Have been watching massive Coptic Christian rallies in Egypt on Arabic satellite TV for the last two days. In light of recent attacks on Copts–most significantly the burning down of a church–thousands of angry Copts are protesting, especially on two themes: 1) the media, especially Arab media, continues to ignore their situation; and 2) that they get along with most Muslims, but that Muhammad Hussein Tantawi, Egypt’s top military man and de facto ruler, has close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, exacerbating the Copts’ plight. For what it’s worth, Tantawi has long been known as one of the few top Egyptian figures whose wife wears the hijab.
Egypt's new leadership closer to the Brotherhood?
Raymond Ibrahim, an expert in Islamic history and doctrine, is the author of Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam (2022); Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West (2018); Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013); and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). He has appeared on C-SPAN, Al-Jazeera, CNN, NPR, and PBS and has been published by the New York Times Syndicate, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Weekly Standard, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst. Formerly an Arabic linguist at the Library of Congress, Ibrahim has guest lectured at many universities, including the U.S. Army War College, briefed governmental agencies such as U.S. Strategic Command, and testified before Congress. He has been a visiting fellow/scholar at a variety of Institutes—from the Hoover Institution to the National Intelligence University—and is currently the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Friedman Rosen Fellow at the Middle East Forum. His full biography is available here. Follow Raymond at Twitter and Facebook. For media inquiries, please contact [email protected]
Join the conversation as a VIP Member