The Egyptian government is sponsoring a full-page advertisement carried
in several international newspapers, denying that Christians in Egypt
are persecuted for their faith. Proponents of the ad claim it is
sponsored by an organization that represent the Christians of Egypt.
(see International Herald Tribune, November 5, 1998) However, the Sunday
Telegraph, a British newspaper, reports that the full-page ad placed in
early November was actually sponsored by the Egyptian government.

Addressing the numerous reports of Christian persecution in Egypt, the
ad espouses a view that Muslims and Christians live in complete harmony.
Further defending against these claims, it asserts, “these attempts are
targeted to spread false claims of persecution against Copts in Egypt.
While in reality Copts practice their religion freely in Egypt, they
build their churches in spite of the bureaucracy. Copts and Muslims are
very friendly towards one another, and are completely integrated
socially.” In one paragraph the ad reads, “the Christians of Egypt
denounce the continuous attempts of hostile dark forces against Egypt
that play on the religious sentiments of foreign communities outside
Egypt.”

This position flies in the face of the recent Human Rights Watch 1999
World Report that details “discriminatory treatment of the Christian
minority.” Further reporting, that “in January, an issue of the Arabic
daily newspaper al-Hayat (London) was banned because of an article about
the situation of minorities in the region, written by Suleiman Neguib,
an Egyptian Christian.”

Meanwhile, authorities defended the long-standing prohibition on church
construction and repair without the express permission of senior
government officials. In a speech in al-Arish on June 11, President
Mubarak said that the regulations were in place because we want to be
sure that, “we do not give any Christian or Muslim
extremist the chance to exploit the situation.” As in past years,
Christians in some areas of Upper Egypt were targeted and killed by
suspected Islamist militants, and the perpetrators escaped, generating
fear in these villages.

Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, United Nations Special Rapporteur on religious
intolerance noted in his 1998 report to the UN that “in Egypt, a Muslim
who had converted to Christianity was reportedly arrested and
interrogated in order to force him to give information about the
activities of converts.”

Amnesty International, in their 1998 Annual Report, stated that, “in
February, 10 civilians, all Coptic Christians, were killed by four armed
men, believed to be members of al-Gama’at al-Islamiya, in an attack on a
church in the village of Abu Qerqas in Minya Governorate (also see
CPReport Coptic Christians Murdered Inside Church). In March, 13
civilians, including at least nine Coptic Christians, were killed by
armed men, believed to be members of al-Gama’at al-Islamiya, in two
separate attacks on civilians in ‘Ezbet Dawud and Naga’ Hammadi, both
villages situated in Qena in Upper Egypt. In November, 58 foreign
tourists, including at least 33 Swiss, and two Egyptians were killed in
an armed attack at a tourist site near Luxor. Al-Gama’at al-Islamiya
claimed responsibility for the massacre.

Dr. Nasr Hamed Abu-Zeid remained under threat of death from al-Jihad
(see Amnesty International Report 1996 and 1997 .) He and his wife, Dr
Ibtihal Younis, continued to live abroad.” The publicity offensive,
which also included a lobbying campaign on the internet, is widely
viewed to be in response to news reports in late October that Egyptian
Christians were subjected to horrific crucifixion rituals, raped and
tortured by Egyptian security forces during a crackdown on the Coptic
community.

The government refuses to recognize Coptic Christians as an official
minority. Various sources reported that 1,000-1,200 Coptic Christians
were detained in the village of Al-Kosheh, near Luxor in Upper Egypt.
Christina Lamb of the Sunday Telegraph reported that “many were nailed
to crosses or manacled to doors with their legs tied together, then
beaten and tortured with electric shock to their genitals, while police
denounced them as ‘infidels.'” She further wrote that young girls were
raped and mothers were forced to watch their babies being beaten.

A bishop and two priests who reported the incidents were detained by
police and charged on five counts including “using religion for the
purpose of inciting strife and damaging national unity,” charges
punishable by death or life imprisonment.

After converting to Christianity, Timothy Ibrahim (pseudonym), a former
member the Muslim Brotherhood, was beaten in front of the mosque where
he had formerly preached Islam zealously. In the sight of his former
teachers he was a blasphemous infidel who deserved to be killed unless
he would recant. They regarded his conversion as the most horrendous
form of desecrating Islam and the Quran.

“Since my secret conversion was now made public and Muslims plotted to
kill me, I had to flee. I was hunted by Muslims from my village in the
Delta, to Ismalia until I arrived in Cairo where my Christian friends
lived. Yet Christians were not willing to shelter me and I had to go
back to the village, seeking refuge in His protective hands. I came back
from Cairo and found an angry mob of Muslims filling up our house. My
mother was wearing the garment of mourning, dressed in black as is the
custom in Egypt. To them by deserting Islam, I was dead!!! Muslim women
yelled at me, ‘Your mother doesn’t deserve all this from you. Why cause
her all this grief?’ Another woman lamented, ‘Poor mother! Here son
left her for the Christian infidels. If I were her, I would kill my son
for running after the infidels like a dog.’ I received a letter from a
friend in Jordan who reported that my father was walking down the
streets in Jordan weeping bitterly as Muslim laborers there reproached
him severely. He stayed sick in bed for a month because of this until he
and I talked on the phone.”

The US Department of State’s, 1997 Report on Human Rights practices in
Egypt claimed “while neither the Constitution nor the Civil and Penal
Codes prohibit proselytizing, Christians have been arrested on charges
of violating Article 98f of the Penal Code, which prohibits citizens
from ridiculing or insulting heavenly religions or inciting sectarian
strife.”

The report further states that although “there are no legal restrictions
on the conversion of non-Muslims to Islam. Muslims may face legal
problems if they convert to another faith. Authorities have charged a
few Muslim converts to Christianity under the above article. In other
cases, authorities have charged converts with violating laws prohibiting
the falsification of documents. In such instances, Muslim converts to
Christianity, who fear government harassment if they seek an official
modification, have themselves altered their identification cards and
other official identity documents to reflect their new religious
affiliation.”

On May 12, 1998, US Senator Joseph Lieberman, testifying before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee stated that “besides severely
restrictive policies against church construction and repair, Egypt has
been home in recent years to serious violence against Christians.
Islamic militants have murdered Coptic Christians. In State Department
reports, Egyptian Government security forces have been charged with
arresting and torturing Egyptian citizens who made the decision to
convert from Islam to Christianity.”

William J. Bennett, testifying before the House Committee on
International Relations, (September 10, 1997) classified Egypt as one of
the “worst religious oppressors”. Bennett stated, “Christian Coptic’s
and the evangelical community are the target of violent aggression by
Muslim extremists.

On August 11, 1997, US Rep. Asa Hutchinson claimed that, along with
several other nations, individuals in Egypt “face on-going
state-sponsored discrimination, torture and even death because of their
cultural or religious convictions.

“Make no mistake-[persecution] is happening to Christians and all
non-Muslims because of the teachings of Islam,” says controversial
Ontario evangelist to Muslims Mark Harding. He was convicted earlier
this year of inciting hatred against Muslims through aggressive
evangelism techniques. He is scheduled to be sentenced in January and
intends to appeal immediately.

References for this report are available in the online version located
at http://www.erols.com/tferleman/news/01120498.htm