EGYPT'S Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mufied Shehab on Thursday played down reports about the presence of sectarian strife in Egypt, saying sporadic clashes between Muslims and Christians were about isolated actions that should not be considered Phenomenon. Shehab said radical religious discourse and extremist thoughts were behind violence, but still people did not need to blow things out of proportion. "This isn't to say that sectarian violence isn't present at all," the minister told media who came to listen to his briefing about Egypt's new report to the UN Human Rights' Council. But this might not be the viewpoint harboured by several local and international organisations, which have been citing rising sectarian tensions in Egypt, a country where a Christian Coptic minority makes up 10 per cent of the population. Local NGO the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights cited rising tensions and attacks against Egypt's christians over the last three months in its latest report, which was released four days ago. Shehab said Egypt's report to the Human Rights' Council covered sensitive issues, such as the capital punishment, police torture, and freedom of religion. According to him, overpopulation and lack of awareness posed real challenges to improving Egypt's human rights record. The report was sent to Geneva in November, but the board of the council had queries about it, Shehab said. He added that the council staff asked about if Egypt could remove the capital punishment from its penal code and replace it with the life sentence. "They also had questions about press freedoms, the need to have foreign monitoring over elections, and the emergency law," Shehab said. These were also sticky issues for Egypt's human rights groups as well. These groups say the Government has disregarded vital violations in its report to the Human Rights Council, including the emergency law that has been in place since 1981 too. "We're ready to answer all questions about the report," Shehab said. "We've already prepared the answers," he added.
