CAIRO: More Egyptian groups are joining calls for a nationwide Coptic Christian strike on Friday, September 11, in an effort to protest what Coptic groups abroad have called the “mistreatment” of the minority religious group in the country. The Coptic American Assembly led by Camille Halim announced on Saturday that their organization is willing to join the peaceful strike. Their support follows the Egyptian Coptic Christians in Europe announcement on Friday to join the calls by American Copts for the “blackout” this Friday. According to calls from Morris Sadek's National American Coptic Assembly for all Copts in Egypt to remain at home on Friday and wear “black” if they must go out in public. The assembly said in a statement that they joined the call for the strike in order to achieve “justice for the Egyptian Christians” and to stop what the statement called “the Egyptian government's disregard of their cases and discrimination against them.” However, the Coptic Church of Egypt has said they will not back the strike and have called on their members not to join the demonstrations, as it could “lead to furthering the sectarian tensions in the country.†The statement argued that the demands of the Copts are legitimate. Among the demands are calls for a unified common law for the construction of houses of worship and the cancellation of the customary meetings of reconciliation between Muslims and Christians following a sectarian dispute or violence, “which leads to the repetition and lack of enforcing the law.” The group also called on releasing any priests that are jailed in Egypt. Also joining the strike was the homegrown Egyptian Liberal Party – a party that has yet to be formally accepted in the Egyptian political system – stressing in a statement the “right of Copts to pressure the Egyptian regime to reach their legitimate rights,” adding that the “Copts of Egypt suffer from discrimination against them,” arguing that “the political Islam has become more stringent, and denied the right of Copts as citizens.” The statement was published on the group's Facebook page and explained that the Copts “calls for the strike of September 11th, is a peaceful [action] to alert the civilized community of their rights that must be preserved.” The statement added that “the rights of Copts should not be subject to the consent of decision-makers.” Echoing previous calls by Coptic groups, the party said that Copts are an essential part of Egyptian society and “they have all the rights as citizens, which is represented in the building of churches just like the right of Muslims to build mosques and they have the right to take all jobs and positions from the least job to the presidency of the republic.” In related news, Engineer Adel Fakhry Daniel, the Chairman of the Coptic Integrity Party – also under establishment – rejected joining the strike, describing the general Coptic strike on the Coptic new year as “unworthy.” He stressed that the strike would not be effective, especially in light of the conditions experienced by Christians, but would “cause a crisis between the Church.” Daniel described the strike as “a silly game and childish maneuvers,” due to the lack of clear objectives. “Although the Copts have a lot of problems, led by the building of churches problems, we hope that the state would intervene to solve them,” he added. Daniel called on Copts not to participate in these proceedings, which would “threaten” the security of Egypt and endanger the minority group's claims. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
