ABSTRACT
Many Egyptian liberal intellectuals fear that Islamic extremists will discriminate between Muslims and non-Muslims (primarily Christians, since there are practically no Jewish citizens of Egypt; there are about 10 million Copts in Egypt today, but what follows holds true for Jews as well]. Such discrimination would create tension between Muslims and Christians, making the latter second-class citizens not just in theory, but in fact. The intellectuals hold that such a position must not be tolerated in an era of equal rights, accelerated modernization and world culture.
