Congressional Hearing Held on Christian Minorities in Iraq and Egypt
GMT 1-23-2011 21:2:57
Washington (AINA) -- A congressional hearing on the persection of Christians in the Middle East was held on January 21 in Washington. The hearing, titled Christian Minorities under Attack: Iraq and Egypt, was sponsored by Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.
The following witnesses and experts testified at the hearing
• Nina Shea from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
• Representative Anna Eshoo (14th district, California), who is of Assyrian-Armenian descent
• The Honorable Tamara Cofman Wittes, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, U.S. Department of State
• Sister Rita, Order of Preachers, an Assyrian from Iraq
• Michele Dunne, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Dina Guirguis, Keston Family Research Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy
The following are transcripts of the testimonies of the witnesses and experts.
Testimony of the Honorable Anna G. Eshoo
I want to begin by thanking each of my colleagues who are here today, with special thanks to Chairman Frank Wolf and Chairman Jim McGovern. I consider you the "Conscience of the Congress" and the work you do on the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission is a fitting tribute to our late colleague. I'm particularly grateful that you've called this hearing on a topic of such personal significance to me. Experts will address the tragic situation facing the Coptic Christians, but I will focus my remarks on Iraq.
My grandparents fled the Middle East because Christians were being slaughtered, so this story is tightly woven into my American identity and my family history. Today, history is repeating itself. It is important to note that the Christians of Iraq, Iran, Israel, Egypt, and Syria are the oldest in the world. Christianity was, from the beginning, a Middle Eastern religion. The Assyrian Christians, the Chaldeans, actually celebrate Mass in Aramaic, which is the language Jesus spoke. And for two thousand years, Christians have been a key part of the Middle Eastern community. As recently as the turn of the 20th Century, Christians comprised 20% of the Middle East population.
In modern times, the situation for Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities in the region has worsened--today, they make up less than 5% of the population. Persecution and targeted violence, including the genocidal campaign that forced my mother's Armenian family to flee the Ottoman Empire, shaped a region increasingly hostile to religious diversity. During Saddam Hussein's regime, a large and stable Christian community persisted in Iraq. At the time of the U.S. invasion, there were some 1.4 million Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac and other Christians in Iraq, alongside small communities of Yazidis, Mandaeans and Jews. Today, less than one-third of them remain, and these ancient religious communities face complete extinction.
This tragic process began in the chaos following the U.S. invasion in 2003, but only recently has a series of high-profile attacks attracted the world's attention. On October 31, 2010, an Al Qaeda affiliate massacred worshipers at Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation Assyrian Catholic Church where Mass was being celebrated, leaving more than sixty worshipers, priests, and police dead. On December 31st a bomb detonated on the doorstep of two elderly Christians in Baghdad, killing both. This was one of seven Christian homes targeted that same evening. These attacks grab headlines, and officials issue press releases and condemn them. The pervasive, grinding discrimination Iraqi minorities face every single day, however, does not make the news. Riding the bus and shopping in markets, Iraqi Christians are threatened with death if they don't leave. Even in the face of these threats, many communities have stood resilient. Still, without real protection from the Iraqi government or from us, the challenge will simply prove too great. For many, it already has.
Religious leaders are speaking out. In the lead-up to the March elections last year, Pope Benedict XVI called on the Iraqi government to restore security for the population and the most vulnerable religious minorities. In his Christmas address a few weeks ago, he once again called for solidarity with Iraq's Christians, offering a prayer to "ease the pain and bring consolation amid their trials to the beloved Christian communities in Iraq and throughout the Middle East."
This past summer, I was able to participate in a rare summit here in Washington with Iraq's minority religious leaders, each of whom expressed frustration, and even desperation, because we have failed to take meaningful action to address their plight. Their besieged congregations are dwindling and afraid. To put it very simply, as Christians and other minorities disappear from the country, I fear the prospect for a pluralistic and democratic Iraq will vanish with them.
In Congress, I've been working for several years with Representative Wolf, who Co-Chairs the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus, as well as several other dedicated Members to bring this situation to light. During the previous Administration, it was, frankly, very difficult to get anyone to admit that our invasion had precipitated this humanitarian crisis. In the current Administration, attention to this issue has improved somewhat, but not as quickly as the situation for Christians in Iraq has deteriorated. The appointment of Deputy Assistant Secretary Michael Corbin to focus on religious minorities was a welcome move, but we must do more.
Working across party lines, Congress directed specific funding in Fiscal Years 2009 and 2010 toward protection and development efforts for Iraq's religious minorities. Unfortunately, the distribution of those funds has not been transparent, and I've been told repeatedly by people "on the ground" that many of the communities don't even know it's available. This money--and this effort--is too important to lose in the bureaucracy.
For the sake of our constituents--the taxpayers, and for the struggling minorities in Iraq, we must account for this money and refocus our efforts. At my request, more than a dozen House colleagues and four Senators joined me in requesting the GAO conduct an audit of the funds. This is already taking place and GAO will report back on the distribution of funds and their effectiveness.
