Christians Being 'Targeted' in Egypt.

• Author: Abrahamson, James L.

CHRISTIANS BEING "TARGETED" IN EGYPT

By Carey Lodge, staff writer Christian Today

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christians.being.targeted.in.egypt/35017.h

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On last December's United Nations "Human Rights Day," five religious spokesmen testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee regarding escalating human rights abuses directed at Egypt's minority religious groups. Congressman Chris Smith, who chaired the hearing, observed that following President Mubarak's February 2011 resignation, the world had hoped for a "new Egypt." Contrary to expectations, however, "persecution of Christians" continued under both the subsequent governments as "flash floods of violence" emerged from Egypt's "long existing" "undercurrents of abuse and contempt for human dignity."

In response, the world's governments, including that of the United States, have done little more than "watch" the "escalating violence against minority communities." Those who testified before the committee joined Coptic Bishop Angaelos in calling for "steps to be taken towards the establishment of a free, equal and democratic society in Egypt."

"The persecution of religious minorities over the past decades has not manifested itself solely in physical attacks, but has frequently been embedded in process and policy, then translated into dealings with citizens on unequal grounds, inevitably having resulted in greater division and marginalization [sic]," Bishop Angaelos noted in his testimony.

Though Christians, the speakers claimed to speak on behalf of "human rights for all" and hoped that Egypt's new constitution and its soon-to-be elected government would hold "to account" all those...