A federal agency tasked with examining global religious freedom released a new report on Monday showing that persecution against Christians in Egypt is rising.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a statement accompanying the new report that the government of Egypt is known to repress non-Muslim religions, and that such repression has increased in recent years.
“The government of Egypt continues to systematically enforce laws, policies, and judicial decisions that repress non-Muslim religious life,” the statement said.
The agency recommended that Egypt be added to a “Special Watch List” maintained by the U.S. government for their violations.
While 90 percent of Egypt’s 115 million residents are Sunni Muslims, there are minority communities of Coptic Christians, evangelical Protestants, Jews, Baha’is, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“Egypt’s government has responded to various pressures by prioritizing internal control and stability, amounting to an expanded reliance on restrictive laws, surveillance, and enforcement practices,” the report noted.
While Christianity is recognized as a legal religion in Egypt, the country’s penal code is often enforced against Christians who are purported to have blasphemed Islam.
Augustin Samaan was sentenced to five years of prison in January for “contempt of religion” after he posted religious educational content and responded to “anti-Christian incitement online.”
Said Abdelrazek, a convert to Christianity, was likewise accused of “contempt for Islam” after posting his beliefs online.
He was detained and reportedly tortured in prison.
Egypt’s cybercrime law forbids using technology to “infringe on any family principles or values in Egyptian society,” which is interpreted to include Sunni Islam.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom noted that Egyptian authorities have indeed “wielded this religiously grounded provision of the cybercrime law to particularly crack down on social media influencers, whose content has been deemed offensive to Islam by the state.”
Beyond the prosecutions, Egypt is known for regulating Christian religious site and requiring religious identification on government documents that leads to discrimination in hiring.
Egyptian Muslim citizens have meanwhile been known to form mobs against Christian communities in urban areas.
Such attacks are provoked when Coptic Christians try to build or repair their churches.
Some Coptic families have “consistently reported local police and other authorities’ reluctance or refusal to undertake investigations into young women’s disappearances, including potential evidence of abduction or coercion.”
Christian former prisoners are also subject to discrimination, since others may “avoid contact out of fear that mere association with a previously detained Christian could expose them to surveillance, harassment, or arrest.”
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