Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I bring this private member’s motion to the House because it goes to an issue of great concern to the Coptic community in Australia but also to the broader community both here and overseas. The House would be aware of the most recent violence against the Coptic community in Egypt. During a New Year’s Eve service marking the beginning of 2011, innocent members of Egypt’s Coptic community, while observing mass at the Al-Qiddissin Church, the Church of the Two Saints, in Alexandria, were violently attacked by a series of bombings that killed 23 people and wounded 80 others. This unprovoked attack against Coptic Christians came after a series of ongoing threats from extremist groups who do not value freedom of religion or human life. The violence shocked the international community and deeply disturbed our local Coptic community. Of course, this incident was not the first attack on the Coptic community in Egypt but it was one of the most devastating and fatal. The Coptic community of Egypt is the largest Christian community in the Middle East. Copts are very much the indigenous people of Egypt that trace their lineage back to the ancient Egyptians and belong to one of the earliest Christian churches, but today theirs is a minority religion in Egypt.

The Coptic community here in Australia is significant in size. It began its migration following Egypt’s independence in 1953 and has continued to migrate here ever since. Coptic migration was characterised by an urban and highly educated people with skills and qualifications that fare better than those of the average population in Australia. The Coptic community continues to adhere strongly to its faith organised largely around the Coptic Church and has about 80,000 followers here in Australia. This is a devout and highly successful community and is now in its second and third generations. Coolaroo in my electorate is home to St Mary’s Coptic Orthodox College, which was officially opened by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St Mark, in 1991. The school’s director, Father Tadros Sharobeam, has overseen the development of a thriving school dedicated to academic excellence within the principles of the Coptic Orthodox faith.

The attacks on Copts in Egypt have drawn strong condemnation here in Australia from faith leaders in particular. I want to join with the Australian government and other members in this place in condemning the killing of innocent people, and to say that religious persecution is the single most virulent threat to humanity and to world peace. It is therefore heartening to see the Muslim community both in Egypt and beyond standing together with their Coptic compatriots against those who threaten our stability and our humanity. The Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram in January this year reported that ‘Muslims turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass Thursday night, offering their bodies and lives as shields to Egypt’s threatened Christian community’. The values underpinning orthodox belief systems are shared by humanity at large, including their Muslim compatriots, which only exacerbates the impact of what has happened because we can all, regardless of the faith or the beliefs we hold, share and feel the injustice of what has occurred.

In calling for religious tolerance I would like to commend the leadership displayed by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, who issued public statements during the crisis. I would like to quote from Pope Shenouda. He says: ‘Problems can be solved with steady, calm representation and not with violent action. The unity of Muslims and Christians against the terrorist acts and the spirit that was created between both groups was admirable. The solidarity between Muslims and Christian citizens is certainly invaluable.’

Fortunately, we do not have such persecution and discrimination against people on the basis of faith or ethnicity in this country. Here in this country we have built strong interfaith networks that underpin our own unique brand of multiculturalism. Our tolerance and our overall democratic way of life are our greatest assets and we have built cohesion and unity. Indeed, the Coptic community, like other migrant communities, have thrived and are a significant part of the Australian community. As such, I would also like to take the opportunity to commend the leadership of His Grace Bishop Suriel of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Melbourne and Affiliated Regions, who has been a strong advocate of ecumenism and interfaith understanding, leading his community with strength and compassion.

The plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt serves as a reminder of how important it is for all of us to rise to the challenge and help build bridges through interfaith and intercommunity dialogue. It reminds us how important it is to protect minority rights and hose down the flames of community division. Whether or not multiculturalism can be extrapolated to other national and social contexts, this violent form of sectarianism must be opposed, with an end to all forms of religious discrimination and the promotion of democratic rights for all. (Time expired)

Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome this opportunity to speak on this motion. I thank Father Abdelmalek of the church of St Mark and St George in Wanneroo for his assistance and guidance. It is certainly the case that sharia law in any form has no place in a modern society. It is a leftover of mediaeval days. The only laws of the modern age are laws passed by a democratically elected government of the people. This motion is about the vicious and cowardly attack on the Coptic Orthodox church of St Paul and St Peter on New Year’s Day at 12.20 am. This motion is about the murder of 24 innocent and peace-loving worshippers who were targeted by Islamic extremists following months of incitement by Islamic scholars who were allowed to air their hatred on television and evilly inspire murder in their vicious protests against the Coptic Church and Coptic Pope, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III.

