Presidential Election Results Announced, Egypt Is Polarized, Copts' Future in Dark

We must pray for our Coptic Christian brethren and stand in solidarity with them

The first free presidential election in Egypt since the revolution concluded one week ago. Official results were announced on Sunday, June 24, 2012. The election has polarized the nation, left democracy in shambles, and the future of the Copts remains in doubt.

KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - It has been 16 months since the revolution in Cairo's famous Tahrir Square which forced President Mubarak to step down. The first free presidential election in Egypt since the revolution was concluded one week ago, and the official results were announced on Sunday, June 24, 2012. The election has polarized the nation, left democracy in shambles, and the future of the Copts remains in doubt regardless who wins.

About 10% of Egypt's 85 million people are members of the Coptic Christian community. This makes the Copts the largest Christian minority throughout the Middle-East region. According to reports, the Copts overwhelmingly voted for Ahmed Shafiq, friend and former prime minister to ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Although Shafiq represents the old regime and is supported by the military, he was viewed by many Copts as being better than the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammed Morsi.

Almost all the residents are Christians in Azaziya, a small town in southern Egypt, where Shafiq was expected to do very well. The leader of the town's son Montaser Qalbek said, "Our goal is a civil state. We don't see anyone else who can protect this except for him." Makram, a young man from Shobra, a working-class neighborhood in Cairo with a large Christian community, believes Shafiq will get strong support from his neighbors. He said, "We are backing the one who can ensure a measure of security for our community and the country."

The Copts have good reason to fear that Morsi will force sharia law on Egypt and turn it into an Islamic state, in spite of his recent rhetoric. The Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis have called for such a state on many occasions. At a recent rally, Morsi said, "It was for the sake of the Islamic sharia that men were.thrown into prison. Their blood and existence rests on our shoulders now. We will work together to realize their dream of implementing sharia." So when Morsi vowed that Christians will be given full rights equal to Muslims, and he might appoint a Christian as one of his vice presidents, we can understand why the Copts did not believe him.

Even though the official results of the election had not yet been released, Mursi declared himself the winner. According to the Muslim Brotherhood, Mursi had close to 52 percent of the votes and Shafiq has about 48 percent. However, Shafiq was hopeful that he won. He said, "My campaign was pretty sure I will be the legitimate winner God willing." The Shafiq campaign rejected the Muslim Brotherhood's results. Based on their initial indications, they expeced Shafiq to receive over 51 percent of the vote.

They suspected Mursi of trying to hijack the election at the risk of destabilizing Egypt. As it turns out, the entire election process, beginning in December, has been fraught with distrust and perceived betrayals of one sort or another on both sides.

For instance, the Higher Presidential Election Commission (HPEC), which is charged with counting the votes and issuing the official election results, missed the announcement date. According to the state election committee, they were unable to meet the Thursday deadline because they received approximately 400 election-violation complaints from both sides. They hoped to review all of the complaints and announce the official results on Sunday. They made the announcemt on Sunday. Did they review all of the complaints?

Committee Secretary-General Hatem Bagato said, "We must give both sides all the time they need to ensure that the process is fair."  But Essam el-Erian, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said, "There is absolutely no justification for the result of the vote to be delayed." He added that complaints against the Muslim Brotherhood from Shafiq's people were "either invalid or too few to affect the result."

But this delay is trivial compared to the announcement made by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) as the polls closed last Sunday. They announced a ruling amending the Constitutional Declaration of March 2011 and giving SCAF sweeping authority. By this ruling, SCAF has the power to initiate legislation, to control the budget, to appoint a panel to draft a new constitution, to postpone new parliamentary elections until a new constitution is approved, to bring troops onto the streets during times of civil unrest, and to make arrests.

The Muslim Brotherhood and others believe the amendment undermines the president's power and are calling it a power grab, a military coup. Mohamed ElBaradei, an Egyptian reform leader and winner of a Nobel Peace Prize, described the document as a "grave setback for democracy and the revolution." The Obama administration, which appears to favor the Muslim Brotherhood, has declared concern over the changes. However, as dramatic as these changes are, they came on the heals of another change which is equally dramatic, if not more so.

One week ago this past Thursday, just days before the final round of the presidential election, Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court dissolved the new parliament. The Court ruled that around one-third of the seats had been won illegitimately. As a result, the Court said, "the makeup of the entire chamber is illegal and, consequently, it does not legally stand."

During the parliamentary elections political parties were to fill two-thirds of the available seats. The other one-third was reserved for candidates unaffiliated with any political party. Except for 10 seats which are appointed, these are independent seats for the "farmer" or "worker" candidates. Apparently, many of these independent candidates were sponsored by political parties and, therefore, seated unconstitutionally. This partly explains why Islamists won about 71 percent of the seats.

The Muslim Brotherhood protested and called it a power grab, but many Egyptians have hailed the dissolution of the Islamist-controlled parliament. They believe that the Muslim Brotherhood intentionally engaged in such election irregularities in order to gain control of the parliament. According to a Coptic Christian human rights lawyer in Egypt, Athanasious Williams, "Christians are happy, because they were afraid the Muslim Brotherhood was taking over the parliament. But now they feel that there might be a better chance for a secular government."

And before that, in April, a court dissolved the committee charged with writing Egypt's new constitution. Christians, along with liberal and moderate Muslims boycotted the drafting committee. They believed the committee should represent the nation's diversity, but Islamists said it should reflect the composition of a parliament and were using their parliamentary election victories to dominate the committee. Apparently, the court did not agree with the Islamists.

On the other hand, even though SCAF reiterated their promise to hand over power as previously agreed at the end of June, Islamists and others fear that the military will not hand over power to the newly elected government. They see the delay of the presidential election results, SCAF's announcement amending the Constitutional Declaration, and the dissolution of parliament and the drafting committee for the new constitution as evidence of a military coup. They also point to the soldiers stationed at the parliament building to shut it down and a military buildup in major cities.

Mohamed ElBaradei said if Shafiq was declared the winner, "[W]e are in for a lot of instability and violence ... a major uprising." The Muslim cleric, Shaykh Usamah Qasim, warned that if the Islamists were denied power and anyone but Morsi won: "The fate of any of them who reaches the presidency will be like that of former President Anwar al-Sadat, who was assassinated."

The Muslim Brotherhood, other Islamists and some young secular protestors, who distrust the old Mubrak-military regime more than the Islamists, have taken to the streets in protest. As a result, thousands of protestors have now gathered in Tahrir Square. At this point, we do not know if the military is reneging on its promise to hand over the government, but it is quite apparent that Islamists groups have repeatedly compromised the election process and lied in order to secure power for themselves.

It is not clear whether democracy will take hold in Egypt. With Morsi declared the winner, it appears that the Muslim Brotherhood's commitment to democracy is only a means to an end, nothing more. Yet, it is not clear if the military is committed to democracy either.

The Copts are clearly caught in the middle of the two and need our prayers. But it seems we are witnessing something even bigger here. Egypt and the Copts seem to be in the middle of an unreasoning, violent force which is spreading throughout the world in multiple forms. Thus, it would seem that the older democracies need to watch the democratic experiment in Egypt closely and learn. It would also seem that the time has come for Christians around the world to see themselves as one family and unite.
 
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Michael Terheyden was born into a Catholic family, but that is not why he is a Catholic. He is a Catholic because he believes that truth is real, that it is beautiful and good, and that the fullness of truth is in the Catholic Church. However, he knows that God's grace operating throughout his life is the main reason he is a Catholic. He is greatly blessed to share his faith and his life with his beautiful wife, Dorothy. They have four grown children and three grandchildren.

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