Juan Cole on the continuing cooperation between Muslims and Coptic Christians in the Egyptian revolution:
The Christian and Muslim intellectuals issued a joint statement, affirming that the revolution of Egyptian youth had instilled a new spirit in Egyptian souls, in which was apparent an excellent example of national unity… when believers guarded each others’ prayers after the police disappeared. They said that this decision to stand guard came from the youth themselves, not from any religious leadership, and that it demonstrated that places of worship did not need armed guards. “They are Egyptian places of worship, dear to the hearts of all Egyptians..†They recalled that [because of the New Year bombing] Egypt had been on the verge of sectarian war, and clergymen’s statements had brought the situation to an explosive point, when all that tension was stopped by the Youth Revolution.
This is one of the best results of the revolution so far, the spirit of brotherhood between Christian and Muslim Egyptians, despite the decades long repression of the Coptic Church and last year’s terror attacks on them.