Dr. Milad Hanna, one of Egypt’s most prominent Christians, author of many books on Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt and columnist in Al-Ahram, is very dismayed about the proposed American religious freedom law. In an article in Al-Ahram of July 22 he writes that there are sectarian clashes which are nothing else but ’masked ignorance’. The Americans are not interested in the Copts, he writes. They only use them to achieve their own political aims. Egyptians shouldn’t let themselves to be used. This was tried before when the British occupied Egypt, but the Egyptians remained united. Sectarianism erupted under Sadat but President Mubarak managed to bring communal peace back to the country. "The Copts are very Egyptian" he writes, "their problems are an internal affair. No one has anything to do with it. We should not let anyone use the Copts to achieve his own aims and interests."
