[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 28 (Thursday, February 16, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H1295-H1296]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FRIDAY NIGHT IN CAIRO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. 
Hill) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, as we gather tonight in the historic House 
Chamber, where so much of our Nation's history has been debated and 
dispatched, it is good to hear my friend from Georgia talk about the 
challenges that face our country with the failure of the Affordable 
Care Act and his thoughtful presentation on just precisely what we need 
to do to save Americans from the failures of this bad law.
  It is an honor to be in the historic House Chamber where every day 
the distinguished lawgivers in our history look down on this Chamber. 
George Mason, who wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights, looks down 
on the Speaker's dais, as does Thomas Jefferson, the author of our 
Declaration of Independence.
  No speaker stands at the dais and addresses the people's House 
without the steely gaze of Moses, the ultimate, most revered lawmaker, 
Mr. Speaker. He looks down on you and on this Chamber for truth and 
justice.
  Mr. Speaker, we Americans work hard. We work hard every day of the 
week, and we love Friday. We love Fridays so much that we say: Thank 
God it's Friday. Over the years, TGIF has become not only something 
that everyone in our country who works hard recognizes, but it became 
the name of a popular restaurant.
  In the autumn, we love our Friday nights watching high school 
football. In the winter, maybe it is catching a movie and eating a 
pizza with our friends or family. In the spring, Friday can find us 
catching a baseball game, the American pastime.
  Mr. Speaker, last Friday night, I was in Cairo, Egypt, and what I saw 
was that same joyous, happy experience of families sharing their 
successes of the week; celebrating a great soccer victory; clapping to 
wonderful, warm local music; and witnessing the squealing of their kids 
running around their parents, celebrating a birthday or just a good 
week at work or school.
  The streets of the Khan el-Khalili Bazaar in Cairo were chock-full 
last Friday, Mr. Speaker, with the living and the loving, just going 
about that weekly experience pursuing their own version of happiness 
and TGIF.
  Friday night in Cairo, the land of the Pharaoh, the land of the 
beginning of much of human education and civilization, there was dining 
and bargaining in the bizarre that has been the centerpiece of trading 
and manufacturing and merchandising for half a millennia.
  Mr. Speaker, my trip to Egypt was marked not just with witnessing the 
joy of Egyptian family life and seeing and sharing what we have in 
common. It was a reminder that the 91 million Egyptians are on the 
front line of the global war on terror, a war that unites the 
leadership of Egypt and the United States arm-in-arm to design and 
implement the most effective strategies we can to defeat the malevolent 
evil enemy of ISIS, al-Qaida, Boko Haram, and their bloody cohorts 
across the globe.
  In my view, after the approach of the past 8 years, our enemies are 
stronger and engaged more broadly than ever before. Nothing has driven 
this point home more than a visit in Cairo to the St. Peter and St. 
Paul's Coptic Church.
  Located on the plaza adjacent to the offices of His Holiness Coptic 
Pope Tawadros II, there was joy there last Saturday morning, Mr. 
Speaker, listening to the chants of the priests, the reverence of the 
families in the pews, the kids again squealing and smiling in their 
parents' arms.
  But, Mr. Speaker, on the periphery of that joy was a stark reminder 
of the destruction there on December 11, when a male ISIS jihadist 
suicide bomber entered that church disguised as a woman and detonated 
his vest, murdering 25, mostly women, splattering the walls and the 
floors of God's House with their blood.
  As I walked through that same entrance last Saturday, Mr. Speaker, 
the church has developed a reverent shrine to those who were lost. The 
pockmarks in the marble are there from the shrapnel from the vest.

                              {time}  1800

  But that church is a symbol of unity in Egypt, not division, as it 
was visited by President el-Sisi, a devout Muslim leader of all 
Egyptians, who came to share his concern, his affection for Egyptians 
no matter what their religious background. Best summarized by the wise 
Pope of the Coptic church--Mr. Speaker, we have to remind ourselves 
that the word ``Coptic,'' of course, comes from the Greek word 
``aigyptios,'' which means Egypt. The Coptic church is as old as St. 
Mark's arrival in Alexandria in the first century.
  That wise old Pope told us, and I think really, Mr. Speaker, captured 
the whole spirit of the Egyptian people and the resolve that is taking 
place in that country under President el-Sisi when he said, Egyptians 
take two things from the Nile River on which they have lived some 5,000 
years. They take water, and they take moderation in their beliefs.
  Mr. Speaker, tonight I wanted to come to the House Chamber and pay 
tribute to the Egyptian people for being on those front lines in the 
fight against radical Islamic terrorism, pay tribute to the Christian 
and Muslim people of Egypt working together to defeat this ideology. I 
want to commend President el-Sisi for his courageous leadership in the 
Muslim world.

[[Page H1296]]

  Coinciding with the birthday celebration of the Prophet Muhammad on 
New Year's Day 2015, President el-Sisi went to the Islamic world's most 
respected institution, Al-Azhar University, and called upon the world's 
1.6 billion faithful Muslims and the faith's imams to support a 
religious revolution. He called on the leaders to reject the mindset of 
death and jihad.
  Mr. Speaker, in both Egypt and America, we come from dust and to dust 
we shall return. We are made in God's image, and God has granted us 
such unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
While we are breathing, each of us has an obligation to serve our 
fellow man, work to value our societies and make them the best that 
they can be.
  In January, we witnessed a change in leadership here in the United 
States. We had a former President who grew up in Hawaii and grew up 
riding the waves in Hawaii. He rode a wave into the White House and 
then drifted along, bobbing on top of those waves for 8 years. Now, Mr. 
Speaker, we have a President in the White House who is not riding the 
waves; he is making waves. It is my hope that he will execute a new 
direction and take new actions to win the global war on terrorism.
  I have to say, Mr. Speaker, whether it takes 3 months or 30 years, I 
won't rest until we unify the civilized world to reject jihad, reject 
the terror we saw at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Cairo. Mr. 
Speaker, we need to condemn those who condone it. We need to condemn 
those who finance it. We need to reject it when we see it taught in the 
mosque. We need to reject it on Facebook. We need to reject it in the 
media. We must condemn those who say it is wrong but stand silent.
  Mr. Speaker, there are no bystanders in this fight, and there is no 
substitute for victory. Mr. Speaker, all across the world tonight, we 
Egyptians, we Americans, we want our Fridays back. TGIF, Mr. Speaker, 
TGIF.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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