By Coptic Solidarity –
In February of this year, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a Country Update: Egypt which examines the state of religious freedom in much greater depth than the annual report. It is usually published less frequently with the previous update published in August 2023, and the preceding update in November 2021. On the other hand, USCIRF published the Annual Report on March 28, which monitors the state of religious freedom during the previous year (2024) for believers of all faiths and none.
Coptic Solidarity’s annual analysis below will address both the country update and Egypt chapter of the annual report, to better address the totality of USCIRF’s recent publications with our areas of agreement, constructive criticism, and recommendations for future reports.
Positives
- The Annual repot noted that undeterred by Congressional and civil society leaders urging against this action, last September the administration approved the full amount of Foreign Military Funding (FMF) for the first time since 2020, despite State Department reporting on systematic discrimination against religious minorities.”
- Included the case of a Coptic conscript, Yusuf Sa’d Hanin who was accused of blasphemy over private text messages, beaten and interrogated by Egyptian security, and then sentenced to 3 years imprisonment. The case against Hanin follows a pattern of abuse against young Coptic conscripts, a number who have been reported to be murdered at their units for refusing to convert to Islam.
- Continued to highlight the abuse of 98 (f) of the Egyptian penal code (blasphemy law) including specific examples of Copts, other religious minorities and converts, such as Ahmed Hegazy, Marco Girgis, Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo, and Nour Gerges, stating that the Egyptian government “has not exhibited significant political will to repeal or revise this law or end the active prosecution of blasphemy cases.”
- Continue to report on the abuse of Cybercrime Law to limit religious discourse, silence, intimidate and even imprison religious minorities
- Closely following curricula reform, which has been more detailed and insightful since USCIRF’s publication of Assessing Religoius Freedom in Egyptian Curriculum Reform in August 2022.
Improvements
- The Annual report includes some new and strategically important recommendations to the US government and Congress including:
- Engaging with Egypt’s Ministry of Education to assist them with curriculum reform.
- Direct US Embassy officials to engage in scheduled roundtables in Upper Egypt including local religious leaders, civil society organizations, and government officials to discuss set agenda items including church approvals and heritage preservation.
- Hold a hearing on religious freedom in Egypt prior to the next designation of FMF, requesting testimony and/or attendance form the National Security Council and US Department of State, with topics to include attacks and forced disappearances of Copts
- Conduct bipartisan Congressional delegations to Egypt to raise key issues including implementation of the 2016 Church Law, anti-Christian mob attacks in Upper Egypt, and more.
- Both reports include updated numbers of approved church and service buildings since passage of the 2016 Church Law noting that 3,453 have been approved, but that nine years later, approximately 2,300 applications are still awaiting a response. This is contrasted with Egyptian government financing and support for the renovation, maintenance, and development of 12,000 mosques.
- The country update notes the systemic problem of government officials reneging on promised church permits and the continued inability to receive permits to build churches where most needed, or to even repair those with inadequate infrastructure. Also highlights the outbreak of violence in some communities when a church permit is approved, sometimes resulting in attacks on Coptic individuals, their homes, and the location a church is to be built or repaired.
- Both reports include information on the forcible disappearance and conversion of Coptic women, highlighting that local police and authorities who are often hostile to families of the missing girls, sometimes refusing to take a missing-person report, or accepting a report but then not investigating the disappearance.
- Importantly, the country update includes details of three specific cases: Irene Ibrahim Shehata, Martina Mamdouh Wadih Saad Abu Hanna, and Karim Aziz.
Recommendations
- Include reporting on Egypt’s failure to protect and maintain religious historical sites, going so far as to threaten the centuries-old status-quo of the prominent World Heritage site, St. Catherine Monastery, or defy UNESCO’s directive to stop a development near the Monastery in Sinai.
- Include reporting on the dominant Egyptian state narrative which promotes a homogenized national identity that frequently eradicates Coptic heritage and actively discourages open expression of ethnic or religious distinctiveness. This is in direct contradiction to their commitments under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
- Address the Egyptian government’s absolute denial of any discrimination against Copts or their indigeneity (e.g. during the UN Permanent Forum in April 2025.)
- Include information on governmental efforts to deny religious communities’ access to their cultural and religious treasures such as historical archives which is the case with both Christians, such as in the St. Catherine’s library and archive, and for Jews.
- Recommend that Egypt pass legislation for a unified houses of worship law.
- Recommend that Egypt pass a unified Personal Status and Family Law that applies equally to all Egyptian citizens. Soliciting the input of religious leaders for laws that are applied to members of a faith, in a country that does not recognize conversion away from Islam, traps individuals in a system of jurisprudence that may not recognize the particular vulnerabilities of women and children, which is detrimental to all Egyptians. In the case of mixed-faith disagreements, Sharia is systematically applied, which denies women equal rights in inheritance, divorce, custody, etc. Thus, a single civil law would best serve all Egyptians for the reasons also noted in USCIRF’s 2023 Issue Brief: Personal Status and Family Law in the Middle East and North Africa
- Report on persistent impunity for those who target Copts based on their faith, including those who forcibly disappear Coptic women and girls to convert them, and those who commit violent attacks on Cotpic persons, their homes, churches, and businesses. If these cases were recorded and raised regularly with Egyptian officials, perhaps individuals such as Soad Thabet and many others would receive justice and her attackers be punished.
- Add Egypt to the Country of Particular Concern (CPC) list.
- Refrain from having USCIRF Commissioners and staff meet with known (and registered) agents of the Egyptian government such as Rev. Andreas Zaki. Utilize the information in Coptic Solidarity’s new report, Cairo’s Covert Power in Washington, to educate current Commissioners on the negative impact for religious minorities should they engage with the Egyptian government and represent their interest in the US.
BACKGROUND
USCIRF has placed Egypt on their Special Watch List (SWL) from 2020 -2024 “for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).” USCIRF places countries on the SWL if they determine the violations meet two of three criteria outlined in IRFA which are, “egregious,” “systematic,” and “ongoing.”
The USCIRF placed Egypt on their Tier 2 list for three years (2017-2019), meaning Egypt engaged in or tolerated at least one of the three criteria—“egregious,” “systematic,” and “ongoing”—of religious freedom violations.
USCIRF recommended Egypt six consecutive times for the Country of Particular Concern status for the reporting years of 2011 – 2015. Before 2011, USCIRF merely noted that they were monitoring the situation in Egypt to see if it warranted a designation.
