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Coptic Christian Accuses U.S. Group Of Meddling
CAIRO, March 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An MP from Egypt's minority Coptic Christian community Saturday criticized a U.S. group that is here investigating the condition of Copts, saying it is meddling in the country's internal affairs.
"The presence of this commission is a flagrant interference in Egypt's internal affairs and a violation of her sovereignty," said Munir Fakhri Abdel-Nur, a wealthy industrialist and Member of Parliament.
Abdel-Nur, a member of the establishment al-Wafd opposition party, was referring to a visit to Egypt this week from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
"This visit constitutes a form of sedition orchestrated on the eve of President [Hosni] Mubarak's visit to Washington" at the beginning of April, Abdel-Nur said to applause during a parliament session.
Copts have often complained of being discriminated against in Egypt's state bureaucracy, police and army, education system and other areas.
Last month, Christian clerics reacted angrily to a court verdict that acquitted most of those accused of massacring 20 Copts and one Muslim in the southern town of Kosheh in January last year.
The USCIRF's mission to gather information on Egypt's Coptic minority, who represent 5.8% of Egypt's estimated 65 million people, has drawn widespread criticism in Egyptian newspapers and from Egyptian Islamists and members of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party.
Created in 1998 to monitor religious freedom around the world, the USCIRF, an independent bi-partisan commission, makes recommendations to the U.S. president, the secretary of state and Congress, its website says.
Critics state that the Commission is designed solely to report on cases of discrimination against Christians residing in Muslim countries, while ignoring the discrimination of other religions, including Islam, worldwide.
Abdel-Nur expressed "amazement that the government would cooperate with this delegation."
The group headed by Elliot Abrams, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state, has met with both Pope Shenuda III, the head of the Coptic community, and Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi of Al-Azhar, the highest authority for the world's Sunni Muslims.
The delegation also held a low-profile meeting with Mubarak due to the public anger over the commission's presence in Egypt, said a source from Mubarak's office.
Egypt was the U.S. group's first stop on a tour that will take them to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Saudi Arabia.
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