Demonstrations like the ones happening now would have been unthinkable when I lived there with my family in 1989-96. To see people standing up in public on TV and saying "Go, Mubarak!" that would have been an impossibility. For the presumptuous, it would have meant arrest on the spot, probably detention under torture and perhaps imprisonment.
Image: Secretary General of the Danish European Mission Henrik Ertner Rasmussen
The Christians of Egypt, the Copts as they are called, have not usually interfered much in politics, although the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III, usually encourages people to vote during public elections. He owes a certain debt of gratitude to President Mubarak, as it was Mubarak who in 1985 ordered the Pope's release from the desert monastery where he had been under house arrest since being banished there in 1981 by former President Sadat as punishment for expressing dissatisfaction with the conditions of Christians.
The question now is how the situation for Christians will develop if a new regime emerges as a result of the popular uprising that is now underway. Many have raised the risk of Islamists coming to power, but it is as if the Muslim Brotherhood has not really put itself at the forefront of the uprising, even though it is by far the best organized opposition group in the country. The uprising is more an expression of the anger and frustration of 'ordinary Egyptians' at the lack of freedom and opportunities in terms of jobs and education.
The chaos that currently reigns in many places has not affected Christians very much. There have been attempts to loot a few churches, but there are indications that only common criminals are behind this, just as they loot shops.
Christians are also injured during the confrontations with the authorities who have been deployed to quell the demonstrations, but not to a greater extent than Muslims. Still, there is good reason to pray for Egypt's Christians in this troubled situation, because as a minority they are inherently exposed and vulnerable when law and order no longer prevails.
