U.S. Copts Association

Only my mother believed I would be released soon.’November 28 (Compass) - An Egyptian Copt jailed without charges for 28 months has been released from the Al-Gharbaliat Prison near Alexandria.Hany Samir Tawfik, 29, was set free on June 28, seven months after his case was first publicized outside Egypt. He had been arrested by Egypt’s State Security Investigation (SSI) authorities on March 3, 2003.

A Coptic Christian who had gone to Saudi Arabia to work, Tawfik was deported back to Egypt in the summer of 2002 after requesting asylum from the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh. He was promptly detained for interrogation at Lazogly, Cairo’s notorious SSI headquarters, but released after 52 days.

Seven months later, Tawfik was again arrested under unknown accusations. The reasons for his re-arrest by order of the Interior Ministry still have not been made public. But the young Copt admitted earlier this month to Compass, “There were many black pages in the diary of my life.”

Stating he had been “full of lies” before he was jailed, Tawfik said that while he was in prison, “I got to read through the Bible, to understand it and my own faith.”
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by Nir Boms and Michael Meunier
Washington Times

Barely a month following President Hosni Mubarak’s predictable re-election, Egypt finds itself in full campaign mode again. The results of the first round of the parliamentary elections were just published, confirming a considerable gain in power for candidates affiliated with the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
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Washington DC.— The Second International Coptic Conference on Democracy
in Egypt for Muslims and Christians, which is to conclude with the Middle
East Democratic Forum, will be held from November 16-19, 2005, at the
Washington Plaza Hotel, 10 Thomas Circle, NW, Washington D.C. 2005.
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by Saad Eddin Ibrahim
Wall Street Journal

The Second International Coptic Conference, convening this week in Washington, comes amid Egypt’s parliamentary elections and heightened American and international attention to the democratic advances in the Arab world’s most populous country. Often overlooked is the fact that Egypt’s population of nearly 75 million includes the Middle East’s largest Christian minority, over seven million, the vast majority of whom are members of the Coptic Orthodox Church and have in the last half-century experienced institutionalized discrimination that renders them little more than second-class citizens.
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Christian couple risks family honor by going public over disappearance of 21-year-old.

November 18 (Compass) - Risking the loss of family honor, an Egyptian Christian couple last week went public with their daughter’s sudden disappearance under questionable circumstances.

After highlighting 21-year-old Heba Nabil Narouz Ghali in “missing persons” reports in the newspaper and over national television on November 10 and 11, the Ghali family has identified a Muslim man whom they are accusing of kidnapping their daughter seven weeks ago.

A November 10 article in the weekly El-Wafd newspaper stated that the young woman was last seen on September 28 leaving work at a local Hyper supermarket in Sheikh Zayid, a suburb of Cairo.

The Ghali family also released their daughter’s picture and a request for information in a November 11 broadcast on TV Channel Three.

In an interview with Compass, the missing woman’s father, Nabil Narouz Ghali, said that when his daughter failed to return from work by 10 p.m. on September 28, the family telephoned Hyper supermarket, where their daughter had been working since February.

Supermarket staff said that the Christian woman had left work as usual on the 8:30 p.m. service bus.

Conflicting Stories at the Store
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Before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus Of the United States House of Representatives

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Caucus:

On behalf of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, I wish to thank you, Mr. Chairman, and the Caucus for inviting me to brief you on behalf of the Commission on the situation of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief in Egypt and our recommendations for U.S. policy.  I respectfully request that my written comments be submitted into the congressional record.

Since its inception, the Commission, which is an independent federal agency, has paid serious attention to Egypt, not only because of its importance in the region, but because Egypt is an important ally of the U.S. and the second largest recipient of U.S. aid.  Our two governments also work together on key foreign policy issues such as the war on terror and Middle East peace.
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The first Christian satellite television channel in Egypt began broadcasting on Monday.
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WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ — The man behind the cause:  Scholar and
human rights activist, expert on Egyptian and Middle East political affairs,
Michael Meunier, President of the U.S. Copts Association, will host other
Christian and Muslim pro-democracy leaders from Egypt and the broader Middle
East as they will assemble in Washington for the second International Coptic
Conference, announced the publicist for the event, Eleana Benador.
    The Second International Coptic conference, entitled Democracy in Egypt
for Muslims and Christians, which is to conclude with the Middle East
Democratic Forum, will be held from November 16-19, 2005, at the Washington
Plaza Hotel, 10 Thomas Circle, NW, Washington D.C. 20005.
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