Michael Munīr was born in 1968 in Egypt in Abu Qurqas near Minia to a Coptic Catholic family even though he today considers himself Coptic Orthodox. Munīr refers to his life in Egypt as a member of an oppressed Christian minority without religious freedom, citing this as his reason to emigrate to the US in 1990. Michael Munīr emigrated to the US when he was 21, after completing his university studies in Minia. He joined his father in America who already had US citizenship. Munir attended Virginia Tech where he graduated with a BSc in Mechanical Engineering in 1994.

In Munīr's own words he is "living the American dream". He wrote: "I emigrated (legally) here from Egypt looking for a better life, and through hard work and some luck, I achieved it." ²

Munīr became a successful businessman and has worked as consultant for two large consultant firms, Price Waterhouse LLP and Deloitte and Touche Consulting Group, before going on to found three businesses of his own, one of which is an Information Technology Consulting firm.

Besides his business career, Munīr is a dedicated Coptic activist. He has become a renowned figure in the Coptic community and political circles in both America and Egypt.

Munīr argues that the Copts and other minorities in Egypt are victims of severe human rights violations through persecution and religious discrimination. He leads a fierce campaign to make politicians and decision makers in the US aware of this situation and consequently put Egypt under pressure. To that aim, in 1996, he created the US Copts Association and he is still the organization's president. The association distributes the Coptic Daily Digest and runs an online discussion forum accessible only to subscribers³. In this decade, the association moved its office to the National Press Building in Washington, a prestigious location in Washington DC. Munīr is aware of the potential of this location with easy access to various international media. Munīr is a clever media man and makes equally good use of media and the Internet to spread his message⁴.

The aim of his association is to educate the American people about the problems facing the Copts in Egypt and to mobilize Copts to fight for their rights in Egypt. The official website of the US Copts Association was originally only available in English but is now available in both Arabic and English.

In 2003, Munīr founded the Center for Freedom in the Middle East. In the center’s mission statement it states that it will "serve as a home for a coalition of political and advocacy groups, individuals and scholars from the Middle East striving to promote and uphold the pillars of freedom - religious freedom, civil liberties and human rights." The center organized The American Middle East Convention for Freedom and Democracy, held on October 1, 2004 in Washington DC⁵.

His ongoing efforts for the Coptic cause, human rights issues and democracy in the Middle East have given him some clout in political circles. He is regularly invited to testify at hearings organized by Congress Members sympathetic to his cause; for example on May 23, 2007, he testified in a congressional briefing held by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and its Task Force for International Religious Freedom6. His activism has also earned him the position of Senior Fellow with the Institute on Religion and Public Policy in Washington DC.

He participated in the second annual George Washington University International Development Forum, held March 13, 2003. The Forum addressed the theme of civic engagement as a means for development. Munīr spoke about civic apathy in the Egyptian Coptic community in contrast to the mobilizing potential among the Coptic diaspora⁷.

In August 2006, Munīr served on a select panel of activists at the Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance’s (HAMSA⁸) Seminar for Campus Activists and Community Organizers. On this occasion he discussed his role as a Coptic diaspora activist and his lifetime of work advocating equal human and civil rights for the Copts⁹.

Egyptian press frequently quotes and mentions Munīr, though their attitude toward him is predominantly negative. He is usually mentioned as an extremist Coptic activist and an enemy of the Egyptian regime. [See more below]

The frequency of his appearances in Egyptian and international press and media leaves no doubt that he is a leading figure in the debated field of expatriate Coptic activism.

