U.S. Copts Association

by Mary Abdelmassih   

A scandal was uncovered this week at an Upper Egyptian elementary girl’s school, where a Muslim teacher has been sexually assaulting Christian Coptic children. Copts are enraged due to the impunity with which the State Security authorities have dealt with these crimes.

The last incident took place on Tuesday 3/3/2010 in the Helwa Girl’s Elementary School,  when Arabic teacher Hany Taha, lured 11-years-old Hanan Adel Aziz to the school’s lower ground floor and dragged her into the washroom. She was later rescued by another Muslim teacher when he heard her distressed screams. The village of Helwa lies in the district of Matai, 200 km south of Cairo, in the Minya Governorate.
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Convert from Islam tried to leave country to save his life.
ISTANBUL, March 15 (CDN) - An Egyptian court last week refused to return the passport of a convert from Islam who tried to leave Egypt to save his life, the Christian said on Friday (March 12).

 On Tuesday (March 9) the Egyptian State Council Court in Giza, an administrative court, refused to return the passport of Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary. El-Gohary said he was devastated by the decision, which essentially guarantees him several more months of living in fear.
 

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Benchmark EGX 30 index falls 3.84 percent by close on ‘bad communication’ over president’s health.
CAIRO - Share prices fell in Egypt on Monday over what analysts said were concerns about the health of President Hosni Mubarak who has not appeared in public since surgery in Germany on March 6.

Egypt’s benchmark EGX 30 index fell 3.84 percent by the close, after a fall of 2.40 percent on Sunday.

“There is uncertainty in the stock exchange, particularly among Egyptian investors, due to worries about the health of President Mubarak,” an expert at a large financial house in Cairo said on condition of anonymity.
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Sale of poultry between any of Egypt’s 29 governorates is to be banned in bid to fight spread of avian influenza.
 

CAIRO - Egypt is moving to curb the spread of avian influenza (H5N1) after a recent upsurge in infections, the Egyptian Health Ministry says.

The sale of poultry between any of Egypt’s 29 governorates is to be banned, and a major Health Ministry-led awareness campaign will alert the public to the dangers of raising birds at home, Sabir Galal, deputy chief of the Veterinary Medicine Section at the Health Ministry, told IRIN.
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By Ethan Cole|Christian Post Reporter

Twenty-three Coptic Christians were injured by Muslim extremists Friday after an attack on a church community center, said an Egyptian Bishop.

The attack occurred after a sermon by a radical sheikh and lasted 10 hours before security forces put a stop to it, said Bishop Bejemy to The Associated Press on Saturday. The group of young Muslim men threw firebombs at the Coptic center and at nearby homes in Marsa Matruh, a seaport city in northern Egypt.

According to Egyptian officials, assailants were angry about a new fence erected around the center.

The attack on Copts in Marsa Matruh took place the same day the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a statement condemning the Egyptian justice system for not prosecuting violence against Copts.
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  Citizenship, politically yours

By Youssef Sidhom

Last February the bishopric of Shubral-Kheima, Qalyubiya, held a conference to discuss citizenship rights. The conference, which was sponsored by the bishop of Shubral-Kheima Anba Morqos, hosted Qalyubiya governor Adly Hussein, head of Parliament’s foreign affairs committee Mustafa al-Fiqi, head of the Coptic Orthodox Melli (Community) Council Tharwat Bassili, as well as figures from the political, partisan, and clerical circles. Predictably, a large portion of the participating public was Coptic. Also predictably, the discussions centred around the grievances of Copts where citizenship rights-or the lack of them-are concerned. These grievances are all too familiar, so I will not go into them, but I will stop at the governor’s remarks, which obviously warrant comment.
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By Nader Shukry

The idyllic spot of Sharm al-Sheikh was the perfect place to host a conference under the title: “The Egypt in my heart…a future of diversity and interaction”. Organised earlier this month by the Coptic Evangelical Organisation for Social Services (CEOSS), the conference included politicians, intellectuals, clerics, and media persons from across the Egyptian public spectrum. Heated discussions arose between the participants, especially when the topic of a civil versus a religious State was broached. The second article of the Egyptian Constitution, which stipulates Islam as the State religion and Islamic sharia as the principle source of legislation, came under fire from the liberals but was staunchly defended by the advocates of a State based on Islamic principles.
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The attorney-general ordered the detention of 15 people accused of inciting sectarian strife in the coastal city of Marsa Matrouh on Saturday. The defendants are currently being held for 15 days pending further investigation.

