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WATANI International2 January 2005Translator: Ghada / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 652

2005Year of citizenship rightsYoussef Sidhom

The recent deplorable sectarian clashes between the security forces and theCoptic young men who had conducted a five-day sit-in at the St Mark’sCoptic cathedral grounds in Abassiya, Cairo—to protest the suspectedforced conversion of a priest’s wife to Islam—had one auspicious result.Despite indifference in official circles, numerous meetings and gatheringswere convened by independent Egyptian citizens over the past two weeks, todiscuss the recent events and how they have shaken Egyptian society to thecore and thrown the media into disarray. It is indeed reassuring that variousgroups in Egypt no longer wait for the government to take action in thedirection of solving the problem, but themselves take the initiative ofanalysing the incident and figuring out what should be done.Various Egyptian liberal groups—gathering both Muslims and Christianswhose sole devotion is to the homeland, regardless of any religious orofficial affiliation, and who are keen to confront areas of defects in oursociety—were formed. They came from the different walks of life; therewere professionals, artists, scientists and literary men, as well as members ofsyndicates and NGO s. The only bond which bound them was concern overthe future of the homeland.Thoughts and sentiments poured out to analyse—candidly andtransparently—the reality we live in. Religious sensitivities where shovedaside; Muslims discussed with keenness and anxiety the grievances andcomplaints of Christians, and Christians candidly analysed Muslims’apprehensions. Psychological barriers fell, clearing the way for visions ofreform and advancement. The wide area of common ground reachedrevealed that a healthier climate could be easily fostered.

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The love that binds us Egyptians—Muslims and Copts—should be exploitedto attain peaceful coexistence, and to manage the crises which are bound toerupt every now and then. Existing channels of interaction should beactivated and new ones built, since it is unimaginable that a singlecomponent of the society would alone bear the responsibility of resolvingcrises which concern the entire country. All the different elements of theEgyptian society should work together towards one unified aim, that ofupholding citizenship rights and correcting deviations in publicconsciousness. This may be achieved through stressing—via education andthe media—the reality that we are all equally the sons and daughters of thehomeland, heirs of its history and civilisation with all its good and evil. Nosector of Egyptians can claim any monopoly over being ‘Egyptian’ to theexclusion of other Egyptians. And history does have its bright moments ofwhich we are all proud, as well as dark moments which we should haveenough courage to recognise and acknowledge instead of obscuring.Because our present culture and personality is after all nothing but a productof human experience and interaction over ages and centuries.Thus, as we stand on the threshold of a new year, and as our countryproceeds towards economic reform and looks forward to political reform, weurgently need socio-cultural reform to redraw the relationship betweenEgyptians on basis of equal citizenship rights.I am confident that such a perspective could gain the support of manyEgyptians. Let us work together to push it forward. Let us hope thatagreement on the issue of citizenship rights among many Egyptians wouldencourage the sceptics among us to come forward and join, and would ridofficials of the deplorable misgivings or fears which stand in the way of theirendorsing full citizenship rights. Because civil work alone cannot achievereform, but can only pave the way for change through founding a popularconviction of it, to be followed by formal procedures to put this change intopractice.Last week’s editorial called for the foundation of an “Egyptian Council forCitizenship Rights”. Today’s calls for declaring 2005 the year of citizenshiprights. We should not let it pass without healing the ailment that has infectedEgypt, our homeland.

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WATANI International9 January 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 303

CHRISTMAS

Hope reborn

Christmas comes this year as we lick the wounds of 2004, and look forwardto a new year which would bring in peace, calm, and stability. Thehorrendous natural disaster in South East Asia that closed 2004 is still takingits toll, and the extensive loss in lives and property is still on the rise, leavingin its wake unanimous horror and heart-rending pain. But hope dawns brightas the entire world extends loving, helpful hands to aid and comfort thevictims. The only good that has come out of the heartache and distress isthat the people on planet Earth have—for once—put aside their differences,and rushed to support with compassion those hit by this calamity of gigantic-proportions.In Egypt, Christmas comes in the wake of the sectarian incidents which tookplace last month in Assiut and Samalout in Upper Egypt, and Abul-Matameer in the Delta. Last Tuesday, the police released the last of the 34young men who had been unjustifiably arrested last month outside St Mark’scathedral in Abassiya, Cairo, during the five-day sit-in which Copts had thenconducted in the cathedral grounds, to protest the manner in which securityauthorities had handled the alleged conversion of a priest’s wife to Islam.Again, the upside of the crises has been that Muslim and Christian Egyptiansare together calling for the consolidation of the civil society and citizenshiprights. This could be a harbinger of the long-awaited reform.I offer my heartfelt wishes for a blessed, happy Christmas to the head of theCoptic Orthodox Church His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, and to all theChurches’ clergy and congregation. The fact that Christmas (7 January) isnow a national holiday—as decreed by President Mubarak three yearsago—is indeed a step towards upholding full citizenship rights for all.

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Problems on hold

Managing the political processYoussef Sidhom

Frustration has set in. In the Egypt of today, the political arena hasstagnated, and all hope of constitutional reform that would lead to the long-awaited political change has gone to the wind. And among a large sector ofintellectuals and writers, frustration has turned to anger. The averageEgyptian may content himself or herself with the prospect of economicreform—already underway—but intellectuals know better than to give uppolitical reform in favour of economic reform.The top political executives in our country—whether in the government orthe ruling National Democratic Party (NDP)—should have sensed thefrustration and fury, and should have possessed the vision to manage thecrisis adequately. Instead, these executives have obviously opted to play fortime, with the objective of maintaining the political status quo till nextautumn when presidential and parliamentary elections are due. Thiseffectively postpones any debate on political reform until after the elections,or—better still—indefinitely. They are trying to sell the Egyptian street onthe idea that stability is better than change, and that consequently, politicalimmobility is far more important than political reform.These government and NDP executives did not take the trouble to gainpublic support for their stance. They did not even bother to ‘beautify’ thesituation in any attempt to draw citizens to the polls. They held no publicgatherings, seminars or suchlike to harness public opinion in favour of theircall for abandoning reform in favour of political stability. Instead, Mr Safwatal-Sharif, secretary-general of the NDP and speaker of the ++Shura++ orConsultative Council—the upper chamber of the EgyptianParliament—announced that the new president will be “named” byParliament next May. Kindly note that Mr Sharif substituted “named” for

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“nominated”. In September Mr Sharif said, a public referendum will be heldto decide on the presidential candidate named by Parliament. Mr Kamal al-Shazli, deputy to the secretary-general of the NDP, said that, once theoutcome of the referendum is announced, President Hosni Mubarak will besworn in for a new term.The entire issue of the new president appears then to have already beendecided and the people duly ‘informed’. This despite the fact that PresidentMubarak himself has said that anyone who aspired to the post of presidentmay nominate himself or herself—as stipulated by the Constitution—oncehe or she has gained the support of two-thirds of the Parliament members,and the referendum would be subsequently held. The president thus kept thedoor half-open—on the democratic and constitutional levels—and may haveso managed to secure public interest and participation in the process ofchoosing a president for a new term. Contrariwise, the secretary-general ofthe NDP and his deputy slammed this door shut when they confirmed thatthe process was already pre-defined and its result predestined.It is quite obvious that political vision is entirely lacking where the processof renewing the term of the current authority is concerned. In fact, theprocess is being managed in a manner which enrages the mainstream publicas well as the cultural elite. In which case the bitter questions arise: why dowe call upon Egyptians to go to the polls? Why do we ask them to shouldertheir responsibility in running their country? How can young people everbelieve that their votes count, or that they should adopt a culture of criticalthinking and free choice?It is neither our wish nor our intention to gamble with the future of ourcountry. We thus do not aspire to any democratic change without theprerequisite adequate political groundwork. Until this materialises, we havenothing against the fact that most Egyptians love President Mubarak andprefer him to any newcomer. Even so, we must admit that this emphasisesthe vacancy of the political arena of any new faces or agendas, which in turnprioritises the necessity of political reform and pluralism.Egypt never was too barren to produce sons or daughters capable ofleadership. If we succeed in providing a climate that would promote theemergence and growth of new figures on the political arena, we woulddefinitely climb out of the current political predicament. More importantly,we would have found a viable alternative to the present authority other thanfundamentalism, which is the only one currently available.

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Problems on hold

President Mubarak:Egypt is home to Muslims and CoptsYoussef Sidhom

In an interview with Egypt’s State television on 8 January, PresidentMubarak said: “Egypt is home to all Egyptians—Muslims and Copts. Weare one people.” And in a public gathering in Aswan on 9 January, he saidthat Muslims and Copts in Egypt are partners who work on one land and liveunder one banner. “We are all—Muslims and Copts—Egyptians, he said.We should allow nothing to come between us. Some foreigners claim theexistence of divisions, hoping to disunite us. We are all Egyptians; there isabsolutely no difference between one of us or the other.”The words are beautiful, and—coming from the president of therepublic—confirm that the State views all citizens as equal regardless ofreligion. If the aim of such talk was to secure the concept of “national unity”and to consolidate the relations between the “two elements of one nation”,then some believe that this aim was fulfilled. My personal view is that thisaim was only fulfilled on the by-now familiar level of tranquillisers, that ismasking the real ailment through sedation with sweet rhetoric, instead ofworking to treat it. It pains me to write that the “national unity” and “twoelements of one nation” slogans have become outdated, meaningless, and areno longer acceptable. Among the circles of intellectuals and writers, theseslogans have gained notoriety as confirming the categorisation of Egyptiansaccording to their religion, then hailing a hollow unity between the people ofboth religions. This in turn breeds deplorable, discriminatory concepts andpractices, which even the best rhetoric can in no way beautify.The president said that differentiation between Copts and Muslims isnothing but an allegation made by foreigners. I beg to disagree. Inequalities

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exist; they are well-established and documented. And worse, having beenthe subject of steady official denial, nothing has been done to remedy them.During the recent sectarian events of last month, I noted that it wascomforting that many Muslims have now come to acknowledge theinequalities and denounce them. They discussed what could be done to fixthe faults in citizenship rights for Copts, within the wider national Egyptianperspective, regardless of colour, gender, or religion.I cannot imagine that the president is unaware of the fact that one of themajor inequalities between Muslims and Copts concerns the legislationwhich governs their rights to build their respective places of worship.Muslims enjoy absolute, unfettered rights to allocate, purchase, or own landupon which they can build mosques. They are offered facilities to obtainapprovals and building permits from the relevant authorities. Copts, on theother hand, face countless obstacles or obstructions in securingland—whether through allocation by the State or direct purchase—forbuilding a church. Then begins the long, agonising journey of applying forthe required security approvals to build the church. This process involves therequired fulfilment of the notorious Ten Conditions—a legacy of anoutdated, discriminatory regulation which dates back to 1934, and whichplaces confining, all-but-impossible to meet conditions to build a church. Ifthe Ten Conditions are however fulfilled, the application has to garner a longascending list of official and security approvals, up to that of the president ofthe republic who alone holds the authority to decree the building of thechurch. No time span limits the period required until the final approval; theagony may be indefinite. What a difference between this ++Via Dolorosa++Copts have to traverse to build a church, and the rosy one traversed by theirMuslim partners in the homeland to build a mosque!This legislation which maintains the approval of building churches in thehands of the head of the State alone goes back to the 1865 OttomanHimayouni Edict, when Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire. It wasinstated then in order to secure justice and equality in granting land andapprovals for non-Muslims in the empire to build their respective places ofworship. Many officials—among whom is Dr Mustafa al-Fiqi, head of theforeign affairs committee in Parliament—claim that this legislation wasinvalidated once the Ottoman Empire fell and Egypt ceased to be anOttoman province. It pains me to confirm that the Himayouni Edict is welland alive; no legislation has ever been enacted to invalidate it. Rather, I haveliving proof that it is still in force. Last July, ++Watani++ printed the case ofOrthodox Copts of al-Wadi al-Gadid in the Western Desert who applied tothe government for the approval of a new burial ground for their dead. The

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official reply signed by the director of administrative and religious affairs atthe Interior Ministry declared that: “The legal opinion of the State Council,the Fatwa department at the Interior Ministry, and the department of legalaffairs, have all agreed that—+according to the Himayouni Edict whichgoverns the building of places of worship or [any building whichconcerns a religious community]+—the matter requires a presidentialdecree.”This legislative flaw is but one of the forms of discrimination between Coptsand Muslims. It is not the only one.

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Problems on hold

President Mubarak again:Egypt of the Muslims and CoptsYoussef Sidhom

Last week’s editorial referred to President Mubarak’s words that “AsEgyptian Muslims and Copts, we should allow nothing to come betweenus”. The words, intended to condemn discrimination between Muslims andCopts, actually served as a strong reminder of it. This discrimination isespecially flagrant when it comes to the right of the members of eachreligion to build their respective places of worship. Whereas Muslims canbuild mosques unconditionally and at any time, the building of a churchrequires a presidential decree. ++Watani++ last week published on its frontpage a call by Dr Mustafa al-Fiqi, head of the foreign relations committee atthe People’s Assembly, in which he declared that “citizenship rights are thebasis of the relationship between the individual and the State. There shouldbe no discrimination whatsoever between citizens on religious grounds. Wehope to see a law that would stipulate a unified set of regulations forbuilding all places of worship, and would thus put an end to the problems ofbuilding churches. We also hope to see a law that would abolish thedeclaration of the religious identity of citizens in their ID cards”.It should be noted however that discrimination against Copts is not confinedto building new churches, which, as mentioned, require presidential decrees,but extends to such commonplace issues as the restoration and renovation ofexisting ones. Ironically, these repairs are treated by the State as sensitiveissues which require complicated, time-consuming approvals by the all-powerful security authorities. Thus, while Muslims may easily conduct anynecessary repairs to a mosque, Copts are subjected to extreme humiliationand oppression in order to carry out similar works in their churches.

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Until recently, the restoration or renovation of churches required apresidential decree. Among the most notorious of such cases was thepresidential decree 157 of 1991, printed in the “Egyptian Official Paper”stipulating that: “Orthodox Copts are authorised to restore the toilet andbakery of Mit Bera Church in Qouwisna, Menoufiya governorate, accordingto the attached drawing.” At that time, Antoun Sidhom wrote in++Watani++: “Must Copts undergo such extreme humiliation that theycannot restore a toilet without a presidential decree? I call upon PresidentMubarak to abolish such disgraceful legislation.”President Mubarak did move to liberate the codes of restoration andrenovation of churches. In 1998, presidential decree number 13 was issuedentitling governors to the President’s rights in licensing restorations orrenovations in churches. In February 1998, I commended the move in++Watani++, as a genuine national achievement that put an end to thedeplorable state of affairs which required a presidential seal of approval forsuch trivial matters as renovating a church’s toilet or fence.”In December 1999, presidential decree number 453 was issued stipulatingthat—in accordance with law 106 of 1976—the restoration or renovation ofall places of worship should be approved by the building authorities of eachgovernorate. The decree achieved several important objectives. Itconsidered, for the first time, churches and mosques on equal bases. Themere use of the term ‘places of worship’ to indicate both churches andmosques alike implied equality between them. The reference to law 106 of1976 was vital, since this law stipulates that, should the building authoritieshave any reservation or objection regarding a given application forconstruction works, it should notify the applicant within 60 days. Otherwise,the application is considered automatically approved. For the first time, therestoration and renovation of churches were freed from the absolute,indefinitely-extended power of the security apparatus. It was a huge relief.But we had laughed too soon. In May 2000, before the presidential decree inquestion was enforced, the governor of Assiut in Upper Egypt sent a “secretand confidential” memorandum to the head of the local government ofAssiut to the following effect. “Regarding presidential decree 453 of 1999,please refer all applications concerning churches [note the specification ofchurches alone] to the governorate for security approval prior to licensingrestoration work, for the benefit of public interest and the realisation of thedecreed objective.”In July 2000, I wrote that Assuit governor’s memo emptied the presidentialdecree of its content, and returned the issue to the security authorities’control. The term “churches” instead of “places of worship” stressed the

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differentiation between Muslims and Copts. I asked who could defend thepresidential decree. Regrettably, nothing transpired and the contents of thememo were put into force from that time onwards. And worse still, a similarmessage was issued by Sohag governor in March 2001. The unhealthyensuing climate of discrimination between Muslims and Copts has led to thepersistence of widespread feelings of oppression and humiliation by theCopts.It may thus be argued that the President has done his bit and taken theinitiative of issuing the required decisions to liberate the restoration andrenovation churches. How can he be held responsible for the executivedecisions decreed by governors—each in his own governorate—whichhinder the execution of the presidential decrees? It should go without sayinghowever that there are, within the presidential apparatus, departments incharge of following up the execution of presidential decrees in form andcontent. It hence stands to reason that such decrees can never be treated withindifference or negligence. Did not the President know what was going on?Did he know, but placed the issue on hold? Or did he know and condone it?The discrimination between Muslims and Copts—regarding the renovationof their respective places of worship—persists. In November 2004,presidential decree number 357 was issued stipulating that: “Orthodox Coptsare granted license to demolish and rebuild the main gate of St DimianaChurch in the city of Kafr al-Sheikh.” This brought me to my wits end.Demolishing and rebuilding a gate are works of restoration and repair, whichshould not require a presidential decree. So how did the application toconduct them reach the President’s office, and how was the decree issued? Isit a negation of decree 453 of 1999? And is there a similar retractionconcerning mosques? Because if so, it would indeed be true that nothingcomes between Egypt’s Muslims and Christians.

