Israel not the only ally unhappy over State Department religion report
Egypt is furious over a US State Department report that accuses the United States top ally in the Arab world of preventing the free practice of religion. A spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry told reporters on Saturday that no country should give itself the right to act as a monitoring body on other sovereign nations. “Each country can understand its own problems and challenges and work on them efficiently,” the spokesman said in a statement.The Egyptians have a point, but their behavior is so flagrant that it's difficult not to comment about it. They're right that the Americans don't always know what's going on in a given country, but in the Egyptians' case, it's pretty easy to figure out.
Egypt is found on a list of 30 nations where “violations of religious freedom have been noteworthy” in the report’s Executive Summary.
The United States itself does not appear on the list; according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, reports on domestic violations of religious freedom are prepared and issued separately and periodically throughout the year.
Striking was the lack of any mention of the harassment, official and otherwise, visited upon the small Jewish community in Egypt.
Labels: Christian Copts, Egypt, freedom of religion, US State Department
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:13 AM
1 Comments:
Yup.
Speaking of religious freedom, the State Department might want to take a look at the state of it at home.
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