I don't doubt the good intentions of the State Department and USAID, but crises call for more than good intentions. I feel strongly that the Administration must lay out a comprehensive strategy for assisting Iraq's ethno-religious minorities. Such a strategy must articulate specifically how we will distribute assistance, protect these communities, and work with the Iraqi government to identify and prosecute those who attack them. The strategy must also include a streamlined mechanism for asylum-seekers to immigrate to the U.S. We have a responsibility to accommodate those Christians for whom the situation in Iraq has become impossible, even as we work to improve conditions there. The future of these ancient communities, and indeed, the result of our very costly efforts in Iraq, may well depend on it.
I thank the Chairmen for this opportunity to testify before you today and I look forward to hearing from our other witnesses.
Testimony of Nina Shea
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)
Mr. Chairman, Members of Congress, I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on the worsening plight of Christian minorities in Iraq and Egypt.
The October 31violent siege of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Baghdad, Iraq during Sunday mass and the New Year's Day bombing attack against Coptic Christians emerging from a church service in Alexandria, Egypt, sent shock waves around the world.
But for those of us here in this room, these horrific atrocities did not occur in a vacuum. In Egypt, for the past two years, we've seen a dramatic upsurge in attacks against Copts, while in Iraq, churches have been targeted at least since 2004, and while the violence in the country has decreased overall, attacks against the Christians have increased. This fall, an al Qaeda group has explicitly linked the Christian communities of Iraq and Egypt in its threats to kill Christians.
Clearly, the governments of both nations have failed to ensure the right to freedom of religion or belief, especially for religious minorities, including Christian communities which have been in Egypt and Iraq for nearly two thousand years.
Speaking for USCIRF, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on which I serve as a Commissioner, we believe that the United States and the community of nations have a fundamental obligation to address the violence and protect those religious minorities.
Egypt
In Egypt, USCIRF has found serious, widespread, and long-standing human rights violations against religious minorities, as well as disfavored Muslims. Confronted by these violations, the Egyptian government has failed to take the necessary steps to halt the discrimination and repression against Christians and other minorities.
Too often, it has failed to punish the violators. This failure to mete out justice continues to foster a climate of impunity, making further attacks likely.
For many years, Egypt's only response to the murder, and even to massacres, of Christians has been to conduct "reconciliation" sessions between Muslims and Christians in order to ease tensions and resolve disputes. This response is problematic and disturbing. In its 2009 annual human rights report on Egypt, the State Department concluded that these sessions not only "prevented the prosecution of perpetrators of crimes against Copts and precluded their recourse to the judicial system for restitution," but also "contributed to a climate of impunity that encouraged further assaults."
The New Year's Day bombing in Alexandria -- the worst sectarian attack targeting Christians in a decade -- led to President Obama's call to bring the attackers "to justice for this barbaric and heinous act." USCIRF calls on the Administration to follow through on the President's words and press Cairo to hold all those who were involved accountable.
Following the bombing, USCIRF urged Egypt to take visible steps to protect Coptic places of worship before, during, and after the Coptic Christmas of January 7. The Egyptian government heeded our call and Christmas came and went without incident.
However, we must not forget that on the eve of last year's Coptic Christmas, a drive-by shooting in Naga Hammadi killed six Christians and a Muslim guard. While we commend the recent verdict handed down earlier this week against one of the three alleged perpetrators, since 2008, there have been dozens of violent attacks against Coptic Christians.
These attacks, again, are not happening in a vacuum. The context is a government that has failed to make the rights of religious minorities a priority. Worse, Egypt's government-controlled media and government-funded mosques have engaged in incitement to violence.
In recent months, Egyptian officials have spoken out against this incitement to violence, and temporarily shut down several satellite TV stations, including Al-Nas and Al-Rahma. But as Egypt's presidential elections approach, more must be done to protect religious minority communities and prosecute those who assault their members.
Since 2002, Egypt has been on USCIRF's Watch List. Our Watch List includes countries whose religious freedom violations are serious enough to warrant close monitoring but not quite as serious to be characterized as "systematic, ongoing, and egregious," which is the threshold for being designated a "country of particular concern" or a CPC.
Given the worsening religious freedom conditions in Egypt, and, with few exceptions, the country's repeated failure to address the climate of impunity and otherwise adjust its own laws to ensure that people understand the need to respect the freedom of religion or belief of all persons, USCIRF will undertake a thorough and searching review of whether Egypt now meets the criteria for designation as a CPC. This designation, if made by the United States government, would be a very serious matter. Once a country is designated a CPC, the President is required -- in the absence of special circumstances -- to take specific actions against that nation, as specified in the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. These actions can include economic or other sanctions, travel bans on government officials connected with religious freedom violations, and various limitations on aid and other foreign assistance.
The United States should urge Egypt to discontinue the counterproductive "reconciliation" sessions as a bypass for promptly investigating violence against Copts and other vulnerable religious minorities, vigorously bringing the perpetrators to justice, while compensating the victims. In addition, the Egyptian government should heighten security at Christian and other non-Muslim places of worship, particularly in the current climate where religious minorities are increasingly vulnerable to extremist attacks.
