Almost 3 weeks have passed after the Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi ouster, but unrest in Egypt continues. In different regions of Egypt violence against the Christian population has increased.

Mediamax has talked with Michael Meunier, who is the President of Al Haya Party in Egypt. He is the founder of the U.S. Copts Association and a democracy, human rights and religious freedom activist in Egypt.

- An Orthodox priest was killed in Egypt recently. Father Cheroubim was shot and killed by masked gunmen in the streets of a northern Sinai Egyptian city. It appears to be a deadly trend of targeting Christians as supporters of the popular uprising that led to the removal of Mohamed Morsi from office.

- It is obvious that the religious establishment in Egypt and the Muslim brotherhood have tried to use religious hatred to motivate their supporters even before June 30 revolution. They have attempted to intimidate Christians and threaten them not to go on the streets on June 30 otherwise they will be attacked. The terrorists who supported Morsi tried to threaten leaders such as myself with death threats, in case if I was to show up on the streets on the June 30 or if I ask Christians to participate. 

After losing the power they are using violence and attacks in attempt to punish Christians and to incite a civil war. They have killed another Christian in Sinai during weekend and decapitated him. They have burnt 4 churches and have burnt 5 Christians in Luxor people inside their homes. They also killed 4 other Christians in the south of Egypt. All those  attempts are designed to push Egypt into civil war. However, the Egyptian people are smart and understand what the Muslim brotherhood are trying to do.

- There were reports that the Muslim Brotherhood was trying to represent the protests as the ones organized only by Christians. What are the real aims of Islam radicals connected with the Christians of Egypt?

- They tried to represent the protests as the ones only organized by Christians to mobilize the fanatic elements of the population to go against the protest. They also used this tactic to stop regular Muslims from participating in the protest. All these attempts failed and Muslims and Christians together went on the streets and removed Morsi.

- Under what conditions were the Christians of Egypt, Armenians in particular, living during the one year of Morsi presidency?

- All Egyptians were persecuted in Egypt during that period. Armenian community in Egypt is not very big, so they are not distinguished from most Egyptian Christians. As I know, Armenians are not participating actively in political life of Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood was trying to install a religious state in Egypt with no rights for non-Muslims and for even Muslims who are not members of their clan. They have modified the Constitution to turn Egypt into a religious state. Christian churches were attacked, Christians were excluded from public life and the political process. Many Christian business owners ended up closing their business and immigrating.

- What does the post-Morsi Egypt look like?

- The most important step is the roadmap that we have set up. We are now forming an interim government to lead Egypt into modifying the constitution, then we will hold presidential and then parliamentary elections. This was the path that we should have taken after removing Mubarak but the Muslim Brotherhood derailed the process.

- A report last year by Civitas, a British think-tank, warned that Christianity in the whole Middle East was facing “extinction” due to mounting attacks and persecution. How real is this fear?

- That is very true due to the intervention of the US in Iraq and other countries without providing protection to the Christian minorities living in those countries. Christians were immigrating from Egypt in huge numbers. However, after the revolution I hope we can get them to come back. There are 18 million Christians in Egypt and they will stay strong in the Middle East as long as the Copts are well in Egypt. Egyptian Christians are the original inhibitors of this land. We are all here determined to stay and reclaim Egypt as a untied nation for all Egyptians. We intend on living as first class citizens and will not bend to Islamic jihadists and terrorists.

Narine Daneghyan talked to Michael Meunier specially for Mediamax.