FrontPageMag | Joseph Puder | June 8, 2009
President Obama’s trip to Cairo gave him an opportunity to confront the persecution of Egypt’s ancient Christian community, an opportunity he apparently passed up. The American Coptic Association had planned a demonstration in front of the White House during the June 4th meeting between President Obama and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Dr. Monir Dawoud, chairman of the American Coptic Association, is an Egyptian native who has since retired as a heart surgeon. He said he would ask President Obama: “Where is the change you promised during your campaign? Do you realize that by announcing that you will speak to the Islamic world from an Islamic country you are blessing the continuance of human rights violations against minorities in Islamic nations?”
According to Dr. Dawoud, president Obama’s emphasis on Egypt as a “Muslim” country is “depriving Egyptian Copts of their basic human rights, and this will give the Muslim Brotherhood and other fanatical and radical Muslim groups the license to force the application of Shari’a (Islamic) laws upon them.”
Dr. Dawoud pointed out that the Coptic community hopes “Obama will make the change he spoke of in his campaign towards democracy and not racism.” However, he is disheartened because attempts at outreach have been disregarded by Obama’s many Muslim advisors who seem to deliberately “hide the discriminatory actions of Muslim governments against Christians besides their injustices towards women, children, members of the Bahai faith, and other non-Muslim or non-Arab minorities.” Why, Dr. Dawoud asked, hasn’t the Obama administration hired people who would focus on the absence of rights among Christians and other minorities in the Muslim world?
. . . more
