Guest Blogger: Why Religious Freedom is Relevant … Why Religious Freedom is the Solution

Samuel Tadros / January 06, 2011

The New Year’s Eve Attack on a Coptic Church in Egypt has left by the last count 23 churchgoers dead. While the Egyptian security is busy trying to figure out what happened and in the meantime beat the Copts that are demonstrating in anger, the Egyptian public has acted, as it usually does, with denial. The attacks are claimed to be an attack on Egypt’s national unity, could not have been carried out by a Muslim or an Egyptian, and in a manner that reflects all the ills of a troubled society has blamed Israel. While Anti Semitism has become the very fabric of political discourse in the country, the current attitudes reflect a more entrenched failure to take responsibility for any action and a desire to bury the problem as deep as possible by denying its existence.

While the actual perpetrator of the crime is responsible for his actions, the attack is the ultimate result of a historical process that is created and maintained by the Egyptian regime, the religious establishment, Islamists and finally society at large. The lack of religious freedom is at the heart of this process. (more…)