Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I congratulate the members for Hughes, Holt, Berowra and Chifley for raising this issue and for their excellent points of view. As the member for Holt pointed out, it was New Years Eve this year when Egyptian Christians were celebrating at the Saints Church in East Alexandria when 22 men and women were killed and 98 people severely injured in that Jihadist suicide attack on Alexandria's premier Coptic church. The Copts represent 10 per cent of the 80 million people of Egypt, and are the largest Christian community remaining in the Middle East. They are a link to ancient Egypt, because their Coptic language is the last remanent of the language of the hieroglyphs. Their culture and traditions predate Islam. The attack was not isolated and came after months of escalating violence against the Copts in Egypt, some of which continues to this day and to which the member for Berowra referred. Many of the victims of this atrocity have relatives in Australia, where the Coptic community is 80,000 strong. Violence against the Copts in the Middle East has consequences here too. On Coptic Christmas, 7 January, four churches in Sydney were listed amongst 64 worldwide as targets by Al-Qaeda. We have seen attacks on Christian churches on 5 March in the village of Sol after a report of a romantic relationship between a Christian man and a Muslim woman; the killing of nine Coptic Christians protesting in the Mokattam Hills by a mob while the Egyptian military stood by; and the Imbaba Church attacks on 7 May 2011 against the Coptic Christian Church in Saint Mina.

The dramatic attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt had, as I said, that immediate consequence in Australia—the possibility of churches here being attacked. The Jerusalem-based reporters of Australia, unfortunately, have not given this sufficient attention in my view. As a leading writer on the Middle East in the Atlantic Monthly noted, this coverage of the siege under which Christianity finds itself in the Middle East was a 'lackadaisical coverage' of the most important story coming out of the area now.

Just last October—we have to set this in context—Al Qaeda boasted of its slaughter in a Baghdad church. There Jihadists murdered 58 men, women and children in church, including priests who were praying at the altar. Eighty per cent of Iraqi Christians have had to flee the country because it has been targeted by Al Qaeda and Iraq.

Christians are also under siege in the Palestinian territories. Counterintuitively to the stereotypical world view of the Middle East, only Israel has seen the number of Christians increase, from 34,000 in 1948 to 152,000, according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics report of 2010. I would hope that Oxfam, World Vision and all of the other aid agencies that are so concerned about this part of the world would speak out on behalf of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, including the Christians in Egypt. We have heard too little from those agencies on that.

In contrast, Pope Benedict of the Catholic Church insisted that the Egyptian government had to do more to protect its religious minorities. The former leader of Egypt's maladroit response to his Holiness the Pope was to withdraw the Egyptian ambassador to the Vatican. Pope Benedict argued, 'Words are not enough in confronting religious intolerance, there must be a concrete and constant effort by the world's nations.' In contrast to Mubarak, US President Obama and French President Sarkozy specifically denounced the anti-Coptic violence.

I am pleased that the member for Berowra and members of the Liberal Party have been attending to the Coptic community in Sydney. Similarly, in Melbourne I took part in a very serious meeting with all of the Coptic fathers, including Bishop Suriel. This meeting was led on the government side by Minister Martin Ferguson. It was a very useful meeting. We have to continue the non-partisan policy of support for the Coptic community in Australia. I pay particular tribute to my good friend Peter Khalil, the former national security adviser to the member for Griffith, who is a Coptic Christian himself. Peter Day, writing in the Australian Spectator, noted that the violence against Egypt's Christians meant its fate was on the line.

Homegrown Jihadists are what we in Australia have the most to fear from in their attacks on the Christian and Coptic churches. I want to congratulate all of the people who spoke in this debate. This is a very serious issue. The fate of Egypt will be partially determined by how Coptic Christians are treated by that country in the future.

Debate adjourned

Sitting suspended from 13:18 to 16:00

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