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WATANI International6 February 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 739

Problems on hold

President Mubarak, one more time:Egypt of the Muslims and CoptsYoussef Sidhom

“The concept of citizenship rights forms the basis of the relationshipbetween the citizen and the State. In this context, it is hoped that the‘religion’ box [which identifies the holder’s religion on his or heridentification documents] would be abolished from official papers.’ Thewords belong to Dr Mustafa al-Fiqi, head of the foreign affairs committee ofthe Egyptian Parliament. He made this statement during the openingceremony last month of the centre for dialogue between Islam and the West,at the Roman Catholic Patriarchate in Cairo. It pains me that this statementwas not made—as it should have been—in Parliament, especially afterPresident Mubarak made his now-famous announcement that we should letnothing come between Egypt’s Muslims and its Copts.It is a self-evident truth though that an Egyptian’s religious identity can—innine cases out of ten—be easily spotted without resorting to his or her ID.Names alone are a telltale sign. Both Copts and Muslims are generallynamed after saints of their respective religions. So the objective ofabolishment of the religion box from IDs, job application forms, or any otherdocument, is not the mere hiding of one’s religious identity—a next-to-impossible feat, but the confirmation that citizenship rights, competence, andadequate qualifications are not subject to religious identity. It goes withoutsaying that for such a move to be effective, systems of follow-up andaccountability should be firmly in place.I have repeatedly written on the problem so frequently faced by Copts whenthey apply for the new computerised ID cards. When they apply for the newbirth certificate required in the process, many Copts find themselves

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registered—in the religion box—as Muslims born to Muslim parents. Whenthey attempt to prove that this data is incorrect, by referring to their own andtheir parents’ original birth certificates, marriage certificates, or deathcertificates if needs be, they are told that these are insufficient, and areordered to obtain proof from the National Archives. No matter that the faultis in the first place that of the civil register clerk, and no matter that theentire situation is unreasonable and unjust. The Coptic citizen nonetheless isobliged to waste an incredible amount of effort and time to correct a faultnot of his or her own doing. Worse still, no clerk has to date been questionedor held accountable for the errors that result in so much agony by blamelesscitizens.It is true that civil servants in Egypt are indeed incompetent. But to date, Iknow of no Muslim who was registered as Christian despite information tohis or her being Muslim born to Muslim parents, as proved by the birthcertificates. If, hypothetically speaking, this ever happens, I wonder if such acitizen would be arrogantly penalised by asking him to prove the disputedreligious identity which was incorrectly entered by the clerk. Had I known ofeven one such case, I would have used it to prove that Copts are not the onlypeople wronged by government clerks. But the civil register officials appearadamant in proving that clerks are highly competent at issuing officialpapers to Muslims, and lose all competence when it comes to Copts. Add tothis the absence of orders to clerks to correct such faults, and you are leftwith a feeling that the only plausible explanation is a deep-rooted intentionto harass Copts once they persist in being identified as Christians. It is sadthat such cases are all to frequent. And lest anyone accuses me of making upor exaggerating the problem, I will not hesitate in printing any case I knowof.The oral examinations of college students represent another notorious caseof flagrant discrimination against Copts because of their religious identity.Coptic students frequently fall prey to fanatic teachers and professors whoinsist upon giving them low grades in oral exams, where their identity isdisclosed. Contrariwise, these same students usually score top grades inwritten exams, where students are only identified by secret numbers. Asthough these top-grade Coptic students are suddenly infected with collectiveignorance or stupidity when it comes to oral exams.This flagrant categorisation of Egyptians according to their religiousidentity, and their consequent division into deserving or non-deserving,accepted or rejected citizens, their rights granted or withheld, constitutes aserious flaw in Egyptian citizenship rights, which no amount of sweetrhetoric can remedy.

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+The steering committee of Zurich’s Coptic Symposium+

Last week, I attended the meetings of the steering committee of the CopticSymposium which convened in Zurich last September. The committee’s taskwas to follow up on and assess the action taken regarding the symposium’sresolutions.The committee discussed the structural division of the work groups whichwill be responsible for activating the symposium’s resolutions, and reviewedthe scope of activity of each group, and coordination between them. Thecommittee met the members of the different work groups, and decided withthem on the basic axes along which the work was to be conducted. Amongthese were:1. Activating the resolutions of the Zurich Symposium of September 2004.2 . Presenting a work plan to the steering committee for revision and

approval.3. Presenting a quarterly report to the steering committee for assessment

and discussion of measures to control the work and improveperformance.

4. Official communiqués may only be issued by the work groups if they arereviewed and approved by the steering committee.

5. Adopting a peaceful, balanced, non-antagonistic attitude in all talks orwritings related to the work of the group.

6. Confirming the spirit of the Zurich symposium, which calls upon allEgyptians—Muslim and Christian—to work together in order toconsolidate full and equal citizenship rights for all.

7. Working to build bridges of mutual understanding, respect, and dialogueon the official and civil levels, inside and outside Egypt, with theobjective of activating the Zurich symposium resolutions.

8. Avoiding all forms of implication of religions or ridicule of faith, sincethey only serve to mar the cause of equal citizenship rights, and impairgoodwill between citizens.

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Problems on hold

President Mubarak, anew:Egypt of the Muslims and CoptsYoussef Sidhom

Earlier this month, as Egypt’s police celebrated their day, President HosniMubarak honoured 103 policemen and officers for distinguishedperformance on duty. Only one—who had lost his life in action—was Copt,meaning that Copts measured 0.97 per cent of the honourees.This incident took me back to the ‘problems on hold’ file. Last August Itackled the issue of the dearth of Copts in leading official posts, pointing outthat their proportion in such posts was notoriously low, ranging betweenzero and three per cent. I wrote then that these figures indicated a severeflaw: “Semi-official figures—there are no official figures—place the Copticpopulation at some 10 per cent of the Egyptian population. Since Copts gothrough the same educational system—on all school and universitylevels—as Muslims do, and later enter the job market with almost the samequalifications, the natural distribution of Copts in jobs would be around thesame percentage as their numbers. If advancement in jobs were subject tocompetence alone, it would then stand to reason that Copts would occupyaround 10 percent of leading posts. That is, if no obstacles were placed intheir path.”Sadly, this particular article dealt with the police officers’ promotionsapproved by the Interior Minister last July, which included 151 names notone of whom was Copt. I considered this a serious, inexplicable, unjustpredicament, which occurred repeatedly every time official promotions orhonours lists were announced.Since last December, the issue of citizenship rights has been under heavydebate in Egyptian political and civil society circles. Muslims and Christians

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alike expressed a high degree of awareness of the curtailment of these rightswhere Copts are concerned. It is to be hoped then that the question of theshare of Copts in leading posts in the State would be confronted andremedied, and that the “complacency of the majority” of our Muslim fellow-citizens would not lead them to disregard the problem. I had previouslycalled for applying a quota system—using a realistic ratio as regards theproportion of Copts—to leading posts. This should raise no apprehensions,since the quota system will only be a temporary remedy to a hard situation.It should not be viewed as a compromise of our national Egyptian integrity,since “Lebanonisation” of Egypt will never be a viable option.Whenever the question of the minimal nomination of Copts to leading postssurfaces, some hasten to declare that the reason is their small numbers in thework force, in the first place. This in itself is the outcome of a decades-longflawed policy which never afforded Copts opportunities equal to those ofMuslims regarding access or appointment to jobs in certain sectors. Thispolicy—dubbed “drying up the source”—has been applied in cases ofadmissions to military and police academies, the prosecution and judicialcorps, the banking sector, the diplomatic corps, to list but a few. Theacknowledgement of this state of affairs will in all likelihood lead us tohasten long-deferred reforms. It will also lead us to extend a generous quotaof the leading posts in the State to Copts, to compensate for the yearswhen—as a result of drying up the source—very few of them have hadaccess to such posts.This brings me to the end of this series of articles on the inequality betweenEgypt’s Muslims and Copts in the most basic citizenship rights. I present itto the authorities in our country, in order to candidly investigate andcourageously reform. I also present it to those who reject so-called pressurefrom the outside world to implement reforms, but in no way denounce theexisting flaws in Egyptians’ citizenship rights. And finally, as always, Ipresent it to the national conscience of our Muslim fellow-citizens, on whosesupport I place my highest hopes for the long-awaited reform.

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Problems on hold

The Egyptian press on sectarian issuesA call to accountYoussef Sidhom

The sectarian incidents which last December exploded in Assiut, and later inBeheira, drew our attention to the manner in which the Egyptian media hashandled the issue. In the majority of cases, press coverage of the incidentswas unreasonable, irrational, and bordering on the hysterical. Instead ofseeking the truth and informing the public of it, the press deluded, goaded,and charged public sentiment by making up unsubstantiated stories. Itbecame clear that the press trifled dangerously with the public mood, andresorted to irresponsible sensationalism in order to raise distribution figures.No wonder then that, next to all the flagrant sensationalism which dominatedthe media coverage then, some found ++Watani’s++ reporting rather pale.++Watani++ only printed the strict, verified facts, and refrained fromengaging in futile discussions or rhetorical duelling with pens which made ittheir job to charge public sentiment. I know that some of ourreaders—among whom are a number of clerics—are cross with us for notprinting the angry letters they sent us commenting on the Assiut and Beheiraincidents. To all of them I offer my apologies; the decision was neither wasmeant to insult nor to ignore any of them.++Watani’s++ attitude was to define the flaws in our societal or officialsystems, analyse them and attempt to prescribe a remedy. It was clear to usthat, left unchecked, these flaws—which basically categorised Egyptians asMuslims and Copts—threatened to pull Egypt down a fathomless abyss outof which there can be no ascent. With other conscientious fellow-Egyptians,we began looking for civil institutions which would manage such crises, andlift the burden of defending the Coptic citizen off the shoulders of the

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Church. It had to be confirmed that Copts are first and foremost subjects ofthe State, then sons and daughters of the Church. In this context,++Watani++ launched its call for the establishment of a civil, national“Egyptian Council of Citizenship Rights”, which would open channels ofdialogue with all State institutions and apparatuses, in order to remedy theflaws which hindered the attainment of full citizenship rights for allEgyptians. Efforts are underway for such a council to materialise.Amid the crisis, and just as I refrained from printing the angry reader letters,I also refrained from printing the letters of appreciation which ++Watani++received, and which confirmed that ++Watani’s++ call had not fallen ondeaf ears. Yet one such letter stood out, and so much so that I decided toprint it. The letter came from Ms Amina Sarwat Abaza, director of thetranslation department of the Egyptian satellite channel, and daughter of thelate writer and novelist Sarwat Abaza. Ms Abaza wrote:

“I am lost for words to apologise—as an Egyptian—for the manner inwhich some Egyptian papers covered the story of Ms Wafaa’Costantine. [Ms Costantine is the Beheira priest’s wife whose allegedconversion to Islam, and the subsequent uncooperative handling of thematter by the security authorities, prompted a five-day sit in at StMark’s cathedral—the Coptic Orthodox papal seat.] How I wished Icould find even one paper that would have covered the topic with eventhe minimal objectiveness or fairness. But this was apparently not tobe.“One weekly paper’s coverage reeked of fanaticism and extremism.Its editors attempted to strike at Christians, but only succeeded inscoring against Egypt instead. Since all articles which tackle ournational unity ultimately find their way to the Internet, this paper’shate material was shortly posted on the Net, giving Egypt a bad imageat home and abroad.“Another daily paper, the editor of which claims to call forenlightenment, progress and secularism, printed an article brimmingwith falseness and ignorance. Most papers propagated a culture ofhate and narrow-mindedness. Little did they realise that, in so doing,they went against the values of goodness and beauty upheld by allreligions. Does not Islam itself honour the holy Virgin Mary morethan any other woman in creation? And how can such papers make theridiculous claim that monasteries are used to stock arms, and thus callfor inspecting them? Have we stooped that low? Sadly, such writingssimply mirror the real frame of mind of our society.

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“All journalists know full well that Ms Costantine’s incident was notthe real reason behind the revolt of the Copts, but was only the strawthat broke the camel’s back, following years of shelving Copt’sgrievances and covering them up. Why did the papers writecondemning Pope Shenouda III for retreating—in protest—to hisdesert monastery? What crime did he commit in so doing? Are Coptsor their Pope deprived of all rights to express their anger—no matterhow peacefully? If such is the opinion of our ‘intellectuals’, what canwe expect from our illiterates?”

I thank Ms Abaza for her articulate wisdom, enlightenment, and awareness,and welcome her among the circle of people who strive to remedy Egypt’sailments through consolidating the principle of full and equal citizenshiprights for all Egyptians.

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WATANI International27 February 2005Translator: Ghada /copy editor: SamiaWord count: 1007

Problems on hold

The Copt’s ++Via Dolorosa++Youssef Sidhom

When—together with many honourable men and women in Egypt—I calledupon the government to issue a unified law for the building and restorationof places of worship, my prime concern was to consolidate the principle ofequal citizenship rights for all Egyptians, not to double the number ofchurches. I believed that such a move would put an end to what Imetaphorically call the ++Via Dolorosa++ Copts alone—to the exclusion ofMuslims—have to go through to establish churches. I was hoping that thesmoothness and ease with which Muslims build mosques would extend toCopts building churches.Since some people in this country persist in denying that Copts facedifficulties in building churches that Muslims do not encounter whenbuilding mosques, I today present the case of Burg al-Arab’s church. TheChristian residents of this industrial town south of Alexandria have beentrying for 16 years—since 1988—to obtain official license to build a churchbut have so far failed. They need to harness all their reserve of faith, courageand patience, and start all over again if they still want a church.I have yet to hear of or from Muslims who ever faced similar difficultieswhen attempting to build a mosque. I would not then offer themcondolences, because I do not believe that equality in injustice is just, butask them to join forces with us to call for a reform of the regulationsgoverning the building of respective places of worship.Following are the details of the story of the Holy Virgin’s church, awaited soeagerly by some 750 families—about 3500 individuals in the old and newtowns of Burg al-Arab and some 40 villages in the vicinity.

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• In September 1988, the archbishopric of Beheira applied to Burg al-Arab’s administrative bureau for the allocation of a piece of land to builda church, in accordance with a ministerial decree issued by the ministryof construction and new urban communities.

• In January 1989, the head of the administrative bureau wrote to thearchbishopric asking it to list the activities covered by the church project,in order to allocate the plot of land.

• In June 1993, the bureau informed the archbishopric that an area of 2000square metres was allocated for the church. In response, the archbishopricappealed to the bureau to double the assigned area to suffice the projectedactivities.

• After years of exchanging messages between the bureau and securitydepartments of Beheira and Alexandria governorates, a decision wasissued on 1 April 1998 assigning 4000 square metres +on the city’scentral axis+ for the church.

• In June 1999 the archbishopric submitted the architectural drawings andcalculations to the bureau, which approved them. In March 2002, thebureau referred the papers to the police commissioner of New Burg al-Arab—who in turn referred them to Alexandria security department—tofile for the presidential decree required to allow the erection of thechurch.

• In April 2003, the head of Alexandria security department turned thepapers to New Borg al-Arab police commissioner with a letter askinghim to check the drawings against the allocated land on site, and toprovide information on the projected church’s attached buildings. Inaddition, the letter included the following demand: +“inform us franklyof your opinion on licensing the church”.+

• In Se ptember 2003, the commissioner returned the papers to Alexandriasecurity department with the technical demands fulfilled, but minus “hisfrank opinion” on licensing the church.

• I n October 2003, the security department again asked for the policecommissioner’s +frank opinion on licensing the church.+ To reply, thecommissioner ordered a protracted research the result of which wasofficially reported by the general administration of criminal investigationof West Delta—kindly note that it was a +criminal + investigation—on19 June 2004. The report was to the following effect:

1- No mosques are located beside the planned church site.2- New Burg al-Arab town contains no churches.

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3- The planned site is empty of construction works and the applicant for thelicense has pledged not to start any construction works before the licenseis issued.

4- A police officer regularly checks that no construction work is conducted.5- The Alexandria department of criminal investigation has decided that

there were no objections, +from the criminal viewpoint+, to license thechurch building—provided the state security investigation departments ofCairo and Alexandria approve.

6- The State security investigation department’s opinion was that +therewas no objection to licensing the church if another site is allotted forit, since the present site (on the town’s central axis) is part of theprojected urban expansion of the town, and is remote from the townresidences.+

• The interior minister’s deputy for public security approved the report andreferred it to the director of the department of administrative affairs on 26June 2004.

• On 31 July 2004, Alexandria security department sent a letter to Burg al-Arab police station asking to officially inform the applicant for licensingthe church of the opinion of the criminal investigation and state securitydepartments.

The outcome was that the projected church was effectively dropped after 16years of arduous efforts. Because the authorities found no legal reasons—noteven according to the notorious Ten Conditions of 1934 which stipulateamong their rules that no mosque should be in the vicinity of a church, andthat there should be no other church in town—to prevent the project forcoming into existence, they froze the project on the pretext that the siterepresents an extension to the town that is far away from the inhabitants.They apparently forgot however that the town’s central axis houses the coreof the town activities and public services, which would hence be easilyaccessible.The project was thus effectively returned back to square one, which wouldimply another 16 years of arduous efforts.Does the ++Via Dolorosa++ detailed above illustrate why we need a unifiedlegislation for building places of worship?

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WATANI International6 March 2005Translator: Samia /copy editor: SamiaWord count: 822

So says the PresidentNow that the President has said it …Youssef Sidhom

Thanks are due to President Hosni Mubarak for taking the initiative toliberate the Egyptian political arena, and asking the People’s Assemblyand the ++Shura++ (Consultative) Council [the lower and upperchambers of the the Egyptian Parliament] to change the Constitution.Article 76—which stipulates that the People’s Assembly nominates acandidate for the presidency then holds a public referendum on thenominee—should, the President said, be changed, and another article(192bis) added which substitutes “election” for “referendum” in allarticles in the Constitution.Thanks are also due to President Mubarak for the “ten commandments”of reform, which he presented in his speech in the Delta town of Shebinal-Kom on 26 February. If courageously and honourably applied, thesesteps could pave the way towards the Egypt of tomorrow. It is nocoincidence that the first of these ten principles is “commitment to theprinciple of citizenship rights as the basis of absolute equality in rightsand duties between all Egyptians, regardless of their thought, gender,creed, or religion.” Much needs to be done in this respect. It will be agrave mistake if these ten principles are disregarded, so that they becomemere hollow slogans to be used to beautify a poor reality.And now that President Mubarak has said it, and as is the custom withmany in our political, media, and intellectual circles, a sudden change ofmood has taken place. Those who had been against “imminent” changeand advocated long term alterations suddenly appeared to embraceimmediate change. If the President’s initiative is a step on the road todemocracy, this change of mood is an ailment, where democracy isconcerned. Yet it is not new to our political scene. When the presidentdenounced the killing of civilians in Israel and said that Palestiniansuicide attacks did not serve the Palestinian cause, voices which hadtraditionally hailed these attacks were suddenly quiet, and the customary

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expressions of “Palestinians martyred” and “Israelis killed” were—forsome time at least—abandoned. Again, when the President announcedCoptic Christmas a national holiday, the move was hailed in the mediaand the People’s Assembly as an Egyptian dream come true. No matterthen that our call for such a move for years and years had fallen on thesesame people’s deaf ears.It is small wonder that the President’s recent initiative caused such ahappy reaction, since it was an unexpected surprise. But I believe that weneed to take matters cautiously until Parliament finalises the proceduresto turn it into an instrument of people empowerment.One stance however made me stop in amazement. This was that of theleaders of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and the EgyptianParliament. They announced that the President’s initiative reflected anunprecedented vision on the road to democracy, that Egypt had thus takena huge step towards reform, that this initiative had been on the NDP’sagenda in 2003 and 2004, and that it came right on time.All this talk is fine for now, but I cannot forget countless declarationsthese same people made to the effect that now was not the right time forchange. So many times did they insist that economic reform tookprecedence over political reform which was in turn against stability.Political reform had thus to wait since stability could not be risked atpresent. Constitutional reform, they said, was not on the agenda. Allthroughout 2003 and 2004 we had insisted on the inevitability of change,and that it should come from within, before we are forced to adopt it dueto external pressures. Many studies offered viable prescriptions ofreform—not least among them was the Alexandria Document issued bythe Bibliotheca Alexandrina convention in March 2004, and discussed atlength in ++Watani++. All reform proposals were met with officialdisregard, and in many cases apprehension.But now that the President has announced his initiative, the politicalrhetoric of these leaders and officials has taken a complete U-turn. Theyappear to have forgotten their previous stands and totally embrace thePresident’s vision. They even disregard what I consider a major forcebehind the President’s move, this being the voice of the Egyptian street,which has been crying for change. It goes to the president’s credit that helistened to the voice of the people, and did not give in to the obstinate,barren thought of the legislative organisations and ruling party.As we await what the coming days will bring, two issues strongly standout. The first is our realisation that Constitutional change is only the firststep in the process of reform, and must be followed by others that wouldsecure systematic change, power rotation, and accountability. The secondis that this reform can never be effected without the active participationof each of us—one and all.

