The US State Department's 2004 International Religious Freedom Report described Egypt as a country that does not provide its citizens with unfettered religious freedom. Reem Nafie leafs through the report The 2004 International Religious Freedom Report, released on 15 September by the US State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, reports Reem Nafie, aims to "examine barriers to religious freedom, note countries where religious freedom conditions have improved, and describe US actions to promote international religious freedom". The part of the report on Egypt began by quoting the Egyptian constitution, which "provides for freedom of belief and the practice of religion"; according to the report, however, the "government places restrictions on this right". The report said that "for the most part" members of the non-Muslim minority worship without harassment. Nonetheless, "abuses and restrictions" still exist. Examples cited by the report included a court's failure to rule on some of the cases related to the 2000 sectarian strife in the southern village of Al-Kosheh that claimed the lives of 20 Copts and one Muslim, and the arrest and alleged torture of nine Shia Muslims in December 2003. In a sub-section titled "Restrictions on Religious Freedom", the report cited as a main problem of religious freedom in Egypt, discrimination between Muslims and Christians when it comes to issues like building and repairing mosques and churches. "Even though mosque and church repairs are now subject to the same laws, enforcement of the laws appears to be much stricter for churches than for mosques," the report said. This is because local permits are still subject to approval by security authorities; hence, permits to build or repair a church are delayed, depending on the attitude of the local security officials and the governor towards the church, and on their personal relationships with the local Christian church's representatives. According to the report, the Interior Ministry was to blame for any delay, as President Hosni Mubarak has "reportedly approved all requests for permits presented to him". Another fundamental problem the report had with Egypt was that the government "continues to try citizens for unorthodox religious beliefs". The arrest of Sayed Tolba, a Sunni Muslim who claimed to be a prophet who received messages from angels and possessed special powers to heal the sick, was cited as an example. Tolba and some of his followers were found guilty of practising religious beliefs that had deviated "from Islamic Shariaa". Other examples included the subjection of members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to arbitrary treatment and pressure, and the banning of books such as Nasr Abu Zeid's Discourse and Interpretations after the Islamic Research Centre said the book "contradicted Islamic tenets". Egypt's 2000-strong Bahai community also found their way into the report. Supposedly, when the Interior Ministry recently began to upgrade its automation of civil records, including national identity cards, Bahais found themselves left out by the new software that was used in the process, which only categorised citizens as Muslims, Christians or Jews. The government's inability to provide Bahais -- whose adherents believe in a Persian prophet named Bahaaullah who is buried in the Palestinian city of Haifa -- with any official documents was regarded as serious discrimination. According to the report, the government has also confiscated all Bahai community properties, including their centres, libraries and cemeteries. In another sub-section titled "Forced Religious Conversion", the report said that although there was no evidence of "forced religious conversion carried out by the government", there were reports of forced conversions of "Coptic girls to Islam by Muslim men". Apparently, such cases never appeared in the local media. The report also said it was very difficult to determine whether force was used, considering most such cases involved young Coptic girls who converted to Islam when marrying Muslim males. However, in cases of marriage between an under-age Christian girl and a Muslim male, "there are credible reports of government harassment, especially by the police, or lack of cooperation with Christian families that attempt to regain custody of their daughters," the report said. Through individual cases in the section entitled "Societal Attitudes", the report tried to show that although Muslims and Christians live as neighbours, "at times religious tensions flare up, individual acts of prejudice occur, and members of both faiths practise discrimination." The report did include a sub-section titled "Improvements and Positive Developments in Respect for Religious Freedom" which explained that the government had taken steps to promote and improve "religious freedom and tolerance". These improvements included interfaith discussions both inside the country and abroad, and the formation of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), headed by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a prominent Copt. Improvements were also made in the media sector, as more "programming time was dedicated to Christian issues", while government and independent papers published a broad spectrum of news and views on religious topics. Locally, there was not much debate over the annual report; the media generally ignored this year's findings. According to sources in the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, an evaluation of the report has been presented to Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul- Gheit. On the other hand, members of the NCHR contacted by Al-Ahram Weekly had not yet read the report. The report designated other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Eritrea and Vietnam as "Countries of Particular Concern", for what it called their severe violations of religious freedom. China, Burma, Iran, North Korea and Sudan were also countries on that list. On the other hand, the report also identified countries that have achieved "significant improvement in the protection and promotion" of religious freedom, including Afghanistan, Georgia,
