Many Christians in Egypt welcomed the June 14 court decision to dissolve Egypt’s parliament due to alleged election irregularities. The Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties had won 71 percent of the seats in the election, but Egyptians will now have to vote again. The ancient Coptic Church (which represents about 10 percent of the population) and the much smaller evangelical church fear they would face more restrictions and persecution under a Muslim government than they did under the secular, military-backed regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood signed an agreement with Egyptian evangelicals promising religious freedom and equality. However, Christianity Today questioned whether the Brotherhood could be trusted after it reneged on its promise not to field a candidate for the presidency. A winner has not been announced for the June 16-17 run-off presidential election between the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi and the military-backed Ahmed Shafiq, who had served as Mubarak’s Prime Minister. Some groups had boycotted the presidential election, calling the choice between political Islam and a secular police state “a choice between two wrongs.”
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