Violence against Coptic Christians “Worst since 14th Century”

It is very grim for our brothers and sisters in Egypt:

Egyptian scholar Samuel Tadros says Islamists enraged by the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi have attacked more than 50 churches, destroying at least 20 and setting many of them on fire.

Tadros, a Research Fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, says Wednesday appears to have been the worst single day of violence against Egypt’s Coptic church since the 14th century. He says the Muslim Brotherhood blames Christians for ousting Morsi so it can paint the military-backed government as anti-Islamic.

Here’s what Andrew McCarthy writes:

The AFP endeavors to exculpate the Islamic supremacists by editorializing, in the report, that these were “reprisal” attacks. But the Brotherhood was not ousted by the minority Copts. To be sure, the Copts far prefer to take their chances with a largely secular, technocratic government backed by the armed forces than the rampant persecution they endured while the Brotherhood was running the show. But it is the army, not the Copts, who ejected Morsi. AFP tries to obscure this by recounting that “the Coptic church backed Morsi’s removal, with Patriarch [i.e., Pope] Tawadros II appearing alongside army chief General Fattah al-Sisi as he announced the military coup.” As I observed in writing about the coup in the August 5 edition of National Review, however, Pope Tawadros was hardly alone — General Sisi also gathered by his side significant Islamic supremacist leaders: Grand Mufti Ahmed al-Tayeb of al-Azhar University and leaders of the Salafist al-Nour party (in addition to prominent secularists).

The Brotherhood is not “retaliating” against Christians. Islamic supremacists are persecuting Christians . . .

How vast and widespread is the violence? USA Today has an unsettling 3-part graphic

When the Muslim Brotherhood began to emerge and gain power, weren’t we told that they were described as “moderate” and darn near secular in their concerns? I didn’t image that, right?

The New Republic is absolutely scathing toward Obama’s incoherence on this story, using words like “unintelligent,” “vacillating,” “weak,” and “shameful.”

Cairo is counting its dead (TIME seems uninterested in mentioning Christians), and it’s difficult to believe that these numbers won’t grow.

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Siege of Byzantium