Equally important, the U.S. should urge the Egyptian government to address incitement to violence and discrimination against both Muslims and non-Muslims by ending government subsidies and licenses to media and religious institutions that incite to violence; prosecuting clerics and other who incite violence; dismissing or disciplining those employed or sponsored by the government espousing intolerance; publicly and officially repudiating such incitement and discrimination no matter its source; and rescinding any prior fatwas issued by Al-Azhar that discriminate or incite violence against any Muslim or non-Muslim religious minority communities.
Iraq
While USCIRF considers recommending a CPC designation for Egypt, it has continued to recommend that designation since 2008 for Iraq.
The plight of Iraq's smallest religious minorities, including Christians and also Sabean Mandeans, and Yazidis, remains a desperate one. Victimized by discrimination, marginalization, displacement and violence, they do not receive adequate protection and justice from the state and lack the militia or tribal structures necessary to defend themselves in the absence of government protection. As a result, Christians and other small religious minorities have been emigrating in mass numbers, while those remaining in Iraq fear for their safety.
In one sense, the attacks launched against Christians resemble the continued atrocities against Iraq's Shi'a Muslims. The culprits are largely the same -- Sunni extremists. The difference is in the goal of these attacks. The purpose of the attacks against the Shi'a majority is to trigger a civil war and bring down the government. But the goal of the attacks against Iraq's non-Muslim minorities is to isolate their members and rid the nation of their presence. Speaking after the October 31 attack on Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Wijdan Michael, Iraq's human rights minister and herself a Christian, summed it up perfectly when she said it was an attempt "to empty Iraq of Christians."
This brutal, unrelenting campaign of religious cleansing began in August 2004, when five churches were bombed in Baghdad and Mosul. On a single day in July 2009, 7 churches were bombed in a coordinated attack in Baghdad. Christian clergy and other leaders have been targeted, including Paulos Rahho, the Archbishop of Mosul, who was kidnapped and killed in early 2008. Last May, a bus convoy of Christian students traveling to their university in Mosul was violently assaulted. During these terrible years, Christians from every walk of life have been raped, tortured, kidnapped, beheaded, and evicted from their homes.
In 2003, there were at least 800,000 and as many as 1.4 million Christians living in Iraq; it is now estimated that only half of that community remains in the country.
Since the October 31 attack which caught the world's attention, the violence has continued. Just a few days later, bomb and mortar attacks were launched against Christian homes in Baghdad, killing at least 5 and injuring 30. On December 30, 10 more bomb attacks targeted Christian areas in that city, killing 2 and wounding 20. These latest attacks have led to further waves of Christians fleeing Baghdad and Mosul.
What has Iraq done in response to the existential threat to its Christian minority community?
Following the October 31 church attack, senior officials, including Prime Minister al Maliki, President Talabani, and KRG President Barzani, as well as two prominent Shi'a leaders, promptly condemned the atrocity. Moreover, individual suspects have been arrested. Since the October 31 attack, the government has also increased security at churches and in Christian areas.
While USCIRF applauds these actions, it strongly recommends that the U.S. government put more pressure on Iraq to make sure that the guilty parties are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Further, it recommends that the U.S. and Iraqi governments -- in consultation with Christian and other religious minority communities -- upgrade security, identifying vulnerable targets for terrorists and implementing a plan for Iraqi military protection of these areas. The U.S. and Iraq should also work to establish, fund, train, and deploy local police units to provide additional protection.
We also recommend that the U.S. do more to ensure that its developmental assistance programming prioritizes areas where vulnerable religious communities are concentrated, including the Nineveh Plains area.
Finally, we urge the U.S. government to engage in speedy processing of vulnerable Iraqi refugees who wish to be resettled in the United States, in part by ensuring that there are enough people to conduct background and screening procedures in a timely manner, and that the existing waiver of the material support bar is properly applied to individuals forced to provide support to terrorists under duress.
CONCLUSION
In the case of both countries -- Egypt and Iraq -- we are talking about allies of the United States, governments with which we have strong relationships and to which we give billions of dollars in aid annually. It is time to act decisively on behalf of the fundamental human right of freedom of religion or belief, especially for religious minorities, including Christians.
Not only is this a moral imperative, but Congress should understand that this is good for security -- our security, the security of both nations, and global security.
Moreover, the continued threat against the Christian communities of both countries undermines an important moderating influence in the region.
Finally, in the case of Iraq, we have a special obligation to render our assistance while our presence remains in that nation. The transition from dictatorship to political democracy must include the protection of religious freedom.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today.
Testimony of an Iraqi Catholic Sister
Thank you Honorable Chairman Wolf and Chairman McGovern for the opportunity to share my testimony before these bodies today. My thanks especially to the Honorable Chris Smith for his invitation.
For purposes of today's testimony I am Sister Rita. I am a Catholic citizen of Iraq and a member of a worldwide order of Catholic Sisters. I've lived in the United States since 2002 and I am currently completing a dual master's degree in pastoral theology and social work in the Midwest. I am protecting my identity, not for myself, but for my loved ones in Iraq.
