Egypt’s Christians fear oppression from Muslim Brotherhood

Egypt’s minority Christians, already shut out of mainstream life and politics, fear more legal—and perhaps violent—forms of oppression under the newly elected Muslim Brotherhood government
ICC Note:
World Magazine reports on the future of Egyptian Christians under the new Islamist president, Mohammad Morsi.
By Jamie Dean
7/14/2012 Egypt (World Magazine) – In a barren village just outside Cairo, two barefoot toddlers in tattered shirts perch on a pile of rotting garbage and play with a trash-heap find: a six-inch kitchen knife plucked from the refuse.
Deeper inside the enclave of tin shacks and one-room dwellings, heaps of trash serve a distinctly grown-up function for villagers in this predominantly Christian community. Egyptian aid worker Emad Beshay explains: “They get their daily bread from the garbage.”
That’s the daily reality in at least six garbage districts scattered across Cairo: Nearly 60,000 Egyptians live among the garbage and scour the refuse for materials to sell to local factories or to recycle. Nearly 90 percent of that population is Christian.
Women and children here in the Helwan district swat the swarming flies and rummage for materials like plastic, metal, glass, and cardboard. A good day’s work might yield a dollar in sales. Most days, it’s closer to 50 cents.
This treeless patch of hot sand on Cairo’s outskirts is home to several thousand Egyptians, but it lacks nearly every major service: no electricity, no phones, no schools, no hospitals, no churches, and no markets nearby. Villagers rejoiced when water began running to a few spigots earlier this year.
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