist democracy” political agenda. It is high time that the Working Group gets back into step with the realities in Egypt, as well as align itself with the hopes and aspirations of the vast majority of Egyptians and Egyptian-Americans, and America’s real regional interests.”
An observer in Washington noted that “if the Copts have criticized the so-called Working Group, and were disappointed with some of its signatories who have been supportive of civil society in the past and turned their coats this year, it signals the rising influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar petrodollars recently.”
The observer added that “while Copts and liberal Egyptians have been critical of the Obama Administration for its partnership with the Ikhwan, what stuns us is the fact that some of the signatories of the letter to Obama were in fact part of the Bush Administration, and that shows that Islamist influence has indeed become pervasive on both sides of the partisan divide.”
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