• He served on the Republican National Committee Catholic Outreach Advisory Committee during the 2004 Presidential election.
• Board Member of the Middle Eastern Satellite TV station Tele-Lumiere/Noursat International, (a channel dedicated to bringing together Christians of the Middle East and the West that broadcasts all over the Middle East and airs over Dish Network in the US)
• Member of the Republican Party in Virginia
• Founding member of the Hand in Hand for Egypt foundation

Munīr is a member of the Republican Party. In 2005 he ran as a delegate in The Virginia House of Delegates, the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly but was not elected. During the election campaign, Munīr accused his opponent Vivian Watts of racially discriminating against him. As an Arab immigrant he took it as a racial insult that in her campaign she stressed the fact that he was a newcomer to the district as a negative point against him. Many voters thought he was overreacting and going off track with his accusations¹⁰. In that election 56% of his campaign contributions came from outside the state, a significant amount from people with Coptic names¹¹.

Coptic advocacy

His influence has been somewhat stronger on a national level as a representative of what he calls the Coptic diaspora¹².

For instance, he and his US Copts Association allegedly had a great deal of influence on the Congress's passing the Freedom from Religious Persecution Act in 1998. This is stressed on the official website of the US Copts Association and was also mentioned in The Middle East Times¹³.

Munīr and his association have supporters among the neo-conservatives in the US who advocate a tough line toward the Middle East. According to a report from the rightwing Right Web political analysis program, some leading neo-conservatives were present at the Second International Coptic conference hosted by Munīr in Washington¹⁴.

Munīr is an advocate of the U.S applying more political pressure on Egypt as a means to advance the observance of human rights, more specifically the rights of the Coptic minority. He was a leading voice advocating sanctions against Egypt to free the jailed sociologist and human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim in 2002¹⁵.

The term ‘minority’ is a point of controversy itself, and it has been an issue of debate between Munīr and Egyptian Copts. Many Coptic spokespeople in Egypt refuse to term the Copts a minority, because they say it excludes Copts from national unity and they want to stress that Copts are just as ethnically Egyptian as the Muslim majority; thus they are not an ethnic minority. Another important political reason for rejecting the term is to prevent repeated foreign interventions for the protection of a Christian minority as was seen in the earlier colonial history and in the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s.

Munīr calls it ignorant to deny the Copts’ minority status, which he perceives as based only on religious difference. Munīr has other political reasons for applying the term. He is not calling for foreign military intervention; instead he refers to UN conventions and human rights concerning the protection of minorities as a means to put further economic and political pressure on the Egyptian regime to change what he sees as its discriminatory practices¹⁶.

Munīr speaks out unambiguously against the current regime in Egypt and blames it for what he sees as the disastrous conditions of the Copts in Egypt.

In 2003, Mubārak decided to release a large number of prisoners, who had been arrested for being affiliated with the militant Islamist group Jamā^cah al-Islāmīyah. After the release, Munīr wrote the following severe critique in the right wing FrontPageMagazine.com:

"The scheduled pardon of the very individuals who conspired Sadat's assassination for his peace pact with Israel conveys a symbolic rejection of the brokered peace and the support of Islamic terrorism as an alternative. Mubārak's regime has yielded to the ever-growing extremist sentiment within the country." ¹⁸

In this manner he accused Mubārak in unveiled terms of acting against the peace agreement with Israel and of supporting Islamic terrorism. Munīr's version of events in this article, as elsewhere, tends to be biased towards seeing the Coptic Christians as the main target of all Islamist violence.

On December 6, 2006, Munīr sent an open letter to President George W. Bush with the following request: "In light of the United States’ political and financial support of Egypt, and American efforts for freedom and democracy in the Middle East, we respectfully request that you intervene with President Mubarak on behalf of the Christian minority’s plea for protection." ¹⁹

Coptic International Conferences I&II
On September 25, 2004 Munīr participated as a leading figure in the First Coptic International Symposium, held in Zürich and organized by ^cAdlī Abādīr, an Egyptian-Swiss Coptic activist. The symposium brought together Coptic organizations and advocacy groups from the US and Europe in order to formulate a resolution and a written document of demands for the Egyptian government to ensure equal rights for Muslim and Christian citizens in Egypt and end the ongoing persecution. According to organizer ^cAdlī Abādīr, the symposium received "bitter criticism" from Egyptian state press. This reaction only reassured the group of the government's lack of willingness to change the situation and therefore of the necessity to continue the symposium for a "permanent emergency session." ²⁰

