Rather than investigate, Bishop Wissa said, police simply rounded up Christians, apparently to avoid a clash between religious communities in the town which has 35,000 Christians and 15,000 Muslims. Although Coptic Christians make up six percent of the population of Egypt and their numbers include the former United Nations Secretary General, Boutros Boutros Ghali, the government refuses to recognize them as an official minority and they have suffered persecution for years from Islamic extremists. It follows the closure in July of a Coptic church in the Maadi suburb of Cairo, which was surrounded by seven armored vehicles as its doors and windows were sealed by security forces. Although President Mubarak portrays himself as a moderate, human-rights activists believe that the police action reflects a wider infiltration of Islamic extremists into senior official positions. I fear Egypt is turning by stealth into an Islamic state.
Islamic law is the basis of the constitution and there is no freedom of religion.
If anything, Mubarak tries to appease the fundamentalists. Copts were the ancient inhabitants of Egypt before the Arab invasions in the seventh century, but have been surrounded for centuries by a hostile Muslim majority. They now need presidential permission to open a church, their history cannot be taught in schools, and people can be arrested under the National Security Act for converting to their faith. Mustafa Shukravi, a human-rights activist who converted to Christianity and was jailed for ten months, was granted asylum in England last month. I was hung, blindfolded, made to stand for five days and five nights.