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U.S. Religious Delegation Alarms Muslims
CAIRO, March 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Muslims in Egypt say they fear that the country's Coptic Christian minority looks poised to make more successful political and economic gains as a delegation from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) will begin Tuesday a Middle East tour in Egypt where it is expected to study the condition of the Coptic Christian minority.
The delegation, seen as direct American pressure to prop up the country's Coptic minority, would meet leading clerics from the Coptic Church, al-Azhar mosque and University, and Egyptian foreign ministry officials, a U.S. embassy spokesman said.
But local press reports say the delegation has so far been snubbed by the major Muslim clerics who fear that the delegation may further weaken Muslims in face of increasing Coptic demands.
The London-based al-Hayat newspaper reported Sunday that the Sheikh of al-Azhar, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, and the Grand Mufti of the Republic (the main religious edict authorities) have been hesitant to meet the delegation as it may be interpreted as an intervention in domestic affairs.
Radical Coptic groups have used the U.S. to launch attacks against Egypt for what they say is ill treatment by the government. They reportedly lobbied the previous U.S. administration into threatening sanctions against Egypt.
But one Coptic lawyer, Mamduh Nakhla, director of the Kalima Center for Human Rights, said the delegation would meet Tuesday with Pope Shenuda III, the patriarch of the Coptic community here.
Some Copts, which the government says accounts for six percent of Egypt's 65 million people, complain the government discriminates against them in the state bureaucracy, police and army, education system, and other areas.
The Coptic clergy and the Coptic community in the United States have been crying foul play with many stating they wanted U.S. protection after 21 Copts were killed in clashes between Muslims and Copts in southern Egypt last year.
On the Internet, Coptic fringe groups accuse Muslims of plotting to cleanse the Middle East of all other faiths. They also say that Christians, in many Middle Eastern countries, particularly Egypt, are deprived from senior jobs within the army or security forces.
Muslims charge that Copts use allegations of mistreatment to make political and economic gains. They argue that the Copts actually control the countries trade and business, and have served in senior positions in the government.
Muslims charge that Copts are in a much stronger position than Muslims, and certainly a lot better than Islamic groups being fought by the government.
The first Egyptian billionaire is a member of Egypt's Coptic community, according to Forbes magazine's 2000 survey of the world's richest men, at a net worth of $2.1 billion of self-made money.
Onsi Sawiris, 70, owns the giant Orsacom group, which started as a construction company but diversified into technology, tourism and telecom, each run by one of his three sons
The Coptic Orthodox Church has become very vibrant and scored over the past few years successes never heard of before. Its religious services are packed, and once-forlorn desert monasteries bustle with activity.
The government, keen to project a conciliatory image, returned to the Church lands seized during land reform measures 40 years ago while al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most prestigious seat of learning, is still fighting for the same right.
The government has eased a 150-year-old law that required presidential permission for building churches. The Church of St. Simeon, a vast amphitheatre for 20,000 people recently quarried out of the limestone cliffs that loom over Cairo, is one of the most striking new churches in the world. At Aswan, a grandiose cathedral is rising behind the venerable Old Cataract Hotel.
The delegation, which will spend four days in Egypt, is headed by USCIRF Chairman Elliot Abrams, Vice Chairman Firuz Kazemzadeh, and Commissioner Laila al-Marayati.
The delegation will also travel to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Created in 1998 to monitor religious freedom around the world, the commission makes recommendations to the president, the secretary of state and Congress.
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