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WATANI International13 March 2005Translator: Samia /copy editor: SamiaWord count: 858

So the President said …Youssef Sidhom

The Egyptian media has lately been brimming with material commenting onPresident Mubarak’s call for Constitutional change. The change will allowfor the free election of a president from among multiple candidates, insteadof the current system in which Parliament nominates a candidate for thepresidency then holds a public referendum on the nominee. Many havewritten or spoken in gratitude and celebration of the President’s call—astance which reflects an unhealthy climate incapable of seriously dealingwith reform. A few however, have presented earnest studies on or analysesof the issue, introducing substantial visions of what should follow theaspired Constitutional reform. It is hoped that the political kitchen can comeup with a recipe for a new system of nominating and electing the presidentand vice-president, and redefine their authorities, duration of their terms, andconditions for re-election.One of the most serious studies on the issue was conducted by Mr NabilAbdel-Fattah, researcher at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and StrategicStudies. It was printed in the Cairo daily al-Ahram on 7 March under thetitle “The constutional status of the president of the republic. Structuralflaws and visions of reform.” I must admit that I immensely enjoyed readingthe objective study, and agreed with the major part of it. So much so in fact,that I would like to highlight some of the its more important points.• Any attempt towards political reform can never ignore constitutional

reform, which would in turn question the powers of the president of therepublic under the current Constitution.

• The 1971 Constitution—the present one—did not stipulate a fullparliamentary system that would allow correct political and democraticpractice. Instead, it consolidated a presidential system, granting thepresident extensive powers, so that the boundary between the legislative

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and executive authorities of the State was no longer obvious. Especiallywhere the relationship between the president, the prime minister, and thespeaker of the parliament is concerned, this boundary is blurred. All threeappear to form the sides of one power triangle, instead of representingtwo distinctly separate entities, where the president and prime ministerimpersonate the executive authority of the State, while the speaker of theparliament personifies the legislative authority.

• The articles which stipulate the duration of the term of the presidency areamong the most controversial in the 1971 Constitution. Article 77 hadstipulated that the president may be re-elected for one consecutive term,but was changed in 1980 to allow the re-election of the president forseveral [unlimited] successive terms. The result was that the post ofpresident went out of circulation, as though permanently booked for thepresent occupant, to the exclusion of any other eligible candidate.

• Whether or not by intent, the 1971 Constitution emerged as male-oriented. As such, it ignores its own principles of uncontested equalitybetween citizens, since it absolutely disregards the possibility of awoman being nominated for the presidency. Those who love to refer toIslamic ++sharia++ or jurisprudence, quote it as stipulating that nowoman may occupy the post of ‘grand ++imama++’ or top post in thenation. I remind those that many schools of modern ++fiqh++ or religiousscience consider that the ‘grand ++imama++’ is not synonymous withthat of the presidency of the modern, national State. Proof of this isobvious in the case of some of the bigger and more populous Islamiccountries such as Indonesia and Bangladesh, where women were electedto the presidency.

• The extensive authority which the 1971 Constitution grants the presidentallows him to dominate the political and constitutional arena. Fromamong a total of 59 defined prerogatives or powers, the Constitutiongrants the president alone 35 of them, leaving a mere 14 to the legislativeauthority, four to the judicial authority, four to the ministers, one to theprosecutor general, and one to the Supreme Press Council.

• This focal, central role of the president contributed to the marginalisationof politicians and the later complete absence of any ground to producethem, so that the likes of the politicians who had helped build modernEgypt during the last half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20thcentury were no more. The role of parliament and government shrunk inthe face of the growing role of the president who alone took political andjudicial initiatives. The executive apparatuses only awaited thepresident’s orders.

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• This legacy of the 1952 July Revolution bred a broad class of statesmenand politicians whose mindset was captive to the incorrect concept ofabsolute obedience, submission, and loyalty to the president, as arequirement of good citizenship. This legacy is a serious impediment topolitical and constitutional reform, and to the foundation of a modernparliamentarian State where pluralism, political freedom, and peacefulpower rotation reign. We must admit that our country suffers from apolitical vacuum and scarcity of politicians, and that reform shouldproceed gradually and in stages in order to allow for the productions ofnew political cadres which would possess new concepts and visions, andbelieve in the reform we aspire for.

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WATANI International20 March 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 662

Egypt within our soulsYoussef Sidhom

As we talk of extending our vision of electoral reform towards constitutionaland political reform, questions arise as to the capacity of such reforms todraw the average Egyptian out of the isolation which has for more than halfa century kept him or her off the political and public arena. There is a nearconsensus that this isolation has not been through ignorance or apathy, butwas the natural outcome of the absence of liberalism and pluralism from thepolitical arena, and a general sense among Egyptians of being marginalised.The painful reality which few imagine is that the simple, toiling Egyptian isdistanced from the luxury of reform talk by his or her daily struggle tosecure the bare necessities of life—in some cases merely to survive. Thissimple citizen and his or her needs are conspicuously absent from the agendaof those who make a livelihood out of politics, only to be recalled in hollowspeeches or electoral campaigns. In his column in ++Watani++ last week,Soliman Shafiq truly mirrored this reality when he wrote: “As for thecommons of Egypt—so long marginalised—the benefit they attained fromthe proposed constitutional reform was that they got to know that Egypt hada Constitution.” His words moved us all when he continued: “Two-thirds ofEgypt’s population, struggling as they are with poverty and need, lookforward to a presidential proposition that would secure constitutional socialrights. These include the right to work, the right to a home, the right tomedical care, the right to get married, the right to three meals a day. All thisrequires a new social contract.”Absolutely true. The average Egyptian needs much before we can talk tohim or her of freedom at the ballot box. Before asking him or her to assumean active role in the political arena from which he and she had been banishedfor more than five decades, we ought to worry about how these Egyptians

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may restore their faith in their country. It is first necessary to secure theirmost basic needs, then to find a system whereby these citizens may becomeinnovative, creative and effective, instead of mere recipients. Only thenwould they realise that their voices matter and their votes count. It is nosecret that they often say that this country is not theirs, but belongs to thosewith authority or money. Why else do they feel estranged, alienated,hopeless, and unable to effect any change to their deplorable everydayreality? Why are they ready to emigrate without giving a second thought tothe homeland they are leaving? Why are they unusually hardworking,innovative and successful abroad?Candid answers to such questions could bring us closer to the Egypt we livein, and could help us visualise the Egypt we wish for. Since we are so busyarguing about reform, we might as well even dream of what should precedeor follow the outcome of the ballot box. Instead of remaining under thecustodianship of the political elite who alone may initiate and dictate whatthey see fit for the people, who ought in turn to be ever grateful for suchthoughtfulness, Egyptians should one day have ready access to allinformation on their country and its institutions. This should normallypromote a strong sense of belonging to and responsibility towards theirhomeland and its foundations.Why should Egyptians be any different from the citizens of countries of thecivilised world, who—as taxpayers—are entitled to know all the details andfinances of the ruling establishments, their governments, military andsecurity institutions? Why is such data considered public information there,but top secret—threatening national security—here? We know more aboutthe White House, the Pentagon, the US Navy, and the FBI than we know ofour own country’s institutions.Our Egypt is entitled to be not merely a homeland in which we live, but ahomeland that lives within our souls.

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WATANI International27 March 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 775

Problems on hold

Awaiting presidential ordersYoussef Sidhom

The unjustifiably low rents of flats in old buildings constitute an issue whichhas long been shelved by consecutive governments in Egypt. Neither theruling National Democratic Party (NDP) nor any of the opposition partieshave had the courage to place this issue on their reform agendas or on plansfor achieving social justice. MPs present countless interpellations to thegovernment on so many issues, but not one of them concerns the rents of oldflats. Forty full years after the vicious vilification of landlords at the handsof the socialist regime of Egypt’s first president Gamal Abdel-Nasser, andthe consequent State-imposed harsh cuts in rent rates, no-one has taken anymove towards correcting these wrongs.This is not the first time I write on this issue. Back in September 2002 Itackled this problem among the “problems on hold”, under the title “Frozenrents: Absent justice and eroded wealth”. I reviewed the decades-long build-up of the consequences of freezing the rents at deceptively low values sincethe 1960s. I wrote that this unwise government policy had succeeded inwinning the uncontested support of the short-sighted working classes, butthat this had come at the expense of short and long-term investment in theentire real estate sector. Investors found ways—such as key money, rentingtheir flats fully-furnished, or selling the flats—to circumvent the sinkingreturn on their investment due to the low rents, but the wider Egyptiancommunity is to this day suffering from the shortage of affordable housing.Had housing been left to the market forces of supply and demand throughoutthe past forty years, I have no doubt that we would have been spared thepresent crisis.

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I received the following letter from Mr Ageeb Mikhail Boctor, retiredlawyer at the Court of Cassation—the highest judicial authority in Egypt.

“The civil law of 1948 stipulates that a contract governs the relation ofthe contractors. As such, it cannot be modified or nullified except at thewill of its signatories, or because of reasons stipulated by the law. Evenso, the State unjustifiably interfered with the relation between landlordsand tenants through Law 7 of 1965 which reduced then rental values by35 per cent. In 1977, it passed Law 49 of 1977 which stipulated thatrents should be fixed by committees formed through governorialdecrees, and that the rents specified by these committees were final andirrevocable.“As though this were not enough, the State again passed Law 49 of1979 which stipulated that the rental contract should, after the death ofthe tenant or his or her leaving the flat for any reason, be extended tothe spouse, children or parents who had lived there. So the State’sauthority did not stop at reducing and freezing rents, but extended toside with the ‘poor’ tenant against the landlord, by allowing the spouse,children or parents to ‘inherit’ the flat. “Lately, the State attempted to right matters through Law 4 of 1996which applied the rules of civil law to all places which had not hithertobeen rented or the contracts of which had not been renewed. But thisnever granted the landlords of old buildings their usurped rights, nordid it recover the four-decade long lost justice.“It is a phenomenon unique to Egypt. Nowhere in the world have weheard of 40-year-long rulings that freeze rents and confiscate actualownership rights in favour of the tenants, converting the tenant into thepractical owner of the flat. The penury sums which landlords pocket asreturn on their investment are a national disgrace. As salaries andincomes have risen throughout the past years, the State has allowedtenants with average monthly incomes of LE1000 to pay averagemonthly rents of LE10. The State has raised the cost of all vital servicessuch as electricity, drinking water, telephone calls, transportation, fueland suchlike, but has not seen fit to raise the rents of flats in oldbuildings. It has practically obliged the landlords to pay long-termsubsidies they can ill-afford for the rents paid by their not-needytenants.”

My only comment to Mr Boctor’s letter is that, since our MPs arenotoriously silent on this issue, it appears that nothing short of an initiativefrom President Mubarak calling upon Parliament to give the poor landlordstheir rights will move the issue. And you should not then be surprised my

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friend if all the legislative councils rush to correct the wrongs withundaunted enthusiasm, the media rushes to applaud the move, and the NDPleaders rush to declare that the issue had been on the party’s reform agendafor years on end.

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WATANI International3 April 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: Jenny/SamiaWord count: 465

++Watani++ in BrailleYoussef Sidhom

Starting this month, ++Watani++ will publish a monthly issue in Brailledesigned and executed to serve those with sight disabilities. For those of ourreaders who would like to visualise it, I hint to them that it is different fromour usual paper in that it is in tabloid form and naturally uses the heavywhite Braille paper—specifications dictated by the Braille printing machine.++Watani Braille++ is expected to fill a void in our media arena byaddressing our homeland partners who cannot read the printed word. It is theculmination of ++Watani’s++ long association with the blind on the levelsof journalism, youth activities, and social services. All along, ++Watani++has always had absolute faith in the blind as significant, productive,innovative members in our community. As such, they—as allEgyptians—are entitled to equal opportunity.The idea was to issue a monthly publication which would include a variedselection of ++Watani’s++ material through the month. This meant scanningthe paper for stories on the most significant events, as well as the best andmost meaningful reports, opinion pieces, articles on arts, economy, socialissues, sports, tourism, and so on.++Watani Braille++ is our message of love to all our blind brothers andsisters, a message which confirms our belief in them and theircontribution—in no way less than any of that of the sighted—to thishomeland. We ask them to send us their feedback on this publication, theirassessment and their suggestions. Watani will send copies of ourexperimental issue of ++Watani Braille++ by special order until it is put onnews stands and in bookshops.It gives me pleasure to introduce to our readers Ms Sherifa Massoud, theperson behind this tremendous work. Ms Massoud is a bright, dynamic,young blind woman who joined ++Watani++ Youth Parliament and++Watani’s++ Centre for Journalistic Formation and Human Resources

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Development a few years ago, graduated in 2003, and is today among thepaper’s young energetic reporters. A few months ago, Ms Massoudsuggested to me that ++Watani++ might publish a Braille issue, to which Iresponded with enthusiasm. She then eagerly hastened to take all thenecessary steps for the dream to materialise, knocking upon doors,investigating alternatives, negotiating for the best offers, examining++Watani’s++ material, and sparing no effort to make the work a success.Last week Ms Massoud again entered my office, this time triumphantlyholding the dear experimental issue in her arms, and asking for my opinion.Whatever the result, I believe the work is wonderful—the pride of all++Watani++. I eagerly await comments on our new publication, and heartilythank our young Ms Massoud who may lack sight, but has no lack of insight,love or wisdom, and whose name graces ++Watani Braille++ as managingeditor.

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WATANI International10 April 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 577

Pope John Paul II

Living the BibleYoussef Sidhom

Last week, Pope John Paul II departed from our world of trouble and pain,and entered the heavenly realm of eternal glory. The Church of Rome andthe entire human family has lost a shining star, but is left with an immortalmemory of a unique leader who dedicated himself absolutely to the servicehe had been called upon to perform.In his unconditional love for all, Pope John Paul II managed to capture notonly the hearts of his congregation, but also those of millions of otherChristians and non-Christians as well. The tears shed by people from theworld over, in grief over his death thus came as no surprise.In Pope John Paul II we stand before an example of a truly “global citizen”whose loving interaction with the entire human family knew no bounds. Hereached out to all; no different faith or language, no political boundary everstood in his way as he extended loving hands to everyone. Like his Master ofwhom the Bible says in the Acts of the Apostles “God anointed Jesus ofNazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went around doinggood and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because Godwas with Him.”, Pope John Paul II went around doing good. He visited thepoor and suffering in far-off places, wiping away their tears and plantinghope and comfort instead. He went to the different Churches, preachingbrotherhood and understanding. With the Muslims in their mosque and theJews in their synagogue, he broke down the old legacy of differences, andsowed the seeds of tolerance and acceptance of the other.And again, like his Master, he mastered the art of forgiveness, surpassinghuman frailty by “overcoming evil with good” (Rom 12: 21). After theattempt on his life in St Peter’s square in 1981, he visited his would-be

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assassin Mehmet Ali Aga in his prison cell, embraced him, assured him thathe held no grudge, and even asked for his prayers.This great leader who sat on a venerable throne surrounded by wealth,esteem and veneration, stepped down and toured the world preaching love.He met great rulers and leaders to plead on behalf of the oppressed and thesuffering, fighting for their welfare, his only weapons being love and faith.Again, we are reminded of St Paul who said: “Though I am free and belongto no man, I make myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible.”(1Cor 9: 19)Pope John Paul II’s courage in the face of illness was legendary. He did notretreat from the public eye, nor did he curtail any of his religious or pastoralduties. Millions looked on with emotion as feebleness and disease graduallytook over his frail body; they watched the increasing droop in his posture,tremble in his hands, failure in his steps, and quiver in his voice. Yet hisLord’s living words rang true: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My poweris made perfect in weakness.” (2Cor 12: 9)Pope John Paul II has been described as the greatest of the 20th century’smen, and it has been said that the Catholic Church may canonise him. Apartfrom all official declarations, it is clear that Pope John Paul II will alwaysretain a very special place in the hearts of people—all people, regardless oftheir religion, race, language, wealth, power, or rank.

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Watani’s Centre of Journalistic Formation and Human ResourcesDevelopment

A new classYoussef Sidhom

A few days ago, Watani’s Centre of Journalistic Formation and HumanResources Development celebrated the graduation of its second class. Whenthe first class graduated two years ago, ++Watani++ provided Egyptiansociety and its journalism community with a group of confident and ardentyoung people, eager to leave their own imprint on public and professionallife.The seven-month long second round—from August 2004 to March2005—sought to stimulate young people’s critical thinking throughdiscovering the ‘other’ and examining areas of difference and parity. Theround offered theoretical and applied studies, and focused on three axes:developing creative skills, economic and political thought, and cultural andphilosophical thought. Those three questions represent the message++Watani++ aims to spread so as to form a group of conscientious youngpeople ready to serve their country.Among the first round’s graduates were several who joined ++Watani’s++staff, while others found their way to various institutions associated withjournalism and public work. It is worth noting that the centre’s programmeaimed at deepening students’ culture and self-confidence through mergingthe human knowledge accumulated over the centuries with contemporarythought and current events. Creative skills were developed through mentaland intellectual exercises and dialogue, geared towards self-acceptance andacceptance of the ‘other’, as well as towards enhancing latent creative skills.Exercises in silence and contemplation sought to help trainees achieve inner

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peace and lucidity in thought, and led to a substantial degree of transparencyand candidness in discussions.Economic and political thought covered both applied and theoretical topics.Courses on political philosophy were taught as a gateway to understandpolitics and the philosophical theories behind them. The concept of the Statein Christian and Islamic thought, as well as in political regimes based uponliberalism, communism and totalitarianism were taught. Traineesparticipated in models for the UN Security Council, Palestinian factions, andEgyptian parties. Moreover, they went through discussions on US-Koreanrelationships, Palestine in post-Arafat era, projects to reform the UnitedNations, US presence in Iraq, the current crisis in the Levant and theforthcoming Egyptian presidential elections. Students were trained in speechwriting and delivery.On the economic level, the trainees studied economic theories and policiesin commercial, fiscal and investment fields, as well as the rules governingeconomic relations between nations and regional blocks. Theories anddiscussions were applied to the Egyptian case.As for cultural and philosophical thought, courses helped enrich students’minds and stimulate critical thinking. Students were encouraged to acquirenew information and knowledge, and reconsider prevalent or well-established ideas. Trainees were acquainted with mega theories such asmaterialism, idealism, existentialism, aestheticism, realism and other schoolsof thought. Students learnt about great philosophers, intellectuals, Sufis,reformers and men of letters, whose contributions in the field of thoughthave enriched the entire human race.The wealthy harvest of Watani’s Centre of Journalistic Formation andHuman Resources Development materialises through the mature andconscientious young people it turns out into society. It has becomeimperative for young people to be empowered to cope with the requirementsof the current era; otherwise they fall easy prey to desperation andresentment, and are driven into the arms of ++Salafi++ thought and++jihadi++ violence.

