AFRICA/EGYPT - Coptic politicians reject, as "political operation", the US Congress resolution in defense of Egyptian Christians

Cairo (Agenzia Fides) - The draft resolution on the alarm "for attacks against Coptic Christians in Egypt", submitted to the US Congress by six US parliamentarians on December 21, is causing controversy in Egypt, also on behalf of Egyptian parliamentarians of Coptic faith.
In the text of the draft resolution 673, after a brief description of events concerning the Christian communities in Egypt, the Congress is asked to recall the Egyptian government "to carry out serious and legitimate reforms to guarantee Coptic Christians the same rights and the same opportunities as all other Egyptian citizens". In particular, the urgent need for measures by the Egyptian authorities to reform education that guarantees "the teaching of all religions" and "a political reform that guarantees human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law".
Among the negative reactions provoked by the Resolution submitted to the debate of the US Congress, there is that of Hafez Abu Saada, member of the National Human Rights Council. The activist, also known outside of Egypt for his campaigns in defense of the rights of citizenship in his homeland, said that the US resolution should be considered only as an instrument used by the US to put political pressure on the Egyptian government, and perhaps to justify a future cut of US economic support for Egypt. According to Hafez Abu Saada, in today's Egypt there are no "institutionalized" discriminations against Christians, and the persistence of sectarian violence and intimidation against the Copts cannot be attributed to the current political leadership, which periodically recalls the urgency to renew "religious speech" to eliminate any form of connivance between religious preaching and extremist ideologies of jihadist nature. Even Coptic parliamentarian Suzy Adly Nashed, professor of economics at the University of Alexandria - refer Egyptian sources consulted by Agenzia Fides - said that the US resolution represents a sort of political retaliation on the Egyptian leadership's stance against the US recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of the State of Israel. According to Suzy Nashed (in the photo with Patriarch Tawadros Copt II), the US resolution represents a move to "create confusion" in Egyptian society, and is configured as interference in the internal affairs of another nation, contrary to the rules of international politics.
According to the Egyptian Coptic MP Imam Gad behind the US Resolution there are "extremist sectors of the Coptic diaspora", which exploit accidents and well known sectarian violence and certainly not hidden or minimized by the Egyptian authorities. This interference - added Imam Gad - does not help the processes to affirm the rule of law and the principle of citizenship in Egypt. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 28/12/2017)

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