By Jim Coggins

TWO representatives of a Canadian-based Christian human rights group were arrested in Egypt last month, and are still in detention.

Egyptian police raided the homes of Adel Fawzy and Peter Ezzat August 8, confiscated documents and computers, and arrested the two men. For the past two or three months, the pair had been working to establish an Egyptian branch of Middle East Christians Association (MECA), an organization based in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto.

Neither man has been charged; under Egyptian law, they can be held for 45 days before a charge has to be laid. However, they are being investigated for issues such as insulting Islam, threatening public security, converting Muslims to Christianity and harming Egypt’s reputation.

Their lawyer, Mamdouh Nakhleh, told the Associated Press he would “hasten their case” to protect them from torture. Other MECA members in Egypt may also be charged.

MECA was founded in 2004 by Nader Fawzy, an Egyptian expatriate and Coptic Orthodox Christian now working as a store manager in Canada. The organization has grown to some 400 members in Canada and more than 10,000 members around the world. Many, but not all, are of Middle Eastern origin.

Fawzy described MECA as a “human rights organization” – dedicated to ending discrimination, and gaining for Christians in Middle Eastern countries the freedom to “live as normal citizens.”

While trying to become registered with the Egyptian government, MECA’s Egyptian branch had already become involved in a number of high-profile legal cases.

MECA has launched complaints, under Egypt’s ‘Contempt of Heavenly Religions’ law, about a number of attacks on Christianity in the media. Fawzy said the law is frequently used in defense of Islam – but the media often make false and even vicious attacks on Christianity, and are never charged. In essence, he said, it is a blasphemy law which defends only Islam – since it is considered the only real religion.

MECA has been giving support to Mohammed Hegazy, an Egyptian who is trying to have his government identity records changed to reflect the fact that he has converted from Islam to Christianity.

The organization has also launched a civil suit on behalf of the families of 22 Coptic Christians who were killed several years ago in the village of Al-Kosheh. The murderers have never been arrested.

The day before their arrest, the two activists were investigating the death of Nasser Gadallah, who allegedly jumped off his fourth-floor balcony after receiving a visit from two police officers. Gadallah had earlier filed a complaint against those same two officers, saying they had tried to extort money from him. The officers say Gadallah committed suicide; but his family alleges the officers threw him off the balcony.

Nader Fawzy told BCCN  the arrested MECA representatives are not guilty of any crime, and insisted the arrests are simply an attempt to shut down MECA’s Egyptian work.

“They burn our churches, kill our men, rape our women; and when we scream, asking to stop these crimes, we are accused [of] distorting the image of Egypt,” he said.

Coptic Christians make up about 12 million of Egypt’s 72 million people. The Coptic Church goes back to the early years of Christianity, before Arab Muslims took over Egypt in the seventh century.

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MECA has compiled a book called The Persecuted, which outlines the varying levels of persecution of Coptic Christians under the 14 centuries of Muslim rule. One section outlines the extensive teaching of Islam in the Egyptian public school curriculum, including its attacks on Christianity as an “idolatrous” faith.

Nader Fawzy said the curriculum “teaches small children to hate and insult Christians.” Christian students, he added, are forced to take the courses – and must declare Muhammad is God’s prophet, and deny the divinity of Jesus, if they want to have their answers marked correct.

Muslims, contended Fawzy, have a right to teach their religion – but not to force others to accept their beliefs.

MECA has printed 5,000 copies of The Persecuted in English, and wanted to publish an Arabic translation in Egypt. To get permission for that publication, MECA printed a few sample copies in Canada and shipped three of them to the Egyptian government for approval. However, Egyptian customs intercepted the copies at the Cairo airport more than two months ago, and has not allowed them into the country.

MECA has now posted the full text of the book on its website, in English and Arabic. However, Fawzy said the site has come under repeated attacks by highly sophisticated hackers.

The Persecuted ends with a series of recommendations that, said Fawzy, would help Egypt to become a society like Canada – where “everyone is allowed to believe what they want.”

Sameer Zuberi, a spokesman for the Canadian branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Can), told BCCN he could not comment on the MECA case because he was not familiar with it. However, he said CAIR-Can works to protect the rights of Muslims in North America just as MECA works to defend the rights of Christians in the Middle East.

“It is important that minority rights be protected,” he said. “All people should have the right to practice their faith freely.” He agreed that Muslims in Canada have “access to justice” which Christians in Egypt often lack, and added: “Egypt is a country that needs to work on its human rights record.”

Fawzy suggested the Egyptian government leaders are primarily interested in power, and they tend to persecute Christians in order to gain favour with the more fervent Muslim groups.

He admitted the kinds of changes he is advocating in Egyptian society will not happen overnight. Coptic Christians, he said, have “been under this pressure for 1,400 years – and we can continue for a thousand more years.”

However, he said he is also convinced the situation can be changed if enough pressure is applied on the Egyptian government from outside. But although he has called on liberal Western countries to live up to their ideals and demand that Egypt respect human rights, he noted Egypt has been appointed to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

How can this be, he asked, when “Egypt has no human rights? . . . How can I report abuses in Egypt to the council?”

The Christian church needs to get more involved, said Fawzy. When Islam is insulted, he said, Muslims all around the world rise up to defend Islam, organizing demonstrations – “but in the Christian world, we don’t care what happens to other Christians.”

Until Christians around the world unite to act as one, he said, “Muslims can do whatever they want.”

September 2007