IV 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 413
Expressing the concern of the House of Representatives regarding the amount 
of United States foreign assistance provided to Egypt over the past 
25 years without meaningful political reforms by the Government of 
Egypt, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 28, 2005
Mr. POE (for himself, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr. SAXTON, Mr. 
PENCE, Mr. WEINER, and Mr. FEENEY) submitted the following resolu-
tion; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the concern of the House of Representatives re-
garding the amount of United States foreign assistance 
provided to Egypt over the past 25 years without mean-
ingful political reforms by the Government of Egypt, 
and for other purposes.
Whereas promoting freedom and democracy in Egypt is a for-
eign policy and national security priority of the United 
States; 
Whereas, despite being the second largest recipient of United 
States foreign assistance, Egypt’s democratic develop-
ment has been extremely limited and its human rights 
record remains poor, according to the Department of
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State’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 
2004; 
Whereas criminal charges by the Government of Egypt 
against democracy activist and presidential candidate 
Ayman Nour have been dismissed as baseless by inde-
pendent Egyptian lawyers and Nour’s trial is still pend-
ing until after the September 2005 Egyptian presidential 
elections; 
Whereas Egyptian authorities continue to mistreat and tor-
ture prisoners, arbitrarily arrest and detain persons, hold 
detainees in prolonged pretrial detention, and occasionally 
engage in mass arrests without charge; 
Whereas the United States Commission on International Reli-
gious Freedom’s 2005 report on Egypt finds that dis-
crimination, intolerance, and other human rights viola-
tions committed by Egyptian authorities affect a broad 
spectrum of Egyptian society, including Muslims, Coptic 
Christians, Jews, Baha’is and members of other religious 
communities; 
Whereas tactics used by Egyptian state security services of 
interference, harassment, and surveillance against ex-
tremists and suspected terrorists are also employed 
against law-abiding members of all religious groups; 
Whereas state of emergency laws permit Egyptian state secu-
rity services to detain individuals, particularly dissident 
Muslims, on charges of ‘‘unorthodox’’ Islamic beliefs and 
state security courts to prosecute those individuals who 
have been charged with insulting the so-called ‘‘heavenly 
religions,’’ Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, or inciting 
sectarian strife;
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Whereas violent attacks on religious minorities, particularly 
Coptic Christians, by militant groups are an ongoing con-
cern and the Government of Egypt has failed in the past 
to provide adequate protection for Christians or their 
property; 
Whereas permits required to build new non-Muslim places of 
worship require the approval of the President of Egypt, 
and repairs to existing non-Muslim places of worship re-
quire the approval of Egyptian governorates, causing 
such places of worship to languish for long periods of 
time under restrictive rules and practices; 
Whereas anti-Semitism in the state-controlled and semi-offi-
cial media of Egypt as well as in the education system 
is prevalent; 
Whereas the Government of Egypt requires all citizens and 
residents to possess an identity card, listing an individ-
ual’s religion with choices limited to Islam, Christianity, 
or Judaism; 
Whereas converts from Islam to another religion have dif-
ficulty obtaining new identity cards when they attempt to 
register their change in religion with Egyptian authorities 
and often face harassment; 
Whereas those converts who alter their own identification 
cards and other official documents to reflect their new re-
ligious affiliation risk being criminally charged with fal-
sifying official documents; 
Whereas all Baha’i institutions and community activities in 
Egypt are banned under a 1960 presidential decree, 
members of the Baha’i faith cannot obtain mandatory 
identity cards unless they list themselves as one of the 
three state-sanctioned religions, and Baha’is have been
•HRES 413 IH 
labeled as apostates by Al-Azhar’s Islamic Research Cen-
ter funded by the Government of Egypt; 
Whereas the Government of Egypt can and should do more 
to protect the right to freedom of religion or belief, in ac-
cordance with international human rights instruments to 
which Egypt is a party, to punish those responsible for 
religiously-motivated violence, and to combat widespread 
and virulent anti-Semitism and other intolerance in the 
media and in the education system; 
Whereas high level officials of the Government of Egypt have 
made public statements for years pledging political re-
forms, yet no discernible improvements are evident; and 
Whereas there are a number of Egyptian policies in place 
that could be repealed immediately and thereby dem-
onstrate the Government of Egypt’s commitment to polit-
ical reform: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) calls on the Government of Egypt to imme-
diately—
(A) meet its obligations under the Uni-
versal Declaration of Human Rights and the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights, to which Egypt is a party; 
(B) repeal the state of emergency and 
allow full access to the constitutional and inter-
national guarantees of the rule of law and due 
process for those individuals charged with vio-
lating section 98(f) of the Egyptian Penal Code,
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which ‘‘prohibits citizens from ridiculing or in-
sulting heavenly religions or inciting sectarian 
strife,’’ instead of having those cases heard by 
the state security courts; 
(C) repeal a 1960 presidential decree ban-
ning members of the Baha’i community from 
practicing their faith; 
(D) take all appropriate steps to prevent 
and punish acts of anti-Semitism, including 
condemnation of anti-Semitic acts, and, while 
vigorously protecting freedom of expression, 
counteract anti-Semitic rhetoric in the govern-
ment-controlled media and other organized anti-
Semitic activities; 
(E) investigate and prosecute acts of vio-
lence against any individuals or groups on the 
basis of their religion; 
(F) implement procedures that would en-
sure that all places of worship are afforded 
equal treatment and protection; and 
(G) reform the national educational cur-
riculum to ensure that textbooks and other ma-
terials exclude any language or images that pro-
mote enmity, intolerance, hatred, or violence to-
•HRES 413 IH 
ward any individual or group of persons based 
on faith, gender, ethnicity, or nationality; and 
(2) calls on the Government of the United 
States to—
(A) seek to negotiate an agreement with 
the Government of Egypt to establish a time-
table, with a set of specific benchmarks for 
progress on political and human rights reforms, 
such that—
(i) if the benchmarks are met by the 
Government of Egypt, the United States 
should consider providing economic assist-
ance in areas where significant progress on 
reform has been made; or 
(ii) if the benchmarks are not met by 
the Government of Egypt, the United 
States should reconsider the dimensions 
and direction of economic assistance to 
Egypt; and 
(B) offer direct assistance to eligible Egyp-
tian human rights and other civil society 
groups, which seek to strengthen nonviolent, 
democratic principles and promote the rule of