In November 2005 Munīr hosted the Second International Coptic Conference in Washington DC, this time chaired by ^cAdlī Abādīr and co-chaired by the famous and controversial Egyptian human rights activist Dr. Sa^cad al-Dīn Ibrāhīm. Believing that the conditions of the Copts had only deteriorated since the first conference they still rejected all prevailing accusations toward them that they wished to advance a US military intervention in Egypt. The resolution text that came out of the conference focused on the abrogation of all emergency laws in Egypt restricting freedom and human rights observance, freedom of speech and freedom of establishing political parties and civil associations²¹.

Munīr’s allegations and accusations in the press The archive of Arab-West Report indicates Munīr's high level of activity in relation to the Coptic cause. Since he founded the US Copts Association in 1996, he has repeatedly expressed his anger at incidents of violence, conversion of Christians, problems regarding church building permits and other events, all of which he deems examples of persecution of the Copts in Egypt.

Munīr does not hesitate to blame Islamic extremism for the sufferings of the Copts in Egypt. He believes the Islamic extremists and their ideology permeate the Egyptian regime, which he contends upholds a system of discriminatory laws from old times and neglects to enforce the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. These accusations emerge time and again in statements, writings and speeches by Munīr.

Heassociates the Muslim Brotherhood Organization with Islamic extremism, even though the group has denounced all kinds of violence and changed their political tone in recent years. In May 2007, when he spoke at a congressional briefing, he blamed the Muslim Brotherhood and their influence in the Egyptian government for the inability to make positive changes for the Copts in Egypt, and therefore he appealed to congress members to come up with a policy to weaken the Muslim Brotherhood and to denounce the Brotherhood’s claims to legitimacy²².

At the same briefing, he repeated the points of complaint concerning the condition of the Copts that he frequently raises in the media. In 2003, Munīr was also given the chance to present them to the UN during a meeting of the Human Rights Committee²³, and later, in December 2004, he put the same points forward to President George W. Bush in his above-mentioned letter24.

Among the points discussed on these occasions is the application of the Hamayouni law in the Egyptian legislative system. This law dates back to Ottoman rule. It states that only the ruler of Egypt can issue permits for building a church or renovating a church in Egypt. The rule only applies to Christians and has no parallel concerning the building of mosques, and is therefore seen as a discriminatory decree.

Both Rose al-Yūsuf in 2002 and Sawt al-Ummah in 2003 claimed that Munīr was using false arguments and concurred that the Hamayouni law was no longer enforced. They said that the issuing of permits had already been handed over to local governors and that Munīr deliberately ignored this fact²⁵.

On the other hand, Father Marqus Azīz Khalīl, who generally opposes Munīr's positions and his interference in Egyptian matters, confirmed that the statements in Sawt al-Ummah were false and that the law was still enforced²⁶.

The actual presidential decree that did abolish the Hamayouni Decree was not issued before 200527. Whether the praxis changed some years before is unclear in the above-mentioned articles, but the issue had great symbolic value for both sides of the argument.

For Munīr there is seemingly no doubt that discriminatory practices are applied and intentionally used against the Christians. Consequently, his pronouncements tend to be radical. This is how he spoke about the demolition of a church services building that was built without a permit in 2001: "The government will use and abuse all the good intentions our church has. They are not going to care which bishop this church belongs to and what his position on the issues is. They are going to destroy our churches one by one until there is none standing." ²⁸ Munīr also alleges that Christians are not allowed to occupy official leading or important positions by the government, and that the National Democratic Party neglected to nominate Coptic candidates to their electoral lists. These are other examples of the claimed discrimination of Copts partly supported by legislation²⁹.

Aside from these complaints, Munīr also claims that Copts are being attacked and murdered by Muslims in terrorist acts and other incidents of sectarian violence that have taken place in villages around Egypt.