You invited me to speak to you about the reality on the ground for Iraqi Christians, as I will do. But I cannot speak of the Iraqi Christian reality outside the context of the whole of Iraq. It is safe to say, without a hint of exaggeration, that the trauma of war has imprinted itself on the bodies, minds, and spirits of every Iraqi citizen. We are now a people -- 26 million strong -- whose identity has been forged more by death, grief, suffering, trauma and pain than by any creed or political ideology. This is the context for the persecution of Iraq's minorities, including the Christians. And whatever our political leanings or theories about the causes of this current persecution, the consequences are a grave threat to the very existence of one of the earliest post-resurrection communities of the disciples of Jesus in the world. It requires the urgent attention of this Congress and the commitment of the international community.
The year 2010 was the most violent for Christians since the war began. Minorities are paying a heavy price because they don't have militias to protect them. Qaraqosh is a Christian village 36 kilometers from Mosul. The parishes of the village had been providing transportation to the students to go to Mosul University. The buses have been attacked multiple times in the past five years. One day there was a bomb stuck to the bottom of one of the buses. When the driver started the engine the bombed exploded and two female students' legs were amputated by the blast. Three others were wounded. Another time a bus was stopped by terrorists and seven young men were kidnapped. The terrorists demanded ransom from the families of the students in order to get their sons back. Despite this, the students kept going to the university.
Then, on May 2 last year, four buses filled with Christian students and teachers were attacked on their way to the university by terrorists using a well-coordinated series of car bombs, roadside IEDs, and weapons fire. The four buses were damaged very badly, and 144 students were injured. About 35 of them, beautiful young women and handsome young men, suffered severe facial disfigurement. One student, 19 year old Sandy, a first year biology major, lay in critical condition in a coma for a week before she died. A medical professional I know works at the hospital where many of the wounded were taken. In the hours after the bombing he returned home twice for a complete change of clothing, so blood-soaked he became while tending to the wounded.
According to witnesses, my cousin among them, when the buses were attacked the students ran from them, looking for help. They found more terror instead, as the perpetrators opened fire on them. My cousin's friends were covered with blood as the bullets sheared off ears, eyes, fingers and legs. She said the victims relied on the kindness of villagers from a Muslim farming community who unloaded their animals from their pick up trucks and transported the students to the closest hospital in dung-crusted flatbeds. "We were sitting on very dirty trucks filled with animal's manure, but we appreciated their help," my cousin told me.
After the attack, the Christian students were threatened by the terrorists who said that the men would be killed and the women would be kidnapped and given to Muslim men to marry. As a result, nearly all Christian students from the villages of Nineveh plain, my cousin among them, stopped going to the university. They stay at home in the villages, where there is no opportunity for higher education or meaningful employment. The religious, priests, and very active groups of lay people work hard in the villages to try to provide activities and education to keep the youth from focusing on the difficulty of their situation. But what will become of them?
There are those who think that creating an autonomous zone for Christians is the answer to the violence. It is possible that they are right. I can't say I know better. But for how long can the Christians live in a closed enclave and continue to be effective contributors to the whole of Iraqi society? This short term, and, to my way of thinking, short-sighted solution will only create more grief and difficulty further down the line because it does not address the root cause of the violence and persecution.
I have returned home to Iraq twice since the invasion. Each time the questions I faced regarding U.S. policy in Iraq have left me speechless, without words to defend this country whose citizens I have come to admire and love as if they were my own.
The Iraqi Christian community has been very patient, working toward and hoping for that new Iraq that would provide the peaceful and secure environment we need to live happy, productive and useful lives in our homeland. Yet year after year our situation has deteriorated. People cannot live healthy, productive lives under this kind of pressure. One of our sisters who works in one of our hospitals in Iraq said she's noticed an increase in the number of women asking for C-sections, not for any medical reason, but because they long for the peace they believe they will experience under anesthesia.
My own uncle says when he leaves his home to go to work, he says Good bye to his family because he doesn't know if he will ever see them again.
Did the parishioners who died while attending Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Deliverance in Baghdad on October 31, 2010, have any sense that they would never see their families again? Members of my own family and the relatives and friends of so many of my religious sisters and brothers, died that day. My cousin and her 13 month-old daughter survived the massacre but her husband and her brother in-law were killed. When the terrorists entered the church Father Thear tried to talk with them, and asked them not to hurt the worshipers. Without saying a word they killed him. Then Fr. Waseem tried to do the same and they killed him. Survivors of the massacre said that after killing the two priests the terrorists started killing all the men in the church. The terrorist shouted at them "Atheists!" and "You are going to Hell." Some people were able to hide in the sacristy, which saved their lives. But at least 54 people were killed, among them the two priests, children in the womb, and a six month old girl, who was, according to witnesses, slaughtered on the altar.
