The Los Angeles Times ran a story about the views of Copts and non-Islamists residing in Heliopolis about the coming presidential elections. It's amusing the way Heliopolis is portrayed (gardened villas, lattes and tinkling jewelry, moneyed Heliopolis, etc.) but I thought a number of quotations are interesting:
"He will bring back sanity to the country, Egypt will have a better image to the outside world and shoppers will come back to these streets and tourists will return." Mohamed Abdelaziz, whose fabric shop has lost 40% of its business since last year, said of Shafik.
"No one is giving us straight answers. Shafik speaks with arrogance toward the people.... Morsi is an Islamic radical." Mohi Gamgoum, who runs a small grocery in Heliopolis.
"I am not voting for Shafik because I think he will fix anything. It's not that I have hope in him, but he is the lesser of the evils and we have no other option." Camillia Wassef, a Coptic woman in her mid-50s.
"I don't trust his words. He will always be Mubarak's man. But I'm against the idea of boycotting and I can't give Morsi the chance to win." Nadia Dobgy, a non-veiled Muslim
