The Muslim Brotherhood, a hardline faction of Islamic followers with ties all over the Arab world, appears to be circling Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak like sharks.
Some already had a great deal of power in the Mubarak regime, thanks to the power dealing required to retain his decades-old dictatorship. If he falls, however, they might take the opportunity to seize power fully.
"Right now, Christians and Muslims are united, but we not against Islam," said Susan Hanna, co-owner of Prince George's Tabor Pharmacy.
"We fear that a particular kind of Islamic state can happen. Most Muslims interpret their religion for good and leave for peace, but there are some who use it for very bad. They are ambitious for power in government."
Nowhere in Egypt is safe for Christians like her family, she said.
"Even the monks living in monasteries deep in the dessert have been attacked. Christians have become, in some ways, like second class citizens in Egypt. We do not live in fear of Muslim people, but we might have real fear if the Muslim Brotherhood gets all the power."
The only answer to the delicate powder keg in Egypt, according the couple's opinion, is the gentle ousting of Mubarak.
He was a bloody and atrocious dictator hiding behind falsified elections, they said, but he kept all religious factions from taking political advantage. A coalition of political forces heavily influenced by stronger governments has to guide Mubarak into retirement in a few months, so a sudden vacuum is not created.
"I am worried he will be assassinated," Samy said. "It could happen, by his own best friends in his gang."
Susan said she doesn't believe anyone is currently "politically grown up enough" to lead Egypt, warning against ousting the Muslim Brotherhood as well, in this perilous chess match.
"If you persecute [the Muslim Brotherhood], they become fierce. If you make them partners in society, they can't do things so much in the dark, you can make them accountable."
Samy said there's too much at stake for the world to stand back and watch. Because of the Suez Canal's implications, the proximity of all the other Middle Eastern nations perpetually on the brink on massive hostilities, and the stability of Africa in the mix, it behooves the world to play a decisive, benevolent role, he said.
"The West needs to intervene," he said. "Not by war, not by troops, but by politics."
If anything has surprised the Hannas it was that newly-established North Sudan and Jordan - confirmed Islamic states - were also experiencing uprisings now.
These were indications that Islamic people were demanding a civil society, not a government tied to a religious skew.
