EGYPT USCIRF–RECOMMENDED FOR SPECIAL WATCH LIST KEY FINDINGS I n 2020, religious freedom conditions in Egypt remained largely static. Radical Islamist violence and anti-Christian mob attacks remained serious threats but occurred less frequently than in prior years. Despite some improvements, systematic and ongoing religious inequalities remained affixed in the Egyptian state and society, as various forms of religious bigotry and discrimination continued to plague the country’s Coptic Christians and other religious minorities. In terms of positive trends, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and other officials continued to call for religious inclusivity, albeit less prominently than in the prior two years, including again attending Coptic Orthodox Christmas Mass in January. The Cabinet committee for approving registration of churches and church-related buildings approved 388 such preexisting properties in 2020—a significant decline from 785 in 2019 and 627 in 2018. It has now approved 1,800 of the 5,515 applications received (32.6 percent) since the passage of Law 80/2016, commonly known as the Church Building Law. Several high-profile court cases resulted in the conviction of perpetrators of religiously motivated violence, including the June conviction and sentencing to 15 years in prison of seven individuals for the 2013 burning of a church in Giza. A Court of Appeals ruling in May affirmed the right of Christians to follow their own tradition of inheritance distribution, including gender equality. With the permission and often direct support of the Egyptian government, local and international initiatives furthered efforts to revitalize some non-Muslim religious heritage sites, including the completion of a project to restore the Basatin Cemetery in Cairo, one of the world’s oldest Jewish burial sites. Nevertheless, Egyptian authorities continued to perpetrate or tolerate various forms of systematic and ongoing religious freedom violations. Blasphemy cases continued to disproportionately impact non-Muslims as well as Muslims whose beliefs the state perceived as outside officially accepted interpretations of Sunni Islam. Religious discrimination remained pervasive, including a disparity in policies regarding places of worship, a lack of opportunities for non-Muslims to work in key areas of government service, state security harassment of former Muslims, and recurring incidents of anti-Christian mob violence, particularly in rural areas. For example, reports in 2020 pointed to the exclusion of non-Muslims from the roster of Egypt’s national soccer team, while the Coptic community continued to raise longstanding concerns regarding the potential targeting of Christian women by radical Islamists for abduction and forcible conversion. In December, attackers in Alexandria stabbed one Christian to death and injured two others in what was likely a sectarian incident. Anti-Coptic violence in the Minya towns of Dabous and Barsha in October and November, respectively, illustrated Egypt’s ongoing impunity for sectarian violence, as each incident concluded with a so-called “customary reconciliation council” that absolved the attackers of responsibility. The Egyptian government continued to fall short in balancing domestic security, protection of citizens’ fundamental rights, and economic development, despite a nearly 3 percent decline in poverty in 2020. Security forces continued to struggle with combating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in North Sinai as its self-proclaimed “Sinai Province” carried out operations against government forces and civilians, including the November kidnapping of a Coptic man in Bir al-Abd. Although 2020 saw few incidents of radical Islamist violence elsewhere in the country, the government continued to use counterterrorism as a pretense to repress journalists, human rights and religious freedom advocates, and other members of civil society—even prosecuting some resulting cases through a terrorism court. Such actions directly contradict the government’s assurances that it is working to improve conditions for civil society, including its passage of a revised version of the Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) Law in 2019. RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT • Include Egypt on the U.S. Department of State’s Special Watch List for engaging in or tolerating severe religious freedom violations pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA); • Urge the Egyptian government to 1) take concrete steps toward phasing out the longstanding use of customary reconciliation councils to resolve incidents of sectarian mob violence, 2) repeal decrees banning Baha’is and Jehovah’s Witnesses, 3) remove religion from official identity documents, 4) pass laws consistent with article 53 of Egypt’s constitution; and 5) repeal Article 98(f) of the Criminal Code, which penalizes “ridiculing or insulting a heavenly religion or a sect following it,” and in the interim limit the conditions under which the law is applied and allow charged individuals to post bail; • Encourage Egypt to expedite approval of church registrations under Law 80 of 2016; • Allocate a portion of U.S. assistance to programs supporting efforts to promote KEY USCIRF RESOURCES & ACTIVITIES • Press Statement: USCIRF Condemns Egypt’s Detention of Mohamed Basheer, Ramy Kamel 66 USCIRF | ANNUAL REPORT 2021 greater religious inclusivity throughout the country as well as to reform public school curriculum and teacher training; and • Conduct a comprehensive review of all U.S. assistance to Egypt and require the State Department to provide explicit justification for the release of any previously withheld Foreign Military Financing (FMF), including public disclosure of justification for its certification of Egypt’s progress toward improving human rights and religious freedom conditions.