Egypt’s Coptic patriarch delivered a cautious but unusually sharp criticism of the nation’s Islamist leadership in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, dismissing the new constitution as discriminatory and rounds of national dialogues sponsored by the president as meaningless.
Pope Tawadros II’s dive into politics came as he tried to energize the spiritual solidarity of a demoralized community with a visit to a historic monastery that no Coptic pontiff has been to in decades because of security tensions in southern Egypt.
He joined the black-robed monks in a two-hour pre-dawn prayer at the ancient Virgin Mary chapel in the al-Muharraq monastery, said to be on a site where the Virgin Mary took refuge with Jesus and her husband Joseph from Roman persecution.
Tawadros has taken an unusually vocal political activist stance since being enthroned in November as the spiritual leader of the Copts, the main community of Egypt’s Christians.
His papacy comes as Christians are increasingly worried over the rise to power of Islamists in the country and the rule of President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood.
In a show of his more assertive stance that Christian complaints must be better addressed, Tawadros appeared less patient with media events that project a false harmony between Egypt’s Muslim and Christian leaders.
His late predecessor, Shenouda III, would often receive Muslim leaders at his cathedral after significant attacks on Christians as a demonstration of unity.
Asked by the AP if he would do the same, Tawadros did not respond directly but said, “Realistically, we want actions not words. We don’t want a show. Egypt has changed, we live in a new Egypt now.”
Morsi is facing mounting criticism to his rule by the mostly secular and liberal opposition who accuse the Brotherhood of monopolizing power and an independent media that is ruthlessly ridiculing him.
Tawadros was dismissive of a series of national dialogues that Morsi has been holding, ostensibly as a way to broaden decision-making in response to criticism of the concentration of power with the Brotherhood. The group has emerged as Egypt’s most powerful political group following autocrat Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in a popular uprising two years ago.
Most opposition parties have refused to join the dialogue, as has the Coptic Church, calling it mere window dressing.
“We must and will actively take part in any national dialogue in which we see a benefit for the nation,” Tawadros told the AP. “But when we find that a dialogue ends before it starts and none of its results are implemented then we realize that it is not in the interest of the nation.”
Tawadros’ active public political stance reflects a new attitude among Christian activists, who say the community must become more vocal in demanding equal status with Muslims.
In the past, activists say, Christians relied too much on the church to represent them behind the scenes with the country’s power-brokers, a strategy they argue consigned Christians to second-class status.
Washingtonpost
