Religious Freedom Does Not Exist in Egypt, says Coptic lawyer

For those of you who have chosen to pray for Egypt this month, this story may help you in directing your petitions to the Lord.  This is a blurb from the Catholic News Agency...

 In the wake of the Christmas Eve shootings of Egyptian Coptic Christians by a group of Muslims,  Coptic attorney Caroline Doss has planned a rally at the United Nations in protest, telling CNA that religious freedom “does not exist” in Egypt.

“Technically speaking, the Constitution does allow freedom of religion but practically speaking it does not exist,” she said Tuesday. “There is a huge difference between the way the laws are applied to Christians and Muslims in Egypt.”

Doss is organizing a rally in New York City on Jan. 19  to send a “clear message” to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak “that failing to prosecute crimes against Coptic Christians is inexcusable” and to “send a message to President Obama here that there is persecution in Mubarak's land.”

An anticipated 2,000 – 4,000 people are expected to participate in the upcoming rally.

Doss continued to explain to CNA the hurdles that exist for Christians in Egypt, particularly the difficulty of being able to build churches there, as well as the documented punishment of those who convert from Islam to Christianity. 

“To get permission to build a new church you need a presidential decree,” stated Doss, who also lamented that “if you wanted to convert, for example, from Islam to Christianity you could not legally do so.” In fact, Doss claimed, “there are clear reports of converts to Christianity who have been taken into detention by state security officials” and have been “tortured and raped.”