The events of the last four months were sadly not isolated events. There has been an orchestrated campaign of persecution and violent against the church and its followers for many years. It is always the way that corrupt government and increasingly irrelevant ideologies seek to shore up their positions by identifying scapegoats on which they can lay the blame for a multitude of political, economic and even religious failures. Egypt is exactly such an example. On 12 February I attended the Coptic Orthodox Church’s ecumenical prayer service at the Roman Catholic cathedral in Perth, St Mary’s. It was on the day that the President of Egypt finally stood down, and it would be true to say that the church held some hope for a better future in Egypt. Tragically, I do not see much cause to be hopeful of a better future. I understand that article 2 of the Egyptian constitution will remain in the new constitution, and it reads: ‘Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic is its official language. The principles of Islamic law are the principal source of legislation.’ And herein is the problem.

I believe that a change to this article is fundamental to any reform and to safeguarding rights and freedom of religious worship. But such a change seems to be out of the question now, because it seems that the Muslim Brotherhood have hijacked the revolution and that they will see that Egypt remains an Islamic state, based on Islamic sharia law and dominated by a Sunni Muslim government. I cannot see a better future ahead for Egypt, because the fundamental changes, the reforms and the democracy necessary remain elusive. I attended that prayer service on 12 February, a day of such hope for the future, but just four days later, on the 16th, the church of St George in Rafah was attacked, being torched and graffitied with sayings such as ‘No to Christians in Muslim land’. On the next day, the 17th, Muslims attacked Christians inside the church of St Georges in the village of el-Hathatah. It has been reported that the attack was prompted by the church building a roof over the courtyard between the church and its community services building, within the fenced church compound, in order to make more space for the congregation. Muslims surrounded the church and hurled stones. The armed forces were called out but without response—another example of security forces failing to do their duty and to protect all their citizens equally.

Nothing has really changed since President Mubarak left office. Religious persecution and intolerance remain institutionalised in Egypt. We have seen it in the constitution. We have seen it in the actions, or rather the inactions, of security forces. We also see it in the form of Egyptian identity cards that require the holder’s religion to be printed on them. The lack of action in identifying and prosecuting those who incite violence and those who commit violence against the Copts is evidence of the real need for fundamental change.

There are more than 10 million Copts in Egypt—10 million out of around 80 million, as much as 18 per cent. That is no small number, no tiny group. It is a huge number of people who are crying out for their rights as citizens to be protected and for fundamental change that will revolutionise the laws, institutions and behaviours of authorities in Egypt. This motion is about expressing our condolences regarding the brutality and the violence, but it is also about expressing our condemnation of those acts and the persecution that continues every day in Egypt. I condemn those responsible for orchestrating and committing those atrocities. I condemn them for their genocide and their spiritual corruption that encourages attacks on the defenceless, but I believe that those who stand and do nothing are also worthy of my condemnation.

Everyone has a right to their own religious faith, but no-one has the right to impose their own faith on others or to persecute those who do not follow the same faith. I will finish by quoting a speech from 12 February 2011 by the Coptic Orthodox priest in Perth, Father Abraam Abdelmalek. He said of Australian politicians: ‘Australians have elected you to protect this country and its culture, not to please or fear certain groups of people who have a loud voice and want to demolish our Christian heritage.’ I think that is a lesson that we should heed.

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, I thank you for assisting me to be able to make this speech today. We have all seen the events in Egypt over the last month unfold before our eyes and on our TVs. We saw the people power of many young people, it seems, standing up for what they believe is right. This is inspirational in some ways, in no small part because of the known risk that these protesters took in challenging the established authority, the risk of beatings, imprisonment and even torture and death if they did not succeed. We have heard accounts of the protesters who knew that, if their revolution did not succeed, their lives would be in peril. If the established order continued to rule as it had, those protesters knew to expect the police force to quietly round them up, tracking them down through their communities and by other means in the months following the protests. Life and liberty were truly in the balance. As it happened, the protesters were successful in removing the old order. Those who expressed their desire to live with dignity, with their voice being heard, without fear or reprisal; those who said that oppression could not last; those who said that the abuse of civil liberties was totally unacceptable—those people have much to look forward to.

But hundreds of thousands of Coptic Orthodox Christian Egyptians who have similarly endured the absence of human rights, who have been intimidated, have been beaten, have had private property destroyed and have even been gunned down in public for no other reason than exercising their religion, may not be as optimistic as many others over the last few weeks. Those who have fought and won under the banner of democracy and human rights must honour their victory by acknowledging and actively supporting the most fundamental of modern democratic tenets, the equal status of all citizens under the law.

