Jackline Nessim and Wael Sedrak, like many of Egypt’s Christians, long for a present that is unlikely to arrive before Coptic Christmas on Jan. 7. In fact, it may be a very long time in coming.

“We want an end to the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Mr. Sedrak, 34, an interior decorator, referring to the Islamist group that controls Egypt’s presidency, dominates its legislature and wrote the newly approved constitution. “Every day they get more and more fanatic and make our lives miserable.”

At St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church in the affluent suburb of Maadi, many Christian parishioners – long a minority in this Muslim country – worry that the rise to power of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood will marginalize them as never before. Thousands of Egyptian Christians are said to have left the country – an exodus of one of the world’s oldest Christian communities – and families here at this charming marble church fret over whether they should go, too.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Coptic Church

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