CAIRO: A group of Coptic activists outside Egypt have founded what they are calling the Coptic Parliament. Led by Michael Munir – an outspoken activist and spokesman for the so-called parliament, it attempts to unify the myriad Coptic organizations from Egypt to the United States and to Europe. Munir said that they are hoping to establish a global entity capable of bringing together workers and activists in advocating the Coptic position on political and social rights. “The new entity will join individuals and organizations [together] within a political and human rights framework,” the statement from the group read. It added that the independence of each institution or organization within the parliament would be maintained. According to the founding statement, the “Coptic Parliament is imperative because it fills a gap of serious weaknesses that has existed since the beginnings of Coptic activism, namely the lack of political legitimacy and legal bodies elected from the Coptic grassroots movement, and thereby the inability of existing organizations to demonstrate that they are representing Christians legitimately and legally to other countries and international organizations.” In essence, it will be a lobbying body aimed at dealing with foreign governments in pressuring their policy on Egypt. For his part, Munir added that the preparatory committee and the committees “will be elected from the broadest possible base of Coptic names and will be recorded electronically on the Parliament, and the information of its members will be protected as confidential information.” He added that there are clear safeguards against forgery and fraud to ensure one vote for each name as well as a secret code, which will be sent for each registered name. “Through it, the member would be voted for only once and the final conditions would be set by the legal committee,” he said. Munir stressed that the Coptic Parliament is not a separatist call nor a call for hatred or incitement “against our brothers and our homeland, but a compilation of the efforts of Christians to resist the dictatorship and the pressure to create a democratic state for all Egyptian Christians and Muslims, and our sincere cooperation with all the Copts, Muslims to restore the glories of Egypt.” BM