One incident created a lot of international disturbance and attention. It took place in the village of al-Kushh in 2000. Twenty Christians and one Muslim were killed in the tragic events. Munīr and many others explained the events as a result of sectarian strife and persecution of Christians³⁰. Other observers such as political analyst Hālah Mustafá in al-Ahrām newspaper³¹ thought it was more related to the social conditions and impoverishment of the villagers in Upper Egypt and had little to do with religion. Some church figures, for instance Bishop Marqus, refrained from labeling the events ‘persecution’, but pointed to the general poisoned atmosphere between Christians and Muslims in some villages³².

When the court released 92 out of 96 suspects in the following trial, many church leaders including Pope Shenouda III made public outcries about the injustice of the verdict. Munīr joined the choir of protests but jumped to some conclusions that Coptic leaders in Egypt did not accept33. Munīr saw the verdict as clearly political and dictated by the government in an act of denial of the persecution going on in Egypt. Further he contended that the police were instructed to escalate the conflict and afterwards help some of the Muslim perpetrators to get away from the scene of crime and flee the country³⁴.

According to the AWR report, the allegations made by Munīr about the police being instructed to crime were based on suspicions, not substantiated by any solid proof. ³⁵

TV
Inthe summer of 2006, Munīr joined forces with Fox News Channel to make a -report on the human rights abuses against Copts in Egypt. The reportage came as part of a Fox News series on religious freedom in countries around the world. Munīr traveled with a journalist to Egypt and filmed and interviewed the victims of Munīr's perceived anti-Christian human rights abuse³⁶.

Reception and disputes
The AWR archive indicates that Munīr's extensive activities, allegations and actions generally give rise to massive criticism and opposition, especially in the Egyptian press and in the Coptic church.

Church leaders and Coptic intellectuals in 2002 found the information of the Munīr's US Copts Association "rambling, anti-Islamic and polarizing", and therefore did not want to take notice of its work. ³⁷.

The general objection to Munīr's allegations is that he is exaggerating and twisting facts for his own political purposes³⁸. The arguments frequently raised against him are that he reports falsely on numbers, the course of events and the role played by authorities whenever there has been an incident involving Copts in Egypt.

Another thing that apparently reduces his credibility amongst Egyptian writers and other observers is his frequent use of unnamed sources of information typically referred to as "trusted friends" or "reliable sources"³⁹.

Some Egyptian writers and observers from various newspapers are convinced that the only aim of Munīr and his fellow expatriate Coptic activists is to stir hatred and further the segregation of Egyptian society. Their aim is to overturn the regime and to provoke negative reactions by foreign powers - particularly the US - against Egyptian interests⁴⁰.

Therefore, there have been unsubstantiated suggestions in various newspapers that Coptic activists like Munīr are serving the Zionist cause and that they aim to provoke foreign intervention, if needed by military means⁴¹.

Munīr has responded with similar allegations of political propaganda being promoted in Egyptian press against his cause. He said: "[...] the term foreign interference is used to silence anyone who dares to criticize Egypt for its poor records on human rights. It is used only when it does not fit the government’s agenda." ⁴²

Munīr further explained how he distinguishes between legitimate and illegitimate 'foreign interference'. He believes that interference in the shape of criticism of human rights violations from outside is legitimate. He calls it a “new world order of universal human rights” in opposition to the illegitimate idea of a foreign army invading Egypt in order to change the situation of Copts⁴³.

Munīr has as little trust in the Egyptian press as they have in him. In Arab-West Report in 2001, he stated that much of what the Egyptian press writes about US Copts and activists is made up. In the article, he referred specifically to an article about him and Coptic activism in al-Usbū²³ on February 26, 2001. At that point, Munīr said he had only once given an interview to an Egyptian newspaper. This was for Rose al-Yūsuf. Everything else that is written about him is built on rumors and lies, he stated. ⁴⁴

It is obvious that the slander goes both ways in the clashes between Munīr and the Egyptian press.

