Egypt (MNN) — Thousands of protesters flocked to Egypt's Tahrir Square Monday. Clashes continued with tear gas and fire bombs. By day's end, Egypt's army-appointed government handed in its resignation–an effort to stabilize in advance of the November 28 elections.
The vote was intended to be the first milestone on the road to
transition from military to civilian rule, but the oppressive response by the
interim government is feeding a growing fury.
SAT-7 CEO Terry Ascott explains,
"As the election approaches, and the army does not seem to be yielding
any constitutional power, even to a
newly elected body, people feel that their revolution has been stolen from
them, and so they're on the streets."
In practical application, although the President's ouster was
triumphant for the masses in the streets, Ascott says, "The reality on the ground was that
very little changed, except that Hosni Mubarak was replaced by another military
consortium, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces."
Political forces have issued statements condemning the "excessive
use of force" and acknowledging protesters' right to demonstrate. The November
28 elections are scheduled to go
forward, despite security problems, but
Ascott cautions a realistic approach to the vote. "This is not going to
all be over by the spring. There's not going to be a new Constitution and a
settled-down political identity phase yet for quite some time. I think there's
going to be another decade of struggle between different parties trying to find
their way to an Egyptian-styled democracy."
The Muslim Brotherhood has been gaining traction in Cairo's power
vacuum, raising concerns of what might happen to Christians should they take
power. "It does look likely that no
one party is going to gain any kind of overall majority," says
Ascott. That means there will likely be
a coalition government, which is good news for believers. "Coalitions are good at moderating this [Muslim Brotherhood] kind of
extremism."
However, the specter of violence against Christians and a massacre
last month remains fresh on the minds of the community. They did the only thing they could: they prayed.
"It's a very difficult situation for the church, for the Christians. In the
middle of this, we did have this amazing night of prayer. Twelve hours of praise
and worship in the open air."
SAT-7 is a Christian satellite television ministry to the Middle
East and North Africa. Their teams have
been providing coverage and a public forum of the upheaval in the region on a
constant basis. Naturally, they provided
full coverage of an amazing prayer movement on
November 11, 2011 at the "Cave Church."
Prayers for the night also focused on issues of
personal and social peace and seeking God's blessing on all Egyptians–Muslims
and Christians, the authorities, and the important parliamentary elections that
begin on November 28th. "SAT
-7 was able to cover that, live, for 12 hours. Between 50,000 and 70,000 people attended at least some of that service. It was full of joy. It was a
call to repentance."
SAT-7's participation also helped
to guide audiences throughout the region in prayer for their own respective
countries, as well as share in general prayers.
Nine days later, SAT-7 said they were still receiving requests for
recordings of the event from other television stations.
Ascott
says there was a lot of interest in what the Christians were doing. A Facebook page set up for the event drew
more than 800,000 comments. "I think it was a wonderful testimony
that will place Christians in a much better position in the eyes of the general
public in Egypt."
Keep praying wisdom for the broadcast team as they continue to
provide a biblical response in the public forum addressing the concerns in
Egypt.
