Egypt's Coptic Christians fleeing country after Islamist takeover
Coptic Christian churches in the United States
say they are having to expand to cope with new arrivals, as priests in
cities like Cairo and Alexandria talk of a new climate of fear and
uncertainty.
"Most of our people are
afraid," Father Mina Adel, a priest at the Church of Two Saints in
Alexandria said. "Not a few are leaving - for America, Canada and
Australia. Dozens of families from this church alone are trying to go
too."
Father Mina's church has an
important place in the history of the Arab Spring. It was struck by a
car bomb on New Year's Eve 2010, Egypt's worst sectarian attack in
recent decades, in which 23 people were killed.
After
the bombing, liberal Muslim groups staged protests in support of
Christians, printing posters showing the cross and the crescent
interlinked which then went on to be symbols of inter-faith unity during
the Tahrir Square protests three weeks later.
But
the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in parliamentary and presidential
elections has changed the mood - particularly as the biggest opposition
party is the even more hardline Salafist movement which wants strict
Sharia law implemented.
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