Status of Religious and Ethnic Minorities
Main article: Persecution of Copts See also: Al-KoshehFrom December 31, 1999 to January 2, 2000, 21 Coptic Christians were killed by an angry mob in Al-Kosheh. Al-Ahram in part cites economic resentment as the cause, but discusses Muslims who condemned the action. A Coptic organization saw it as a sign of official discrimination. In 2005 a riot against Copts occurred in Alexandria.
Egypt has been accused of practicing apartheid against the ancient Coptic Christian community. The Baptist Press describes Egypt of practicing a form of "religious apartheid" under which indigenous Christians "can be terrorized, robbed and killed with impunity." Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh describes the Egyptian treatment of Christians, which forces "hundreds of thousands" to emigrate "many of those who are left behind are forced to convert to Islam every year to escape persecution" and where crimes against Christians often go unprosecuted, as a system of "apartheid.".
Privately owned and government-owned newspapers publish anti-Semitic articles and editorials.
Read more about this topic: Human Rights In Egypt
Famous quotes containing the words status, religious, ethnic and/or minorities:
“What is clear is that Christianity directed increased attention to childhood. For the first time in history it seemed important to decide what the moral status of children was. In the midst of this sometimes excessive concern, a new sympathy for children was promoted. Sometimes this meant criticizing adults. . . . So far as parents were put on the defensive in this way, the beginning of the Christian era marks a revolution in the child’s status.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.”
—Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)
“Caprice, independence and rebellion, which are opposed to the social order, are essential to the good health of an ethnic group. We shall measure the good health of this group by the number of its delinquents. Nothing is more immobilizing than the spirit of deference.”
—Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985)
“But for the national welfare, it is urgent to realize that the minorities do think, and think about something other than the race problem.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)