Unfortunately, Egypt is under this curse, based on the many sources from within and the foreign ones, which play a tug-of-war with the future of the country. The countless problems facing the Egyptians are mostly of their own making. The most difficult of those is the state of autoimmunity prevalent and deepening day by day. Intolerance of the various factions of each other is a form of autoimmunity, which depletes the whole nation. Muslim against Christian; intolerant extremist Muslims like the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and Salafists against moderate Muslims; extremist combative Muslims against other extremist Muslims, the Salafists and various other permutations of this antagonism.
The saying ‘God helps those who help themselves’ is specific. Help from the outside cannot save a nation in an ongoing civil war. This war has to come to an end. The victor will be the whole nation and not one faction over the others. This is simple logic. Unless and until we stop depleting ourselves, no succor from wherever will be of any avail. The list of problems/challenges is endless. Those self-generated are the most knotty.
An unbiased, non-self serving leadership is what we need most, to be able to deal with the humongous problems of the present and the near and distant future.
While currently the first order of business is framing a constitution, which procedure is bogged down by endless haranguing between the members of the ‘committee of fifty’, who are befuddled by outside influence and self-serving groups. I have repeatedly cautioned against an ill-advised hasty process which can result in a document worse than previous constitutions.
The crux of the matter is whether the people want a secular or Islamist sectarian constitution. It appears that the trend is towards the former. Ten to fifteen percent of the Egyptians are Copts. If the constitution is written to favor a sectarian Islamist totality then the Copts will continue to be considered as second class citizens, if that. More likely, according to Shari’a, they will be treated as Dhimmies, a situation totally unacceptable to all concerned within Egypt and those in the Diaspora.
The answer to the question in the subtitle is an unqualified yes. The Copts are not going away. They will remain near where their forebears are buried from time immemorial and will continue their struggle to gain parity with their Muslims brothers come what may. Once this is understood, this problem should resolve itself through wise council.
As to who will become the next president, is a major issue. “To Sisi or not to Sisi, that is the question.” The Egyptians are a very sentimental people. They have made General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi a living icon. He is being called the present-day Nasser. People with longer memories are not that nostalgic about the “reign” of Nasser et al. If the Egyptians insist that June 30 was a revolution against a corrupt Islamist, Muslim Brotherhood-led regime and not a military coup, then it behooves them to elect a civilian president and not one who is military-turned-civilian, beholden to the military. If Sisi is elected president then June 30 could be rightfully called a military coup. This will not serve Egypt well. There must be other non-military Egyptians who are politically savvy and proven with high qualifications to be at the rudder in these difficult times.
Egypt is walking a tight rope without a safety net below and holding an uneven balancing pole. This pole is the collective influence of many foreign potentates/countries with selfish interests in our holy land. Whether we arrive safely to the other side will be determined by the wisdom of the leadership and tolerance of the populous. God bless Egypt.
Saba E. Demian, M.D.