The Ignored Plight of Egypt's Christians

Before I begin, I want to apologize for my lengthy absence. Another project popped up unexpectedly and demanded my attention throughout the past month or so. Well, I'm back and will do my best to get back to the normal schedule of posting. With that out of the way, let's begin.

As the Muslim Brotherhood continues to expand its influence in Egypt, the Christian minority have begun to feel the pressure. During the Mubarak years, the Coptic Christians would see occasional acts of brutality committed against them, but it was generally limited because of Mubarak's efforts to slow the growth of the Islamist movement in Egypt. Mubarak had good reason to try to retain the loyalty of the Coptic minority. Egypt's Christians are among the best educated in the country, many having reached positions of influence in politics, business, and finance. Ironically, Mubarak's successors among the military, who do much of the work of ruling the country, have been assaulting Christian communities and using the chaos to secure their power.

Recently, a nasty incident occurred in which an angry mob (is there any other kind?) of Muslims burned down the homes of Christians close to Cairo. What instigated this violence? It all started when a Muslim man accused a Coptic laundry worker of improperly ironing his shirt and leaving it singed. The next day, the Muslim man gathered up a couple dozen friends and assaulted the Christian's house. The Copt, however, must have suspected something was going to go down because he was prepared for the mob, even injuring another man with a Molotov cocktail. The day after that, over 2,000 Muslims went on a rampage, burning and looting the homes of any Christians they could find.

This is only the most recent act of violence targeting Egypt's Coptic population. Tragically, the Obama administration seems more interested in making nice with the "mostly secular" Muslim Brotherhood as it takes over key positions within the government. There is a popular feeling among the Egyptian expatriates in the West, particularly the United States, that the world is ignoring the plight of the Copts because they feel the Copts will not organize to protest like radical Islamists do. But the reality is actually far worse than simply ignoring evidence. Legislation designed to create a special envoy for religious minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia that passed in the House of Representatives by a large margin has been stalled by Senator James Webb of Virginia.

As bad as Congress may be, the U.S. State Department is leading the charge when it comes to hiding the truth about persecution of Christians around the world. It was the State Department that labeled anti-Christian violence in Nigeria a simple case of tribal rivalry. But the worst (so far) came when the U.S. State Department released their "Country Reports on Human Rights" on May 24. Not only was the report three months behind the Congressional deadline, they had also removed the sections covering freedom of religion (you'd think a shorter report would get out faster!). The State Department, instead, directed its readers to the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report. In other words, the State Department is actively covering up the conditions of the Christian minorities throughout the Middle East in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. If you have trouble wrapping your head around that, trust me when I say you're not the only one. Thomas Farr, a former U.S. diplomat who served under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush and was the first director of the Office of International Religious Freedom, said, "it is important to note here that I do not know-I have no personal knowledge of the logic that went into removing religious freedom from the broader human rights report; but I also have observed during the three-and-a-half years of the Obama administration that the issue of religious freedom has been distinctly downplayed." He pointed out that while some positions at the State Department, like the ambassador-at-large for global women's issues, were filled only a few months into the new administration, the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom "did not even step foot into her office until two-and-a-half years were gone of a four-year administration."

"Four-year administration." I like Mr. Farr's optimism.