“Come and get a cross; come and get a crown,” shouted George as he sat behind a pile of woven palm leaves by the Morcos Church on Cleopatra Street in Heliopolis. George, in his late 20s, was exchanging pleasantries with church-goers. “When you pray, pray for Al-Sisi to be president; pray for us and for all of Egypt to be saved.” Only Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, George insisted, can spare Egypt from the “horrors and evil of the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorists and spare us [Copts] from being subject to the attacks of terrorists who wanted to burn down our churches and throw us out of the country”. Coptic antagonism to the possibility of Islamist rule was nurtured under Hosni Mubarak to the extent that many Copts accepted the discrimination in exchange for not being ruled by Islamists, argues academic and commentator Samer Atallah. But under the one year rule of the Muslim Brotherhood that antagonism evolved into full scale trauma “as Morsi unfortunately did everything in the book to prove the worst fears of all Islamophobes”. The trauma was compounded by attacks against Christians, their properties and churches following the ouster of Morsi. The attacks, which security forces did not stop, were rightly or wrongly blamed squarely on the Muslim Brotherhood, a group whose leaders were happy to make offensive anti-Coptic statements and, at times, threats. “These were horrifying days, especially in Middle and Upper Egypt as Copts and other Christians were at times held hostage in their villages or were forced to leave their homes for fear of being attacked,” recalls Bassem Yassa, a member of Al-Dostour Party and resident of Minya. Yassa says the attacks “whose perpetrators remain unknown were harsher than anything in living memory”. “In the minds of the vast majority of Christians in Egypt it is the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists who are responsible for the suffering they have endured since the ouster of Morsi and it is Al-Sisi who is fighting these groups and consequently Al-Sisi is seen as a saviour.” When Pope Tawodros II mentioned Al-Sisi during the Christmas Eve mass he was greeted with cheerful applause. This week, as the Coptic Church officially announced that an invitation had been extended to interim President Adli Mansour to attend Easter Mass, an informed source told Al-Ahram Weekly that Al-Sisi “had also been approached to see if he could attend since by doing so he would bring enormous joy to the hearts of Copts”. Al-Sisi, according to the same source, had not committed himself to attend though he might “visit the office of the Coptic Patriarch on Easter day to wish him and the Copts well”. Al-Sisi's decision to attend, or not attend, the Easter Mass — something some presidential runners did in 2012 ahead of a highly competitive presidential race — is not just a matter of security. “We don't want to ask for too much. It would be great if he could make it but in any case we are praying for him,” said Marianne, a woman in her early 20s, as she made her way to the Coptic Cathedral in Abbasiya. “He can count on our votes as he can count on our prayers.” In 2012 Marianne voted for Hamdeen Sabahi. At the time she declined the “advice” of the fathers of the church she attends in Ezzbet Al-Nakhl who advised voting for Ahmed Shafik. Mubarak's last prime minister was firmly promoted by many leading Church figures. Marianne regrets voting for Sabahi, Al-Sisi's only likely rival, rather than Shafik because “Shafik would have prevented the Muslim Brotherhood from doing what they did, he would have done as Mubarak used to do.” She also regrets having boycotted the second round of elections in June 2012 to avoid voting for Shafik “to avoid having another Mubarak as president”. “Look at what we have suffered,” she says. Marianne's grandmother's house in Minya was burnt down during an attack last summer. At the onset of the 25 January Revolution Pope Shenouda asked Copts to stay behind the walls of the Church and not take part in anti-Mubarak demonstrations, taking the same line as Muslim religious leaders. The younger generation of Copts defied the patriarch. Coptic-state confrontation over discrimination peaked on 9 October 2011 when, under the rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), some Coptic demonstrators were killed by armoured vehicles. “Yes, it was a horrifying moment but we have no choice but to move on,” says Mina Thabet, a Coptic rights activist. “The vast majority of Egyptians have forgotten about the attacks against demonstrators in Mohamed Mahmoud Street and the Cabinet clashes that took place under SCAF. Copts are part of the majority of Egyptians supporting Al-Sisi”. “Fear reigns supreme now,” says Atallah. “It is allowing for the return of many pre-25 January practices, including overlooking human rights violations and a re-kindling of overly warm relations between the state and the Church that we had hoped would steer clear of politics under the leadership of Pope Tawodros II. When he took over the leadership of the Coptic Church in November 2012 Pope Tawodros II said the time had come for the Church to avoid politics. Yet little over a year later the entire leadership of the Church was encouraging Copts to vote in favour of the new constitution. Will similar recommendations carry weight in the presidential elections? The debate within political parties that have a large Christian presence is telling. Al-Masryeen Al-Ahrar Party is lobbying for Al-Sisi. The Wafd Party is also lobbying for Al-Sisi and working closely with notables in Upper Egypt, one of its traditional strongholds, to rally support. Al-Dostour, the first political party to be headed by a Coptic woman, is predominantly pro-Sabahi, with 60 per cent of its members, according to an internal poll, favouring the leader of the Popular Current. The Egyptian Socialist Democratic Party (ESDP) is faced with an internal debate between those who favour Al-Sisi — many but not all of them Copts — and those who are still undecided. “I know that many Christians are in favour of Al-Sisi but this is not to say that there are no exceptions; this is happening everywhere,” says party member Ehab Al-Kharrat. Leading ESDP member Emad Gad quit over the hesitation of the party to publicly endorse Al-Sisi. “We cannot make a public endorsement before we get to see the platform he is running on. This is the position of many in the leadership of the party, both Christians and Muslims alike,” Al-Kharrat said. “Al-Sisi is being supported, there is no doubt about it, and it is to keep the Islamists away, there is no doubt about this too; but there are other demands that must be made,” says Atallah. According to Patriarchy insiders, those demands include an end to discrimination of all kinds, particularly in relation to the construction and repair of churches and a less disadvantaged presence in the public sphere, including the traditionally cordoned off zones of the army, police and intelligence. “We basically want to be equal before the law. We know it is a long path and it cannot happen overnight and we know that the sentiment might not be ripe now but we do expect Al-Sisi to place the country on the beginning of the right path,” says Thabet. “The first year of Al-Sisi's rule will decide the future of the relationship between the state and the Church.”
