Population
69.5 million
Berbers
Bedouins
Nubians
Capital City
Cairo
Leadership
President
Mohammed Husni
Mubarak
Religion
94% Islam
6% Christian
Egypt Ambassador
to the
U.S.
Ambassador Nabil Fahmy
Embassy of the Arab
Republic of Egypt
3521 International Ct. NW
Washington DC 20008
Phone: (202) 895 5400
Fax: (202) 244 5131
(202) 244 4319
Email:
embassy@egyptembdc.org
Web:
www.embassyofegypt
washingtondc.org
BIO
The Coptic Orthodox church is the largest in
Egypt and the entire Middle East. It is approximately 7-10
million strong (10% of the population), but since the church
in Egypt is not allowed to carry out an official census,
accurate figures are difficult to ascertain. The Egyptian
Church faces persecution and hardship in a number of
spheres:
Law
The distinction between civil law and Shar'ia
(Islamic Law)
in Egypt has been deliberately eroded over the years.
Significantly, in 1980, the National Assembly accepted an
amendment to the Constitution, designating Shar'ia
as
“the…principal source of legislation” instead of
“a…prin-
ciple source of legislation”.
Government Positions and Employment
Egypt’s Coptic community is poorly represented in the
higher levels of government, in the military and in senior
teaching positions. Out of 28 Egyptian governors, none
are Christian and there are no Christian ambassadors,
heads of universities or deans. The country’s
People’s
Assembly contains just seven Copts, only three of whom
are elected—a gross under-representation.
Can you recommend some
other Egypt websites?
Coptic Christians are not able to attend the famous Al-Azhar University in Cairo. The Coptic language
is not taught at Universities and the Coptic era in Egyptian history has been omitted in school history
lessons, until this year, where it has been taught in state schools for the first time. The Koran is often
used to teach the Arabic language to students, including Christians, and Arabic language teachers
are Muslim. Every school has a mosque, but no similar places of prayer exist for Christians.
Church construction
State control of church property is governed by the outdated Ottoman
Hamayouni Decree of 1856,
amplified by the Interior Ministry in 1934 as the
Alazabi Decree. This decree sets out certain restrictive
conditions which must be met before a church can be built. It additionally requires the
signature of the
President before construction can commence. No such
signature is required in order to build a
mosque.
Conversion
Individuals who convert from Islam to Christianity face discrimination and
violence from their family,
Muslim neighbors, or the state police. Furthermore, a Muslim wife is required to divorce an apostate
husband; converts from Islam lose all inheritance rights; they also lose custody of
their children and
they are unable to change their religious affiliation on state
identity cards. No similar legal con-
sequences befall converts from Christianity to Islam.
Recent examples of religious intolerance against Christians
The past decade has seen a rise in violent attacks by Islamic extremists,
followed by severe govern-
ment crackdowns on their activity in an attempt to
put an end to the violence and to regain control.
Unfortunately, violence against Christians still continues but state police and/or
Muslim mobs are
increasingly becoming the perpetrators.
Such violence has gone unpunished by the Egyptian legal
system in recent years.
In January 2000, in El-Kosheh village, Upper Egypt, 21 Coptic Christians were
killed over the
course of a few days’ rioting. The General Prosecutor’s report
of his investigation into the incident
blames the massacre on delinquent elements within both the Muslim and Christian communities,
disappointing Egypt’s Coptic Christians who note that all except one of the
casualties of the violence
were Christians. Concern has also been expressed
that no police officers were detained or
interrogated, despite the testimony of Copts regarding police negligence and complicity in the violence.
Finally, in a verdict handed down on February
5, 2001, an Egyptian court acquitted all but four of the
ninety-six people charged with crimes relating to
the violence. None were convicted with murder.
This verdict outraged Egyptian Christians and
human rights activists all over the world. However, a
request to appeal the verdict has been successful and the case will be
retried.
In June 2000, Coptic Christian, William Shaiboub
Arsal, was sentenced to 15 years with hard labor
for the murder of two Christian men in El-Kosheh
village in August 1998. The murders were the
catalyst for the notorious El-Kosheh incident (since
dubbed El-Kosheh I), in which over 1000 local
Coptic Christians were detained by police, despite the fact that three Muslim men were identified as
responsible. Many of those detained were tortured by local police officers,
including William, who
was first taken into custody on September
17, 1998. He was hung upside down by his feet, beaten,
tied to a chair and given electric shocks to sensitive parts of his body.
William Shaiboub’s lawyers have confirmed that his verdict is being
appealed at the Egyptian Court of
Cassation. In the meantime, William remains in prison.
What is common to both these episodes is that police negligence and
complicity has gone un-
questioned and unpunished. Egypt’s Christian
community is understandably feeling very vulnerable
and inadequately protected by national law.
Overall Human Rights Situation
Major human rights organizations continue to report the systematic use of
torture by police and
security forces to obtain confessions. Prisoners of
conscience continue to be sentenced and held.
Political parties, NGOs and the news media continue to face legal restrictions and government control.
In May 1999, a law regulating civil institutions including NGOs was passed
by the Egyptian Parliament.
This imposed a wide range of restrictive conditions, including criminal penalties for
offenses that might
amount to no more than the exercise of freedom of association.