The latest criminal attack on a Coptic church in Cairo should not surprise observers of the Egyptian affairs especially since the occurrence of the murderous army coup against the democratically-elected regime of Dr. Muhammed Mursi on 3 July.
Indeed since then Egypt has been slipping into chaos instability and violence. Some pundits are warning against the prospects of Egypt morphing slowly but definitely into a failed state very much like Somalia Pakistan Iraq or even Syria .
True the Egyptian military establishment remains powerful and could still influence things in the most populous Arab country. But this alone wouldn’t prevent the country from Sliding down the slippery slope at the edge of precipice. After all the generals lack the political wisdom the economic experience and intellectual and moral rectitude to do what is right to make Egypt stand on its feet anew.
In fact the military dictatorship which has ruled Egypt since 1952 is the mother of all problems facing the country. It created a culture based on mendacity and hypocrisy. And those who dared object to their fascist secularism were often hounded imprisoned tortured and murdered. Do you remember Sayyed Qutb?
Predictably the scandalously dishonest Egyptian media has been making insinuations suggesting the now- banned Muslim Brotherhood! May have carried out the cowardly attack on the Warrak Church .
However the Egyptian media which is now at its moral lowest point can’t be trusted to tell the truth about anything. This media is at the criminal coup junta’s beck and call and telling the truth is not part of its function.
Besides it is highly unlikely that the MB would embark on such a folly. This is the last thing they would want to do. They are an organized group and attacking churches is alien to their way of thinking. Moreover such attacks would not benefit them in any way shape or form.
Having said that one can not completely rule out the probability that a pseudo-Islamist group e.g. al- Qaeda-style network of terrorists may have been responsible for the criminal attack.
However the al-Qaeda hypothesis is only a probability even a weak one.
The more plausible probability in the view of this writer is that the Sisi regime is directly or indirectly responsible for the crime.
The Sisi junta stands to benefit from the crime as it is using it to accuse the Ikhwan and further besmirch their public image. Besides those who have murdered and maimed thousands of innocent Egyptians and then claimed the victims committed collective suicide are bereft of any modicum of morality and even humanity and could really do the unthinkable.
The criminal junta would also exploit the incident in order to impose more draconian repressive measures against their political opponents principally the Islamists under the rubric of “fighting the ghoul of terror.”
The Sisi regime is a direct extension of the Mubarak regime and the so called “deep state.” And for those who tend to forget it has been proven by and large that the secret security apparatus of the Mubarak regime had been involved in attacks on Coptic churches prior and after the downfall of ex-president Mubarak.
Some Coptic figures would entertain the idea that the military establishment and the Copts are allies or stand on the same side against the “forces of extremism and terror” an allusion to the Islamist forces. However this mode of thinking seems to have more to do with fantasy and wishful thinking than with hard reality.
The Egyptian military establishment is inured in the culture of lying and its ability to sacrifice truth and morality for the sake of securing their own interests is notorious.
They would commit the most despicable crime imaginable in order to blame it on political opponents. This happened during Nasser Sadat and Mubarak. And it is happening now before our eyes.
As to the Coptic Church it is much closer to being guilty than innocent. The dark embrace between the Church and the criminal junta should be a clear indictment for the Coptic religious leadership as well as the rector of the Azhar academy.
The military junta has the unjustly spilled blood of thousands of innocent Egyptian squarely on its criminal hands. This alone is considered a stark contradiction to everything true Christians stand for.
More to the point it is amply clear that the often conspicuous religious and ideological hatred the Coptic religious leadership is harboring for the Islamists especially the MB is blinding its eyes and prompting it to adopt extremist and fanatical attitudes toward the Islamists. This fanaticism often manifests itself through Coptic insistence on imposing fascist secularism on the vast majority of Egyptians for whom secularism is not part of their religious traditions.
Yes secularism may be part of Christianity but it is never part of Islam.
* Khalid Amayreh is an American-educated journalist living in Occupied Palestine .
