Coptic Solidarity holds its third conference on June 28, 29 at the Congress atthe Capitol Hill under the theme “US National Security and Advancing Human and Minority Rights in Egypt”.
In a statement to MCN, Adel Guindy, the president of the organization, said that the key issues to be discussed will focus on advancing human and minority rights in Egypt and its impact on the US national security.
Guindy, who delivered the opening speech, pointed out, “Last year Coptic Solidarity held its conference under the theme of “Will Religious and Ethnic Minorities Pay the Price of the ‘Arab Spring’?” This was a few months after the historic uprising in Egypt.
This important question is still being asked, and in fact the answer during the past 16 months has been to a large extent ‘Yes’, the minorities are paying a heavy price.”
“Many Copts participated in Egypt’s revolution right from the beginning. Yet, over the months Copts have paid heavily with the powerful rise of extremist forces and the general lawlessness.
Churches were burnt and some even destroyed at the hands of fanaticized mobs. Massacres were conducted at the hands of the military, including the running over peaceful demonstrators with military’s armored vehicles. Families were evicted from their homes and villages based on primitive and unjust tribal rulings. Individuals were subjected to brutal Sharia rulings imposed by Salafists. Blasphemy laws were applied with flagrant impartiality by unjust judges,” Guindy added.
He went on to say, “Both men and women were abducted for ransom, and in several cases savagely killed, with almost no protection from, or action by the police. Courts handed down several rulings punishing the victims and absolving the attackers and at times not giving the accsued the right to appeal. These acts of violence were over and above the “usual” discrimination, alienation, exclusion and persecution that Copts and other minorities have faced in Egypt over decades.”
“If the US and the International Community have no interest in helping Egypt move forward on the path of true democratization with all its protections and inalienable rights, it might be better that they step back and stop undermining our move towards democracy” Guindy concluded.
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