Human Rights Abuses in Egypt

Source:
docs.house.gov
Date of source:
9 Feb 2014
Reference:
Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for holding this important hearing 
and for inviting me to testify today. For the past three years, Egypt has undergone 
enormous political upheaval with four different regimes ruling the country. Despite 
significant differences between those regimes, human rights violations have continued 
to be the norm and not the exception. The focus of my testimony today will be on the 
plight of Egypt’s indigenous Christians; the Copts, and their continued persecution 
under Egypt’s various regimes.
On the 28th of November two separate attacks on Copts took place in the southern 
Egyptian governate of Menya. In the village of El Badraman, a mob angered by rumors 
of a sexual relationship between a Christian man and a Muslim woman attacked 
Christians and burned several of their houses. In Nazlet Ebeid, the mob action followed 
an attempt by a Christian to build a house in a piece of land he owns in a neighboring 
Muslim village. In the aftermath of both attacks, security forces arrested Christians and 
Muslims from the villages indiscriminately and forced a reconciliation session to calm 
local feelings.
Unfortunately the latest attacks are neither random, novel, nor the last that will take 
place. While the scale of attacks and persecution of Egypt’s Christians has varied under 
the various regimes that have ruled Egypt, it has been part of a continued and 
increasing pattern.
Under President Hosni Mubarak, Copts suffered both from widespread discrimination at 
the hands of the Egyptian government as well as being targets of violent attacks on their
persons, property and churches at the hands of Islamists. In the last years of Mubarak’s 
regime, the increasing participation of ordinary citizens in mob attacks on Copts became 
a worrying phenomenon as the level of anti Christian hatred swelled.
Official government discriminatory policies included tremendous restrictions on the 
building and renovation of churches, exclusion of Christians from key government 
positions, punishment of converts to Christianity, and a variety of favorable policies 
towards Islam as the official state religion.
The Islamist insurgency that brought havoc to Egypt’s southern governates in the late 
eighties and until 1998 was especially brutal on Copts. Islamists, who viewed Copts as 
warring infidels targeted their businesses and their churches. In many southern towns 
and villages, Copts were forced to pay special payments, termed Jizya, to Jihadi groups 
in order to protect themselves from attacks. The violent attacks forced many Copts to 
flee the southern governates where they were historically concentrated to the capital, 
Cairo, and further to the West.
In the last years of the Mubarak regime, Islamists were increasingly replaced with 
ordinary citizens as the main source of attacks on Copts. Mobs composed of ordinary 
citizens often formed at the slightest rumor regarding a perceived Coptic affront to 
Islam. The three main causes of the mob violence were; rumors of a sexual relationship 
between a Christian man and a Muslim women, which is not permissible in Islam, 
rumors of a Coptic attempt at building or renovating a church, and rumors of a 
perceived insult to Islam or its prophet by a Copt. The details of each attack varied, the 
end result would not. A mob immediately formed and started attacking Coptic homes 
and shops, ransacking and burning them. In some cases the mob attack would leave a 
number of Copts killed.
Attacks on Copts took place in situations of complete police absence. While often aware 
early on that mob attacks were to occur, the police never intervened to prevent those 
attacks. Arriving at the scene after the attacks, the security forces resorted to arresting 
both Christians and Muslims, often randomly and in equal number to appear even 
handed. No distinction being made between victim and victimizer. Arrested Copts were 
used as a bargaining chip by the security forces to force Copts into a reconciliation 
session involving local community and religious leaders. Those sessions forced Copts 
to drop any legal charges against the attackers and often forced Copts to sign 
agreements prohibiting them from building a church and forcing Copts perceived as 
having offended Islam into leaving the village. No punishment was ever brought on the 
perpetrators of those attacks creating a culture of impunity.
The increase in the level of attacks on Copts reached its conclusion in the last days of 
the Mubarak regime with the bombing of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria on New 
Year’s Eve.
