Thursday, December 06, 2012
 

Dear friends,

As I drove this morning through our quiet suburb of Heliopolis I was saddened by the sight of debris left over from last night’s deadly confrontation between Muslim Brotherhood supporters of President Morsi and the opposition (5 dead and more than 400 wounded).

But what saddened me most was the kind of people now encamped around the Presidential Palace. They are not the “nice” people I wrote about two days ago. Rather, these are tough looking Muslim Brotherhood supporters bussed in from all over the country and look out of place camping in our middle class suburb.  It appears as if we have been invaded by outsiders!

The events of last night reinforce the fact that Egypt is a divided country between thinkers, intellectuals, journalists and moderate Muslims and Christians on one side, and those who support the ideology of radical Islam on the other.  Please pray for a just and peaceful solution to this terrible dilemma.

The false premise of our government is their belief that with a slim majority (Only half the eligible voters voted in the presidential run-off, which Morsi won with 51%) they can impose their Islamic agenda on the rest of us by force.

The West has yet to realize that its calls for democracy in the Arab world are abused by those who use it to get elected, but then completely deny its essence. We in Egypt are still amazed at the relative silence of the international community towards events here.  Our only interpretation is that pragmatic Western governments have decided it is in their best interest to align themselves with Islamists in the Arab world who are willing to serve Western political interests while tyrannically applying their own agendas locally.

The best example of this is Saudi Arabia (on which Western nations have great dependence). It is one of the most oppressive countries to minorities in the world, but is rarely held accountable for its actions.

Fortunately there are enough Egyptians who are not willing to be bullied, but ready to pay a high price for freedoms they believe were gained in the 2011 Revolution.  However, because they are peace loving, non-violent people, they find it difficult to know what tactics to use in confronting those who only know the power of the sword and have no compunctions about using that power to accomplish their ends.

Thank you for your many notes and assurances of prayer, it means so much to know of your support.  Sorry I can’t acknowledge each note personally, but be assured what you wrote has touched our hearts.

Sincerely in Christ,

Ramez Atallah
General Director
The Bible Society of Egypt