The Al-Kosheh crackdown followed the murders of two Christians, allegedly by Muslims seeking revenge for the poisoning of one of their brothers, although doctors had recorded his death as due to natural causes. 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 per cent of the population of Egypt and their numbers include the former United Nations Secretary General, Boutros Boutros Ghali, the government refuses to recognise 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 armoured 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.
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 10 months, was granted asylum in England last month. I was hung, blindfolded, made to stand for five days and five nights.