The hopes unleashed by the Egyptian revolution of a new era of harmony between 
Egypt’s religious groups and an end to discrimination against Copts came to naught. 
Instead, previous patterns of religious discrimination were reinforced and the number of 
attacks on Copts substantially increased. The complete collapse of the police and the 
state’s repressive apparatus liberated Islamists from any constraints. While on the 
national level, Islamists were sweeping elections and dominating the political sphere, on 
the local level, Islamists, more emboldened by the rise of their brethren nationally, and 
the collapse of the police were increasingly asserting their power on Egyptian streets 
and villages and enforcing their views on society. The ruling military regime proved both 
unwilling and incapable of offering any protection to Copts and putting an end to attacks 
on them.Attacks on Copts and their churches swelled dramatically under the rule of the Supreme 
Council of the Armed Forces and they were no longer limited to obscure villages and 
shantytowns but spread to the streets of Cairo. Church buildings were attacked and 
burned, mob violence against Copts was on the rise, and the new horror of forced 
evacuations from villages was becoming more common. Copts in small villages were 
increasingly forced to adhere to the Islamists’ standards and vision enforced on the 
ground. Violence against Copts reached its height with the Maspero massacre in 
October 2011 when army soldiers shot Coptic protestors and ran them over with 
armored vehicles. Continuing with practices developed by the Mubarak regime, 
reconciliation sessions were held after attacks and perpetrators were not punished. It 
was only natural that a culture of impunity would soon become a culture of 
encouragement.
A new development was blasphemy charges, mostly brought against Copts accusing 
them of defaming and insulting Islam. Seven Copts were accused in such cases under 
the rule of SCAF with four of them receiving prison sentences. Their crimes varied from 
being blamed for a facebook page insulting religion to simply being tagged in an 
offending picture on facebook. Sentences increased during that period from two years 
to six. Immediately as news of the perceived affront to Islam spread, an angry mob 
would attack the home of the accused Copt looting and burning. Families of the 
accused were forced to flee the area either willingly out of fear of harm or forced by 
reconciliation sessions. Trials of the accused were a mockery of justice, with courts 
surrounded by an angry mob and the accused denied legal representation.
Mohamed Morsi’s election to the Egyptian presidency aggravated an already 
deteriorating situation. While the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi paid lip 
service to ideas of tolerance and inclusiveness and promised equality for all of Egypt’s 
citizens, such promises were made in English for international consumption. The reality 
was strikingly different. During his one year rule, attacks on Copts dramatically 
increased on the local level as well as exclusion on the national level.
On the national level, the scarce Coptic representation that existed in the government 
further declined. As attacks on the local level increased, the government was unwilling 
to take any action to protect Copts and punish the perpetrators of the attacks. President 
Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood pushed forward a constitution writing process that 
alienated non Islamists. After the withdrawal of non Islamist members and church 
representatives, the suggested text, passed the following month in a popular 
referendum, enshrined the Islamic nature of the state and the second class states for 
Copts severely limiting equality and religious freedom.
The constitutional articles were a setback for equality and religious freedom. They 
included dropping language prohibiting forced evacuations within the country (Article 
42), limiting the freedom to practice religion and build houses of worship to “heavenly 
religions” (Article 43), a blasphemy article (Article 44), a limitation on all the freedoms 
and rights of the constitution as being exercised insofar as they do not contradict the principles in the section on state and society (read Sharia) (Article 81), a body to control 
religious endowments (Article 212), and a very narrow definition of “the principles of 
sharia”, which according to Article 2 were the main source of legislation (Article 219).
The Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties and leaders insisted on using 
sectarian rhetoric that inflamed local angers against Copts. Copts were used as 
scapegoats for the problems Egypt was facing from train accidents to opposition 
demonstrations. The Islamists’ incitement against Copts was especially vicious during 
electoral competitions. Islamists publically warned Copts of blood being spilled and 
severe repercussions if anything would happen to the Islamist project. Islamist media 
outlets continuously fabricated stories about secret Christian militias that were behind 
street violence. The level of incitement by Islamists contributed to the increase of the 
number and scope of attacks on Copts.
