Winds of persecution

International religious freedom groups pursue Egypt with renewed vigor following the Al Kosheh verdicts

Paul Schemm

The way the Egyptian press understands it, there’s a certain time of year when the khamasin winds start to blow and the president prepares for his trip to the United States, and the campaigns against Egypt in the Western press begin–usually instigated by expatriate Coptic organizations. This time around, however, it is more than just President Mubarak’s planned early April trip to the United States fueling the usual accusations of persecution against Copts. More concrete events, such as the February verdict in the Kosheh trial which resulted in practically no convictions, have spurred outrage outside Egypt. In the midst of all this, there is also the visit to Egypt, tentatively set for 19 March, by the US Committee for International Religious Freedom, a congressionally mandated body of religious experts formed to investigate abuse of religious minorities.

Aside from the usual storm of faxes and press releases from the very vocal expatriate Coptic organizations, there has been a report by the Washington-based conservative Center for Religious Freedom which refers to the Al Kosheh verdict as a "failure of justice." There was also a letter signed by 24 members of Congress expressing "deep concern" about the verdict. The letter heavily relies on the report–entitled somewhat sensationally Massacre at the Millennium–for its information.

The human rights department of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not comment on the letter or the report since its ambassador for human rights, Shadia Farag, was out of the country at press time, and the State Information Service was not aware of the letter’s existence.

The report, which presents a detailed account of the disturbances in Al Kosheh that resulted in the deaths of 21 Christians and one Muslim, concludes that the government "has pursued a political strategy to cover up the gravity of the religious tensions in Al Kosheh and avoid the politically sensitive issue of punishing Muslims for the murder of Christians." What the report does not mention, is that on 22 February, Public Prosecutor Maher Abdel Wahed himself criticized the controversial verdict on the grounds that the law was not properly implemented and that certain evidence was not taken into consideration. He submitted a request to Egypt’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, to hold a retrial.

Abdel Wahed’s decision came after Pope Shenouda III, the partriarch of the Coptic Church, uncharacteristically spoke out against the verdict, reflecting widespread Coptic dissatisfaction with the trial results. The constant accusations of Coptic groups abroad that Christians in Egypt are persecuted has long rankled the Egyptian government and caused a substantial degree of annoyance among Copts here as well. Pope Shenouda has several times made statements that there is no persecution of Copts and any sectarian issues should be solved internally.

Information sent around by these groups has often been criticized for being inaccurate and sensationalistic–often blowing situations out of proportion or immediately ascribing conflict and tension to a larger government policy of persecution. According to Kees Hulsman, a Dutch journalist specializing in religious issues in Egypt and founder of the Religious News Service from the Arab World (RNSAW), this is exactly the case with their accusations over the verdict. "I know there are suspicions that this is a politically motivated verdict, but they change this automatically into a fact of life. That goes a bit far if you don’t have the evidence," he told the Cairo Times.

The recent reports from these groups about the destruction of a church in Shubra Al Kheima on 24 February are a case in point. The building was actually not a church, but being used for church-related activities like Sunday school and kindergarten and was one of many illegally built structures in that slum area. It seems the government went out of its way to knock that particular building down, however, as it only slightly damaging the other illegally built structures in the area, according to Bishop Marcos of Shubra Al Kheima. In any case, on 1 March, the bishop was issued a permit by President Mubarak to build a new church on the site. "The president ordered the governor to rebuild the building again," said Marcos. "If the information is right, he [Mubarak] can make the right decision, but sometimes the information is not exactly right."

While Marcos agrees that most things can be just worked out between the church and the government, sometimes its hard to explain matters to the government. "Mainly we can succeed, but sometimes we can fail, then [we do it] with help from the people from outside," he said referring to organizations abroad. Observers note that while publicly disavowing the efforts of the groups abroad, most Coptic clergy don’t mind the extra publicity (and results) that comes from their international campaigns.

While the letter from the US congressmen will probably not have undue effect on official Egyptian-American relations, the upcoming visit by the Committee for International Freedoms is more problematic. The committee consists of nine religious experts of varying faiths sent to investigate countries where there is some concern about sectarian relations. Formed by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act which specifically mentioned Egypt as an area of concern, the committee makes recommendations to the US president which can possibly lead to punitive measures, according to the law, such as the withdrawal of financial aid.

The controversy surrounding the committee’s visit to Egypt has already begun. While most Western diplomats in Egypt familiar with the Kosheh verdict ascribe it to sloppy police work and investigation rather than any kind of state-sponsored plot, an outside committee unfamiliar with the Egyptian situation might find differently. Cries of protest have already been raised in the Egyptian press against a US governmental mission investigating Egypt’s internal affairs, while on the other side of the Atlantic, the committee’s composition has been attacked by certain US-based Coptic organizations. They claim that at least one member of the planned entourage, Muslim Egyptian Khaled Al Gindi, an analyst at the commission set to act as the committee’s translator while in Egypt, is biased against Coptic Egyptians and denies that Copts are persecuted in Egypt. An Arab-American activist, Al Gindi has written in the past in the Cairo Times against the distortions published by more extremist US Coptic organizations, as, for example paid ads in major US newspapers claiming that Egyptian Copts are systematically raped and even crucified.

Volume 5, Issue 2
15 - 21 MARCH 2001