Re what is happening in Egypt. Written by a credible Christian resident of Cairo whom I personally know. This is a very different report than we have been getting in the nightly news. I’m writing to reassure you that despite what you are seeing on the news, my wife, children and I are all safe (in fact, to get a sense of things, even though very few people are working these two days—(1) our children have had two full and enjoyable days playing, back and forth to their friends’ homes in our immediate neighborhood, (2) we were out shopping today and were easily able to find fresh groceries and bread, though hours and variety were limited, and, (3) despite the curfew and check-points, my wife’s parents were still able to drop her off at the airport just now (midnight Thursday), for a planned international trip. Nonetheless, we are taking precautions, staying alert, but I still expect to be able to get to church tomorrow without incident. One thing we do wish is that you could watch our local news, to get a somewhat different picture of things than Al-Jazeera, CNN, and even BBC are able to offer. In a nutshell, Egyptians want to see this period of Muslim Brotherhood antagonism and bullying come to an end—and their frustration is that Western media have been increasingly critical of Egypt since June 30. As I’m sure you’ve seen on the news, yesterday and today, Egypt is, once again, in the midst of turmoil and violence. In fact, what’s been happening over these past 48 hours is the worst violence that Egypt has seen in decades. As of this evening, 47 police officers have been killed, and probably 20 times that many armed members of the Brotherhood have also died. It began with the surprise-forceful evacuation of two large camps which were, in fact, concentrated zones for the proliferation of propaganda, rights violations, and a source of legalized terrorism. The Muslim Brotherhood organization staffing these sit-ins (which many Egyptians have come to refer to as a terroristic group who only posed as a political entity, but are more mafia-like in their use of violence for selfish gain) had made threats both before last year’s elections, and during their sit-ins, demanding they get their way. Most of the violence around Egypt is the fulfillment of these old threats. This so-called ‘legitimate-democratic’ political group have taken on the role of terrorists: 45 churches have been burned and attacked (many gutted first, and valuables stolen, with similar pillaging of their attached parsonages—the military promised today that they would rebuild the churches that have been targeted, and will provide financial support to the large number of Christian residents and businesses that have been destroyed by Brotherhood attacks). Similar attacks have been made against numerous police stations, businesses, homes, hospitals, schools, universities, military installations and government institutions, and finally, even prisons have been broken open to further the chaos. I speak with absolute certainty when I say that, for the vast majority of Egyptians, the military are finally doing what the people have been asking—this is not part of a military coup, but rather, a restoration of control to the majority of Egyptian people. Although the huge number of mortalities is both tragic and regrettable, they could have been avoided, had the MB entered into peaceful productive dialogue with the transitional government, as the military so often invited them to over the past 6 weeks. Please pray, and help spread the word, to correct a skewed understanding of the reality facing Egypt right now.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 17:51:36 +0000
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