By Mark Basta – Coptic Solidarity –
On February 13, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urged Congress to restrict “lobbying, public diplomacy campaigns, and media outreach” on behalf of foreign governments the U.S. has designated as Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs), warning that violators of religious freedoms aim to “distort their records in the halls of Congress.” USCIRF, an independent, bipartisan legislative agency, is responsible for identifying countries that violate freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for inclusion on either the State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL) or the CPC list.
The U.S. government has used SWL and CPC designations to identify and take actions against foreign governments and entities that violate religious freedoms. While SWL designations are for governments that engage in or tolerate FoRB violations, CPC is reserved for governments that engage in such violations in a “systemic, ongoing, and egregious” fashion. Thus, USCIRF’s recommendation to ban foreign lobbying only applies to the systemic violators of FoRB, or at least according to their assessments.
Egypt and the Scope of the Proposed Ban
According to USCIRF’s statement, this recommendation is a response to foreign governments using lobbying mechanisms to present a false narrative on the conditions of religious freedoms in their countries. The Commission called out multiple CPC-designated governments’ enormous lobbying expenditures in the U.S. that are reportedly used to hire American professional firms to downplay their systematic targeting and persecution of religious minorities. Such lobbying activities distort the information flowing to the U.S. government, which has taken an official stance to promote international religious freedom (IRF) and hold violators accountable since Congress passed the 1998 IRF Act.
This unprecedented statement brings to the U.S. policy discourse the covert actions foreign governments have been taking to bypass international accountability. However, its application to CPCs excludes SWL-designated governments, such as Egypt, that have similarly invested in hiring professionals in Washington, DC, to launder their reputations on FoRB and human rights. In 2025, Coptic Solidarity investigated the Egyptian government’s lobbying activities, documented by the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) records, to find that Cairo hired about 13 entities to lobby the U.S. government on multiple issues, including demonstrating the Egyptian regime as a promoter of FoRB and a compliant party of human rights conventions. The findings support a more aggressive recommendation than USCIRF’s: Congress should ban countries on both the SWL and CPC list to shield policymakers from false propaganda that hides human rights violations, such as those that Copts face today across Egypt. If the harm of lobbying is distorted policymaking, then the trigger should apply to all severe violators of FoRB who aim to hide their realities.
The Scope of Egypt’s Lobbying Activities in Washington
In Coptic Solidarity’s report, “Cairo’s Covert Power in Washington: An Analysis of the Egyptian Lobby in the US since 2014,” investigations show that between 2014 and mid-2025, Cairo spent 18.8 million USD to conduct approximately 5,500 political lobbying activities in the U.S. While Cairo’s lobbying presence in DC is not as extensive as other governments, like China’s or Saudi Arabia’s, it has utilized an episodic, targeted approach to accomplish three objectives: (1) to uphold the U.S.’s annual economic and military aid package to Egypt, (2) to garner American support on regional issues, and (3) to divert DC’s attention from Cairo’s human rights and FoRB violations. Through a range of public relations (PR) professionals and religious leaders, the Egyptian government has repeatedly met with U.S. policymakers, facilitated events, and published “factsheets” and articles to show that President el-Sisi has successfully installed FoRB and citizenship equality throughout Egyptian society and institutions, challenging countless civil society and international community findings that the Egyptian regime has engaged in and tolerated religious persecution and human rights abuses.
Since the report’s publication, two of Cairo’s major lobbying representatives in the U.S.– Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, and the head of Egypt’s Protestant Churches, Reverend Andrea Zaki– have facilitated hundreds of lobbying activities. For instance, Brownstein has outreached to numerous American media outlets to amplify the Egyptian government’s stance on select regional issues, and has contacted tens of congressional offices and committees regarding Cairo’s interests and the lobby-established “Friends of Egypt” congressional caucus, a lobbying-supported initiative hosted inside of Congress, and aimed to boost the Egyptian government’s portfolio on Capitol Hill.
Simultaneously, Rev. Zaki met with numerous civil society actors, American religious leaders, and U.S. government officials in Congress and the State Department to highlight the “positive developments in the realm of religious freedoms, [and] the Personal Status Law for Copts.” In a meeting with then-Acting U.S. Ambassador for IRF, Rev. Zaki discussed the draft Personal Status Laws for Copts and church construction regulations as “significant advancements,” and that President el-Sisi has been leading a “model transformation” to bring FoRB in Egypt. Ironically, Cairo has delayed the passing of any Coptic Personal Status Laws despite el-Sisi’s pledge 14 years ago and the submission of the third Law draft by Christian denominations for parliamentary consideration more than two years ago. Additionally, despite passing the Church Construction Law in 2014, it has shown no effect on the discriminatory permitting process for building Christian places of worship.
Collectively, Cairo’s lobbying activities present a fictitious view of the Egyptian regime as upholding its citizens’ equality, freedoms, and dignity, which could not be further from the truth, particularly for Copts. In the few months alone, Copts faced forced disappearances, detentions, and trials for “blasphemy” charges, clashes with security forces, seizure of religious heritage sites, and an influx of sectarian hostilities. In most cases, state institutions– courts, police, and Public Prosecution– often downplay, ignore, or even take part in these violations. The international community already recognizes these patterns and violations. On January 28, USCIRF published another statement reinforcing its recommendation for the State Department to designate Egypt as an SWL, citing the escalating detentions, particularly of Christians and non-believers, for “blasphemy” violations. In the UN, multiple officials, including the UN Human Rights Chief, have called on Cairo to lift restrictions on human rights defenders and end the common practice of prolonged arbitrary detentions.
Why the Ban Should Apply to Both SWL and CPC Countries
Conclusively, the recommendation to ban countries that violate FoRB from lobbying the U.S. government should include both SWL and CPC designees. Similar to Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian government continues to hire professional and religious representatives who conceal Cairo’s engagement and tolerance of violations against Copts in front of the U.S. government, particularly Congress, to maintain the annual aid package and avoid accountability. The result is the same: the U.S. Congress receives a distorted image of the respective governments and fails to fulfill the IRF Act’s obligations. Whether it be an SWL or a CPC government that conducts the lobbying to launder its reputation, both cases threaten the integrity of human rights accountability mechanisms established by U.S. law. A government that needs lobbyists to “prove” it respects religious freedom is telling on itself. The U.S. Congress should treat SWL and CPC designations as the same red line: if a government earns a FoRB violator designation, it should not be able to pay PR firms to rewrite the record.
