In the interview Sunday, January 6, with CNN news anchor, Wolf Blitzer, President Muhammad Mursī disclosed his stance on a number of issues. The issues included Mursī’s opinion on the last statement delivered by the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the development in the reconciliation process between the Palestinian Fath and Hammās, and on the Palestinian Cause after a cease-fire an eight-day conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist faction Hamas.
During the interview, Blitzer asked Mursī on his plans on democracy in Egypt, especially as he was the first president democratically elected.
On freedom of media and press, Mursī asserted that he is committed to allowing free speech.
When asked on the rights of all Egyptians regardless of their creed or faith, he answered that he is committed to promoting democracy and protecting "minorities", including Coptic Christians, from discrimination.
Many Copts showed concern on Mursī calling Egyptian Copts “minorities” during the televised interview held with Wolf Blitzer, arguing that Mursī was merely seeking to assure viewers around the world, as well as people in his own country. In September 28, last year, during a meeting with the Egyptian community in the United States of America, President Mursī had said that he refused to discriminate between Egyptian citizens, thus, considered the word “minority” as alien to the Egyptian fabric.
Dr. 'Imād ꞌAbd al-Latīf, professor of rhetoric, criticized President Mursī’s controversial phrasing, saying that it is unprecedented in Egypt’s political rhetoric to use “minority” for Copts under any circumstances; phrases usually used were “the two Nation’s elements” or “Egypt’s Muslims and Christians.” However, ꞌAbd al-Latīf suggested that President Mursī used the more common term adopted internationally when speaking on “religious minorities.”
It is noteworthy that Wolf Blitzer is a Polish Jew whose family had survived the Holocaust. [Passant Zayn al-Dīn and Rashā al-Tahtāwī, al-Misrī al-Yawm, Jan. 8, p. 1] Read original text in Arabic
