Islamist groups made a strong showing this week in the first stages of Egypt’s parliamentary elections,renewing concerns Christians have about their future in the country.

The Freedom and Justice Party, affiliated with the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood, won 40 percent of the vote overall. The Al Nour Party, made up of members of the extremist Salafi group, garnered 20 percent of the vote. By comparison, the relatively liberal Egypt Social Democratic Party received 15 percent of the total vote.

The election results confirmed the fears of Egyptian Christians, many of whom believe that Islamists will take control of the country in the wake of the revolution that deposed former President Hosni Mubarak. Egyptians now wait for the run-offs and final two rounds of this election, another election to seat the second half of Egypt’s bicameral chamber, and then finally the election for the next president. Further wins by Islamists, Christians said, will guarantee increased persecution against them or at a minimum, entrench their second-hand status in the country.

Part of the reason Copts are so nervous about the Islamists gaining power, the Salafis in particular, is that they accuse them of being deceptive with their rhetoric. When the Islamists are trying to gain power, they espouse policies they later deny or scoff at in private among their co-religionists, said Coptic Catholic Antowan Zekaria, 25.

“If they are in power, they show their real faces,” he said.

CDN