Letter to President Obama on Religious Liberty in Egypt Prior to Meeting with President Mubarak 
The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama,
Of particular concern are President Mubarak’s policies which allow for extensive government control over internal religious matters, restrictions on the right to convert, and the outright banning of many religious groups.
President Mubarak’s government maintains strict control over all religious institutions of Islam, appointing all imams, licensing all mosques and monitoring sermons. All mosques and other religious endowments are encouraged to promote an officially sanctioned interpretation of Islam. The goals of this are supposedly to protect against religious extremism and terrorism. However, such strict controls serve as recruitment tools for extremist groups and cause unnecessary violations to the fundamental right of religious liberty.
The state continues to prosecute and imprison those accused of non-approved religious beliefs within the Islamic faith, as well as anyone who insults the three “heavenly religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism”. Courts may prosecute anyone whom the Government deems to have unorthodox or deviant Islamic or other religious beliefs or practices. This has been deemed acceptable by the courts, which have held that the Constitutional provision regarding religious freedom does not apply to the Baha’i or any other religious group not affiliated with Christianity, Islam or Judaism.
The exclusion and discrimination of certain religious groups has led to many problems with regards to individuals capitalizing on the rights of citizenship. In January 2008, the Cairo Administrative Court interpreted the constitutional provision guaranteeing freedom of opinion and belief in an extremely narrow fashion. In a case determining the validity of forcing statement of religious beliefs on required identity cards, the CAC ruled that forcing Baha’i’s to declare their
religion as either Jewish, Christian or Muslim was not contrary to the Constitutional right to free belief and practice. They decided that the provision only meant that non-Muslims are free to adopt Islam, free to continue in their respective faith and free from compulsion to convert to Islam. However, freedom to practice religious rites is subject to certain limitations, especially in the interest of maintaining public order, public morals, and conformity to the provisions and principles of Islam.
In addition, anti-Christian employment discrimination is evident in the public sector, specifically in the security services and military. The largest minority group in Egypt is Coptic Christians, and there have been numerous occasions of sectarian strife between them and Egyptian Muslims. One such instance occurred in 2007, when a Coptic man was accused of having a relationship with a Muslim woman. A number of stores owned by Copts were burned in the town of Armant in Upper Egypt and security services were forced to declare a state of siege. Although Egypt officially recognizes Christianity as a “heavenly religion”, treatment of Christians throughout the country is discriminatory and biased.
While Egypt’s Constitution theoretically protects freedom of religion, the government’s interpretation of these provisions seriously infringes upon this essential right. The government interferes with the internal matters of the Muslim community, encourages social discrimination against Coptic Christians, Baha’is, and other religious minorities, and completely disbands other religious groups.
For these reasons, we implore you to press President Mubarak on the status of religious liberty in Egypt and to insist on its fundamental importance in U.S.-Egypt bilateral relations.
With warm personal regards and best wishes, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Joseph K. Grieboski
Founder and President