Adam, three years old, saw his father killed in front of him. His aunts who were also in the church witnessed Adam crying out to the terrorists for three hours, " Enough! Enough! Enough!" until the terrorists killed Adam, too.
My cousin saved her baby by placing her in a cabinet in the room, giving her food, and closing the door. She was worried about whether her daughter would get enough air in there, but it was only way that she knew to protect her. When I spoke with her a few days after the massacre she said that the day after the massacre her daughter woke up crying, looking for her daddy. What will she tell her daughter as she grows into the realization of why Daddy is not with her any more?
Iraqis and Americans can unite our voices with three year old Adam and cry "Enough, Enough!, Enough!" If we, like Adam, had cried out together long ago, with love and respect for the dignity of each person, thousands -- hundreds of thousands of people would live today.
You brought me here today to tell my people's story. Perhaps even now it is difficult for you to grasp the real sense of the words I speak. Does it all seem remote from your everyday experience? Perhaps not, if you have a loved one serving in the U.S. military in Iraq or Afghanistan. Perhaps not, if you recall what happened in Tucson 12 days ago. The terror, confusion, suffering, grief and pain that the people of Tucson experienced -- and that you experienced, as you awaited word of your colleague Representative Giffords -- is a glimpse at the experience of every Iraqi, whether they live in Iraq, or are counted among the 50,000 or so Iraqi refugees that have arrived in the U.S. since 2008. Or among the 90,000 or so Iraqi-Americans who were either born in the U.S. or emigrated here before the current refugee crisis. Yes, there may be 8,000 miles separating our geography, but the hearts of Americans and the hearts of Iraqis are much closer together than that. Americans -- U.S. citizens or those on the path to citizenship -- are the brothers and sisters, children and parents, grandchildren and the grandparents, the aunts and uncles and cousins of those who are dying everyday in Iraq. What is the cost of this violence?
It is my hope that greater minds than mine are working on this very question. It is my hope that your invitation to me to be here today shows we can not do this alone. The people of Iraq need the U.S. to fulfill its moral obligation to help repair the damage that the war has caused. And we need a stable, secure home, where we can begin to heal the wounds of trauma that are the most intimate, painful, and destructive consequences of this disastrous conflict.
My Iraqi religious community ministers among the remnant of Iraq's Christians. We continue to believe that there is reason to hope for a better future for the country. In spite of all, we find hope, most often, when situations seem the most hopeless.
As difficult and painful as the situation is in Iraq, now is not the time to stop hoping. This meeting here today encourages me. And so do the many stories I hear from relatives, friends and my religious sisters in Iraq, and from the Iraqi refugees with whom I am working in the Midwest. The story isn't over yet.
On his first day at work in an urban grocery store, one of my clients was apprehensive as he was quizzed by a curious co-worker, who wanted to know where he was from and whether his family was with him. "Iraq," he answered, and "no, not all of my family is with me." Then don't worry, the co-worker said, "We will be your family in America." Astonished, the refugee said "His soldiers are dying in my country, and he can say that to me? I want always to work in this grocery store."
In this most recent violence against Christians in Iraq, a dear friend of mine fled his house in Mosul for the safer villages in the north. Before he left, he entrusted his house key to his
Muslim neighbor, who looks in on the house and calls him regularly to update him on the situation. In one of these calls his neighbor told my friend, "Come back. The neighborhood does not feel as safe to us as it did when you were here. We hope you will come back."
Can Iraq be again what it once was? Can it be even better? Can it be a place where Iraqis live together as neighbors across the garden wall, across the artificial boundaries drawn by politicians and challenged by terrorists, across the ideological, political and religious divides that are used by the powerful to keep us apart for their own benefit?
These are questions that can only be answered by Iraqis and Americans together. Are you willing to try? Are you willing to not give up? Are you willing to realize that the United States needs to be liberated from the violence and trauma of this war as much as Iraqis do? Then please, consider carefully the recommendations that have been put before you, some of which I've enumerated here. The litmus test for their worthiness should always be the protection of Iraq's religious minorities and the effectiveness of the proposed solution as a step toward integrating fully into Iraqi society people of all races, creeds and ethnicities. Mere tolerance is not enough. Iraq and the United states can say together, "Mission accomplished," when all of Iraq's citizens feel safe following the example of my Christian friend in Mosul and his Muslim neighbor. Can we learn, once again, to entrust each other with our house keys?
Thank you.
Recommendations:
1. The US Government should continue to work with the Government of Iraq to ensure that it says and does all that it can to protect religious minorities in Iraq.
2. The US should continue resettlement as an option for Iraqi refugees, with particular attention to Iraqi religious minorities, and should consider using unallocated refugee slots for this population during the current fiscal year;
3. The US should consider a P-2 designation for Iraqi religious minorities (a group of special interest) so that individual Iraqis can apply directly to the US for resettlement (instead of having to go through UNHCR);
4. The US should consider establishing safe houses in countries of first asylum where there are vulnerable Iraqi refugees, especially women and children at risk of trafficking;
5. Security clearances for Iraqi refugees already approved for resettlement should be expedited so Iraqi families do not languish for months or years in countries of first asylum.
