Did You Know...Egypt

… that since the beginning of the Egyptian revolution, two years ago, nearly 100 Coptic Orthodox Christians have been killed in Egypt due to sectarian violence, surpassing the death toll of the previous 10 years combined?

The situation for Copts in Egypt remains precarious, as extremist elements continue to randomly target Coptic Christians.Aclimate of impunity continues to exist asmost of the alleged perpetrators of violent incidents over the last two yearshave not been brought to justice, despite the fact that the number of incidents of sectarian violence decreased in2012, along with a significant decrease in the number of injuries and deaths. Notably, there still have been no convictions for the October 2011 Maspero violence in which 26 people, mostly Copts, were killed, and hundreds injuredduring protests.

In addition, since the January 25, 2011 revolution, there has been an increase in the number of blasphemy and defamation of religion cases that disproportionately have impacted Copts.

Furthermore, Egypt’s new constitution includes a number of problematic provisions limiting freedom of religion or belief for all Egyptians (See Initial Analysis of Problematic Provisions Related to Freedom of Religion or Belief and Associated Rights in Egyptian Draft Constitution ).

In 2012, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. government designate Egypt a “country of particular concern” (CPC) because of the particularly severe violations of religious freedom perpetrated or tolerated by the government, such as discrimination, intolerance and violence committed against religious minorities and disfavored Muslims.