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Problems on holdThe civil registerBeyond deterrenceYoussef Sidhom

When a complaint gets repeated mention in the press, it indicates that theproblem in question has not been solved. This means that no official hasmoved towards investigating or resolving it, neither has any supervisorybody moved towards monitoring or following up on it. And lest anyonepresupposes absolute official silence or disregards towards all the problemswe print, I would like to inform our readers that in several instances we havewritten about problems and received positive replies from those in charge.Once this happens, we make a point of printing the response, emphasisingthus the right of the public to know, and acknowledging the official role intreating shortcomings or flaws.When supervisory bodies therefore persist in ignoring complaints which hadrepeatedly found their way to the press, it is not because officials in thesebodies were not informed of the complaints or have not read about them, butbecause they do not wish to confront the problem. Such an attitude isdeplorable, since disregarding complaints should not be an option with suchapparatuses, whose very raison d’être is to monitor complaints, deal withthem, and inform the public accordingly. Sadly, official and governmentalperformance in our country is characterised by substantial incompetence aswell as arrogance, and the supervisory apparatuses themselves need to besupervised and held to account.What could be done then when a complaint persists and people continue tosuffer because of it? As far as ++Watani++ is concerned, we will not give into despair, but will go on bringing persistent problems to light. We willexpose the shortcomings of the official executive and supervisory

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apparatuses, and keep the complaint alive in the public circle of interest lestit should become—by virtue of continued disregard—just anotherdistressing matter of fact. We will continue to attempt to wake theconsciences of MPs, so that they would raise the complaint to Parliament.Today’s complaint—as obvious from the title of this article—concerns theby-now-famous ridiculous error committed by civil register clerks whoregister Christian citizens as ‘Muslim’ in official identification documents.This usually occurs in the case of the new computerised ID cards and birthcertificates. Even though the new documents are based upon older non-computerised documents which had been issued by the same civil register,and in which the citizens in question had been clearly denoted as ‘Christian’,civil register clerks cheekily insist that “the computer makes no mistakes”.Following which the ill-fated citizens in question are penalised by beingunreasonably required to refute the errors which were non of their fault, inorder to prove that they are Christians born to Christian parents. To this end,they are sent on time and energy consuming tasks, frequently taking themback and forth between their present residence places, their birthplaces, andthose of each of their parents, to prove that every one concerned is Christian.Only thus could they have their new documents corrected. To say nothing ofthe humiliation these citizens are subjected to once they object to theirerroneous denotation as Muslims, sometimes being accused of rejectingIslam—a very serious allegation in Egypt. The entire matter is thus nolonger one of administrative incompetence or error, but takes on the hatefuldimensions of State discrimination against citizens because of their religiousidentity.It has been suggested that the erroneous registering of Christians asMuslims—which was very uncommon when ID documents were issuedmanually—was due to ‘Muslim’ being the default religion on the computer.Obviously, the civil register computer clerks do not bother to change thedefault religion into the correct one as they enter the data.I have before me three live examples of such errors. The first concernsYoussef Wageeh Sidqy Tawfiq whose birth certificate issued in Cairo inFebruary 2005 denotes him, his father, and his mother as Muslims, contraryto the data in the original birth certificate issued in June 2004, in which allthree were registered as Christian. Sousanna Fathy Bakheit Samaan born in1997 in Giza, and Wadie Girgis Fam Tadros born in 1962 in Alexandriasuffered the same fate.These are mere examples of countless cases. Meanwhile, civil register clerkspersist in their arrogance, and supervisory apparatus officials in their silence.

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As for our MPs, they are too busy with the forthcoming political andconstitutional reform to give these suffering citizens a second thought.

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WATANI English Section1 May 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 249

The Resurrection

A soul changeYoussef Sidhom

My heartfelt wishes for a blessed, happy Easter go to the head of the CopticOrthodox Church His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, and to all the Church’sclergy and congregation. My sincere wishes go as well to all the Catholicand Evangelical Churches in Egypt—their heads, clergy and congregation.As we join in celebrating the Resurrection, we ask the good Lord to grant usthe love and wisdom that might one day lead to one unified Church.As the days pass and every year Easter is again with us, we recall thebeautiful message of God’s plan for the good of mankind. We live thePassion Week and Easter prayers, services, Bible readings, and rituals. Wecelebrate and rejoice, exchange good wishes, and hope for brighter days tocome. Then the blessed event is over, and we go back to our monotonouseveryday life with all its struggles and strain. It would almost seem asthough we are programmed to live through a ‘feast scenario’ which hardlyoutlives the occasion, then is put away until the event recurs.I pray that we would maintain the spirit of Easter ever-present in our lives, tohelp us reconcile with ourselves and with others, as a first step in the journeyof change—that magical word which today dominates our political,economic, social, and cultural arenas. May we always remember that the realchange came when the Lord died on the cross and rose from the dead toredeem our souls.

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WATANI International8 May 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 962

Antoun Sidhom

The ever-presentYoussef Sidhom

On 2 May ten years ago, ++Watani++ lost its founder Antoun Sidhom, andEgypt lost a distinguished intellectual, a bold writer and prominent advocateof national unity. Throughout two decades—from 1975 to 1995—whenEgypt and Egyptians were passing through hard times because of curtailedcivil liberties and rights, sectarian violence, terrorism and extremism, as wellas the abuse of Egyptian identity and national unity, Sidhom fearlessly wroteon the problems and crises which Egypt underwent.Sidhom’s only weapon was his pen. He used it, through ++Watani++, toexpose conspiracies woven against Egypt—whether those which originatedfrom outside the country, those plotted by a fanatic few in Egypt, or byEgypt’s then executive and security authorities whose members sowed hateand disunion between Egyptians. Sidhom wrote with admirable courage andcandour at a time when these attributes exacted a stiff price from theauthorities, his sole objective being the benefit and safety of Egypt.When Antoun Sidhom passed away, many files on the problems he tackledwere yet open. And since it takes years in our country to admit ills andexpose them, and more years to remedy them, a tour through Sidhom’sarticles feels like a reading in Egyptian contemporary problems. The valuesand principles he upheld are the same we advocate so strongly today.Following are excerpts from his writings.On the subject of national unity, Antoun Sidhom wrote in September 1977:“We Egyptians presented humanity with a civilisation which led to light, andgave humankind good, beauty, truth, and sublime values. It therefore befitsus today to preserve our unity by defeating the irresponsible currents whichattempt to assault our values and destroy our national pride. Throughout the

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years, our unity has been the symbol of our national struggle, has formed thefoundation of our future, and the way to our Egyptian revival.”In June 1986 he wrote: “Copts have always been strongly attached to theirMuslim brothers and fellow citizens, bound to them with love and sympathy.Nothing but this fraternity can ever be the focal point of a dialogue betweenthe two.” And in March 1990 Sidhom wrote, addressing the same topic:“Egypt’s Copts need to exercise calm, wisdom, and peace. There can be nodoubt of our Muslim brothers’ love for us. They are our own flesh andblood, and our relationship with them has always remained strong androbust, never weakening or waning. As for the few who assaulted us, maythe good Lord forgive them, and guide us and them to what is right. We askthe Lord of peace to protect us and safeguard our dear homeland. Coptsought never to confront evil with evil or assault with assault. Love and peacehave always been and will always remain their motto, and as such, they willalways pray for their Muslim brothers and wish them good.”In April 1990, Sidhom wrote on extremism and terrorism as follows. “Whatcan we expect from young people who have been charged sincechildhood—through school books and teachers, mosques and radiopreachers, as well as printed material brimming with insults against religionsother than Islam—with hatred and disrespect of anything non-Islamic? Theoccasional sectarian outbursts are merely the natural outcome of such long-time charging. We should fill our children with the spirit of love andtolerance, revise our school curricula to sow the seeds of accepting the other,and weed hatred from our media material and religious address. Moreover,we ought to revise the social and economic conditions in our society, whichlead young people to adopt violence and destruction.”On the topic of religious conversion, Sidhom wrote in May 1978: “How easyfor a person to convert to a religion other than his or hers, for the sake ofescaping problems or obligations, or gaining social or tangible benefits. Inmany cases such a person finds ample encouragement from those who carenothing for true faith, and exploit religion to trifle with this country’sinterest. The matter then departs entirely from faith, and enters the realm offarce. It goes to no religion’s credit to hold on to those who merely utilise itfor their own advantage.”As to the exclusion of Copts from official posts, Sidhom wrote in November1990, and later in November 1991, referring to two consecutive groups ofnewly-appointed prosecutors and assistant prosecutors, where the proportionof Coptic appointees did not exceed 1.25 per cent. This, he wrote, was noisolated incident, but clearly represented a movement to exclude Copts fromofficial posts, a movement which Sidhom asserted could never meet the

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approval of Egypt’s mainstream Muslims. Along the same line, Sidhomcited the figures nominated by the ruling National Democratic Party forparliamentary elections, all in all 440 candidates who included only twoCopts.The notorious Himayouni Edict which dates back to 1856, and the infamousTen Conditions of al-Ezaby Pasha who was deputy interior minister in 1934,both of which govern the building and repair of churches, came underAntoun Sidhom’s fire in an editorial he wrote in February 1993. Hequestioned the reason why such outdated regulations should be exploited tohumiliate Copts and curtail their basic right of freedom of worship. Hebitterly asked if it was not time yet to abolish such legislation and replace itwith a fair, unified law to govern the building and repair of all places ofworship, for all Egyptians equally.The day will surely come when Egypt would rid itself of all these ailments.All its sons and daughters will then join in building its renaissance. Historywill always retain a special niche for those great men and women who litcandles to light the way, and Antoun Sidhom will doubtless occupy one veryprominent spot therein.

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Problems on hold

The civil registerYoussef Sidhom

++Watani’s++ editorial on 24 April dealt with the not-so-uncommon ‘error’committed by civil register officials, when they register Christian citizens inthe new computerised official documents as Muslims, then penalise thevictims of the errors by sending them on arduous wild-goose errands toprove they are Christian. Considering that the computer is fed with data fromdocuments which had been issued by that same civil register authority at anearlier date, the obvious solution to the problem should have been thecorrection of the information which had been erroneously entered in the firstplace. Instead, the victims are tyrannised by being asked to have the originalpapers re-issued, no matter at what cost in money, time, and burdensomeeffort.I have been informed that someone in a position of authority at the Ministryof Interior has given orders to correct the errors in the specific cases reportedby ++Watani++, and that the civil register offices concerned with these caseshave called the victims in order to correct the mistakes. Since there is noadministrative transparency in Egypt, I cannot know whether the correctionorder was an all-encompassing one, concerned with the working system atthe civil register offices in general, or whether it was only concerned withthe cases printed in ++Watani++. Accordingly, and inasmuch asadministrative corruption and unaccountability are rampant, I am committedto indefatigably bring to light all the cases of ‘computer errors’ of which Iam made familiar, until a permanent solution is found to the problem.The latest such case brought to my attention concerned Ms Manal ShawqyTawfiq. Ms Tawfiq is a Christian born to Christian parents on 14 February1962, as registered in her official birth certificate issued by al-Azbakiah civil

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register office in Cairo, and her ID card issued by the civil register office inGiza in January 1980. Both documents were issued in handwriting, beforethe new current computer cards. Ms Tawfiq’s father, Mr Shawqy Tawfiq,and her mother, Ms Khairiya Saad Barsoum, hold new computerised IDcards issued by Giza civil register office in April 2005, in which each isregistered as Christian. In addition, Ms Tawfiq’s official marriage certificateregisters her as a Christian married to a Christian spouse, and the birthcertificates of their two daughters—born in 1990 and 1995—register each asborn to a Christian mother, namely Manal Shawqy Tawfiq.So far so good. When Ms Tawfiq applied to al-Azbakiah civil register officefor a new computerised birth certificate however, one was issued in April2005, in which Ms Tawfiq, her father and her mother were all registered asMuslims. When she protested that this contradicted the information in all theofficial documents, she was ordered to apply for a new computerised IDcard, using her old hand-written birth certificate, in order to correct the error.The reader will note that the clerk did nothing to remedy his mistake,referring the victim instead to a new round of administrative procedures.This alone ought to have warranted questioning and a call to account—but itwas not to be.Ms Tawfiq did as required, only to be told that her original birth certificatewas not valid, and that she had to submit one issued by the national archivesin the citadel district. There she was informed that they only kept record ofbirths until 31 December 1961—38 days earlier than her date of birth—andthat she had to go to the other archives in Abbasiya for the requireddocument. There, her request was again rejected, and she was advised to goto al-Azbakiah civil register office—the same office whose clerk had senther on this wild-goose chase—for the birth certificate. Back to square one?Worse, since Ms Tawfiq was informed by al-Azbakiah officials that the birthcertificates of 1962 had been shredded and that there was no way one couldbe re-issued.Ms Tawfiq thus found herself in an impossible situation—a woman with noofficial identity, despite the fact that she was in possession of all the officialdocuments necessary to prove her identity. The situation was made possiblebecause of the extreme callousness of a few clerks who were never called toaccount.Are we to hope for an official at the Interior Ministry who would care to putan end to such absurdity? And to the absurdity involved in cases other thanthat of Ms Tawfiq? Until this happens, ++Watani++ will not hesitate inbringing to light such ugly, unacceptable practices.

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Mind or muscle mightYoussef Sidhom

Next Wednesday will witness the public referendum on the constitutionalamendment which was passed by Parliament earlier this month, and whichallows for the first multi-candidate presidential elections in Egypt. It is to behoped that the voters will actively respond by taking part in the referendum.The notoriously low—17 per cent on the average—participation in pastelections were an expression of apathy or silent protest, both of which reflecta participation-unfriendly environment.President Mubarak’s initiative to amend article 76 of the Constitution wasseen by many as a stone cast in stagnant waters. Its ripple effect restoredhopes in the possibility of Egypt emerging out of the dark tunnel ofmonopolistic executive authority. Even though many currents on thepolitical arena have expressed frustration at what they perceive as no realopportunity of sharing power, the iron curtain which had long been drawn onchange is definitely being raised—thanks to the president’s initiative. It ismy opinion that we should seize the opportunity of change, instead ofabandoning it on the pretext of its futility or insufficiency. Change as wewish it will probably only be achieved through a long struggle and in phases.This is after all the natural sequence of events, since every phase sets thestage for a consequent one that would normally be more advanced in thesense that it is less defiant to change and more receptive to progress. It mustalso be noted that the characters which had for so long held power will besore to give it up.The change we dream of will never be presented to us on a plate of gold. Atthe same time, we will not seize it through violence or force, but can onlyattain it through awareness and understanding. Politically, the saying goes

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that “what cannot be attained absolutely should not be abandonedabsolutely”. Consequently, participation and voting are patriotic duties.Boycotting, condemning, or rejecting the referendum are nothing butimpotent tools which only serve to play into the hands of anti-reformpowers.I imagine that the proposed constitutional change should attain the requiredpublic consent through strong participation. Only then can we move on tomodernise and develop our political system, so that new, serious, convincingmovements may emerge, with enough public backing to provide a way outof the current squeeze between the ruling party and the religiousfundamentalists.Anyone who contemplates the events of the past two weeks since Parliamentapproved the proposed constitutional amendment, will observe seriousdefects in the manner of public expression. Opposing demonstrations swiftlyresort to wrathful, indecent language, creating a climate which leads toviolence, and aborting the opportunity of instating the right to demonstrate.Observers will note that these demonstrations are in the main part initiatedby the members of Kifaya movement—trying yet to gain a foothold in thepolitical street—and the Islamist current, frequently termed the ‘Fridayparty’ since its demonstration usually start in mosques, following Fridayprayers. The deplorable outcome—the inevitable skirmishes with thepolice—appear as an show of force or confrontation between the rulingregime and the bastions of religion or free opinion. I do not believe that anysensible person would condone such behaviour.I would imagine that the coming period should witness political dialogue,discussion and debate, through which every political movement wouldpresent its ideology and agenda, and maybe stress the points of agreement inlieu of those of conflict. This would definitely serve to strengthen the call forpolitical participation by properly informing the public of all the politicalplayers—exposing both the weak and the strong—and encouraging the silentmajority to take an active stance and head to the ballot boxes. There areindeed several commendable programmes which serve such a purpose on theradio; I hope TV channels would take their cue and emulate them.If the ruling National Democratic Party—the ‘elder brother’ on the Egyptianpolitical scene—follows this course, it will succeed in putting an end to thedeplorable practice it employed last week when it sent supporters to assaultthose who demonstrated against it. Perhaps then it would prove that dialoguepower is more effective than muscle might.

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Building places of worshipYoussef Sidhom

In a patriotic, courageous initiative, MP Mohamed Goweily, head of theComplaints and Suggestions Committee of the People’s Assembly, earlierthis month proposed a unified draft law to govern the building of all placesof worship in Egypt, whether Muslim, Christian, or Jewish. The buildingregulations would apply to the building, restoration, renovation, ormaintenance of all places of worship.The draft law is already under study by the Parliament, and will go into forceonce it is approved. This would finally liberate places of worship frompolitical and security restrictions, and would put an end to the chronicinflammation of Coptic sensitivities as regards church building andmaintenance. The deplorable, unconstitutional discrimination against Copts,and their curtailed citizenship rights where their places of worship areconcerned would thus be a thing of the past.If the People’s Assembly manages to pass the law before it recesses nextJune, it would have succeeded in creating a mellow climate for Egypt’santicipated vital political reform, consolidating civil society and the modernState. In this respect, I would care to stress that the aim is not for Copts tobuild more churches, but for achieving total equality between all Egyptians,and liberating their affairs from the captivity of the political and securityauthorities. It should be expected though, that once the law is passed, therewould be a Coptic rush towards obtaining permits for new churches orlicences for existing non-licensed ones. This would be most natural,considering the decades of dearth, indignity, and oppression which Coptssuffered whenever they wished to build a church, and which left deepwounds in their collective psyche. It may call for a ‘corrective phase’ untilthe situation stabilises, and church building achieves realistic levels. Maybe

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then a portion of the savings which were directed at church building—andprobably mosque building as well—would be channelled towards economicand human development, creating job opportunities and raising the livingstandards and enlightenment levels of Egyptians.It would be wise of us though, as we approach the end of the dark tunnel andglimpse the light of freedom, not to overlook the obstacles which abortedprevious attempts at reform. MP Dr Georgette Qellini commented that somegovernors had before managed to elude the 1999 presidential decree whichended the governorial and security authority over the building of churches,emptying thus the decree of its content.Dr Qellini’s remark accorded with countless cases presented by ++Watani++in its ‘problems on hold’ series. In Assiut and Sohag, governors defied thesaid presidential decree by writing ‘secret’ orders to the building authoritiesto refrain from licensing churches unless they obtained security clearance. Itwas amazing that no decisive action was taken by the presidency to defendthe decree and enforce it, and the security authorities were allowed to triflewith it to their hearts’ content. Applications for licensing churches or relatedbuildings were sidelined, frozen, or unjustifiably rejected, in a cheekilydefiant manner.Previous experience therefore leads to well-founded fears that the draftlaw—when it does see light—might be vulnerable to governorial or securitytrifling. This calls for measures to monitor the enforcement of the law,meaning that systems of supervision and accountability should be firmly inplace. No official, local, security, or even building authority should beallowed to tamper in any way with the implementation of the law, or tojeopardise the interests of citizens. Such monitoring devices should benimble and close to the site of events, able to grasp matters and managethem at the local level. Otherwise it may have been suggested that theNational Council for Human rights or the National Council for Citizenshiprights—under foundation—may have shouldered the responsibility. Withoutproper assurance to implement the law in question, we risk adding it to thelist of ‘problems on hold’.

