Letting Christians die in terror

MadaMasr.com

When Islamist terrorists murdered seven Coptic Christian pilgrims in the Egyptian desert earlier this month, the world knew exactly who was to blame, said Michael Akladios: the victims. Egyptian officials praised the military for its success battling jihadist insurgents, and insisted the pilgrims would not have been attacked if they’d stayed on roads with security checkpoints. Meanwhile, the international media suggested the Copts were targeted not because they are a long-persecuted Christian minority in a majority Muslim country, but because they all support President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi “in return for a degree of protection.” Never mind that el-Sissi’s government routinely discriminates against

Copts—fewer than 1 percent of Coptic churches and other religious buildings submitted for approval in early 2017 have been accepted—or that his military regime has utterly failed to safeguard Copts. Nineteen months before this latest attack, 28 Christians were killed on their way to the very same monastery the pilgrims were visiting. What Copts and all Egyptians need is not a strongman president “touting the language of protection.” This country needs a government that can provide poor and uneducated communities, who are most susceptible to jihadist propaganda, with schools, jobs, and infrastructure. “Stop blaming the victim. These atrocities do not happen in a vacuum.”