CAIRO: In a letter to American President Barack Obama, US Coptic organizations have called for the expulsion of the Egyptian Ambassador to Washington as violence against Christians in Egypt continues. The America in Arabic news agency said that the American Coptic Union and others called for, in a letter sent to the U.S president Barack Obama, the State Department and to members of Congress “expelling the Egyptian Ambassador to Washington, Sameh Shukry. However, the letter included the name of the current Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy instead of Shukry’s name. The organization also sent a letter to Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and members of Congress and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, demanding the expulsion of the Egyptian Ambassador in Washington, “Sameh Fahmy.†The error was repeated five times in the letter, “where it always referred to the Egyptian ambassador as Fahmy, instead of “Shukry,” the news agency said. The organization accused the Egyptian Ambassador of speaking to the press and saying statements they deemed untrue of the realities on the ground in Egypt. They “considered that these statements would cause more massacres, rape and kidnapping of the Coptic Christians in Egypt,†the letter stated. Coptic leaders abroad have been ardent in their calls for greater American involvement and pressure on the Egyptian government to end what they repeatedly say are attacks against Copts in the country. In late February, Coptic leader Magdi Khalil called on the Jewish community in the US to support the Coptic Christian cause against what he termed was the “occupying†Arab government. BM
