Kopterne er bekymret for fremtiden. Når selv en liberal avis kan slå opp et rykte om at en koptisk kvinne blir holdt som fange mot sin vilje, kan alt skje.

Dette er rykter som salafister og islamister vanligvis sprer og bruker i sine kampanjer. Men i dette tilfelle var det en liberal avis som slo opp storyen på førstesiden med krigstyper: “Copts kidnap Raghada!”

They tied me up with ropes, beat me with shoes, shaved my hair,” Raghada Salem Abdel Fattah, 19, declared, “and forced me to read Christian psalms!”

Like many similar stories proliferating here since the revolution, Ms. Abdel Fattah’s kidnapping could not be confirmed. But for members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, the sensational headline — from a respected publisher, no less — served to validate their fear that the Egyptian revolution had made their country less tolerant and more dangerous for religious minorities.

David D. Kirkpatrick i New York Times lodder stemningen og finner angst blant de kristne. Revolusjonen gir islamistene fritt spillerom, og mangelen på et sivilt samfunn gjør at selv liberale aviser kan spille på rykter om koptere, uten å tenke på konsekvensene.

Kopternes skjebne blir noe av en prøvesten på revolusjonen. Hvis deres frihet innskrenkes enda mer, hvis de ikke får likebehandling, lover det dårlig for den demokratiske utviklingen.

“The Copts are the crucial test case,” said Heba Morayef, a researcher with Human Rights Watch here, adding that facing off against “societal pressures” may in some ways be ever harder than criticizing a dictator. “It is the next big battle.”

President Anwar Sadat innførte en passus i grunnloven om at Egypt er et islamsk land. Det utnyttes nå av islamister og andre til å kreve at samfunnet og dets lover tilpasses sharia.

Det har skjedd en gradvis islamisering også under Mubarak, men nå er noe av bremsekraften borte, og Det muslimske brorskap har fritt spillerom.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the 80 million Egyptians, say the revolution has plunged them into uncharted territory. Suppressed or marginalized for six decades here, Islamists entering politics have rushed to defend an article of the Egyptian Constitution that declares Egypt a Muslim country that derives its laws from Islam. Christians and liberals say privately they abhor the provision, which was first added as a populist gesture by President Anwar el-Sadat. But the article is so popular among Muslims — and the meaning so vague — that even many liberals and Christians entering politics are reluctant to speak out against it, asking at most for slight modifications.

“Our position is that it should stay, but a clause should be added so that in personal issues non-Muslims are subject to the rules of their own religion,” said Naguib Sawiris, a secular-minded Christian tycoon who has started his own liberal party.

Egypt’s Christians Fear Violence as Changes Embolden Islamists