It is heartening to see the U.S. House of Representatives turn its attention to issues involving the persecution of Christians in Egypt, which all too often is ignored not just in Egypt, but around the world. We hope this heralds the beginning of new efforts to alleviate the plight of Christians everywhere in the world that they are persecuted.
Meanwhile, we remain in prayer for our brothers and sisters of the Coptic Orthodox Christian Church in Egypt as they are persecuted on a nearly daily basis for their faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, often by governing officials who should be protecting them, as in this case. The family’s grief over the loss of their young son is compounded by this official harassment and intransigence.
Not only the Copts, but also our 300,000 Greek Orthodox brothers and sisters in Egypt suffer sporadic persecution, discrimination, and harassment, and as we see so often, frequently Egyptian officials do little or nothing to alleviate their plight.
For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Egypt, see here.
“US Congress Holds Hearing on Human Rights Abuses in Egypt,” International Christian Concern, September 11, 2020:
09/11/2020 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) – On Wednesday, September 9, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on the trends of politics, economics, and human rights in Egypt. The hearing featured two panels of human rights advocates and academics that painted a grim picture for the state of religious freedom for Egyptians….
In one case in particular, a Coptic Christian named Abd Adel Bebawy was sentenced to three years in prison under an Egyptian blasphemy law for a Facebook post allegedly insulting Islam. After his arrest, a mob of extremist Muslims attacked the homes of several Christians in his village, displacing Bebawy’s family. Although he was due to be released from prison in January, Bebawy remains incarcerated.
Unfortunately, such discrimination against Christians is common in Egypt. Due to blasphemy laws and mob violence, exemplified in the case of Bebawy, Christians are unable to speak about their faith in public without fear of repercussions. Additionally, the Egyptian parliament passed a church building law in 2016 making it “nearly impossible” to construct a new church in Egypt, according to Mr. Tadros’ testimony….
[A] Coptic activist named Ramy Kamel…was jailed in 2019 for highlighting the hypocrisy of the Egyptian government that persecutes Copts while claiming it protects religious minorities….