On the local level, both the number and scope of attacks on Copts increased under 
President Morsi. The mob had a completely free reign to exercise its will on Coptic 
victims. In April 2013, in an unprecedented and alarming development the Coptic 
Cathedral in Cairo, the very center of Christianity in the country, where the Pope resides 
and where the remains of Saint Mark the Evangelist are buried came under attack. The 
attack, which lasted for a couple of hours and which Egyptians watched live on their 
television screens shocked Copts and was the clearest indication of the indifference the 
Morsi government held for the plight of Copts.
The number of blasphemy cases increased during President Morsi’s one year rule with 
more Copts receiving prison sentences, and seven Copts receiving the death sentence 
for their alleged roles in the anti Islam movie. Blasphemy accusations were 
accompanied with attacks on the accused homes, forced evacuations and financial 
penalties levied by reconciliation sessions.
President Morsi’s forceful removal from office by Egypt’s military was hailed and 
supported by a wide spectrum of politicians and public figures in the country. The Coptic 
Pope’s participation in the coup announcement meeting was however signaled out by 
Islamists as a grave crime. Incitement against Copts reached unprecedented levels on 
websites and in speeches of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups. 
Immediately upon the announcement of the coup, several churches were attacked. 
Church walls were filled with anti Christian slogans, and Christian homes were marked 
in many villages in the south of Egypt. In all of those attacks, the police was completely 
absent.One telling example was the brutal attacks on the Copts of Nagaa Hassan near Luxor 
on the 4th and 5th of July 2013. As the angry mob moved house to house looting and 
burning and searching for the Christians to kill, they finally found a group of Christians 
hiding in a home. The police, which arrived at the scene before the killing was to begin, 
negotiated with the mob on taking the women and children out and leaving the men to 
be killed. Four men were butchered in that house the second the police left with the 
women and children. Major Khalid Hassan, Luxor director of security informed Human Rights Watch later that he found nothing wrong with the police’s performance. “There 
was no reason for the police to take any special measures, it’s not [the police’s] job to 
stop killings, we just investigate afterward.”
On the 14th of August, and as news of the military’s massacre of Morsi supporters in 
Cairo spread around the country, angry mobs incited by Islamists ransacked, burned 
and attacked churches and Christian owned businesses. Throughout the day, the mob 
was completely free to act as it pleased with the police nowhere in sight. The 
destruction was immense. Among the destroyed churches was one built in the 4th
century. In many instances, the mob was able to return and continue its attack for a 
number of days. The attacks that day were the single largest attack on churches in 
Egypt since the 14th century.
Despite hopes held by many Egyptians and especially Copts that the Muslim 
Brotherhood’s removal from power would result in an improvement of their condition, 
Egypt’s new regime has shown little interest in dealing with the root causes of the 
sectarian problem. The free rein given to the Egyptian security forces in their fight 
against Islamists has meant a continuation of previous patterns of security practices 
against Copts. The security forces have done little to prevent attacks on Copts from 
occurring and less to find and punish the perpetrators. They have resorted to 
indiscriminate arrests of Christians and Muslims in order to force reconciliation sessions 
that ensure that the guilty party escapes punishment.
Egypt has witnessed tremendous political changes in the past three years with 
revolutions and military coups taking place in a quick pace. After thirty years in power, 
Hosni Mubarak was sent to a prison cell, and Mohamed Morsi moved from a prison cell 
to the presidential palace and back again to a prison cell. Throughout those three years 
however, the plight of Christians has not seen any positive change, but has instead 
gravely deteriorated. No matter who rules Egypt, the twin phenomenon of the growing 
hatred of Christians and the willingness of their neighbors to attacks them, and the 
failure of Egyptian governments to protect them and stop the attacks have become the 
hallmarks of the Copt’s continued plight.