Dr. Mustafá al-Fiqī, in an opinion article in al-Ahrām, wrote that the fruits of the Arab Spring was reaped only by Islamists who reached power through parliament that was elected after the upheavals of 2011.

There was a ripple effect in other countries that did not have any revolutions but formed their new parliaments from an Islamist majority, like Morocco and Kuwait.

Islamists are either moderates or extremists and between them were several attempts to apply the Islamic Sharī’ah on societies that was long affected by the West.

They [Islamists] always say, 'You tried socialism and it did not last and nationalism finally kept a low profile. Why don’t you try Islamism and give it a chance, now that the ballot box will settle this matter!'

There were two incidents that occurred in the past four decades that will constitute the identity of Islamism which Islamists want to revive. The first was the 1979 Islamic Iranian Revolution and the second was the 9/11 attacks. We have to admit that the Islamist movements in the world are the ‘legitimate offspring’ of the Muslim Brotherhood group.

Fiqī concluded that the question is where Christians will stand in this Islamism spread.

First, Arab Christians are of Arab roots even before Islam. As for Egyptian Christians, who we can call Copts, their Egyptian descent is an addition, which means that they are partners in the Islamic Arabic civilization. Anyone who says otherwise is ignorant.

Second, the Arab Spring gave rise to Islamist movements to reach power and that is not new to Christians. They have been coexisting with the Islamic state in its different stages. But what of concern now is the religious fundamentalism that came to the surface. [Dr. Mustafá al-Fiqī, al-Ahrām, April 3, p. 11] Read original text in Arabic