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WATANI International5 June 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 690

A new political dictionYoussef Sidhom

President Mubarak’s initiative to establish—for the first time in Egypt—amulti-candidate presidential election system instead of the one whichinvolved a single-candidate nominated by Parliament and approved bypublic referendum, has gained the support of the majority of voters. Thisnew reality in our political life heralds in a new phase of political work inorder to put our house in order, empower participation, and promotepluralism. In the president’s initiative I detected concern for Egypt’s futureand a will to nourish democracy, before he decides whether or not he willrelinquish the huge responsibility he has shouldered for a quarter of acentury.Consequently, the contribution of each of us in drawing up the features ofthe forthcoming period is a patriotic duty which should never be abandoned.It is no longer acceptable that the majority would adhere to the totalitariansystem through which it dominated the country for so long, neither is itacceptable for the minority to withdraw into a sphere of condemnation andboycott. Wise people in this country should shoulder the historicresponsibility of substituting dialogue for conflict, and promote allianceinstead of fragmentation. Only thus can a new, strong, patriotic, politicalforce be born—one that would gain credibility with the public.An observation of the Egyptian street during the last two months—since thepresident’s initiative—has induced the following remarks.• The paid advertisements in the papers, which occupied full pages or

substantial space, and called for participation in the referendum, did notstop at that, but went on to hail Mubarak as Egypt’s sole future president.In my opinion, those who published these advertisements—whetherbusinessmen or top officials—obviously missed the point. The coming

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phase should be one of pluralism. If Mubarak does win a multi-candidateelection, it would indicate popular will and an appreciation for his 25-year contribution to Egypt. I believe this would be an honour far moreworthy than his being hailed as president by default.

• The violence on the streets definitely contradicted the concepts ofpluralism and dialogue. Violence had until recently been restricted toencounters between demonstrators and the security forces, especiallywhen the demonstrators grew destructive and unruly. The recent violencehowever is novel to the Egyptian street, in that it expressed the conflictbetween and subsequent assault of two or more political movements, inscenes reminiscent of thuggery and disorder, for no other reason thandifference in political opinions. The National Democratic Party (NDP)has been accused of being behind the unprecedented assaults, humiliatingthe men and harassing the female demonstrators. The entire matter callsfor a swift, thorough investigation. If the NDP is innocent of theallegations of instigating the assaults, it deserves to be exonerated. But ifit is pronounced innocent, what explanation can be given for the blindeye which the security forces turned towards the vicious attacks? As wemove forward towards a new phase of political activity, it is essential thatthe role of the security apparatus should be redefined to defend thepeople instead of the ruler.

• We obviously need new political parties on the arena—which is not toimply that religious parties should be allowed. The present parties areclearly inadequate at echoing the pulse of the masses. I am sure that thepluralism we hope to achieve could be attained by the contributions ofmany honourable, enlightened Egyptians who would offer a liberalvision, and utilise effective political tools. I am sure many such peopleare waiting for an opportunity to assume political roles, and saveEgyptians from the limited political options now available.

• There are many visions of reforming the performance of the legislativeauthority as represented by the two chambers of Parliament: the People’sAssembly or the lower chamber, and the Shura (Consultative) Council orthe upper chamber. One suggestion which I consider essential is theintroduction of electronic polling, which would lend precision andtransparency to the polling procedure. The time has come to put an end tothe primitive polling procedure of raising hands, and the speaker’scustomary “Those who agree, hands up. Approved!”

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Problems on hold

Selective correctionYoussef Sidhom

On 24 April, and again on 15 May, ++Watani++ printed among its‘Problems on Hold’ series three reader complaints against the Civil RegisterAuthority. The readers had applied for the new computerised ID documentswhich are to replace the old manually-issued ones that are being phased out.In all three cases, the new computerised documents were issued withincorrect information—the applicants being listed as Muslims instead oftheir actual Christian identity—which the Authority refused to correct unlessthe complainants went through some incredibly difficult measures to provethey were Christian.The first two of these complaints were printed in ++Watani++ on 24 April.They concerned the computer-issued birth certificates of the childrenYoussef Waguih Sidqy Tawfiq and Suzannah Fathy Bakheit Samaan. Bothwere listed in the new documents as Muslims born to Muslim parents,despite the original authentic documents—issued by the same Civil RegisterAuthority and handed in with the applications for the newdocuments—which listed all concerned as Christians. On 29 April, both MrTawfiq and Mr Samaan were independently contacted by the Civil RegisterAuthority and invited to report to its offices. They each went on thefollowing day, and were received very courteously by the deputy to theInterior Minister for civil affairs who ordered correct documents to be issuedas soon as possible. Mr Tawfiq wrote to ++Watani++ saying that all theprocedures were conducted smoothly, swiftly, and with the utmost courtesy.On 4 May, he was handed his son Youssef’s new birth certificate with all thecorrect data. Likewise, Mr Samaan was handed the corrected birth certificateof his daughter in record time and with heart-warming courtesy.

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The third case concerned Ms Manal Shawqy Tawfiq. Only this time theproblem was more complicated, since Ms Tawfiq was sent on a wild goosechase to prove that she and both her parents were Christian, and endeddiscovering that all original documents which proved her nationality hadsupposedly been lost. Directly following the publication of her complaint in++Watani++ on 15 May, and in a repeat scenario at the Civil Registeroffice, Ms Tawfiq’s documents were all restored. She was handed hercorrected ID card just five days from printing her problem, two days frominviting her to the civil register office, and 24 hours from her reporting there.And all with the utmost respect, civility, and friendliness.All through, I wrote clearly that it was neither right nor fair that citizensshould be humiliated and penalised for the errors committed against them bythe Civil Register’s clerks. Instead of arrogantly declaring that “thecomputer does not err”, these clerks should have been ordered to go back tothe original documents issued by the same Civil Register Authority andhanded in with every application, to correct the error. In addition, it shouldhave been announced clearly and transparently that all errors would be dealtwith systematically by checking the original documents, instead ofcorrecting only the papers of those people who made their complaints publicthrough the media.Notwithstanding, I wish to thank the officials who responded so swiftly andcourteously to the complaints printed in ++Watani++, and who took care tosolve the complainants’ problems so competently. It is no secret that manypeople refrain from publicly complaining against government officials lestthey fall prey to these officials’ vengefulness. But the Civil RegisterAuthority’s officials acted bravely and honourably, in a manner that ishighly commendable.More importantly, the question of what—if anything—has been done tocorrect or avoid such errors in the future still begs an answer. The men andwomen who have had their documents corrected all said that the officialstold them that anyone who had any complaint could take it directly to theCivil Register Authority headquarters where it will be handled on the spot,instead of publicising their complaints in the press. If anything, this takes usback to square one where clerks are free to make mistakes, since theirseniors will see to it that the mistakes are corrected without taking thewrong-doer to account.I thus hope for the understanding of these conscientious senior officials atthe Civil Register Authority as ++Watani++ persists in printing complaintsof errors such as those mentioned earlier in this article. Which brings us tothe latest complaint we received. Mr Sadeq Gayed Moawad, Alexandria,

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who complained of errors in the new computer-issued birth certificates of histwo daughters Regina and Katrin. The mother’s name was listed incorrectly,and the girls were listed as Muslims, despite their original listing asChristian in the official documents handed in with the applications for thenew birth certificates. When he objected, Mr Moawad was ordered to provehis claim. Our dear Civil Authority Register officials are welcome to handlethe problem.

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Problems on hold

A unified lawYoussef Sidhom

++Watani++ has been closely following up on the draft unified law forbuilding places of worship, now under consideration by Parliament. The lawwas proposed by Mr Mohamed Guwaily, and was referred by Speaker of theParliament Mr Fathi Sorour to the parliamentary committee for suggestionsand proposals for a report. Noteworthy is that the committee’s report laiddown a few basic principles that should help pass the law. It acknowledgedthat the draft law complies with the Constitution, and contradicts neitherpolitical, economic or social norms, nor societal, religious or ethical norms.It puts an end to legislative discrimination between Egyptians based upontheir religious denomination, as far as building, restoring or renovating theirrespective places of worship is concerned. It rightly places these mattersunder the control of the building law of 1976, and cancels all previouslegislation.Countless cases of building, demolition, rebuilding, restoration andrenovation of churches form a long queue of problems that have beencontinuously shelved or frozen by the authorities, and await the passage ofthe new law. It is imperative that church building and restoration should beliberated from the labyrinth of regulations which currently govern it. Thenew law would place churches on the same footing as mosques—whichrequire no permits for their building or restoration—a worthy enough causeof national equality. It would also serve to end the feelings of bitterness andhumiliation that have steadily built up in the collective Coptic psyche as anatural outcome of the flagrant inequality and repression Copts have beenincessantly subject to whenever they needed to build or restore a church.

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Lest anyone should think that the new law is an uncalled-for luxury or anunwarranted change, it is expedient to consider the case of the old church ofMar Youhanna al-Meimadaan (St John the Baptist’s) in the village of AwladElias in Assiut, Upper Egypt. ++Watani++ had printed the story of thischurch among its Problems on Hold series, in July 2001,under the title++The inevitability of opening the Coptic file. Why is security a perennialobstacle?++ The governor of Assiut had in 1999 licensed restoration andreinforcement works for the church. As construction began, under thesupervision of the building authorities of Assiut governorate, some of the olddilapidated walls of the church collapsed and had to be rebuilt. The securityauthorities—as though lying in wait—issued orders to halt the work andprohibit entry into or use of the building. The congregation resorted toholding prayers in a tent that—naturally—could not accommodate thegrowing congregation nor protect it from the scourging summer heat orbitter winter cold.Earlier this month I received a new complaint from the congregation of StJohn the Baptist’s to the effect that the situation was still—four yearson—frozen. I could not help again bitterly wondering why the securityapparatus—whose authority reigns supreme, beyond accountability orquestioning—always blocks the way to any solution problems. For theCoptic file to be pried out of the clutches of the security apparatus, thefoundations of civil society, full citizenship rights, and the rule of civil lawmust be firmly in place. Copts must have the option, as full Egyptians, oftaking their problems to civil authorities. And they should be treated asEgyptians with full citizenship rights and duties, not as members of a specialgroup that warrants special treatment.What is the unforgivable sin committed by a congregation which applies for,and obtains license to restore its church’s dilapidated building, and once thework starts under authorised supervision, a wall collapses—a most naturaloccurrence with old buildings which undergo repairs, and requires a revisedrestoration decree?Why should the security authorities halt the work? And why should theyfreeze the situation for four full years, closing their ears to thecongregation’s complaints or petitions to resume restoration? Such tyrannyis inexplicable, unjustified, and unprecedented in comparable cases ofrestoration of mosques, or any other building for that matter. But, in theabsence of citizenship rights, it is obviously sanctioned in case of churchesor whatever is related to the so-called Coptic file, especially with theabsolute supremacy of security authority.

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All hopes thus hang upon the unified law for building places of worship, notonly because it should place rules that would apply to all Egyptians asregards their places of worship, but also as regards their citizenship rights.

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Power beyond boundsYoussef Sidhom

A letter from one of our readers in Abu-Zaabal, Qalyubiya, northeast ofCairo, carried to ++Watani++ a report of a serious violation to law andorder, which occurred last February. Since the violation was committed byan army officer, ++Watani++ in turn refers the letter to General MohamedHassan Tantawi, Minister of Defence, for investigation and subsequentaction. I wish, however, to express deep concern over an issue whichrepeatedly surfaces among the predicaments in the ‘problems on hold’ file.This involves the abuse of power and rank—and the immunity which goeswith that rank—by some in the military or police corps. Such abuse is, at thevery least, beyond the call of military or police duty or prerogative, and isnothing but a flagrant confiscation of civil law from the hands of theapparatuses responsible for implementing it. Which brings me to the pivotalissue of the need for delineating clear-cut boundaries between the differentauthorities in the State—a pressing requirement in the anticipated reformwhich everyone in Egypt is today concerned with. This reform should in noway sanction the encroachment of the authority of the armed forces upon thedomains of the judicial, legislative, or executive State authorities.Because I believe that the violation today in question is limited to anindividual case of power abuse, I anticipate a swift investigation andcorrection on the part of the defence minister. Our reader Agaiby StafanosAgaiby, from Abu-Zaabal, Qalyubiya, wrote as follows:

“I own, jointly with Ahmed Hamdan Hakim Badreddin, a piece ofland in Ard Gameit al-Nasr, in the district of Abu-Zaabal, Qalyubiya.The land is seven feddans, 21 qirats, and four sahms in area, and isofficially registered under number 602 in 2004 Qalyubiya. Since Iwished to use my share of the land to build a cemetery for Copts, I

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applied for and was granted a permit by the Abu-Zaabal localgovernment in May 2004. Upon which Mr Badreddin and I had thepiece of land officially divided between us, so that each independentlyowned half of the original plot. Worth noting is that my former co-owner used his share of the land to build a cemetery for Muslims. Ibuilt the cemetery I had planned—it included around 250tombs—sold them off, and as customary, handed the cemetery over tothe religious authorities. The cemetery consequently went into use.“On 23 December 2004, an officer stationed with the military unit onthe Belbeis desert road escorted a bulldozer owned by a civilian in theneighbourhood and destroyed part of the wall around the cemetery, onthe pretext that I had not obtained the approval of the Armed ForcesOperations Authority (AFOA) to build the cemetery. This despite thefact that the full area of Ard Gameit al-Nasr—some 700feddans—was granted a general building approval from the ArmedForces.“The officer escorted us—Mr Badreddin and me—to the militaryprosecutor office in Cairo where we were questioned. We were notcharged, but were ordered to obtain clearance from the AFOA, whichwe then proceeded to procure. I wish to stress however, that thisclearance had never been required of us, and in no way justifies thedestruction of part of the wall.“On 6 February 2005, I enraged and stupefied to discover that thecemetery had been attacked, parts of it ruined, some locks had beenbroken and doors pulled out. The neighbours informed me that thesame officer who had before broken part of the wall, againattacked—this time more ferociously—with the help of a bulldozerowned by the owner of a nearby quarry. I reported the attack to thepolice, and hastened on that same day to complete and hand in to theAFOA all the papers it had required. On 13 March 2005, the AFOAcontacted me asking for the same documents once more, which I dulyagain handed in on 14 March 2005. To date, this is where the matterstands.“I raise this complaint to the defence minister, and call upon him toorder an investigation into the matter, in order to defend us against theterrorisation we were subjected to, and compensate us for the materialand moral loss we suffered”

I join Mr Agaiby in his claim, wondering if this could happen to any of us.

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WATANI International3 July 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 730

The new tax lawYoussef Sidhom

Dr Youssef Botrous Ghali ought to be congratulated on his formulation ofthe new tax law. The law, which passed through Parliament and was issuedlast month, is a basic departure from the prevalent view of taxation as anunjust, forced tribute levied by the government, to an honourable patrioticduty. It heralds in an era of a new relationship between Egyptians and theirgovernment, in which reconciliation, mutual respect, and confidencedominate.For many, the major interest in the law is what provisions it includes forlower taxes and wider exemptions. This however is beside the point. Eventhough lower taxes certainly ease the burden of already heavily-encumberedEgyptians, it is nothing new and was stipulated by countless regulationsbefore. The pivotal change introduced by the new law is the abandonment ofgovernment tyranny and arrogance where tax collection is concerned, andthe adoption of a fresh attitude of “Let us reconcile” towards taxpayers. It isthe first time the tax collector admits failure of the one-sided imposition oftaxes, and the policy of terrorising the taxpayer into payment. It is anadmission that the view of the taxpayer as thief until proved otherwise hasled to lower, not higher, State revenue. Now the government’s message tothe taxpayer is one of trust, respect, and care. If the taxpayer’s credibility isin doubt, this has to be positively proved by the tax authority.Several fiscal concepts that had so far been absent from our tax laws madean appearance in the new law. Major among these is the principle that highertaxes result in lower revenue and vice versa; also that coercive tax collectiononly leads to wider tax evasion and the capital flight. The new law changesthe objective of the fiscal policy from collecting the largest possibleeconomic surplus into State coffers for redistribution by the State, to leavingthis surplus in the hands of the community to redirect it into consumption,

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savings, or investment. This is bound to lead to higher efficiency in theexploitation of resources, and hence to balanced, sustainable development.By allowing a bigger portion of the surplus to remain in the hands of thepeople, the new law not only helps relieve the burden of the needy, but alsoprovides the opportunity to those with money to share in the developmentand growth of the country.Moreover, the new law contains several articles which serve to awaken thenational conscience and achieve social justice. The fact that tax officials willnot needlessly place taxpayers’ statements of income under doubt shouldencourage countless tax evaders to become taxpayers. This will undoubtedlyinclude many cases of entire businesses that were not registered in the firstplace because of fear of unjustifiably high taxes. And the provision ofwomen and wives with the same exemptions as men and husbands is achange which finally acknowledges the role of women as family supportersand corrects the injustice they have long been subjected to.So far so good. However, the attitude and concepts adopted by the new lawwill undoubtedly clash with the old attitudes of all but a few tax collectors,who generally discredited taxpayers, estimated prohibitively high taxes ontheir incomes, and terrorised them into paying bribes in order to escape suchintolerable situations. Nothing short of revolutionary can change suchdeeply-ingrained attitudes.So we are before a real challenge to make the new law and concepts work.Mechanisms should be put into place to insure the fair application of thelaw. Its implementation should be closely monitored, and tax authorityviolators should be called to account. However, it should be borne in mindthat regaining taxpayer confidence—which is still very shaky—is not anovernight process. In fact, many taxpayers still believe that the new law isonly a cosmetic ruse to trap them. It will take a lot of effort, courage, andtransparency to change the deplorable image of tax collection that hasprevailed for so long.All the above should not lead us to disregard the fact that many would-betaxpayers in Egypt are very comfortable with tax evasion, preferring to keepall their profits to themselves. These too should realise that they are thusrobbing their community, and are liable to the harsh penalty of the law. Taxevasion should be viewed for what it really is: an honour crime.

