THE CANADIAN LEBANESE HUMAN RIGHTS FEDERATION (CLHRF)

E.mail: clhrf@yahoo.com
Web Site: www.clhrf.com
Phone & Fax:  (905) 270-0565

Toronto - Canada
December 7/2004

For immediate Release

Stop the oppression against Egyptian Christians

The CLHRF strongly condemns the oppression, harassment, pressures and atrocities, the Egyptian Christians are currently encountering in Egypt. What the Egyptian authorities is brutally inflicting on its Christian citizens is a flagrant infringement to the International Human Rights Convent, United Nations Charter of Rights, and to every and each international law and covenant.

The Egyptian Christians have been enduring with faith for a long time, in their own country, all kinds of persecution and pain, that no other Christian community in any other country have encountered. Their solid and strong faith, as well as their courage, have been, and still are, their Godly undefeatable means of tolerance, and witnessing for the truth.

The suspicious and questionable strategy that the Egyptian authorities is presently using in handling the crime of kidnapping the wife of a Coptic Orthodox Christian priest, under the pretext that she has converted to Islam, and has married willingly a Muslim man, is a crime that can not be ignored, and no human mind can let go without just intervention and condemnation.

The CLHRF calls on the Egyptian Authorities to put an immediate end to its on going hideous endeavors aiming to force its Christian citizens into converting to Islam. There is no law in the 21th Century that permits such obsolete and savage "Ottomani" atrocities.This official Egyptian conduct is not acceptable in an era where countries and people are judged according to their commitment and honoring to the International Human Rights Covenant, and the United Nations Charter of Rights.

The CLHRF calls on the Canadian government, the Free World countries, The United Nations, the Human Rights organizations, the Religious authorities, and on the Vatican in particular, to take a clear stance in regards to the atrocities committed against the Egyptian Christians, and to advocate for their freedom and safety with no fear or hesitation.

Those who witness for the truth, truth will save them.

Spokesman
Elias Bejjani