Reverend Father Antonious Thabet, the parish priest of St Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church in London, says that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has changed.
“The Ikhwan (Muslim Brothers) nowadays are not the same ones of the old days,” Father Thabet said in a short and carefully worded speech at a Christmas dinner hosted by the Egyptian Association in the UK.
This is the first time the well-known Coptic priest has expressed views publicly on the Egyptian Islamic movement after the January 25 Revolution.
Thabet explained that when he was living in Egypt before August 1980, his best friend was from Muslim Brotherhood. However, he said, the current Brotherhood is different from the one he experienced and knew when he was living in Alexandria, where he was born in 1938.
Thabet said that due to the ascent of the Muslim Brotherhood to power, women do not shake hands with Christians. One of the dinner attendees responded that they do not shake hands with Muslims either.
On 1 August 1980, Thabet was called to serve in St Mark’s Church, is one of the oldest Coptic Churches abroad. Previously, he was the Pope’s representative of the Coptic Church in Alexandria.
"The present Egypt is not the old one," Thabet went on to say, suggesting that education reform is one of the best ways to enhance religious tolerance and harmony in Egypt.
He called on the Egyptian government to reintroduce “Nationhood Education” (Altrbiah Alwataniayh) lessons in schools, which focused on teaching Muslim and Coptic children about living together.
