[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 178 (Monday, December 16, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1878-E1879]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN EGYPT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, December 16, 2013

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, a hearing that I convened last 
week examined the escalating human rights abuses in Egypt. It was 
fitting that we held the hearing on December 10, International Human 
Rights Day, because we are witnessing grievous violence and other 
abuses directed against religious and political minorities, 
particularly the Copts and other Christians, about which our government 
and the media has said far too little--which seems to be a pattern 
worldwide.
  The persecution of Christians is escalating. Witness the slaughter of 
Christians in the Central African Republic (CAR). Bishop Nongo of the 
CAR told my committee that Christians were being targeted because of 
their faith while the U.N., the United States, and the rest of the 
world looked on. Last Thursday, I chaired a hearing on American pastor 
Saeed Abedini who is jailed and suffering torture in Iran. Pastor 
Abedini's wife, Naghmeh, told my committee: ``While I am thankful for 
President Obama's willingness to express concern about my husband and 
the other imprisoned Americans in Iran during his recent phone 
conversation with Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, I was 
devastated to learn that the administration didn't even ask for my 
husband's release when directly seated across the table from the 
leaders of the government that holds him captive. My husband is 
suffering because he is a Christian. He is suffering because he is an 
American. Yet, his own government, at least the Executive and 
diplomatic representatives, has abandoned him. Don't we owe it to him 
as a nation to stand up for his human rights, for his freedom?''
  After President Mubarak resigned in February of 2011, the world hoped 
for a new Egypt, a just government for all Egyptians, which would not 
make President Mubarak's mistakes--but reality has been just the 
opposite.
  Horrific anti-Christian pogroms have taken place under each of the 
post-Mubarak governments. For some of these abuses, the governments 
bear the responsibility of inaction. For others they bear direct 
responsibility. In recent months, undercurrents of abuse and contempt 
for human dignity long existing in Egypt have turned into flash floods 
of violence.
  For example, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces presided over 
the Maspero protest massacre in October 2011. At least 25 people were 
killed and more than 300 injured--almost all of them Copts--when the 
military drove trucks through the crowd and used live ammunition 
against the unarmed protestors.
  Under the now-displaced Morsi government three low-level soldiers 
involved were charged with minor crimes and received two- to three-year 
sentences. No commanding officers were held responsible for ordering or 
failing to prevent the deadly assaults.
  While Mr. Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice 
Party, at times voiced support for an Egypt that was home to Muslims 
and Christians, his inaction belied his rhetoric. In April of 2012, St. 
Mark's Cathedral, seat of the Coptic Pope, was attacked by 30-40 Muslim 
youths. While dozens of Copts were sheltering inside, security forces 
joined the mob. Rather than dispersing the crowd, they participated in 
the all-night attack or stood idly by as rocks, gasoline bombs, and gas 
canisters were lobbed into the iconic cathedral. Despite this, 
President Morsi denied that the clash was sectarian in nature.
  After Mr. Morsi was removed in July of this year, the military ended 
the Muslim Brotherhood's sit-in with violence, killing hundreds of 
protestors. Tragically, some in the Muslim Brotherhood scapegoated the 
Copts although the Copts had nothing to do with the military's violent 
response.
  On August 14, a day that will be remembered as the worst day for 
Copts in 700 years, thirty-seven churches, five schools, three Bible 
societies, four other Christian institutions, and many homes and 
businesses were burned or damaged by mobs. More than 100 deaths were 
documented in the initial spate of violence and its aftermath.
  Some Copts have charged the current military government in Egypt with 
allowing the attacks on Coptic persons, businesses, churches, and homes 
to continue--often in sight of police stations and in spite of repeated 
and direct calls for help--in order to solidify government power as the 
only alternative to the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as to justify their 
own heavy-handed crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.
  The Muslim Brotherhood denies any involvement in the attacks 
occurring across the country, and has at times condemned them.
  Yet the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party Branch in Helwan 
reportedly posted a statement holding the Coptic Pope responsible for 
Morsi's removal and otherwise linked Copts to attacks on the Muslim 
Brotherhood. The Brotherhood also called for Friday prayers to be held 
in an evangelical church in Minya after it was occupied and converted 
into a mosque on August 15.
  Whoever the attackers are--and that is one thing we hope to learn 
more about today--the bottom line is that Coptic citizens are having 
their most basic human rights--freedom of religion, freedom of 
association, and equal protection of the laws--denied.
  We can never rest while human dignity is so grossly trampled on--nor 
can we ever accept the suffering that has marked Coptic life for 
decades, very much including the abductions, forced conversions, and 
forced marriage of Coptic girls and women. These abuses have continued 
unabated, and, by some reports, have escalated sharply following the 
Arab Spring, as has the abuse of the Egyptian courts to prosecute 
blasphemy cases against Christians, moderate Muslims and secularists.
  Moreover, despite the nearly 1.5 billion dollars in foreign aid 
American taxpayers give Egypt each year, neither the Mubarak government 
nor the Morsi government, or now the military government, has seen fit 
to return kidnapped American citizen children Noor and Ramsey Bower, 
who were abducted by their mother to Egypt in 2009 in violation of 
valid U.S. court orders, to the United States. They, along with about 
30 other American children in Egypt, are forced to live without the 
love and guidance of an American parent who daily fights for their 
return, while being stripped of half of their culture and half of their 
identity.

[[Page E1879]]

  In addition, freedom of expression continues to be under fire. The 
current interim government has been arresting and jailing journalists 
critical of the military government, jamming the broadcast signals, 
deporting foreign reporters, and otherwise closing the offices of news 
outlets that are ``broadcasting lies.''
  In his September 23rd speech to the United Nations General Assembly, 
the President stated that his ``. . . approach to Egypt reflects a 
larger point: the United States will at times work with governments 
that do not meet the highest international expectations, but who work 
with us on our core interests.'' These core interests were earlier 
defined in the speech to include the ``Camp David Accords and counter-
terrorism'' efforts but not, I believe mistakenly, to include human 
rights.
  Human rights, and the intrinsic dignity of every human being from 
womb to the tomb, are important in and of themselves. But for those who 
fail to grasp this, there is another important point to be made: It is 
in the strategic interest of the United States to encourage governments 
to respect the rights of their people, because governments that fail to 
do so are in the final analysis unstable: This should be the abiding 
lesson of the Arab Spring.
  The president also stated that future U.S. support to Egypt ``will 
depend upon Egypt's progress in pursuing a democratic path.'' Again, it 
is unclear what criteria this entails. What if the democratic path does 
not include protection of human rights, such as what we saw under the 
Morsi government and now the interim government?
  It is not democracy per se that is to be the goal, but rather a duly-
elected constitutional government that respects minorities, the 
separation of power, and human rights. Tyranny of the majority is not 
an acceptable option.
  What is clear is that the U.S. needs a new approach. This 
administration's short-sighted approach of not clearly linking aid to 
the protection of human rights in Egypt has been unequivocally 
ineffective. It is my hope that our hearing today will shed light on 
what went wrong and how the United States can be more effective in 
protecting human rights going forward.

                          ____________________