Egypt Official Opposes U.S. Bill on Religion

One of two Christians in the Egyptian Cabinet said Monday that he will lobby the U.S. Congress against American legislation to penalize countries that persecute religious minorities or fail to stop atrocities by members of a dominant faith.

Youssef Boutros-Ghali, Egypt’s economy minister and a nephew of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, said the proposed U.S. religious liberty law would deflect efforts to ease religious tension in Egypt and produce a backlash against outside interference.

“I will decide if I am discriminated against,” Boutros-Ghali, a member of the Coptic denomination, Egypt’s largest Christian group, told reporters. “Maybe [the legislation] solves domestic political problems here in the United States, but leave me out of it. It deflects us from addressing the problems that exist.”

Boutros-Ghali said he will try to buttonhole Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), the primary sponsor of the legislation, which calls for the imposition of trade sanctions on offending countries, and staffers of key congressional committees.

The bill, which also would bar U.S. aid to offending countries, has drawn strong backing from American religious conservatives but is opposed by the Clinton administration.

As introduced last year, Wolf’s bill was aimed primarily at atrocities committed against Christians. Although the measure has since been amended to make it apply to all religious-based persecution, its backers continue to focus primarily on mistreatment of Christians in China, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and North Korea--where religious liberty is denied as a matter of government policy.

But the bill also would cover countries that fail to prevent members of the majority religion from persecuting others. Although those countries have not been identified in the proposed legislation, a Capitol Hill staffer said Egypt could be included because the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, which is officially neutral on matters of faith, has not done enough to protect religious minorities. “We don’t say that Egypt will be sanctioned, but we believe Egypt should be looked at,” the staffer said.

Last year, Muslim mobs killed two groups of Christians, one in a church. In parts of southern Egypt, Islamic militants extract large sums of “protection” money from their Christian neighbors. And the leader of the banned but influential Muslim Brotherhood has suggested that Christians be kept out of the Egyptian military.

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Boutros-Ghali, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former official of the International Monetary Fund, was in Washington for talks about the Egyptian economy with State and Treasury department officials. “I’m not saying that everything is hunky-dory with Christians--it isn’t,” he said.

“But outside pressure won’t help. . . . I will ally myself with the nearest Muslim against someone from Congress trying to interfere,” he said.

Reminded that religious prejudice is usually cited as the reason why his uncle never was named Egyptian foreign minister, despite a distinguished career in the foreign service, Boutros-Ghali replied that he is a full member of the Egyptian Cabinet--its youngest.

The religious persecution bill, co-sponsored by Wolf and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), has stalled on Capitol Hill despite a growing post-Cold War concern about sectarian strife. “We thought it would be a slam dunk,” said one backer. “Who supports religious persecution?”

The administration opposes the bill because of provisions that would automatically trigger economic sanctions against countries that meet certain criteria.

The legislation would establish a new religious liberty czar in the White House to determine which countries should be sanctioned. “Every single country is different,” a senior administration official said. “There is no single way to handle persecution.”

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright last year created a high-level State Department post to ensure religious freedom concerns are addressed in U.S. foreign policy.