Doug Bandow wrote the following for the American Spectator Online back in January:

“Dina Guirguis of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy testified last week before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the House Foreign Affairs Committee: ‘Egypt’s native Christians . . . .are the Middle East’s largest Christian minority but in the past decade have faced an alarming escalation of violence as state protection has dwindled.’ Yet when the Copts attempt to protect themselves, as in the city of Giza last November, the police do intervene — against the victims.

“Guirguis pointed to one case where a judge and his two sons, who were prosecutors, led a mob in destroying a Greek Orthodox church. ‘At least half a dozen murders of Christians by Muslims in the last four years were rendered crimes without punishment due to the refusal of the state to follow the requirements of the rule of law in prosecuting felonies,’ she added. The complicity of security forces and legal officials in violence as well as discrimination demonstrates to all Egyptians that ‘sectarian violence is a crime to be committed with impunity,’ Guirguis warned.

“The government also routinely interferes with Copts simply seeking to live out their faith. The state often refuses to allow construction or repair of churches or other buildings, even those for social functions. Christians have been ordered to take down crosses outside of churches and even charged for private worship without a permit. Moreover, the government has discriminated against Copts when fulfilling its civil role, such as issuing identification cards.

“Egypt’s wretched record is well established. In its report last year on international religious freedom, the State Department observed: ‘Christians and members of the Baha’i faith, which the government does not recognize, face personal and collective discrimination, especially in government employment and their ability to build, renovate, and repair places of worship. The government also sometimes arrested, detained, and harassed Muslims such as Shi’a. Ahmadiyas, Quaranists, converts from Islam to Christianity, and members of other religious groups whose beliefs and/or practices it deemed to deviate from mainstream Islamic beliefs and whose activities it alleged to jeopardize communal harmony.’”