Trusting God through the Unthinkable
Article on Wazala website by The Rev Emad Mikhail, Principal of the Alexandria School of Theology in Egypt
When President Hosni Mubarak resigned after 30 years on February 11, 2011, we thought our whole world had changed. The unthinkable had happened! There was euphoria at the announcement with strangers hugging each other in the street. Some thought we were entering a golden age. I was optimistic back then about the new period – but those more seasoned and thoughtful knew we had a long road ahead of us.
“I, like others, found ourselves needing to give direction to our people: theological students, friends, members of the congregation, family, etc. Many were fearful and they looked to us for guidance about how to think on the events. That drove me to the Lord and His Word to seek wisdom. I knew it would take five to ten years to see a stable country that is tangibly better than what it was. I continue to be optimistic though tempered by the events of the first of those five to ten years!!
“Overall, the explosion at the Coptic church in Alexandria on January 1, 2011, and the events of the "revolution" have brought Christians and Muslims closer together. Many people feel, and I agree, that the former regime was actually fomenting dissension for its own political purposes.
“Of course there have been some serious sectarian events since then. But these seem to have been ignited by very local circumstances or by remnants of the former regime. There are many parties in Egypt that have lost as a result of these events. The former regime still has hundreds of thousands of operatives and millions of supporters. Now we understand that "regime" was not merely Mubarak, his family and his cabinet. It involves people in the army and police force who enjoyed a lot of privileges in recent decades and who now stood to lose.
