United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Egypt=== Prior to the 2001 visit of the USCIRF to [[Egypt]], some [[Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria|Coptic]] leaders in Egypt protested, viewing the visit as a form of [[American imperialism]]. For example, Mounir Azmi, a member of the Coptic Community Council, said that despite problems for [[Copts]], the visit was a "vile campaign against Egypt" and would be unhelpful. Another critic called the visit "foreign intervention in our internal affairs".<ref name="Egypt">[http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/526/eg1.htm "US commission faces closed doors"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031127222008/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/526/eg1.htm |date=November 27, 2003 }}, Omayma Abdel-Latif, ''[[Al-Ahram Weekly]]'', March 22β28, 2001, #526. Accessed on line June 12, 2010.</ref> In the event, the USCIRF was able to meet the [[Coptic Orthodox Pope]] [[Shenouda III]] and [[Mohammed Sayed Tantawi]] of [[Al-Azhar University]], but others refused to meet the delegation. Hisham Kassem, chairman of the [[Egyptian Organization for Human Rights]], felt that insisting on the rights of Christians in Egypt might antagonize Muslims and thus be counterproductive.<ref>[http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/may21/22.28.html "Egypt: Religious Freedom Delegation Gets Cold Shoulder"], Kees Hulsman, ''Christianity Today'', May 21, 2001. Accessed on line June 12, 2010.</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page