Testimony by Dr. Michele Dunne
Senior Associate, Middle East Program
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the honor of addressing this Commission.
Let me begin by expressing my condolences to the families of the victims of the January 1 church bombing and January 11 shooting attack in Egypt, and my hope that the Egyptian government will soon bring the perpetrators to justice. We still do not know for certain whether terrorist groups outside Egypt were involved in the January 1 bombing; certainly al- Qaeda groups were fanning the flames of sectarian tension in Egypt specifically for the past few months and encouraging attacks.
That being said, these attacks took place within a specific social, political, and religious context inside Egypt. Perhaps they were carried out by terrorists who sought to capitalize on those issues to create instability inside Egypt and perhaps they were carried out by Egyptians with local motivations and little or no real connection to al-Qaeda. In either case, these attacks cannot be viewed in isolation from the sectarian tensions that have been brewing in Egypt for years.
The Egyptian government does not bear direct responsibility for these events nor would Egyptian officials ever have wanted such tragedies to occur. Still, senior officials have hastened to attribute these horrific acts to external actors, while they have been quick to deny that internal sectarian tensions could be to blame. Whatever the identity of the perpetrators, these attacks and the widespread anti-government protests that followed them should serve as a wake-up call for Egyptian leaders. It is time for them to end the serious and persistent discrimination against non-Muslims that exists in Egyptian law and practice and to find more effective ways of addressing escalating tensions between Muslims and Christians.
A Pattern of Inequality
While the Egyptian government does not actively persecute or repress Christians, a prejudicial legal framework has created a permissive environment that allows Egyptian officials and private individuals to discriminate against Christians freely and with impunity. The requirement to list religion on national identity cards, the inequality in practices surrounding conversion (Christians may change their religious affiliation to Muslim, for example, but Muslims may not change theirs to Christian or any other religion), and the different laws and policies surrounding places of worship for various religions all create resentment among Christians, Baha'is, Shiites, and others who are not Sunni Muslims.
Moreover, Christians are severely underrepresented in government positions, whether appointed or elected. While Christians represent 8 to 15 percent of the Egyptian population, the only government institution in which they enjoy a similar presence is the cabinet, where there are three Christians among 32 ministers. There is only one Christian among Egypt's 28 provincial governors, very important positions appointed by President Hosni Mubarak. Likewise, Christians are nearly invisible in the senior ranks of the armed forces and internal security forces.
President Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) has adopted laudable theoretical positions on the equality of all citizens, in contrast to groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which hold that a Christian should not be eligible to be president. But the NDP nominated only ten Christians out of a total of more than 750 candidates for parliamentary elections in November 2010. In the end three of them won and Mubarak appointed seven others, leaving Christians holding only two percent of seats in the People's Assembly.
Perhaps the most serious and directly relevant aspect of Egyptian authorities' behavior has been the longstanding failure to bring to justice those who have committed violence against Christians. The last decade began with sectarian violence in the Upper Egyptian village of al- Kosh, in which 21 Christians and one Muslim were killed in January 2000; no one has ever been convicted of killing any of the Christians. A State Security court issued on January 16 the first verdict in the killing of seven Christians and one Muslim policeman in Naga Hammadi on Coptic Orthodox Christmas in January 2010, sentencing one of the perpetrators to death while two others await the conclusion of their trials. There is a sense among Egyptian Christians that justice for such crimes has been long delayed at best, and that in many cases investigations were mishandled and authorities were eager to put the incidents behind them.
The handling of such crimes is typical of the approach of Egyptian authorities, who tend to treat sectarian tensions less as a threat to the security of citizens and more as a threat to the security of the state from its citizens. From this attitude springs an approach to sectarian tensions that is light on justice but heavy on brutality, as seen in the death of al-Said Bilal, a young Alexandria man who turned up dead within 24 hours of being detained for questioning in the January 1 bombing.
Moving Beyond Denial
Treating sectarianism as a regime security problem rather than as a deeply rooted social phenomenon has prevented the Egyptian government from effectively addressing the underlying causes of animosity and discrimination. Egyptian authorities' protestations that "national unity" is intact and that "the Christians are not a minority" until now have functioned to deny rather than acknowledge problems and to end rather than begin serious discussion of them.
There are some signs of possible positive steps; for example, the NDP reportedly is drafting a new law to unify regulations governing construction of all places of worship, whether Muslim or Christian. It remains to be seen, however, whether such initiatives will continue once the outrage over the recent bombing subsides. One problem for the Egyptian government is that discussing sectarian issues will lead to broader questions about what the rights of all citizens are or should be. The 2009 Arab Human Development Report discussed this problem at length as it pertains to all Arab countries, concluding that "peaceful coexistence in multi-ethnic and multi-sectarian societies rests on evolved forms of citizenship."i In other words, discrimination against Christians and sectarian tensions are likely to persist until all Egyptian citizens enjoy enhanced human, civil, and political rights.
iUnited Nations Development Programme, Arab Human Development Report 2009, p. 76.