I have spoken before in this place on this subject. I have spoken on behalf of the fears and outrage of the Coptic Orthodox Christians living in and around my electorate of Hindmarsh and those further afield who are concerned by the persecution of Coptic Christians that has taken place in Egypt. Father Philoppos Y Boghdadi of Adelaide’s St Mary and Anba Bishoy Coptic Orthodox Church, in my electorate, and his congregation have had their representations to me echoed by media reports of almost unbelievable acts of violence upon their fellow Coptic Christians in Egypt. Any of us has been able to read of whole congregations—as we have heard previous speakers speak about—being attacked while worshipping in their churches and being put under siege by criminals hell-bent on slaughtering as many Coptic Christian Egyptians as they can. We saw during Christmas time the events that took place in Alexandria. Just before the Egyptian protests, the trial of one such murderous person had come to its conclusion. The crime in question was one of the very, very few that have gone all the way through the criminal justice system to conviction. Usually there has been no justice, there has been no application of law and there has been an absolute dearth of order.

So I would like through this motion for the parliament to acknowledge the atrocities that have taken place in Egypt against the Coptic Orthodox Christians over the years. I would like this parliament to acknowledge that Christianity within Egypt has been grounds in many Egyptians’ minds for acute discrimination and nonobservance of human rights. As I said, I hope this parliament, through this and subsequent discussions and communications, communicates its support for the democratic, peaceful change that has been instigated by protestors to continue and to apply for the benefit of all Egyptians irrespective of their ethnicity, their gender or, especially in this case, their religion. I too join with others in this House and with the government in condemning the killings that have taken place over Christmas and at other times against the Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt. We know that the Christian community in Egypt is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. In fact, monastic life was first founded in Egypt, in St Anthony’s monastery—which still exists today. (Time expired)

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker Vamvakinou, I congratulate you on this motion, firstly for supporting the Orthodox Coptic Christians of Egypt, who represent one of the great and abiding religious traditions in this world today, and secondly for drawing attention to the broader challenges in Egypt and across the Middle East more generally. I will proceed as I did earlier in addressing the Western Sahara issue: by looking at a framework for analysing this, firstly in terms of religious freedom, secondly in terms of the evolution of events in the Middle East and North Africa and thirdly in terms of the specific harm, damage and mistreatment of the Orthodox Coptic Christians of Egypt.

Let me begin with religious freedom. We stand resolutely and firmly as a political movement on my side and as a parliament on both sides for religious freedom, for religious tolerance and for freedom of worship, both in Australia and across the globe. That is who we are, that is where we stand and that is where we will stand. In that context, one of the great challenges we have seen in the Middle East—whether in the treatment of the southern Sudanese, who had a mixture of animist and Christian beliefs in a more broadly Islamic society, whether through the confessional process of Lebanon or whether through the divides between Israeli citizens and those who live in Gaza or Palestine and in the West Bank—the lack of religious tolerance has been an extraordinary issue. Right now, as we see, there is a great movement in the Middle East. As I noted earlier today, it is a movement whose end will not be certain. What I do know is this: firstly, the era of the strongman, authoritarian leader will progressively crumble. It will not be universal. It will not be immediate. Some states may fall. It may be that we see the fall of a Gaddafi in coming weeks. It may be that he lasts a lot longer. It may be that we see transition towards some form of constitutional democracy in Bahrain.

But what we will see is the progressive, albeit imperfect, transition of the Middle East away from the strongman leader. What is uncertain is whether this will then lead to an outbreak of religious extremism if certain parties or movements gain control in any of these countries or whether it will lead to the triumph of what you might call the Google generation. There is no doubt that whilst the Muslim Brotherhood was a factor on the streets in Egypt, the Google generation—the aspiration of young people, the aspiration of not just the educated groups but of many of those who have been denied access to education—was the paramount force.

The form which this future government will take is unknown. The form which other future governments in the Middle East will take is also unknown. That is where this motion plays such an important part. It is about the notion that we have to foster and support plural society in terms of acceptance of different ethnicity, acceptance of different race and acceptance, in particular, of different religious groupings within the Middle East.

We have a role, but let us not overstate our role and overreach, because we can do damage if we overreach. Our role, in my view, is to set the ground work—to be part of a broader international coalition which talks about religious freedom and accepting difference, accepting tolerance, accepting that there will be diversity within these states. The origins of many of these states date back to the decolonisation period post the First World War and, more generally, post the Second World War. In order to protect the Coptics in Egypt, we have to do all that we can to establish a climate, a culture, where there is an acceptance of diversity and difference and where there is, above all else, celebration of diversity and difference. The Egyptian Coptics have been treated badly, but they have hope under the new state and we must do all that we can through activities such as this to lend them and the new Middle East our support.

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.