Conflict with Coptic leaders
Munīr has fallen out with several Coptic leaders in Egypt because of his accusations towards them. For instance, he accused the highly esteemed Coptic intellectual Mīlād Hanna for receiving a huge amount of money to promote a positive picture of Islam in the US at a conference in 2002, insinuating that Hanna could be bought to say anything⁴⁵. There was no proof that Mīlād Hanna received this sum of money and he denied it himself. Hanna called Munīr’s actions a “dirty game” ⁴⁶.

Other Coptic Church leaders have tried to approach the conflict within the Coptic community in a diplomatic manner. They have emphasized a natural difference of perspective of expatriate Copts from that of Egyptian Copts as the source of disagreements. Father Marqus Azīz Khalīl of the Hanging Church in Cairo exemplified this approach47.

Father Marqus Khalīl asked Munīr to stop interfering in internal Egyptian affairs, because he believes that Munīr comes from another culture of authority in the US where the tone is quite different, and that Munīr as an expatriate had not experienced the betterment of the Copts’ situation since he left Egypt. For these reasons father Marqus thinks that Munīr has a distorted picture of the situation in Egypt, and he felt that national unity in Egypt was threatened by the US activists' advocacy⁴⁸.

Munīr responded in a negative way to Father Marqus' appeal. He said that Father Marqus and others like him are “dissenting voices” that in his opinion represent a generation of Copts that are “unable and scared to demand their full and equal rights". Arab-West Report quoted Munīr as follows: "Father Khalīl, wake up! The time of your likes is over. We are no longer accepting you or any other to lead us into submission. We know our rights and we are not afraid to ask for them.” ⁴⁹

Munīr stated in the Coptic Daily Digest in 2001 that the Coptic Church in Egypt should only reject foreign interference if it was able to protect the Copts itself through its relationship with the government. Obviously, he believes it has failed to do so, and he blamed the representatives of the Coptic Church in this article for doing no more than fasting and praying. Munīr indicated that the denial and cooperative attitude of some bishops in Egypt could end up contributing to the persecution of their own people⁵⁰.

In 2005 Munīr made a controversial trip to Egypt where he met with Egyptian officials. He was subsequently criticized by other activist Copts who accused him of making a pact with the enemy⁵¹.

In 2008, the Egyptian government surprisingly gave Munīr permission to establish a foundation in Egypt called 'Hand in Hand for Egypt'. The foundation board of trustees of this organization names key figures in the economical and political field and in Egyptian media, including businessman Najīb Sawirus, intellectual Tarek Heggy, well-known geologist Dr. Rushdī Sacīd, deputy-head of the Administrative Prosecution Counsel Sāmīyah al-Mutayyam, Shūrá Council member and deputy-head of the Democratic Front Party Dr. Usāmah al-Ghazālī Harb, businessman and head of the board of directors of the independent al-Misrī al-Yawm daily Salāh Diyāb, former member of the Committee of Politics in the ruling National Democratic Party Dr. Hālah Mustafá, human rights activist Nijād al-Bura^cī, and prominent actor ^23cĀdil Imām. Munīr emphasized that the foundation was not an extension of US Copts, but rather aimed to raise awareness and provide training amongst Muslim and Christian Egyptian youth, in order to present a model of citizenship and co-existence and distance people from sectarianism. He also insisted that the foundation was not intended to pave the way for the establishment of a sectarian-motivated Coptic political party in Egypt. ⁵²

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/770/eg13.htm
Copts mix cards, November 2005 (About the international conference)
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/767/eg11.htm
Too Late for Denials (Violence in Alexandria)
http://video.lulu.com/content/206230
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/authors.asp?ID=2154
(Two articles by Munīr)
http://www.copts.com/english/

Further reading:
http://www.gstudynet.org/publications/OPS/papers/CSGOP-03-22.pdf
(An analysis of the networking strategies of the U.S. Copts Association)