Testimony of Dina Guirguis
Good morning. Thank you Mr. Chairman for organizing this timely hearing. I'm especially pleased to have the opportunity to give testimony on Egypt's sectarian problem.
"2010 is over... I had the most wonderful days of my life in 2010, and I wish 2011 will be even better, I have so many wishes for 2011.. Lord, stand by me and help me achieve them". Mariam Fekry, a girl of 22, wrote those words on Facebook a few hours before she was killed in a brutal attack on the Saints Church in Alexandria, Egypt, on New Year's Eve that left at least 25 people killed and dozens injured. Mariam's hopes, and ultimate fate, so tragically and poignantly illustrate the plight of the Coptic people, Egypt's native Christians, who represent 10-15% of Egypt's 83 million people. They are the Middle East's largest Christian minority but in the past decade have faced an alarming escalation of violence as state protection has dwindled.
For at least three decades, we, the Copts, have been offered an authoritarian compact of sorts. The Copts, as all Egyptians, were to live under a draconian emergency law, namely martial law suspending basic constitutional protections, in exchange for the delivery of stability and protection from terrorism. In those three decades, however, Egypt failed to make adequate progress on key developmental indicators; today, 42% of Egyptians survive on less than $2/day, 30% are illiterate, and Egypt ranks 111th on transparency indicators, demonstrating a critically high degree of corruption. Egypt's human rights record fares no better: Freedom House consistently classifies Egypt as ?not free,? and Egypt's record on religious freedom has gone from bad to worse, earning it a ranking of fifth among the worst countries of the world last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, in the company of nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and China, and placing it on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom's ?watch list? since 2002, for ?serious problems of discrimination, intolerance, and other human rights violations against members of religious minorities.
Egypt's constitution guarantees equal citizenship and protection from discrimination on the basis of religion, and yet the state itself has institutionalized discrimination and permitted the growth of a culture of sectarianism and impunity to act on that sectarianism. A Cairo based human rights organization has described Egypt as a ?police state infused increasingly with theocratic elements.? While mosques have nearly no restrictions on their construction, the building and repair of churches is legally subject to an antiquated law dating back to Ottoman times requiring a presidential decree. In 2005, presidential decree 391 was passed, requiring only the notification of authorities for church renovations. Despite this technical mitigation of the draconian law, the decree's implementation has been dismal. Meanwhile, the scope and geographic reach of sectarian violence has multiplied, often with the direct involvement and incitement of the Egyptian state security apparatus as well as other state authorities and symbols. In 2008 for instance, an ancient Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed by some 40 people--led by a judge and his two sons--who were chief prosecutors at the time.
Similarly, state institutions are absent when sectarian violence breaks out--and the judicial system affords no relief to Christian victims of Muslim violence. At least half a dozen murders of Christians by Muslims in the last 4 years were rendered crimes without punishment due to the refusal of the state to follow the requirements of the rule of law in prosecuting felonies. Instead, and in a typical band aid remedy that avoids addressing the root causes of the violence, the state offers the ?security? solution in the form of the intervention of the Ministry of Interior, aimed at limited pacification. This can take the form of forced ?reconciliation sessions,? where victims and perpetrators are brought together and coerced by the security establishment to relinquish their rights to legal remedies, ranging from signing affidavits relinquishing the right to criminal prosecution to relinquishing the right to compensation for the destruction of personal property, a prominent feature often accompanying sectarian attacks in Egypt. Security often uses the aid of local religious figures in bringing about such grudging reconciliations, and when this fails, the security establishment sometimes carries out collective punishment against a community. They do this by making sweeping arrests of members of a certain community and holding them ?hostage,? as a coercive tactic to force their desired outcome--and often make no distinction between perpetrator and victim in so doing. (In startling demonstrations of the security apparatus' inability and unwillingness to protect victims, security goes so far so as to forcefully displace victims of sectarian violence, as occurred multiple times in 2009 for example when a Christian priest and his family were expelled from the Fashin District of Beni Soueif in Upper Egypt after violence erupted there, and again in the Sohag governorate when security forcibly removed five Baha'i families from their homes after some Muslim villagers burned the homes of Baha'is.) Shamefully, and in complete disregard for the rule of law, the Public Prosecutor's office is often complicit in aiding these blatantly illegal tactics, despite its mandate to promptly investigate every incident and bring perpetrators to justice. The Public Prosecutor does this by accepting improper arrests and detentions referred by the security establishment, and/or by refusing to properly investigate certain crimes, ensuring that the perpetrators evade accountability either by not being identified or at trial when insufficient evidence is produced.
