report Justice Denied, Promises Broken: The Situation of Egypt's Minorities Since 2014 A nun cries as she stands at the scene inside Cairo's Coptic cathedral, following a bombing, in Egypt December 11, 2016. Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh Acknowledgements Minority Rights Group International This report has been produced with the financial assistance Minority Rights Group International (MRG) is a of the European Union and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of non-governmental organization (NGO) working to secure the Netherlands. The contents of this report are the sole the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and responsibility of Minority Rights Group International and can indigenous peoples worldwide, and to promote cooperation under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the and understanding between communities. 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Mohamed Azmy, Nourredine Bessadi and Mina Thabet have contributed to this report. © Minority Rights Group International (MRG), January 2019 All rights reserved Material from this publication may be reproduced for teaching or for other non-commercial purposes. No part of it may be reproduced in any form for commercial purposes without the prior express permission of the copyright holders. For further information please contact MRG. A CIP catalogue record of this publication is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-912938-10-0. Published January 2019. Justice Denied, Promises Broken: The Situation of Egypt's Minorities Since 2014 is published by MRG as a contribution to public understanding of the issue which forms its subject. The text and views of the author do not necessarily represent in every detail and all its aspects, the collective view of MRG. Justice Denied, Promises Broken: The Situation of Egypt's Minorities Since 2014 Contents Key Findings 2 Map 3 Executive Summary 4 Recognized Religious Minorities 6 Unrecognized Religious Groups 17 Ethnic Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 22 Conclusion and Recommendations 33 Notes 36 Key findings Key findings • The drafting of Egypt’s 2014 Constitution was • The Nubian population, displaced from their ancestral welcomed by many activists as a potential milestone land for decades, were promised resettlement in their for the country’s minorities. However, while the final territory and community-led development in the 2014 text failed to resolve many long-standing issues, its Constitution. Since then, the government has put the more progressive provisions have also been poorly legislation on their return on hold and instead opened up implemented or wholly overlooked by the government swathes of their territory to investment. Meanwhile, the of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. As a result, the long discriminated communities of North Sinai continue situation for many communities has not significantly to contend with a brutal and indiscriminate counter- improved since then, despite the government’s official terrorism campaign that has destroyed thousands of rhetoric of inclusion and reform. buildings, displaced hundreds of thousands of predominantly Bedouin civilians and left many struggling with a growing humanitarian crisis. • The Christian population, the largest religious minority, • Underlying these challenges is the issue of access to enjoys official recognition alongside Sunni Islam and justice and the difficulties that members of minority Judaism in the Constitution. Yet in practice, its communities in particular experience in securing the members continue to face difficulties around the protection of police and the judiciary, as well as the wider construction and renovation of churches, frequently respect of the Egyptian government and the ability to resulting in outbreaks of communal violence that in participate freely in Egyptian society. If Egypt is to realize turn can result in mass displacement, arson and other its promise of a more equitable and inclusive approach to abuses. Other communities, such as Bahá’í, are still governance, it must first take meaningful action to not recognized and face severe restrictions not only in resolve these problems. the right to worship but also their ability to access documentation or legally register their marriages. 2 JUSTICE DENIED, PROMISES BROKEN: THE SITUATION OF EGYPT'S MINORITIES SINCE 2014 JUSTICE DENIED, PROMISES BROKEN: THE SITUATION OF EGYPT'S MINORITIES SINCE 2014 3 Executive summary After decades of authoritarian rule and the political by the reluctance of some officials to enforce its more upheaval that followed the 2011 uprising against the progressive provisions. For example, while the law regime of President Hosni Mubarak, many hoped that the stipulates that buildings active as places of worship prior drafting of Egypt’s 2014 Constitution represented a to August 2016 should not be forcibly closed, police have milestone for the country and the prospect of a more continued to close ‘unlicensed’ churches in response to secure future for all its citizens, regardless of faith, complaints from Muslim neighbours. As a result, the issue ethnicity or gender. But notwithstanding a number of of church construction remains a source of frequent important provisions, covering key issues such as church communal conflict targeting Christians, leading to construction, the resettlement of displaced Nubians and vandalism, violence and displacement from their homes. personal status, the text failed to transcend many long- Security officials have at times overseen informal standing discriminatory elements that have served to ‘reconciliation sessions’ that typically favour Muslims over marginalize minority communities for generations. Even Christians and frequently result in the eviction of the more troubling, however, is the reluctance of the Egyptian latter from their homes. government to honour many of the responsibilities The failure of the 2014 Constitution to recognize other enshrined in the Constitution and its willingness in some religions has also had devastating implications for those cases to act in direct opposition to them. Egyptians whose faith is excluded from its protections. Egypt’s religious diversity, encompassing Christian, Bahá’í, who have struggled in recent years with barriers in Jewish and Bahá’í communities as well as a range of securing identification documents due to their lack of Muslim sects such as Shi’a, Ahmadis and Quranists, is recognition, are still not acknowledged and face challenges matched by the rich history of its many ethnic groups, in legally registering their marriages. Non-Sunni Muslims, including Amazigh, Bedouin and Nubians, indigenous in such as Shi’a, Ahmadis and Quranists, are also the region for centuries. Their contribution to the unrecognized and face serious restrictions in their ability country’s cultural life, however, has been largely sidelined to worship freely. There are currently no Shi’a by years of ‘Arabization’ that has explicitly elevated the congregation halls in Egypt, for example, and Shi’a identity of the Arab and Sunni Muslim majority at the practitioners continue to be harassed by police and expense of its minorities. This report, Justice Denied, security officials. Shi’a, along with Ahmadis and Promises Broken: The Situation of Egypt's Minorities Since Quranists, are also regularly subjected to hate speech by 2014, examines how the legacy of this discrimination officials, representatives of the religious body Al-Azhar and continues to this day and the specific issues that different media outlets. communities have experienced between 2014 and 2018. Alongside religious discrimination, Egypt’s ethnic While Article 64 of the 2014 Constitution guarantees minorities have seen little improvement since 2014, freedom of belief, as in previous texts this is restricted to including its indigenous Nubian community, who have the three ‘heavenly religions’ of Islam, Christianity and been displaced from their ancestral territory for Judaism. In practice, though, both Christian and Jewish generations. This was despite guarantees in Article 236 of Egyptians have faced a range of restrictions not only in the Constitution that the state would prioritize the their right to worship but other areas of civil and political resettlement of the Nubian population and the life as well. Christians, in particular, have long contended development, with their participation, of the region. Since with restrictions on their ability to build or renovate then, however, the government has stepped back from this churches. Article 235 appeared to address this issue by commitment and instead taken a number of steps to open calling for a law to be passed in the first legislative term by up areas of Nubian territory to investment without the the House of Representatives