Sojourners in the Land of Egypt

The headline reads “Egyptian Christians Worry about Radical Islamic Takeover.” The worry is a legitimate one. Instability in the Arab world, caused by revolutions against western-backed strong men, could well empower fanatical Islamists. The downfall of our US-backed Persian strong man, the Shah, gave the world the socialist-Shiite Revolution in Iran. If the Sunnite world, where the present revolutions are taking place, takes a similar turn towards radical Islamo-Socialism (they’re not fascists!), an Islamist hegemony could grip the Arab world.

Mindful of the bellicose history of the religion, this is a serious cause for concern, something to pray for on this feast of St. John of Matha.

This situation is far from requiring more U.S. meddling in the region. Our best bet is to stay out. We’ve stirred up the hatred of the Moslem world enough by our meddling, and by our uncritical support of a nation that has brutally wronged many of their coreligionists (and ours, too): Israel. Rand Paul is talking sense: not just dollars and sense, but foreign policy sense. What exactly did we purchase with the thirty billion dollars we gave to an Egyptian regime that tortured its own (wasn’t that one of our excuses for the invasion of Iraq?), and that we’re now ready to drop like a hot potato?

Meanwhile, the poor Christians of the Middle East are left in a precarious existence:

In a takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood Christians could expect to live as ‘dhimmis’

“Coptic Christians — as well as Egypt’s Armenian, Greek Orthodox, Latin, Maronite and Melkite Greek Catholics — all fear a fate similar to that of Iraq’s Christians,” Bishara stated, recalling how a power vacuum in that country “left its minorities, especially the Christians, marginalized and exposed to the terror of Islamic extremists and criminals.” [Read more…]

May the Holy Family, who once took refuge in Egypt, protect the baptized during these troublesome times.