Amid frequent meetings between Islamists and members of the US
administration, however, some Copts believe Washington’s interests are
beginning to trump its commitment to human rights.
‘We believe there
is an alliance between the Obama administration and the Muslim
Brotherhood,’ stated Bishoy Tamrī, a member of the political bureau of
the Maspero Youth Union, a mostly Coptic revolutionary group formed
after attacks on Egyptian churches in 2011. ‘This alliance is to support
fascism in the Middle East. The US thinks the Muslim Brotherhood will
protect their interests in the region, but this will be over our bodies
as minorities.’
The revolutionary character of the Maspero Youth
Union plays a role in seeing the United States making a deal with the
devil. ‘We knew the next president must have US support,’ Tamrī
continued, ‘because the military council rules Egypt and the US pays the
military council.’
Most of the United States’ foreign aid to
Egypt is in the form of military support, with smaller percentages given
to economic and civil society development.
A few hundred people
gathered at the US Embassy in Cairo to protest the visit of Hillary
Clinton, the US Secretary of State. Early chants at the demonstration
included, ‘The people and the army are one hand’, but these were
silenced by Maspero Youth Union leaders. Tamrī explained their group
called for an open protest, and some attendees see the military council
as the best means to limit or even depose Islamist rule.
One
such group is the supporters of Egyptian television presenter Tawfīq
‘Ukāshah, somewhat comparable to America’s Glenn Beck. These are strong
supporters of the military council and clashed briefly with assembled
protestors when they arrived, according to Rāmī Kāmel, an independent
Coptic activist helping organize the demonstration. This drove the
protest ten minutes south to the Four Seasons Hotel.
According
to Nādir Shukrī, the media spokesman for the Maspero Youth Union, the
United States is looking to preserve its interests after the Arab Spring
shook their control of local governments. Yet their eye is not on the
region’s good, but on its destruction. ‘[The US] knows Islamist rule
will bring ruin to these countries, and the best evidence of this is
their previous experience.’
As for proof of this alliance, it is
found in their frequent meetings. ‘We see evidence in the pre-election
visits of US representatives to the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters,’
said Tamrī. ‘If the US was looking simply to political representatives
it would have visited their Freedom and Justice Party.’
Others see this reasoning as absurd.
‘The
United States has relations with every nation in the world,’ said Ra’ed
Sharqāwī, an investigative journalist present at the demonstration.
‘The United States is also the shield for the Copts, and always will be.
This protest is foolish.’
During Clinton’s visit she
asked
President Mursī to ‘assert the full authority of his position’. The
president is currently engaged in a struggle with the military council
over the dissolution of parliament. His party, the FJP is also
pushing
him to confront the military over its supplementary constitutional
declaration to preserve some of its powers until a new constitution is
written. Clinton did
state
the details of the transition should be left to the Egyptian people to
determine, but urged the military return to its role of protecting the
borders.
It is an open and contested
question
if the military is seeking to preserve its power and resist the
revolution, or if it is defending democracy against a premature Islamist
takeover of all institutions of government.
Nevertheless,
whether the demonstrations against Clinton are foolish or astute, it is a
dramatic step for a segment of the Coptic community to turn against the
United States so publically.
Jayson Casper also blogs regularly at A Sense of Belonging. Follow him on Twitter at @jnjcasper.
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