Articles

            How easy is it for Muslims to convert to Christianity in Egypt? Ask one of the 20 converts whom the government detained and tortured in 1997, charging them with falsifying identity papers.

            Or ask the nun who was stabbed in October 2005 when 5000 people rioted and attacked a church in Alexandria because it had presented a play (two years earlier) about a Muslim converting to Christianity. On one of several days of violence, four people were killed and 90 wounded.

            Regarding the Easter attack, operations like this cannot be executed by mentally ill. The attack required the careful co-ordination and planning of three men with a shared purpose. The two who were killed in the incident died as a result of clashes, witnessed by members of our team in Egypt, that erupted when police and local Muslim extremists disrupted the funeral procession of the deceased Christian.

            And how hard is the Egyptian government seeking a solution to the Baha’i community’s situation? As recently as December 2006, the government ensured that the attempt of a Baha’i couple, Husam Izzat Musa and Ranya Enayat Rushdy, to obtain identity cards was defeated by the Supreme Administrative Court.

            Regarding anti-Semitism, on the other hand, the ambassador would be well advised to read the Egyptian daily newspaper, Al-Ahram, in order to see the anti-Semitic articles and cartoons published regularly to familiarize himself with what is taught to Egyptian children in school history books about Jewish history.