Christianity Will Bloom in Egypt

Written By: Timothy Fish Published: 2/22/2007

"I was hoping that he would get a harsher sentence because he presented to the world a bad image of Egypt. There are things that one should not talk about, like religion and politics. He should have got a 10-year sentence," said lawyer Nizar Habib, who attended the trial of Egyptian blogger Abdel Karim Suleiman. Suleiman has used the Internet to criticize both Islam and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The irony of the situation is that Egypt is doing more to harm its image by trying to silence people like Suleiman than what Suleiman or even a hundred people like him could have ever done. How many people would have bothered to read his blog if he had not been arrest, taken to court and sentenced him to four years in jail? By taking this action, Egypt has not only shown a spotlight on the situation, but they have given his writings creditability and have identified themselves as enemies of Christianity and of freedom of speech. This may have been what they intended, but to the rest of us it makes Egypt, Islam and Hosni Mubarak all look bad.

You would think that as long as Satan would have learned sometime during the last several thousand years that trying to silence the critics of one of his religions will always backfire. Did he learn nothing from what happened with Moses? Did he learn nothing from what happened with Jesus? Did he learn nothing from what happened with the early church? There is a part of me that would like to see the Egyptian government relax there hatred of anyone who opposes them, but there is another part of me that is anxious to see the result of this persecution. Christianity always takes root during times of persecution and when the persecution is relaxed and the light of morning comes we will see Christianity blooming in Egypt.