Israel and U.S. use the minority card to pressure Egypt
Egypt, Analysis, 9/2/1997

Countries have always used the minority card to affect opponents, to bring conflicts between differing groups to and explosive point, or to at least assist in bringing about this explosion. Colonial powers have a long history of using these kinds of tactics.

One of the distinctive characteristics of the strategy of the British colonization of Egypt was to divide the national front through religion, but this strategy had never worked.

Nevertheless, the strategy of dividing the national front has reappeared, this time from the US congress. It started to appear, developed and took its full shape, making itself clear to everyone. We are looking at a new card in the game of nations, designed, printed and circulated under the title "Minorities in the Middle East."

The report by that title, submitted recently to the Foreign Affairs Committee in Congress by the US assistant Secretary of State, Steven Coffman, is not just a bluff; it is a means of pressure which in turn expresses itself in feasible policies within a complete strategy.

According to the report, religious freedom in the Middle East has become one of the top priorities in the foreign policies of the US. The report mentioned that Egypt is listed among the countries suffering from the absence of religious freedom. Egyptian Copts are subjected to discriminatory practices in addition to many other judicial restrictions.

Use of the religious card or the card of the minorities started to gain a startling frequency of use in President Clinton's administration after he was elected to a second term in office, and after he formed an advisory committee dedicated to studying religious freedoms abroad.

The committee will be responsible for giving advice to Madeleine Albright. Thus the US administration got a new factor in its strategy: religion. From the events and the political speeches, it seemed that this strategy is mainly concerned with the Middle East, in spite of the fact that the American report had a broad title "The Christian World Today."

The report of the US State Department was preceded by a statement issued by a Coptic organization in the United States which mentioned that Israel leads the US and the world in support of the Coptic causes in Egypt. The statement included Israel and the US in one strategy which defends the rights of the Egyptian Copts.

Information coming from Cairo asserts that Netanyahu, in his discussion with the US administration, played the card of the Egyptian Copts who suffer from coercion.

The card of the minorities which is broader than the case of the Egyptian Copts will involve all the Arab countries with their diverse population.

In spite of all this, one fact should be stressed, which is the deep and ancient history of national unity in Egypt. When "Ibn Khaldon Center," headed by Dr. Saad El Din Ibrahim, Professor of sociology at the American University in Cairo, called for holding a conference under the title "Minorities in the Arab World" in 1994, it was faced with waves of public rejection as an idea and a practice. It was driven to focus on countries other than Egypt. Prominent people from all the Egyptian national groups were united in refusing it, including Pope Shenouda III, Sheikh Al Azhar, the Egyptian Mufti (highest religious advisor), in addition to long lists of men of letters and politicians from different intellectual persuasions and social tendencies.

There is great interest in Cairo now in the new call for holding a similar conference in Jordan next September which chose the same title as the report of the US foreign ministry that was presented to the Congress, "The Christian World Today." Invitations were sent for participation in the conference. The agenda of the conference is limited to the discussion of the Christian case in three Arab countries only; Egypt, Lebanon and the Holy Lands.

Violence was brought to Egypt under the pretext of ending the religious coercion, but it is likely to end with requests for the right of self rule.

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