A demonstration in support of Egypt's Christians and in opposition to religious discrimination is set for Friday, February 26, 2010 at 1pm, outside of the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, DC.
Demonstrators will make demands for the deletion of Islamic laws from the Egyptian Constitution, the return of kidnapped Coptic women and girls to their families, equal treatment for all Coptic Christians in Egypt, and protection for all from forced Islamization.
Specifically, protesters will call for the immediate release of imprisoned Coptic Orthodox priest, Father Mattaos Wahba, who was arrested last year after he married a Christian man and a Muslim woman, who had converted to Christianity.
Last year, an Egyptian Court sentenced Father Mattaos to a five years of hard labor after finding him guilty of helping the woman obtain an ID card indicating her religious identity as Christian instead of Muslim, which enabled her to marry the Christian man and subsequently leave the country.
Tomorrow’s rally comes at the heels of a recent appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief on behalf of Mohamed Hegazy, a Muslim who converted to Christianity and sought official recognition of his conversion from the Egyptian government.
Hegazy first sued the Egyptian government in 2007 in order to change his religion from Islam to Christianity on his national ID card. In 2008, Egyptian judge Muhammad Husseini of Cairo denied his request, citing Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution, which provides that "Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic its official language. Islamic jurisprudence is the principal source of legislation."
Egyptians are required to register their religious identity on their national identification cards. Only three religions are recognized in Egypt – Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Until August 2009, Egyptians who failed to register their religious identity, including those who did not fit into one of the three recognized religions, such as the Bahá’ís, were unable to obtain passports, marriage certificates, birth certificates, and other important documentation.
Today, Egyptians who do not fit into one of the three recognized religions can now elect to mark this field with a "dash." However, Egyptian courts continue to deny changes to ID cards that would reflect the religious conversions of Muslims to Christianity.
Tomorrow’s rally will also recognize the recent Christmas Eve killings of six Coptic Orthodox Christians in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, who were gunned down in a driveby shooting following religious services. While Coptic Christian groups and human rights organizations agree that the attack was motivated by religious hatred, Egyptian officials, including the Speaker of Egypt’s People’s Assembly, Dr. Fathi Sourour, made statements last month that the Christmas Eve killings were a single criminal act with no sectarian dimensions.
Tomorrow’s demonstration is sponsored by Voice of the Copts, a non-profit human rights organization dedicated to combating religious discrimination and oppression in the Middle East, particularly Egypt, with offices in both Italy and The United States.
***Update: The rally is postponed due to snowstorms in the Northeast. It is tentatively rescheduled for the second week of March 2010.***
For additional information about the rally, please email Voice of the Copts at mubarak_18@voiceofthecopts.org