The state's consistent denial of the fair application of the rule of law, manifest in preference of reconciliation in lieu of prosecution, as well as its blatant siding with the perpetrators of sectarian violence results in the alienation of the Copts in their own land and in the polarization of Egyptian society. Further, the message from the Egyptian state via its security ?solution? is clear: sectarian violence is a crime to be committed with impunity. In severely limiting even the ability of Christians to repair existing churches, the state similarly sends a message to Muslims that Christians are to be legitimately denied their basic right to worship. Christians being denied their ability to freely worship is a main cause of sectarian tension in Egypt--accounting for nearly 30% of incidents of violence--and the cases where Christians were attacked simply because they sought to worship--even privately in their homes--abound. (Examples began with mob attacks by Muslims perceiving a personal affront from Christians building churches, driven in large part by the state's denial of permits to even build social halls to host weddings and funerals. This was pathetically demonstrated in 2009 when security agencies prevented Copts in the October governorate from praying over the body of a deceased Christian woman in a building owned by the bishopric for fear it would be converted into a church.) Additionally, Christians are bizarrely brought in by security on charges of conducting prayer inside their homes ?without a permit.? In Upper Egypt's Assiut governorate, affixing a wooden cross at the entrance of a church required the intervention of the assistant minister of interior of the governorate, who requested the cross be removed because it ?provokes Muslims.? Even though the Egyptian penal code provides special protection, through Article 160, for houses of worship from destruction or vandalism, not a single known case of destruction or vandalism of a church has been prosecuted under this article, despite dozens of documented incidents. In fact, the vast majority of incidents of sectarian violence that have occurred in the last three years have never gone to trial. All of these incidents, and dozens more, and their circumstances were documented by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and other local human rights organizations. The incidents are emblematic of the systemic and deeply sectarian mindset that has taken Egyptians hostage, including those charged with enforcing the law and protecting all citizens equally.
Meanwhile, there exists no real political will on the part of the regime to address the root causes of this violence, starting with addressing basic tenets of freedom of religion. A law addressing the ability of Christians to build churches has been proposed in parliament for over a decade and remains ignored, even after the Alexandria massacre. In fact, in the days following the massacre, a member of the Shura Council, Egypt's Upper house of parliament, proposed that the Egyptian government immediately ratify the law easing the construction of houses of worship; in return he was accused by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs (Mofid Shehab) of ?inciting sectarian divisions.
Moreover, despite the Copts' large numbers, they are largely excluded from government institutions, both local and national, starting from parliament where the country's ruling party, the National Democratic Party, nominated only 10 Copts out of its 800 candidates in the last parliamentary election in November 2010. Copts are largely excluded from prominent positions in the country's security apparatus, and from leadership positions in public universities. Six hundred years of Coptic history is by and large absent from educational curricula in public schools, and Copts are similarly under, or poorly, represented in state owned media. Incitement against Christians in the media and in government controlled mosques is tolerated. Conversions to Christianity are fraught with complications and often entail prison time or serious harassment by state authorities, while conversions to Islam are by and large encouraged.
Starting with denying citizens equal treatment, suspending the rule of law, and culminating with a brutal emergency law, the Egyptian regime is fully responsible for creating the fertile ground on which pernicious and egregious sectarian violence has become routine. In an effort to ?outbid Islamists,? who constitute the strongest organized opposition to Mubarak's 30 year iron rule, the Egyptian regime has indulged an unhealthy obsession to compete on religious grounds, mistakenly believing that oppressing one segment of the Egyptian population at the expense of another will somehow earn it legitimacy from the Muslim majority and create a scapegoat to deflect from its substantial governance failures. The regime cynically uses the Copts; while allowing the worst forms of discrimination against them, it simultaneously attempts to show itself as their defender, realizing they have nowhere else to go and unleashing the official media to designate them as traitors if they even dare to appeal their cause internationally.
Even now, as we are reaping the consequences of the regime's systematic discriminatory policies in the form of a full fledged sectarian crisis--and terrorism threatening the region and the international community--the Egyptian regime refuses to alter its policies. The Egyptian government refused for example the offer of assistance from the United States Government to investigate the New Year's Eve bombing and is instead insisting on its failed security solutions. In response to the bombing, the regime is now collectively rounding up and punishing large groups of Muslims, ensuring that sectarian tensions and mistrust erupt beyond the shameful low point they are currently in.
It is my sincere hope that 22 year old Mariam, along with a number of now orphaned children, will not have died in vain. And yet the state's response with more brutality and force-the same formula that has failed to deliver stability or security for the past three decades - bodes greater violence and misfortune in the coming days.
Knowing that the real answer to Egypt's sectarian crisis is progress toward a democratic state that respects human rights, applies the rule of law and extends equal constitutional protections to all citizens, the Egyptian regime will avoid doing so at all costs. Instead, it will as it has already begun to respond in typical appeasement fashion, with empty rhetoric about national unity and promises and perhaps some cosmetic changes while ultimately retaining the status quo. More alarmingly, as we approach a presidential election in the fall of 2011 that may witness Egypt's first presidential transition in thirty years, the regime may well encourage the growth and influence of hard-line Salafist movements in order to counter its largest opposition group, the relatively more moderate Muslim Brotherhood. The regime is known for its divide and conquer strategies and manipulative tactics in this regard, without much long-term consideration of the potential irreversible resulting damage, not only to Egypt's Copts and religious minorities, but to Egypt as a nation, its role as US ally and key regional player.