The Palm Sunday bombings of Coptic churches in Egypt are a tragedy for Egyptian Christians, the Middle East’s oldest and largest Christian community and for all Egyptians who oppose the Islamic State’s intolerance and terror.
But this calamity has political benefits for Egypt’s beleaguered President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. The twin suicide bombings, the worst terror attack against Egypt’s Christians since 28 people were killed near St. Mark’s Coptic Cathedral in Cairo last December, have not only helped el-Sisi cement ties with President Trump, but they have given him even greater latitude to crack down on opponents of his policies.
Hours after the bombings, el-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency, expanding his government’s already enormous powers to detain and arrest not only potential terrorists, but political critics.
Trump lost no time in reaching out to the Egyptian president, whom he had hosted in Washington days earlier, to reassure him of....
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Judith Miller is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and Fox News contributor.
This piece originally appeared in FoxNews.com