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Problems on hold

A new listYoussef Sidhom

Complaints against the Civil Register Authority keep coming in.++Watani++ readers are still writing to us about mistakes in the newcomputerised identification papers issued by the Civil Register, and thesubsequent defiant, arrogant, uncooperative attitude adopted by the civilregister clerks who refuse to correct the mistakes when these mistakes arereported. Once a complaint is published in ++Watani++ however, the topofficials of the Civil Register Authority hasten to contact the complainants,apologise for the mistakes committed by the clerks, bypass all the tediousbureaucratic procedures involved, and issue corrected papers.Nevertheless, this recurrent problem has not been basically solved. We hadhoped for strict orders that the erring clerks should correct the mistakes bygoing back to the original authentic documents issued by the Civil RegisterAuthority at an earlier date and handed in with the application for the newpapers. But this has not, so far, been. Instead, the civil register clerks insiston sending the victims on wild-goose chases to obtain new authenticateddocuments of the same ones they already handed in. Noteworthy is that suchredundancy is obviously uncalled-for, since the corrections ordered by thetop officials—as mentioned above—was done without any additionaldocuments.++Watani++ thus proceeds with publishing the complaints we receive. Thereader will note the feelings of extreme oppression and frustration of thevictims, who only resort to complaining to ++Watani++ when no other wayor door remains open before them. It is hoped that the civil register’s topofficials will kindly take care of them.Mr Ramses Seraphim Deibes, born in 1969, and an Alexandria tax official,applied to the civil register office of Moharram Bey in Alexandria for the

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new computerised ID. Since his original birth certificate is kept on file withthe personnel department in the Finance Ministry and cannot be taken out,he presented instead an authenticated copy of the birth certificate carryingthe official seals of the ministry and the republic. Noteworthy is that this isstandard practice with government officials, and worked perfectly well withall Mr Deibes’ colleagues when they applied for new IDs. In case of MrDeibes however, the civil register clerk asked him to hand in his originalbirth certificate or an official copy of it authenticated by the civil registeroffice of Gheit al-Enab which had issue the birth certificate in the first place.Mr Deibes proceeded to do so, only to discover that a fire had destroyed allbirth certificates of 1969 a few years ago, and they were therefore non-existent. Upon which Mr Deibes was advised to apply to the Montazah civilregister office for a birth certificate and the new ID. When these were issuedthey included two mistakes. The name of Mr Deibes’ father was mis-spelt,but was corrected by the civil register clerk. Mr Deibes’ religion was citedas Muslim instead of the actual Christian religion listed in all the documentshe had handed in with his application, but the clerk refused to correct it andasked Mr Deibes to go to Alexandria security directorate to prove hisreligious identity. Since Mr Deibes could not understand what Alexandriasecurity had to do with his religion, he did not go, and his problem remainspending.When Mr Amir Sobhy Labib, born in 1968, applied for a new ID at theAbbasiya civil register office in Cairo, he was asked to hand in a new birthcertificate. At the civil register of Daher which had originally issued thebirth certificate, Mr Labib was told that the paper registers were torn andthat he had to go to the Bab al-Shieriya civil register office for a certificate.He did that, but the new certificate listed his father as Muslim, his motherChristian, and himself Muslim. When he protested that the data wasincorrect, he was told he had to be ‘re-registered’—a process that shouldtake a few weeks at least.Ms Rasha Fawzy Mansour Maarouf, born in 1982, was handed the new IDshe had applied for at Imbaba civil register office with two mistakes. Hermother’s name was incorrect, and her religion, her mother’s and her father’swas cited as Muslim instead of the original Christian. Even though MsMaarouf’s brother and sister had both applied for and were handed newcorrect IDs from the same civil register office, Ms Maarouf was sent on awild goose chase to prove her religious identity, and has so far notsucceeded. The amount of papers and correspondence attached to MsMaarouf’s complaint would appear to indicate that someone behind that civilregister computer is absolutely out of touch.

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Mr Girgis Makram Fayez Bishay applied to Sherif civil register office for anew ID for his mother who is an old woman. The new ID was issued withtwo errors in the mother’s name. Instead of referring to all the documents MrBishay had originally handed in, the civil register clerk asked for the deathcertificate of her father—Mr Bishay’s grandfather. Apart from the fact thatthis certificate cannot be found since the man died a very long time ago, itdefinitely contains no mention whatsoever of his daughter—Bishay’smother. Yet the civil register clerk insists that without this certificate, thewoman can never have her new ID issued.Mr Youssef Wassef Girgis Greiss was born in 1933, lives in Alexandria, andis retired. Mr Greiss heard that soon enough he may not be able to cash hismonthly pension without a new computerised ID. So he applied for one andgot it, only with several errors. His name was mis-spelt, and he was cited,together with both his parents, as Muslims. To correct these errors, MrGreiss had to shuttle repeatedly between Alexandria, Cairo, and hisbirthplace in Upper Egypt to obtain documents that had been required ofhim. The outcome was that his name was corrected, but the religion was not.Finally Mr Greiss despaired. “Just hand me my new papers, even with theincorrect religion,” he said, “So I may cash my pension.” But the civilregister clerk refused.Is there no way to save this old man—and all the others?

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Problems on hold

On religious conversionYoussef Sidhom

A recent letter from ++Watani++ reader Mr Nabil Mahmoud Wali took meback to the Problems on Hold file. Under the title “Egypt’s maligned Copts”,Mr Wali wrote on a taboo issue—that of religious conversion in Egypt. MrWali wrote:

“The issue of Copts who convert to Islam then reconvert toChristianity has become a point of dispute between the administrativecourt, interior ministry, and Dar al-Iftaa’ (the Islamic body concernedwith issuing ++fatwa++ or rulings according to Islamic legal code).The number of such conversions has surpassed what may be describedas individual cases, and can now be counted in the scores. The issueinvolves the conflict between Islamic teachings, the EgyptianConstitution, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ofwhich Egypt is signatory. The Islamic law of ++hadd al-ridda++metes the death sentence to Muslims who relinquish their religion.Egypt’s Constitution stipulates that Egyptians should not bediscriminated against because of their religion. Universal humanrights uphold a person’s freedom to embrace whichever creed he orshe prefers.“On the practical level, the dilemma unfolds when the administrativecourt rules in favour of converted Muslims who wish to reconvert toChristianity, but the Civil Affairs Authority refuses to change theMuslim religion in their official papers. The Mufti—the high-rankingIslamic cleric in charge of issuing ++fatwas++—on the other hand,considers their relinquishing of Islam equivalent to high treason, eventhough his ++fatwa++ acknowledges that proof of ++ridda++ is theprerogative of the courts alone.

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“Those concerned about Islam as a religion and creed know very wellthat such converts only convert to Islam in order to escape a fewmundane predicaments or achieve specific benefits. Once theirproblems are solved, it is only natural that they should wish to go backto their original faith. So it is in no-one’s interest that such double-converts should be hindered from again embracing their originalreligions. Neither Islam nor the huge number of Muslims worldwidecould benefit from their being counted—or not—among Muslims.”

Mr Wali’s letter recalled to my mind an earlier case I had written on in May2004, of a doubly-converted woman who took her case to court. Theadministrative court of the State Council—the highest administrative judicialbody in Egypt—ruled in favour of the woman’s right to official papers thatcite her as Christian. I wrote then, as I do now, that the legal reasoning of thecase included information of which I and many Egyptians—Muslims andChristians—were ignorant. Since awareness of the details would serve todissipate the hypersensitivity of Egyptians to religious conversion, I againrefer to the legal reasoning in question.After confirming that the Egyptian Constitution stipulated equality betweenEgyptians regardless of their religion, and guaranteed freedom of religiousfaith, the legal reasoning declared: “It is needless to confirm the relationshipbetween freedom of faith and the consequences of such freedom. Arguingotherwise would empty this freedom of its content, and render it mererhetoric.” As to considering the woman an apostate, the legal reasoning cited++fiqh++ (Islamic jurisprudence) that deemed a Muslim a deserter orapostate “only if he or she feels comfortable with apostasy and adopts it inpractice,”—a situation not applicable to the woman in question, according tothe court. Denying the woman official papers listing her as Christian thenwas tantamount to “unjustifiable interference in the woman’s personal life,and coercion to adopt a faith she did not wish to embrace. The State islegally committed to register the woman’s real religion, and should not useits power to force the woman to remain Muslim.”This legal reasoning corrects some common misconceptions which haveforced converts to Christianity to live in the dark. With official apparatusestaking sides in the personal choices of citizens’ religion by refusing to issueChristian converts official papers, these who exercise their human andconstitutional right of embracing Christianity find themselves officiallypenalised for their choice.

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Problems on hold

Equal before the lawYoussef Sidhom

In January 2002, Anba Morqos, Bishop of Shubral-Kheima, purchased a1351-square-metre plot of land for the construction of a church and abuilding to house the social service activities the church planned to offer tosome 400 families who lived in the vicinity. The land was officiallyregistered in April 2002, and—since it lies within an agricultural area,building upon which is absolutely prohibited by law—full clearance forbuilding was obtained from Qalyoub Court in May 2003, and the clearancewas ratified by the military ruler in December 2003.In the meantime, the bishopric applied to the State Security Apparatus inMarch 2003 for a licence to build the church and the social servicesbuilding. Attached to the application were the structural drawings of theproject.When months passed without any reply, the bishopric began following up onthe application. To every enquiry, State security officials replied that theapplication was still pending investigation. The bishopric was neverinformed that the application was rejected or its papers incomplete. Statesecurity officials simply acted within their legal prerogative of indefinitelypostponing the decision, content that—as is the usual case—they wouldnever be questioned or held accountable on the matter. As for the 400families who needed to worship, get married, or bury their dead, Statesecurity probably decided that they should just wait. Assuming that hispersonal intervention might hasten the decision, Anba Morqos met theofficials and reminded them of the matter. Again, he was told that theapplication was still pending, and was promised that it will be looked intosoon. When the official in charge of the application was appointed to anotherposition and a new one took over, Anba Morqos contacted the new officer,

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and was again given the same promises. A reply finally came, asking thebishopric to re-apply for the licence. No reason whatsoever was given, andthe bishopric had to comply. A new set of application documents anddrawings were thus handed in on 20 November 2004, after 20 months werelost for no apparent reason.Last May, as the security official concerned paid Anba Morqos the usualcourtesy visit on Easter day, the bishop enquired about the project. Theofficial obviously found it in bad taste to repeat the usual claim that theapplication was pending investigation, so he said that the security andpolitical authorities were too busy at the moment with the then-upcomingpublic referendum on Constitutional reform decreed by Parliament. Heapparently missed however, that the application had been pending for somethree years then, while the referendum was only a matter of the past monthor two. He also did not appear to notice that during these past month or two,a draft on a unified law to govern places of worship in Egypt was also beingstudied by Parliament.The referendum was held and done with, and still no reply as regards theapplication. Anba Morqos realised that the reply would again be postponedif it is not issued before next September when political and securityauthorities will be again busy with upcoming presidential and parliamentaryelections. Moreover, the election results may entail that the security officialin question be again replaced, meaning that the bishopric may be asked tore-apply and repeat the indefinite wait. With such a disturbing prospect insight, Anba Morqos last June sent an envoy to meet the security officialconcerned. The official’s secretary simply announced that he was not in.The incident clearly illustrates the climate which governs the building ofchurches and associated buildings. Every time I read in the official paperthat President Mubarak has approved the building of a church, I cannot helpwondering whether he realises the humiliation and oppression thecongregation and church officials have to suffer in the process, and theresulting bitterness. All the more reason to hasten with passing the unifiedlaw of places of worship.

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A national coalition

Time for holding handsYoussef Sidhom

For the second time in less than one year, the hand of black terror struck atSinai—last week in Sharm al-Sheikh and last October in Taba. Since thebloody terrorist attack on Hatshepsut temple in Luxor in 1997, Egypt hadenjoyed a period of relative calm, and we had come to feel ourselvesimmune to terrorist activity. But the events of the past year have been a rudeawakening to the bitter truth: that terrorism knows no boundaries, but is onthe prowl to shatter peace and stability all over the world.It has become obvious that terrorist operations against Egypt are targetingthe tourist industry—the mainstay of Egyptian economy and the cornerstoneof its development, and thus the prime source of jobs. Terrorism is thereforehitting the livelihood and subsistence of Egypt’s sons and daughters, in anattempt to take them back to unemployment and despair. Following lastweek’s explosion, satellite channels aired images of Egyptian young menmourning their lost trades, businesses, and hopes for a brighter future. Theseyoung men had left their home villages and towns where jobs were scarceand, instead of living as parasites on their community, spared no time oreffort to make a living in the relatively remote land of Sinai. Their hard workpaid, and they were enjoying the fruits of their labour, forming youngfamilies and supporting parents and relatives. Life was smiling upon themand they looked up to a future which appeared to promise everything good.It was development at its best. Then terrorism struck …We should not be deluded into believing the invalid, ridiculous, evilarguments which terrorists often use to justify their attacks, such as claimingthat the killing of innocent civilians punished their governments for theirpolicies in the region. In the Sharm al-Sheikh attacks, the victim was

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Egypt—its stability and the future of its children. It thus came as no surprisethat President Mubarak, following the terrorist attack, stressed that Egyptwill go full speed ahead with its development programme. This naturallycalls upon all Egypt’s sons and daughters to unite to overcome the crisis andrectify the damages to the tourist industry and development as quickly aspossible. This is no time for in-fighting—throwing about accusations, blameor condemnations—since this would only confuse the real issue and playinto the terrorists’ hands.As we approach what we hope would be a phase of political and legislativereform, as well as presidential and parliamentary elections in the comingfour months, we should all re-assess our stances in light of what happened inSharm al-Sheikh. This is not a call to give up aspirations or stall reform, butrather to realise that since Egypt is now a terrorist target, its people have nochoice but to collaborate in a national coalition to fight terrorism and fendoff the chaos and despair it works to bring.The competition anticipated on the political arena, and the different visionsof reform and development we look forward to, should never be colouredwith personal feuding, fault-finding, or alienation. Rather, a wise attitude oflooking for common areas of agreement—which are in no way small—andexploiting them towards mutual understanding would definitely serve Egyptbest. Such an attitude would probably bring into focus the areas of jointnational concern, and bring down the wall between the majority and theopposition. More importantly, we hope it would put an end to themonopolisation of power in our country. This is indeed the time for anational coalition.

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WATANI International7 August 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 638

Problems on hold

A police State?Youssef Sidhom

Is Egypt a police State? The question is frequently raised at home andabroad. Since we are on the threshold of all-encompassing reforms,especially on the political level, the issue warrants candid, transparentdiscussion.‘Police State’ denotes the condition where the police apparatus, whichrepresents the security dimension in the State, occupies a position whichpredominates the legislative, executive, and judicial authorities. As such, thesecurity authority maintains the upper hand in the State, and has a stronglytangible presence in the everyday life of citizens. ‘Citizens’ denotes the law-abiding persons who do not overstep the lines of public order and shouldthus have scarce dealing with security authorities, as opposed to outlawswho threaten social peace and whose paths therefore naturally cross those ofthe security devices. In a police State, citizens frequently need to refer to thesecurity authorities as a prerequisite to perfectly normal dealings with thecivil society institutions, bearing in mind that these authorities possess thepower to block or sanction civil transactions despite the law.A case in point is the so-called Coptic issue or Coptic file. In the absence ofdemocracy and full citizenship rights, the political leadership in Egypt sawfit to treat Copts unlike their Muslim fellow citizens, and thus handed overthe Coptic file—which encompasses everything and anything that pertains toCopts—to the security authority. The move was justified by a number ofvague, elastic excuses such as “security reasons”, ‘State security”, oraverting “sectarian sedition”. The issue absolutely lacked in clarity,mechanisms of revision or accountability were absent, and the civil societyinstitutions were entirely subservient to the security sway. It was ‘policeState’ at its most effective. The passage of a unified law for places of

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worship was thus our only hope for prising the Coptic file out of the clutchesof the security authority.It goes without saying that the security institution, as part of the executiveauthority of the State, should work in harmony with the legislative andjudicial authorities to defend the safety and security of the community, andto insure the application and implementation of laws and regulations. Thetrouble starts when the security of the society is confused with that of theruling regime, not in terms of protecting its leaders as the public figures thatthey are, but in fortifying the regime and guaranteeing its stay in power. Thesecurity authority thus interferes with and hinders the democratic process,and takes sides with one political party against the others—a clear symptomof the police State.Anyone who has attempted to participate in public or political work duringthis recent period which has seen positive, constructive changes on thepolitical front must have been horrified at the flagrant bias of the securityauthorities towards the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Theseauthorities should have adopted a non-biased, neutral stance towards all theplayers on the political field, in order to insure an equitable, democraticprocess.The security authorities’ bias is a horrible reality especially outside Cairo. InEgypt’s other governorates, anyone who wishes to undertake any form ofpublic effort—even if civic and absolutely apolitical in nature—is stunnedby the sway of the security authority over every aspect of public life. Nopublic work or project—sometimes as trivial as organising a trip for youngpeople—can be accomplished without the ‘blessings’ of the securityauthority. People exchange some magical recipes which serve to open thedoors wide before projects otherwise rejected by the security officials—thesurest and most notorious being that the project be done through the NDP.Do the NDP leaders know all this? Do they imagine that it helps raise thepopularity of the NDP? And do they approve? The answers give a clearindication of another symptom of a police State.

