Last Wednesday, European Parliament held a session that lasted for about three hours in Brussels to hear expatriate Copts living in a number of European countries. During the session, the political situation under the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood and President Muhammad Mursī was tackled.
A number of Coptic organization founders in Europe attended the meeting: Midhat Qilādah represented the Coptic community in Switzerland, Ibrāhīm Habīb and David Rāꞌūf from the United Kingdom, Bahā' Ramzī and John Sidrāk represented the community in the Netherlands, the Coptic community of Austria was represented by Husnī Bibāwī, and Majdī Yūsuf for Germany, as well as professor of constitutional law at the University Laroche in France, Dr. Wajdī Thābit. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Elmar Brok, headed the high-ranking members of the European Parliament. The heads of the Coptic organizations submitted a legal memorandum to the European Union on the defective articles endorsed in the new Egyptian Constitution, demanding that the European cooperation with Egypt be dependent in accordance with the progress of human rights on the ground. In their statement disclosed yesterday, the Coptic organizations declared that the current authoritarian regime in Egypt violates human rights and freedom of speech and disrespects international conventions and treaties. The statement, further, reflects that what is happening in Egypt now is a people’s demand for rights and freedoms for ending injustice and tyranny, contrary to what the Muslim Brotherhood media promotes as being acts of terror.
On the other hand, Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II is visiting tomorrow al-Muharraq Monastery of Asyut in Upper Egypt for the first time after his enthronement, to participate in the opening session of the Conference of Coptic Heritage. He is then to meet with the Monastery monks to head the Tuesday liturgical mass (Mustafá Rahūmah, al-Watan, Feb. 3, p. 3). Read original text in Arabic.
