I closed the blog posted on May 11th about the Mideast unrest with a comment that those who support a dictator will suffer when the dictator loses. That may be true, but recent news events show that others are taking advantage of the turmoil to attack people practicing a religion they won’t tolerate. I can’t begin to catalog all of the different ethnic and religious factions that have suffered for centuries because of religious intolerance by others, but the Coptic Christians in Egypt are facing organized attacks from Salafi, ultraconservative Muslims, and Muslim Brotherhood extremists since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. One recent incident involved 12 Coptics killed, over 200 wounded, and a church set on fire. Crowds of Muslims were marching and shouting Islamic chants and Osama bin Laden’s name. There is concern that the attacks are intensifying, that moderate Muslims may be increasingly involved, and there are warnings that the overall situation may degrade into a civil war.

Christianity was the dominant religion in Egypt in the fourth to sixth centuries. The language was Coptic, which was based on the Greek alphabet with an additional six to seven characters. The Muslims conquered Egypt in 639 AD, but the population remained mostly Christian. There were gradual conversions to Islam over the next several centuries until Egypt became a mostly Muslin country by the end of the 12th century. It is estimated that 5-10 percent of Egyptians are currently Christians, and the extremists seem to be unwilling to rest until that percentage reaches zero.

It is difficult to sort through and gain much of an understanding about what is happening in the Mideast, or where things are going from here. The Muslim Brotherhood was illegal but tolerated under Mubarak in Egypt, but is now legal and is gaining support. The protests and government crackdown in Bahrain has inflamed tensions between Sunnis and Shiites. The Wall Street Journal reported that the kingdom has blamed Iran for much of the unrest and invited troops from Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia.  The Libyan civil war remains in the news, although it certainly doesn’t seem certain what will happen in that country should Moammar Gadhafi be ousted. Yemen has a well-organized branch of al Qaeda. President Saleh has supported counter-terrorism forces, and the Obama administration has supported negotiations guided by Saudi Arabia. The protest movements in Syria and Iran seem to have been quieted by violent suppression and mass arrests.  It remains difficult for me to cheer on the protestors, although Tunisia does have a chance to become a democracy. The transitional government is preparing for elections in July to install and assembly to draft a constitution and election laws. I remain skeptical that either democratic governments or freedom of religion will be the outcome in other countries. Let’s hope I write a posting someday celebrating that I was wrong.