Thus, in Egypt, after the overthrow of President Mubarak in early 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists won in all the various elections and referendums by wide margins. With the exception of the presidency where the candidate of the Muslim Brethren, Muhammad Mursi barely scraped through with a very narrow margin. But Mursi's term in office was very disappointing to many, if not most Egyptians. Mursi's almost dictatorial ways towards the Islamization of the state. His inept governance. The rapidly declining economy and the chaotic breakdown of law, and order led millions of Egyptians back to the streets to demand his removal. In June 2013 after just a year at the helm, Mursi was brought down by a military coup that had very widespread popular support. The main forces in Egyptian politics were clearly the Islamists on the one hand and the military on the other. The secular Democrats were in short supply and the big question was of course, could there possibly be a democracy in Egypt without a large collection of legions of Democrats? The rise to power of the Muslim Brethren, the political prominence of the even more radical Salafi's and the general chaotic decline of law and order exposed the Copts in Egypt to rising sectarian violence against individuals, churches and other institutions in the mass demonstrations that preceded the military coup that unseated President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Copts were noticeably present. Moreover, the Copt multi-millionaire media mogul was by his own admission instrumental financing the movement that led to the struggle that brought Mursi down. After the Copt, the dispossessed Islamists singled out the Copts as targets for their anger and frustration. Copts faced a new wave of violence amidst accusations that they had conspired with the secularists and the military to unseat the legitimate, and freely elected government in Egypt. In Egypt and in other Arab states like Syria and Iraq where there are serious sectarian tensions, it is often the Christians who find themselves in the crossfire. And therefore, in recent years and months, there has been a considerable increase in the immigration of Christians from the Middle East to other places. In Tunisia, with the Arab Spring had began, after the overthrow of the ruling dictatorship Zayn al-Abidin Bin Ali. It was the Islamists of the al-Nahda Party who emerged victorious in the first free elections there too just as in Egypt. A coalition government led by the Islamists was formed in early 2012 and the Tunisian experience of Islam's government also proved disappointing. After all, no one had miracle solution for the profound socioeconomic problems of these countries. But in Tunisia in early 2013, two political assassinations of liberal politicians and other forms of political violence initiated by Islamic radicals led to accusations by the liberals. That the East and West in power were not doing enough to restrain the extremist who sought to push the country to far, and too fast towards more radical Islamization. Jerusalem remain deeply divided between Islamist and secularist, a division that was reinforce by regional fault lines too. The Northern and Eastern more urbanized coastal areas serving as the heartland of the secularists while the more rural hinterland in the South were more firmly in the hands of the Islamists. In Tunisia, probably the most secular of all Arab states. The Islamists have been somewhat more forthcoming and their willingness to compromise with their secular opponents. At the end of 2013, the Islamists and the came to an agreement where by Ananda would step down in favor of a independent care taker government that would prepare the country for new elections. After a prolonged and very convoluted, but nonviolent negotiating process, a new constitution was finally ratified in January 2014. The constitution seeking to balance between the country's Islamic identity and its democratic aspirations was not free of internal contradictions. These might prove to be contentious in the future. But in the meantime, they made agreement possible. New elections for Tunisia's parliament took place in October 2014 followed at the end of the year by elections for the presidency. In both elections, the secularist alliance emerged victorious as the Islamists, graciously, accepted defeat. Nidaa Tounes, the Court of Tunisia, an alliance of a wide variety of secular groups defeated the Islamist party in the parliamentary elections. In the presidential campaign and now they chose not to run a candidate and the election was won by the 88-year old leader of Nidaa Tounes, Beji Cald Essebsi, a senior of the ancient regime who provided a fatherly assemblage of stability and continuity. Tunisia is thus far, successful transition to pluralist democracy. Tunisia was therefore, the encouraging exception to the rule in the post Arab spring Middle East whether the new government had the wherewithal to address Tunisia social and economic troubles still remained to be seen.
