Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Thanks for caring!

As a Copt, it's comforting to read articles like this, which help bring American attention to the Coptic situation, which makes us all feel better, even though it's probably kind of useless.

However, today a thought crossed my mind... Who is this Benny Avni character?  Since when does he care about Copts?  Why does he have this specific and incredibly bleak viewpoint?

Now, this article wasn't so bad, but many of these types of articles are written by conservative authors want to give strength to the idea that Arabs are still too "barbaric" to have a democracy with equal rights.  They have titles like "Will the Copts Survive?!?!" and "Egypt's Scapegoats!"  In many ways, they want to undermine the strength and idealism of the revolution by focusing on the ugly stuff- ugly stuff that was there long before the revolution, long before they seemed to care about the fate of the Coptic people.  Where was Benny Avni when violence in Asyut happened in 1994?  I think the sad truth is that many of these pessimists are much more concerned with the fate of Israel than that of the Copts.  I'm sorry, but the Coptic people are not pawns in someone else's political game.  Egyptians are more than capable of producing a country with equal rights, if that's what they decide to do.  I hope I'm not casting aspersions on this guy's motives, but paying attention to the U.S. media can be a frustrating, frustrating thing.  Fortunately, the Egyptian people are going to be making these decisions now, whether the U.S. likes it or not.  Let's hope we all do the right thing!

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