Country Profile - Egypt
Population: 83 million
Capital: Cairo
Government Type: Republic
Religion: Muslim (mostly Sunni) 90%;
Coptic Christian 9%; Other Christian 1%
History
Egypt was predominantly Christian, and a major centre for Christian scholarship, until the initial Islamic invasion in AD639. Since then, Muslim rule and Islam have predominated.
The Coptic church in Egypt is the largest Christian community in the Middle East and an estimated nine per cent of Egyptians are Copts. But the country's constitution gives preference to Muslims and the distinction between civil law and Sharia (strict Islamic law) has gradually been eroded.
Today, Christians are treated as second-class citizens, denied political representation and often discriminated against in education and employment
Religious context
While the constitution allows for freedom of conversion, Muslims converting to Christianity are not allowed to change their religion or their name on their identity cards.
Without the freedom to make this change, Christian women remain designated as Muslims and are unable to marry Christian men. The children of those designated Muslim are educated as Muslims, even if in fact their parents have become Christians. Christians who convert to Islam, however, face no difficulty in changing their ID cards.
A case in point is that of Mohammed Hegazy who has launched a landmark legal challenge to change the religious status on his ID card from Muslim to Christian. Hegazy's first legal challenge was rejected but he later launched an appeal.
To his frustration, his case was suspended in April 2010, pending a ruling by the Constitutional Court on a challenge to Article 47, the section of the civil code that, in theory, allows Egyptians to change the religion on their ID card. A number of fatwas calling for Hegazy's death have been issued.
Persecution
Tensions between Christians and Muslims sometimes run high.
While the extremist violence against Christians of the 1990s has largely ceased, Christians are still attacked.
In November 2009, rioters launched a three-day assault on Coptic communities in and around the town of Farshoot in Upper Egypt - after a Christian man was accused of abusing a Muslim girl.
Then, in January 2010, six Christians died when gunmen opened fire on churchgoers leaving a midnight mass in Nag Hammadi, Quena province. Thousands of Christians joined demonstrations after this attack to protest against the authorities' failure to protect their community.
And in the early hours of January 1, 2011, 23 people were killed and about 70 hurt when a suspected suicide bomb exploded outside a Coptic church in Alexandria.
Muslim-background believers still face the greatest danger. As apostates who have renounced Islam, they are considered to have betrayed their family, their country and their religion.
As a result, many are rejected by their families, and some have been detained and tortured by the security forces.
Release Projects
Release's work in Egypt includes:
- Supporting a safe house for Christian women from a Muslim background.
- Providing school books and funding for education for children who have lost their parents as a result of persecution.
- Providing funding for a Christian Arabic newspaper that addresses persecution and social issues facing Christians in Egyt and the Middle East.
Sources: Assyrian International News Agency; BBC; Compass Direct; International Christian Concern; Operation World; Release International; The World Factbook 2010; World Christian Database
Updated January 2011