Contact: Caroline Labib Doss, Esq., 201-745-4055, attorneydoss@yahoo.com; Jacob Kiryakous, 201-920-7277

NEW YORK, Dec. 12 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Egyptian government facilitates attacks against Coptic Christians directly by destroying church properties, unlawfully detaining, raping and torturing converts to Christianity and failing to prosecute the Islamic extremists who attack Coptic Christians.

The 2009 US State Department Report on religious freedom in Egypt states the following:

The Egyptian government engaged in acts "which generally obviated the prosecution of perpetrators of crimes against Copts and precluded their recourse to the judicial system..." and that there was a "failure to investigate and prosecute perpetrators..." "State security and police forces reportedly instigated a sectarian clash in... and the Government again failed to prosecute perpetrators of crimes against Copts."  One Muslim convert to Christianity "told US officials that government authorities had raped her."  There were also "reports that police persecuted converts from Islam to Christianity." The court system has also failed Copts when we see "a judge reportedly told (her) (a Muslim convert) he would have killed her if the law permitted."  Sadly the direct destruction of Coptic sanctuaries by Egyptian government officials was also cited in the report. "Government security forces demolished a building the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Marsa Matrouh" and "demolished part of a 10-acre Coptic cemetery destroying graves." 

The government is to blame since it instigagtes violence against Copts by Islamic extremists when it fails to prosecute perpetrators of crimes against Copts.  Too many persecutions of Copts and no prosecutions of Muslim perpetrators.

The US State Department Report also sites several attacks by Muslim mobs against Christians, their churches and properties. In November 2008 a mob in the Ain shams district of Cairo attacked and burned an unlicensed Coptic church.  Also mentioned was the fact that the Government had not prosecuted any of the Bedouin villagers who assaulted the Abu Fana monastery in May 2008, or those who concurrently kidnapped, physically abused, and reportedly attempted to forcefully convert several monks. The report also states that on April 5, 2008 in an Alexandria governorate hundreds of Mulims damaged Christian owned shops, hurling stones at the shops and destroying them with sticks.  There were at least six similar incidents in Minya Governorate in the villages of Dier El Barsha, Dafash, Sila Al-Gharbya, Kom El Mahras, Al Tayeba, And Abou Korkas.