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pWATANI International14 August 2005Translator: Ghada / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 672

Presidential elections…and beyondYoussef Sidhom

The nomination of candidates for Egypt’s first ever multi-candidatepresidential elections—to be held on 7 September—ended earlier thismonth. The one-week nomination period brimmed with surprises andspeculation, with Egyptians’ attention focused on the names of thenominees, their orientations, objectives and programmes. Sad to say, mostdeclarations made by presidential hopefuls were rather shallow—in somecases almost comic—lacking in the seriousness and sense of responsibilityindispensable for the contested post. Actually, most statements reflected afascination with power, fame and glory, that is, with the gloss of the post.This is not to blame those who nominated themselves, rather, I personallyapplaud their courage and initiative, and wish luck to those whosenomination was approved by the Presidential Election Committee.The upcoming period should witness the competition of programmes andproposals by rival candidates. However, a quick look at the nominees andtheir first declarations—including those who were disqualified—leads one towonder if this is the utmost Egypt could offer in leadership andstatesmanship. The answer is definitely not. Egypt is not barren of peoplewho possess ample wisdom and insight, and are waiting for the right time torise, come forward, introduce their programmes to the public, and lead. Theyprobably believe that the reform process has already started, but the six-month period since the onset of reform last March and the presidentialelections scheduled for September—whether or not this period wasdeliberately limited—is too short to allow a serious approach to the masses. Iam confident that after the end of the presidential and parliamentaryelections, they will use the climate of reform to work hard and prepare

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themselves to take part in next parliamentary or presidential elections due in2010 and 2011 respectively.It must be admitted that President Mubarak has accumulated enough trustwith the people to give him an unquestionable advantage over the othercandidates. However, it must also be admitted that this is not merely becauseof his achievements, but has much to do with the existing political vacuumwhich makes the multi-candidate elections—the first in more than 50years—closer to a pre-determined battle which lacks real competition. Thishowever should not preclude serious participation in the process throughinvestigating candidates’ programmes, following up on their electoralcampaigns, and heading to the polls. Practice makes perfect, and this appliesto the political process and reform just as to everything else.It is sensible to aspire for change, but political change should thrive in aculture of plurality and power sharing and rotation. In this context, thosewho compete for posts at different levels should not be condemned ordefamed, and those who control power should abandon the pursuit tomonopolise it forever. I thus believe that the real strive for reform andchange should seriously start after the elections. The right to freely formpolitical—rather than religious—parties, so as to inject new blood in thepolitical arena, should be secured. New, creative figures, and innovativeprogrammes and concepts can thus surface, grab a share in the political field,and draw the attention of wide sectors of Egyptians. Our political life wouldbe wealthier, and we would emerge out of the dark tunnel which now trapsEgyptians between the one ruling party and the scary prospect of religiousfundamentalism.This is my view of the present and future phases of our political life. It is theview of an Egyptian who is keen to contribute to running his country’saffairs, and invites all others to do so. I do not fear different opinions orevade plurality, nor do I call for rallying behind a specific candidate. In thiscontext, I find that the support announced by the Coptic Church to Mubarak,and its call upon Copts to re-elect him for President, inconsistent withdemocratic practice. It confiscates Copts’ rights to free political inclinationand commitment, and bypasses their Egyptian identity in favour of theirCoptic one, reducing them to mere subjects of the Church.

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A dark comedy of errorsYoussef Sidhom

Today I go back to a problem which I tackled on several occasions duringthe past months in ++Watani’s++ ‘Problems on Hold’ series, and whichconcerns complaints from readers against the Civil Register Authority(CRA). When the readers had applied for the new computerised IDdocuments which are to replace the old manually-issued ones currentlybeing phased out, the new documents were issued with incorrectinformation. This despite the fact that the correct information was proved byoriginal authentic documents issued by the same CRA at an earlier date, andhanded in with the applications for the new documents. Worse, the Authorityclerks refused to correct the errors—for which they wereresponsible—unless the applicants went through some incredibly difficultmeasures to furnish proof of the required data.I would have thought that any more reference to cases of such problems wasunnecessary and redundant, if it weren’t for the fact that I continue toreceive complaints from victims of these same errors, who feel utterlyoppressed, confused, and helpless. If anything, this means that the CRA hasno method or system of tackling complaints—apart from those which areprinted in ++Watani++—and does nothing to avoid the errors.Before going into the details of a new list of cases of CRA errors, I wouldlike to offer thanks to General Sherif Galal, director of the department ofmedia relations of the Interior minister’s office, for his prompt actionconcerning the complaints printed in ++Watani++. The last such casetackled by General Galal concerned the correction of the errors in the birthcertificates of the sisters Katreen and Regina Sadeq Moawad of Alexandria.I hope such behaviour reassures our readers.Mr Atef Amin Iskandar Saleeb, who was born in Shebin al-Kom in the Deltain 1948, applied in May 2003 for a new computerised ID, and has to date not

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received it, on the pretext that his father’s religion was not registered in hisbirth certificate. Mr Saleeb handed in to the CRA an official certificate fromthe Coptic bishopric concerned proving his father was Christian. He alsosubmitted his father’s ID dated 1962, and death certificate dated 1988, bothof which were issued by the CRA and included the information on thefather’s Christian religion. In addition, Mr Saleeb’s brother’s birthcertificate—also issued by the CRA—cited the father as Christian. Yet thefour official CRA-issued documents were not enough to prove a piece ofinformation which had gone missing from one document.Ms Francel Halim Haroun, born in Giza in 1934 applied for and received hernew computerised ID with all the correct information. When she laterapplied for a computerised birth certificate, it was issued with her name speltas Franfel. Despite all the official documents she presented to prove hercorrect name, the CRA clerks refused to correct it.Ms Nagwa Henein Barsoum, who was born in Cairo in 1970, says that herproblems began when she applied for a new ID in 2003, and the clerkdiscovered that the name of Ms Barsoum’s mother was not clear in theoriginal birth certificate. Instead of checking the name by referring to all therelevant CRA-issued papers already submitted by Ms Barsoum, the clerkinsisted on sending Ms Barsoum and her aged mother on a wild-goose chasebetween Cairo, Fayoum, and Minya in Upper Egypt to have the mother re-registered with the CRA. When this was done, Ms Barsoum was requestedto produce her grandmother’s death certificate. She proceeded to have thisissued, but was then asked for official certification of the name of hergrandmother’s mother—her great grandmother. It was then—after two yearsand repeated shuttling between Cairo and Upper Egypt—that Ms Barsoumdecided to give up.I hope that none of our readers would pronounce any hasty condemnation ofbureaucracy or red tape in Egypt. After all, we can always be sure thatofficials will respond to our complaints once we publish them.

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On Mubarak’s programmeYoussef Sidhom

With Egypt on the threshold of presidential elections, electioneering hasreached fever pitch. The media is brimming with material on the differentcandidates, their political leanings, programmes and pledges. It is time totake in, scrutinise and carefully asses the various candidates’ plans andpromises against our demands and aspirations, before heading to the polls on7 September. We should form a conscientious, weighted opinion withoutbeing misled by the mob spirit; that is, if we are serious in our quest for realdemocracy.Away from some of the empty slogans used by President Hosni Mubarak’ssupporters to applaud him, one can safely say that Mubarak’s programmedoes appear to be by far the most well-researched and carefully-detailed ofall the candidates’ programmes. It presents aspirations and targets whichtackle a wide angle of political, economic, and social vistas. As with allelection programmes, it promises a bright, flourishing and thriving future forEgypt; the only catch being that it does not say how. The absence of clearmechanisms and systems through which the promises may materialise castsserious doubts on how realistic—not to say credible—these promises are.Furthermore, the programme steers clear of some very important issues, andit is not clear whether these issues were disregarded in the first place, orhave simply been placed on hold.A look at President Mubarak’s programme reveals that it focuses primarilyon the following:

• Free citizens within a democratic regime: The programme sponsoredthe move towards democracy and reform. It called for independenceof the judiciary, freedom of expression, Constitutional reform to

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achieve balance between the different authorities in the State,fortifying party politics, empowering women, and invigorating localgovernment, in addition to expanding Parliament’s authority inapproving the State budget. Placed on hold however were the issues ofreducing the security apparatus’ sway, freedom of establishingpolitical parties, empowerment of Copts and youth, and decentralisingpower by moving some of the president’s authorities to the governorsand affording more independence to the governorates regardingdecisions on the economic front.Conspicuously absent from the programme were thorny issues ofConstitutional reform such as fixed, limited presidential terms,annulment of the 50 per cent quota granted to workers and peasants inParliament and legislative councils, and establishment of alternativequotas for women and youth. As for the sensitive issue of affordingParliament more authority to approve the State budget, it is—contraryto what I had assumed—an official admission that this authority isnow limited. In this context, I demand that the budgetary allowancesfor the presidency, defence ministry, interior ministry, and intelligenceapparatus be publicised precisely and transparently, since these itemshave always been kept in the dark.

• On the economy: President Mubarak’s programme was very generousin its promises on job opportunities. During the coming sixyears—understandably the presidential term—the programmepromised 600,000 opportunities in individual projects, at some threebillion pounds investment. In small and medium scale projects, theprogramme promised 900,000 job opportunities at investments ofLE60 billion over six years. Likewise, 1.5 million job opportunities atsix year investments of LE100 billion were promised in the industrialsector; 420,000 job opportunities in the agricultural sector through thereclamation of 2.6 million feddans of land; and 1.2 millionopportunities in the tourist sector at LE48 million. The totalinvestment required for these 4,620,000 opportunities amounts to anambitious LE161 billion in six years. Only a seasoned economist canfigure out how this can be achieved.

• On the social and services fronts: President Mubarak’s programmeoffered an impressive plan to revive the education, health, housing,transportation, water and sanitary drainage sectors, promisingdisciplined, professionally ethical performance. It is a promise of thelonged-for ‘good old times’ which were lost following decades ofpost-1952-Revolutionary thought, destruction of personal motivation,

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near-elimination of the middle class, decline of work as a value, andthe discounting of citizenship rights. The good old times however canonly be regained through battling corruption, reviving the values ofequality and citizenship rights for all Egyptians, and upholdingcompetence and top performance as the sole qualification for jobs,posts, and leadership. Mubarak’s programme tackled none of that.

• On foreign policy: Mubarak’s programme stuck to the traditional no-risk, no-debate issues, guaranteed to garner support on the Egyptianstreet. The Palestinian issue was stressed, but without taking intoaccount the various parties concerned, especially Israel. Solidaritywith the Iraqi people, empowerment of the Arab role, Egypt’s Africanconnections, and its ties to world economic powers were allemphasised. The rhetoric however was more suited to diplomaticcourtesy or Arab summit meetings than to a programme designed toactively deal with present-day world variables.

If President Mubarak is elected to another term, he should be heldaccountable for any disregard of his explicit election programme. In thesame context, his attention should be drawn to the issues which went un-mentioned in his programme or were placed on hold. These are precisely theissues that constitute our demands from the forthcoming president. Analysisof the other candidates’ programmes should place one in a position to makea responsible choice of our next president. Even if any of us is in any waydissatisfied with the elections, withdrawal is not an option, since it is onlythrough perseverance and political participation that we can attain a betterfuture.

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WATANI International4 September 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 899

A play on voter sentimentYoussef Sidhom

The countdown for Egypt’s first ever multi-candidate presidentialelections—to be held on Wednesday—has begun. Last week ++Watani++reviewed the election programme of President Hosni Mubarak, the NationalDemocratic Party (NDP) candidate. Today, ++Watani++ takes a look at theprogrammes of two other candidates: Noaman Gomaa of al-Wafd party, andAyman Nour of al-Ghadd. Both candidates’ programmes focus primarily oncriticising the present regime and protesting conditions which go back to thepre-reform period, as well as rallying against the NDP’s monopoly overpower. These views however, remain nothing but a release of long pent-upanger, and are no alternative for a serious view of the future.And lest the title of this article gives readers the impression that it concernsal-Wafd and al-Ghadd alone, let it be clear that Mubarak’s programme aswell is not free of play on the sentiments of voters. Whether this is anacceptable campaign ploy or an unhealthy device to attract voters, people arebound to discover that many campaign promises never belonged to the realmof reality in the first place.Among the many examples of play on voters’ sentiments are Mubarak’spromises to “legalise buildings erected outside the urban cordon, to serve theinterest of some 15 million residents.” This concerns building which infringeon the dwindling area of Egypt’s agricultural land. Mubarak also promises“for every child, a place in a nearby school; and for every young man, ahouse.” The question is how and when could this be. Again, he pledges“agricultural plots for 70,000 new owners, and a LE100,000 loan for each.”This alone sums up to some seven billion Egyptian pounds in investment,apart from all the other investment promised. And for hollow sloganeering,MP Mohammed al-Murshedi of the NDP says: “Mubarak’s era is thebrightest in democracy and power rotation.”

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On his part Noaman Gomaa promises “unemployment aid to everyunemployed, a social security network, and fair wages for workers.” Again,how and when? Gomaa also says: “I strongly need your support to win thepresidency; then you will all be heads of Egypt; Egypt and all its wealth willbe yours; and we will make Egypt great.” So much for hollow sloganeering.As for Ayman Nour, he claims he “will not allow a person to be imprisonedbecause he defaulted on an instalment for a refrigerator or wash-machine,”and that he “will convert the Agriculture Credit Bank into a ‘Peasant’sBank’, and end the usury the bank applies with the peasants.” Nour wishesto “abolish the concept of a society based on penalty. We want, he says, anon-penalising society where only real criminals are put behind bars.” Hepledges LE150-employment aid to every unemployed, “to be funded out ofthe benefits of ending corruption and the looting of public money.” And, heclaims, “we will not sell natural gas to Israel.” Moreover, Nour believes theMuslim Brotherhood to be “an old noble organisation, with which we shareties of sympathy and respect. If they wish to form a civil party, we have noobjection.” How can the Brotherhood, whose raison d’être is theestablishment of a fundamentalist regime, form a civil party?!On the other hand, the programmes of both al-Wafd and al-Ghadd offerserious, positive aspects. Al-Wafd pledges a new Constitution to regain thepower of the State, parliamentary elections according to a proportional list, amaximum of two terms for every president, restricting the president’sauthority and ensuring his accountability. Al-Wafd also promises toimplement the currently inactive law of, literally “Where did you get thisfrom”, or holding public servants to account regarding the sources of theirwealth. The party proposes a law to take Cabinet ministers to court for anyviolation, restricting waste of public funds, ending political corruption andfavouritism, and implementing basic reforms in public education, health, andhousing.Al-Ghadd promises Constitutional reform to limit the authorities of thepresident, a law to allow taking him or Cabinet members to court, and thefreedom to establish political parties. It pledges the abolishment ofexceptional rules such as the emergency law, the social prosecutor general,the State security prosecution, and military courts, in addition to releasing allpolitical prisoners. Al-Ghadd also promises to abolish the ministries ofjustice, media, and religious endowments. It pledges to redistributedevelopment dividends among the various districts in Egypt more equitablyand transparently, and to end favouritism. Moreover, the party promises anew concept of Egyptian citizenship, and a unified law of building places ofworship. It proposes a New Delta project of urban-rural communities west of

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the present Nile Delta, and a return to elected village councils and mayors. Italso presents a new model for privatisation whereby investment is pouredinto modernising factories—especially the spinning and weavingplants—before selling them off.I hope this assessment of the programmes of the NDP, al-Wafd, and al-Ghadd was comprehensive, and apologise for not tackling the programmesof the other parties due to lack of space and time in this weekly paper. Thedaily papers however have given the matter extensive coverage, so that I feelcertain every Egyptian can now head to the polls with confidence. My onlycaution is against apathy, since it is only through the active participation ofeach and every one of us that we can safely cross the present phase andmove over to the coming one.

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Why I voted for MubarakYoussef Sidhom

Today, and for the coming six years, Egypt has chosen its first ever presidentelected from among several candidates—a new president who is expected toshoulder the huge responsibility of completing and putting into practice thelonged-for reforms. Today, and for the coming six years, every Egyptianmay hold in his or her hand a copy of President Hosni Mubarak’s electionprogramme, demand its implementation and monitor how the presidentmakes good on his promises. The heightened political awareness acquired byEgyptians during the past six months, ever since reform seriously began, hasturned every Egyptian into a close monitor of the requiredchange—promised so lavishly in the election campaign—and harsh critic ofany setback in its implementation.Away from the rampant hollow sloganeering of the election campaigns, Iwent to the polls last Wednesday and, of my own free will and absoluteconviction, voted for Mubarak. I was convinced that he was the best amongthe presidential candidates, and his programme was the most well-researchedand detailed, apart from a few ambitious exaggerations that were not wellbacked by credible figures. Mubarak was also, in my opinion, the candidatebest suited to lead Egypt to the aspired change in the coming few years. Iwish to add however, that my vote for Mubarak claims action on severalissues which were left out of his election programme but which should notbe left out of his reform programme. After 24 years in Egypt’s top authorityposition—the new six-year term should bring that up to 30 years—I believeMubarak possesses the wisdom and experience which qualify him to put theEgyptian house in order, as a step towards securing smooth and properpower rotation in the future.

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Such a target can never be realised without a democratic climate capable ofbreeding new political figures which possess vision and dedication, and areable to interact with the masses. Such figures were unfortunately absent inthe last presidential elections, and will probably remain lacking in theforthcoming imminent parliamentary elections. The period between theonset of political reform last May and the presidential and parliamentaryelections in September and November respectively was too short to allow forthe emergence of new figures. The ones currently on the scene wereobviously unprepared, many of them either outlandish or extremist.My vote for Mubarak thus entails the following demands.On the political level, I call for political and Constitutional reforms to allowfreedom to form political, non-religious parties, in order to provide for newblood on the political arena. The president should give up party allegianceonce he or she is elected, and should be elected to a maximum of two terms.He should run with or appoint a vice president who would be subject to thesame restrictions regarding party allegiance and term limitations as thepresident. Presidential and vice presidential prerogatives should be clearlyspecified by the Constitution, and Parliament should have the authority toquestion and hold them to account, as well as impeach them.The Constitutional provision of complete separation of the State authoritiesshould be implemented, to end the domination of the executive authority ofthe State over the legislative and judicial authorities, as well as on the media.Parliament should have full power to revise and approve the State budget,including the funds for the presidency, defence, and national security. Itshould be able to question, monitor, and take to account the government andState ministers on that head.The present system of parliamentary elections should be changed fromvoting for individual candidates to voting for a list of candidates, in order toend the dominion of the ruling party, and to allow marginalised sectors inthe society—such as women, Copts and youth—a better opportunity atpolitical participation. Such sectors must be afforded more encouragementand empowerment, for the sake of consolidating equal opportunity andoffsetting the long discriminatory practice which granted peasants andworkers a full 50 per cent of the political cake.All exceptional laws such as the emergency law should be abolished, as wellas all extraordinary courts such as State security and military courts, toimplement the rule of law and civil courts.The unified law for building places of worship should see light, so that allEgyptians would be equal before the law as regards building, renovating andrestoring their mosques and churches. The president should give up his wide

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authority over the building of churches, as opposed to mosques; and the‘Coptic file’ should be prised out of the clutches of the State securityauthorities. Mubarak’s constant confirmation of there being no differencebetween Muslims and Copts should be realised, especially as regards therights of Copts—based alone upon their competence and qualifications—tohigh ranking positions in the State.Mubarak should also work to firmly uphold the principle of Egyptiancitizenship based upon the Egyptian identity alone, as opposed to notions ofgiving the religious identity precedence over the national. This has so faronly served to sustain discriminatory, bigoted practices.Congratulations to the new president of Egypt. Let as all stand united totraverse the forthcoming era of change peacefully.

