Egypt's Copts reject American intervention in internal affairs
Egypt, Local, 3/17/2001

The Egyptian National Group, a non-governmental gathering of both Christian and Muslim writers, intellectuals, academics, researchers and journalists has recently issued a statement strongly condemning the prospective visit by a fact-finding committee formed by the US Congress following the second Al Koshh incidents to find facts about the conditions of Copts in Egypt.

The statement confirmed the following:

No body can claim that Egypt is free of problems nor that the Egyptian citizen lives under the best political, civic or socio-economic conditions.

This type of American moves that have been recurrent and periodical since the enactment, in October 1999, of the law on religious freedoms in the world cannot be dissociated from the American trends to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries in the world.

The dangers involved in such committees and moves lie in that they are associated with the US law on monitoring cases of religious persecution in the world that provides for imposing sanctions on such governments.

Egypt's Copts do reject American intervention in our internal affairs.

Meantime, a number of writers, journalists, university professors and other intellectuals have signed a statement in which they have strongly protested against the forthcoming visit of a US fact-finding commission to probe the situation and status quo of Egypt's Copts.

The intellectuals, both Copts and Muslims, have insisted in their statement that solving Egypt's problems should be restricted to local circles.

They have also recommended that Coptic issues must be tackled through purely patriotic endeavours.

The statement, that was circulated to the press, accuses the US of taking advantage of certain incidents to intervene in our home affairs. "Washington is fond of turning issues upside- down," it said.

They also called upon the US to stay away from the state's sovereignty. "Misusing of certain incidents would defame the image of the US in Egypt and in the Arab world.

Washington should be aware of the simple fact that Egyptian public opinion is conscious of US attempts to misuse any trivial incident to intervene in domestic affairs," the statement said.

The commission, due to arrive here next Monday, was originally formed by US Congress after the second round of bloody clashes in El-Kosheh two months ago.

It is worth mentioning that a report on International Religious Freedom in Egypt has called for setting up such committees to investigate what they described as obstacles allegedly facing Copts to practice their religion.

The report, prepared by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour at the State Department, has recommended to end the so-called religious tyranny to which the Coptic minority in Egypt are exposed. This is not a fair accusation, of course.

"If the US succeeded in intervening in other small countries, Egypt is not by any means a banana republic,the statement of the Egyptian inttellectuals said, it also affirmed that Egyptian Copts have strongly rejected the idea of foreign protection. Over the years, many attempts have been made to violate our national sovereignty, but the Copts were the first to stand in the face of such attempts.

The Copts have also expressed their free will that they live in peace here. "Any attempt from outside to widen the Sectarian rift should be nipped in the bud," the statement clarified.

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