Prosecutors visited the city, which had recently witnessed clashes between Muslim and Coptic residents, and inspected the resultant property damage.

“I’ve been here for more than 32 years,” said Bishop Bakhomius of the Marsa Matrouh Catholic church. “And I’ve never seen clashes like this before.”
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Egypt (AINA)       At 17:00 hours on Friday a Muslim mob attacked a Christian congregation during prayers in the church attached to the services building of the Coptic Church in the Rifeyah area of the Mediterranean seaport of Mersa Matrouh. The mob, estimated to be between 2000-3000 of Bedouins and fanatical Muslim Salafis, hurled stones at the building. Four priests, the deacons and 400 parishioners were trapped inside the building.Rev. Matta Zakarya told activist Wagih Yacoub of Katiba-Tibeyah, an advocacy group, that after the mob hurled stones at the building, they went inside and assaulted the people, mostly families. Neither the security forces nor the fire brigades were sufficient. Only two fire brigades were available. Witnesses said the number of security forces was not enough to contain the Muslims, and tear gas was used against them.

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Washington D.C.-The acquittal of four Muslim men for the murder of a Coptic Christian man in the Upper Egypt town of Dairout is the latest example in a growing pattern of instances where individuals have not been brought to justice after committing violent acts against Christians and their property, said the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
The February 22 acquittal dealt with the October 19, 2009 murder of Farouk Attallah, which reportedly was witnessed by a number of individuals. Four Muslim men were arrested by Egyptian authorities.
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Leadville, Colorado (CNN) — A 31-year-old Colorado mother is being detained in Ireland after being arrested as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to commit murder, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the case.

Jamie Paulin-Ramirez of Leadville is being detained in connection with the investigation into an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who poked fun at the Prophet Mohammad, the newspaper reported. CNN was not immediately able to verify the report.

Paulin-Ramirez would be the second American woman to be linked to the alleged murder plot in Sweden.
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A 3,000-year-old wooden sarcophagus stolen from Egypt more than 125 years ago has been returned from the US.

It was confiscated at Miami airport by customs officials after it arrived in a shipment from Spain in 2008 and the importer was unable to prove ownership.

The sarcophagus dates back to the 21st Dynasty (1070-945BC) and is thought to have belonged to a noble called Imesy.

The head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities travelled to Washington on Wednesday to lobby for its return.
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Hawas says cancellation comes after provocative Jewish action during March 7 ceremony in Cairo’s ancient Jewish quarters.
 

CAIRO - Egypt cancelled the formal opening Sunday of a renovated 19th-century synagogue in Cairo to protest what antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said were “provocative” Jewish and Israeli action.

Hawass and Culture Minister Faruq Hosni were due to attend the event, a week after 150 people, including rabbis and the US and Israeli ambassadors, attended the rededication of the Maimonides synagogue.

Hawass, citing press reports, said in a statement that the cancellation comes after “provocative” acts during the March 7 ceremony in Cairo’s ancient Jewish quarters by the Jewish community.
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WHO-funded study finds many of those surveyed see FGM/C as ‘family affair’, personal decision.
CAIRO - “It is a day I don’t want to remember. Whenever it comes to my mind, it sends shivers down my spine,” said Aya Abdel Aati, aged 17, recalling the painful experience of her circumcision at the age of 12. She says she bled for several days.

Despite efforts by the authorities, NGOs, and international agencies to eliminate Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), the practice is still widespread in Egypt and deeply rooted in the minds of the people, according to a study funded by World Health Organization (WHO) entitled Investigating Women’s Sexuality in Relation to Female Genital Mutilation in Egypt.

“The main reason we found for the continuation of the practice is a drive to control a woman’s sexuality before marriage as a means of ensuring her virginity and therefore her marriageability by delivering an intact bride to her prospective husband,” the study said.
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by U.S. Department of State

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

The National Democratic Party (NDP) has governed the Arab Republic of Egypt, which has a population of approximately 83 million, since the party’s establishment in 1978. The NDP continued to dominate national politics by maintaining an overriding majority in the popularly elected People’s Assembly and the partially elected Shura (Consultative) Council.

 The government derives its governing authority from the 1971 constitution and subsequent amendments. Executive authority resides with the president and the cabinet. In 2005 President Hosni Mubarak won a fifth consecutive six-year term with 88 percent of the vote in the country’s first presidential election, which was marred by low voter turnout, charges of fraud, and government efforts to prevent opposition candidates from participating effectively. The civilian authorities did not always maintain effective control of security forces, which committed numerous serious abuses of human rights.
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