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Gauging the electionsYoussef Sidhom

Now that the presidential elections are over, it is time to analyse and assessthe election process. Despite a general sense of comfort, organisations whichgauged the balloting are busy reporting on its transparency, neutrality, anddiscipline. In fact, these reports will not only be necessary to asses the lastelections, but will also be substantial in preparing for the forthcomingparliamentary elections next October and November.I wish however, to point out that one of the most serious shortcomings of the7 September balloting was the inaccuracy of voter lists. Unfortunately, theshort span of time between the September presidential election and theNovember parliamentary ones makes it a near-impossibility to correct,organise—not to say up-date and modernise—the voter lists. Theinadequacy of these lists is absolutely unreasonable, unacceptable andunjustifiable, and the matter is sufficiently serious to take the interiorminister to account, since he repeatedly alleged that the voter lists had beenup-dated and organised. There have been complaints from voters of thedifficulty and time wasted in tracing their names or election registrationnumbers since the names were not arranged alphabetically, nor were theymatched with the corresponding registration numbers and, more frequently,the lists included names of voters who were no longer alive.It should be a more or less simple task in this age of technology tocomputerise the entire election process. A national council may beformed—on behalf of the interior ministry—to manage the process, with theministry’s role restricted to the application of law and order. Surelycomputerising the election process can be hardly more difficult thandigitising many government services such as paying telephone bills, orbooking airline or train tickets. The interior ministry could itself handle the

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process, seeing that it possesses the computerised national data base of thecivil register, but the ministry has already let us down in the relativelysimple task of establishing proper voter lists, and is notorious for its errors inthe civil register accounts. Moreover, an independent council whose soleduty is to conduct disciplined, clean, fair elections will probably do thatproperly, since it would be held accountable for any mis-performance,whereas the interior ministry staff has been repeatedly performinginadequately and never brought to account—casting strong doubts on theprobability of future accountability.The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) declared that ballotingwent smoothly, and no complaints were reported regarding policeinterference to confiscate the freedom or confidentiality of the vote. In manypolling stations however, voters found it difficult to locate theirconstituencies, names, or voter registration numbers. This led toovercrowding, and many voters—exasperated at the long undue wait—leftwithout voting. The Dutch ambassador to Cairo called upon the NCHRsecretary-general and expressed the observations of members of thediplomatic corps in Cairo regarding the balloting, citing poor turnout andvoter list shortcomings. All the same, he said, the elections were a positivestep towards democracy, and the irregularities did not affect the outcome ofthe elections.The Arab Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Bar, whichmonitored polling stations inside and outside Cairo, reported severalviolations in balloting, but declared that the security authorities assumed anunprecedented impartiality, and concerned themselves solely withimplementing law and order. The centre reported that government and publicsector employees were bussed to polling stations to vote for the candidate ofthe ruling party—the National Democratic Party (NDP). Even though judgeshad orders that neither independent monitors nor representatives of thecandidates should attend vote counting, a number of judges allowed them to,according to the ruling by the Judges Club.Some first-hand complaints by ++Watani++ staff included one from a younglady who, after marking her ticket, found no ballot box. She was told by theclerks to leave her ticket and they’ll put it in the ballot box for her. Anotherlady spent three hours trying to locate her name matched to her voterregistration number, but in vain. When she complained, she was told: “Don’tvote; go home.” A young man who could not find his data on the lists wasallowed to vote among those who were away from their hometowns or theplaces where they were originally registered—a flagrant irregularity.

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Egyptian citizenship rightsYoussef Sidhom

Even though the term “citizenship rights” came up more than once inPresident Hosni Mubarak’s electoral platform, no definition of the term wascited, nor was any scientific or procedural standard of it outlined.Consequently, no flaws in citizenship rights were diagnosed—neitherrelevant to Egyptians as a whole nor any specific sector of them.It is no secret that citizenship rights deficiencies involve in the main part—ifnot entirely—Copts. Because of their religious identity, Egyptian Christianssuffer a plethora of problems on the legislative, political, social, andbehavioural levels. It is thus imperative to admit the problem, define anddiagnose it, and thence prescribe treatment. Much has already been donethroughout the past three decades on that front, starting with therecommendations of the Oteify Committee commissioned by the EgyptianParliament in 1972 to report on the problem and recommend solutions, andthrough countless declarations and conferences on that head. Among themost recent such events were the Zurich Symposium in September 2004, theEgyptian Journalist Syndicate Group’s Declaration of the Egyptian Councilof Citizenship Rights in February 2005, and the Montreal Declaration inJune 2005.Discounting the conspiracy theory and accusations of unwarrantedinterference in our domestic affairs—allegations which are promptly hurledin our media and political arena at any reform suggestions coming fromoutside Egypt—it is worth noting that those who tackle the problem ofcitizenship rights, whether Muslim or Christian, are concerned Egyptians. Ifwe take into consideration that denial and escapism have led to a lack of anyEgyptian official, partisan, or popular initiative to tackle the problem, there

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is no reason why initiatives from outside Egypt should not be given duethought.The most recent of such initiatives was posted to me by a group of Egyptian-Americans from the Greater Chicago area, who met under the auspices ofthe Egyptian-American Society to discuss what could be done for Egypt atthis critical period in its history. The result was a declaration on citizenshiprights in Egypt of which the following excerpts highlight the main features."Nationalism has been all-inclusive in contemporary Egyptian history, buttensions have been growing between Muslims and Christians, and werereflected within the Egyptian communities in the United States andelsewhere in the world. Concerned about this situation, a Group of EgyptianAmericans met in Chicago to discuss issues affecting Muslim-Christianrelations in Egypt and abroad. The participants shared the belief thatfundamental human rights, which include freedom of religion andexpression—guaranteed by the Egyptian Constitution—should be theunifying basis for all Egyptians.“It is obvious that the Christian minority in Egypt feels the pressures ofmarginalisation, intimidation, and even exclusion. This social climate hasled to withdrawal of the Coptic community, and increased polarisation of theEgyptian society.“The Group recognises that the intolerance and prejudice cannot beattributed to religious factors alone, but also derive from social andeducational factors, in addition to ignorance, suspicion, and indifference toissues of religious intolerance.“Accordingly, the Group believes that a set of basic principles andguidelines should be elaborated to address these problems and create a betterclimate of understanding between the two communities. The following BasicPrinciples and Implementing Guidelines—neither all-inclusive nor all-encompassing, and not likely to entirely satisfy all concerned—are notintended to direct blame, but to bring about inter-religious understanding,enhance national unity, and advance equality and human rights of all inEgypt.• “Egypt is a homeland for all Egyptians, irrespective of differences inreligion or ethnicity.• “All citizens must be allowed to enjoy and exercise equal rights, includingfreedom of religion and its practice, in accordance with the Constitution andinternational human rights legal obligations. Nothing in policy or practiceshould abridge these fundamental rights.• “Egyptians should be called upon to set aside religious intolerance,reinforce the unity of the nation, and advance social harmony. It is

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imperative that the government, religious establishments and civil societyinstitutions should confront all forms of discrimination and disparitybetween Egyptians.”Apart from the above basic principles, the following guidelines wereproposed:• “A unified law for building and repairing places of worship should beissued and applied to all Egyptians.• “Official documents and papers should not contain the religiousidentification of persons, except where there is a demonstrable and validreason.• “Intolerant religious messages, as demonstrated in undue comparison offaiths and ridicule of other religions in the media, school curricula, andsermons, should be prohibited.• “The number of appointments and access to leadership positions in thegovernment, military, police, universities, regional and local councils,should be increased for Christians. A law for affirmative action should beconsidered, to guarantee a percentage of non-Muslims—provided requiredqualifications are met—in governmental and institutional positions.“The Group, having reached these conclusions, decided to circulate this textto a wider audience of Egyptians inside and outside the country, with a viewto develop a broad constituency capable of taking their viewpoints togovernmental and religious leaders, and to Egyptian civil society.”Even though the above declaration was written outside Egypt, it is purelyEgyptian in spirit and soul. It remains for us in Egypt to decide upon it. Wemay describe it as treacherous and conspiratorial, and accordingly shelve itas we have done with similar material before, or we may put it on thelocomotive of reform, which has already taken off with no stopping or goingback. From thence it can be brought to the attention of those in power inorder to activate it—that is if they can admit the present flaws in citizenshiprights, and shoulder the responsibility to correct them.

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WATANI International2 October 2005Translator: Samia / copy editor: SamiaWord count: 757

Problems on hold

Why in WashingtonYoussef Sidhom

Last week’s editorial tackled the Declaration on Egyptian Citizenship Rightswhich was recently issued in Washington by a group of Egyptian-Americansfrom the Greater Chicago area. I wrote that “If we take into considerationthat denial and escapism have led to a lack of any Egyptian official, partisan,or popular initiative to tackle the problem, there is no reason why initiativesfrom Egyptians—Muslims and Christians—outside Egypt should not begiven due thought.” I ended by mentioning that the declaration “can bebrought to the attention of those in power in order to activate it—that is ifthey can admit the present flaws in citizenship rights, and shoulder theresponsibility to correct them.”Anyone who contemplates the flaws in Copts’ citizenship rights—startingwith the right to freely build places of worship, their share of leadership andtop posts in the State, and their political empowerment—will discoverflagrant inequality between them and their Muslim fellow citizens. Thedisparity can be said to be obvious on three levels. First, on the legislativeand executive level, where there is no move whatsoever in the direction ofconsidering or tackling Coptic grievances. That is unless the president issuesdirect orders to resolve some given problem—which is something thecontent and time of which no-one can predict. Otherwise, most on this levelsee no Coptic problem, and those who know there are problems do notpossess the courage to propose any solution. Some even justify the inertia byresorting to tranquillisers of the type: “Waiting for an adequate timing toraise the problem”, “President Mubarak has confirmed that there is nodifference between Muslims and Copts”, “What do Copts want? Thepresident has already decreed Coptic Christmas—7 January—a nationalholiday; he approves applications to build new churches; and there was a

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Coptic governor in the 1970s”. In short, there is a general conviction thatCopts’ citizenship rights are confined to those which are already granted tothem by the government, and there is no realisation in the first place thatCopts are looking for equality.On the second level, there are the intellectuals, writers, those concerned withpublic issues, human and citizenship rights, as well as some politicians.These realise well the Coptic predicament and grievances, and their curtailedrights. But this elite group—even though it possesses the reliable data on thereal dimensions of the problem, a clear vision of it, and the potential toinitiate a solution—has preferred to remain in the ivory tower of academiaand take no action. The utmost this group has achieved on the Coptic front isparticipation in conferences and seminars with an absolutely ineffectivediscourse more suited to a condolence address. This group thus remainedisolated, unable to rise with the issue to the executive level, or to stoop downwith it to the street level.Third is the level of the Egyptian street—the real challenge wherecitizenship rights are concerned. The ordinary Egyptian—consumed with thedaily battle for subsistence; and prey to failures, frustrations andincompetence—has found refuge in the arms of the religious institutions.These either preach patience and adaptation to the situation, or spreadhatred, rejection, and a culture of violence against society. The challenge tosave Egyptians from the clutches of fundamentalist, extremist movementscan only be met through development on all economic, social, and educationlevels. Only then will the concept of citizenship rights take foothold.The picture is rather bleak. The executive authority of the State knows wellbut refuses to acknowledge the flaws in Coptic citizenship rights, theintellectual elite knows but cannot connect with the authorities and is abovecommunicating with the street. The grassroots are victims of the grimeconomic situation and the fundamentalist currents which exploit it to theirfavour. Everyone appears to be content, and the issue of curtailed Copticcitizenship rights remains frozen until once in a while sectarian problems orviolence erupts. Directly, flowery rhetoric, false declarations, imaginaryreconciliation, hugs and kisses are recruited to anaesthetise the situationwithout bothering to treat the basic problem.No matter how dismal the situation is, we should not give in but should goon striving to correct it. Strangely, we have that the Palestinian cause benegotiated in Geneva, Madrid, Oslo, Washington and Sharm al-Sheikhbecause it could not be negotiated in Jerusalem or Tel-Aviv. So why istermed treachery when the Coptic issue is discussed in Paris, London,

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Zurich, or Washington because it cannot be discussed in Cairo, Alexandriaor Assiut?

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Problems on hold

Again …Why in WashingtonYoussef Sidhom

News of an upcoming conference in Washington to discuss Copticgrievances caused a furor in the Egyptian media. Copts certainly do have aproblem with curtailed citizenship rights, some own, but it should bediscussed inside Egypt not outside it. No one can argue against this, we say,the only trouble is that the Coptic issue is never brought up inside Egypt.None on the legislative, executive, or partisan levels possess the courage toopen it up for discussion. It is unthinkable that Copts should react to thisdisregard by giving in and waiting for an unforeseen solution.There is a general feeling of frustration among Copts because PresidentMubarak’s electoral platform, his inaugural speech, and his speech beforethe National Democratic Party’s congress all ignored the Coptic issue.Obviously the president and the State legislative and executive authoritiesare overly sensitive to discussing the Coptic issue publicly, preferringinstead to deny existing flaws and hide behind the Constitutionalfundamental of equality between all Egyptians regardless of religion. Inreality, however, the problem lies not with the Constitution, but withregulations, practices, and behaviour.During the past six months there were calls for a unified law for buildingplaces of worship, to apply to all Egyptians. The significance is not thatCopts would build more churches, but that they would be equal incitizenship rights to their Muslim fellow citizens. Retaining a legislationwhich applies to Copts alone and not to Egyptian Muslims, is not soundpractice. Even though the new law—which was originally proposed last Mayby Mr Mohamed Guweily, head of the complaints and suggestionscommittee of the Egyptian Parliament—has wide support, it warranted nomention in any of President Mubarak’s recent declarations.

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A look at the presidential decrees issued for the restoration and renovation ofplaces of worship—meaning churches and services related to them, sinceconstruction work for mosques and related services requires no presidentialdecrees—does not hint at any move towards phasing out these procedures.This in turn does not help the principle of equal citizenship rights, andfortifies the idea of increased presidential authority where churches areconcerned. In some cases it is a setback and a contradiction to formerpresidential decrees which were issued to liberate the restoration andrenovation of churches from presidential authority.In December 1999, presidential decree no. 453 was issued to stipulate thatthe “the restoration or renovation of all places of worship should be licensedby the building authorities of every governorate, and should be conductedaccording to the building regulations and procedures of law 106 of 1976.”This left only the licensing of new churches in the hands of the president,and Copts were already looking forward to the new unified law for places ofworship to remedy that. Instead, I have before me six presidential decreesissued between January and August 2005 to license renovation andconstruction works for different churches—Coptic Orthodox andProtestant—and buildings belonging to them. The works included pullingdown and rebuilding fencing walls, erecting a services building, renovatingexisting buildings and—in one case—the pastor’s resident, as well asbuilding a kitchen, dining room, and toilets at the Holy Virgin’s monasteryin Beni-Sweif, Upper Egypt. It is obvious that most of the works are veryclearly restorations and renovations which, according the above-citedpresidential decree, are the responsibility of the respective buildingauthorities and should not require presidential decrees. Neither should thefencing wall, kitchen, dining room and toilet since they cannot be considereda ‘new church’—the only building which has to be licensed through apresidential decree.There is thus an official insistence upon retaining legislative inequalitybetween Egyptians where places of worship are concerned. Worse, thereappears to be official regression on the phasing out of presidential decreesrequired for renovations and restorations. So the end result is that instead ofcreating a climate conducive to the hoped-for reform, an atmosphere ofdiscrimination, division, inequality, and curtailed citizenship rights has setin. Very indicative is the insistence on the term ‘sect’ used in every one ofthe above-mentioned presidential decrees to refer to the Orthodox Copts orthe Protestants, almost forgetting that they are—or should be—full Egyptiancitizens in the first place. If the highest authority in the State insists oncategorising them on a sectarian basis and curtailing their citizenship rights,

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and yet no-one at home wishes to approach the problem, why shoulddiscussing it outside Egypt be seen as treachery?

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Problems on hold

Once more …Why in WashingtonYoussef Sidhom

President Hosni Mubarak has repeatedly announced that there is nodifference between Muslims and Copts in Egypt, and that according to theConstitution they are all equal in rights and duties, the only measure ofdistinction between them being hard work, competence, efficiency, andrespect of law.I do not doubt the president’s words. However, as one who sits at the toprung of State authority, he ought to insure that systems are in place to realisethis equality perspective. Equality should be an objective of all Stateinstitutions and apparatuses and not merely a personal attitude of thepresident. Confirmations of equality—no matter how strong—can neveralone remedy inequalities.If Copts complain of distorted equality regarding their share of State high-ranking positions and leadership posts, intervention is needed to correct theinjustice. If the injustice is due to prejudice or fanaticism on any State level,accountability and revision is due, and this in turn demands theestablishment of relevant supervisory boards. Lamentably, no suchapparatuses exist to date, despite the fact that high hopes were once placedupon the National Council for Human Rights. Perhaps a national council forcitizenship rights—if it ever sees light—may handle this end.But what if a substantial portion of the problem lies with resolutions decreedby no other than the presidency itself? How do the president’s declarationson the equality between Muslims and Copts concur with the real-life seriesof presidential decrees that discriminate against Copts? It isincomprehensible that, while the president states that Copts amount to someten per cent of the population, their share of appointments to State posts is inno way remotely close to ten per cent—in some cases zero. Official statistics

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confirm that under the free schooling system in Egypt, Coptic pupils andstudents form around ten per cent of the total student body from primary tohigh education. It would therefore make sense that Copts would form aroundthe same proportion of the State workforce, that is if they are given the sameopportunities at appointments and promotions. Since all along—fromchildhood to graduation—Copts never displayed symptoms of stupidity orincompetence, their scarcity in higher-ranking State posts surely cannot beattributed to either. Obviously there is in the system some serious defectwhich warrants acknowledgement and revision.To prove my point, I cite data from ten presidential decrees which wereissued in the interval from January to August 2005, to approve appointmentsto State posts. These included assistants to the general prosecution and theadministrative prosecution, delegates and assistant delegates to the StateCouncil, assistant councillors to the State Council, deputies to the head ofthe State Council, and different appointments to the State Court Authority.Out of a total 1727 appointees, only 31 were Christians, their proportionranging between 3.5 per cent in some posts and zero per cent in others. NoChristian was appointed as assistant councillor at the State Council, deputyto the head of the State Council, or deputy to the head of the State CourtAuthority.The above-mentioned figures illustrate that the disproportionately meagreshare of Copts in State posts begins with their insignificant numbers in thelower ranks, decreases steadily in the higher ranks, and recedes completelyin leadership ranks. This flawed situation can never be remedied byescapism, denial, and slogan-mongering about the presumed equality ofCopts and Muslims. Rather, it should be acknowledged and phased out.The State has passed laws to guarantee a five per cent quota of Stateemployment opportunities to the handicapped, and there is talk aboutempowering women and young people in the upcoming reform anddevelopment agenda by granting them too job quotas. Since we Egyptiansappear to know so well how to remedy long-time wrongs, why is it thatCoptic grievances are denied and nothing done to alleviate them? And whyare Copts’ cries never heard? Then, when they decide to take theirgrievances outside Egypt for open discussion, they are accused of treacheryand tarnishing the image of the homeland.

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Education