Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this important and most timely motion. In advance I thank all the other speakers who will follow my contribution here today. I also thank my coalition parliamentary colleagues who have supported me in this motion.

Egypt is currently experiencing a period of unprecedented transition, the success of which hinges on full respect for the rule of law and compliance with international human rights standards, including freedom of religion. However, while the world has been preoccupied with the so-called 'Arab Spring' little, if any, attention has been paid to the increased persecution of Christians and religious intolerance in the Muslim Middle East.

Coptic Christians are the descendants of the original inhabitants of Egypt. They descend from the pharaohs, who built the classic Egyptian civilization along the Nile Valley in cities such as Luxor, and the builders of the Great Pyramid of Giza, which remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years. The Copts have a long and proud history as Christians, which dates back to the fourth century. In the year 641 AD, when the Arab Muslims invaded Egypt, Christianity was the majority religion in Roman Egypt. Despite the political upheaval following the invasion, Egypt remained a mainly Christian land until the end of 12th century.

Since becoming a minority, Christians in Egypt have experienced centuries of discrimination. However, the position of the Copts did improve in the early 19th century. During this liberal period Copts participated in the Egyptian national movement for independence and occupied many influential positions in government and society. Although they represented about 10 to 20 per cent of the population, they were so economically prosperous that they held more than 50 per cent of the nation's wealth.

However, following the 1952 coup d'etat, led by Nasser, the conditions of the Copts have slowly deteriorated. A prejudicial legal framework has created a permissive environment that allows Egyptian officials to freely discriminate against Christians with impunity. Christian religious courts were closed and the regime confiscated land and church properties. Permits to construct new churches were delayed. The Nasser government also adopted socialist policies, which further adversely affected the Copts, as they mainly depended on private business for their livelihood.

The economic pressures and resurgent discrimination under Nasser led many Copts to start migrating to countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia and Europe. Today there are about four million Copts living outside Egypt, including an estimated 100,000 Coptic Christians in Australia, who have successfully assimilated into our nation and who have made an invaluable contribution to our economic prosperity.

However, today, as a religious minority the Copts are subject to ongoing and significant discrimination in modern Egypt and are the target of attacks by militant Islamic extremist groups. The following are just a few examples of the recent attacks on the Christian minority in Egypt. On 6 January 2010, in the town of Nag Hammadi, three men sprayed automatic gunfire on Coptic churchgoers leaving a midnight mass. Seven people were killed and several others were injured.

On 1 January 2011, a bomb detonated in front of a Coptic church, the Two Saints Church, in Alexandria, where a New Year's prayer service was being held. Twenty-three people died as a result of the attack, all of them Coptic Christians, and 97 more people were injured. This was the deadliest act of violence against Egypt's Christian minority in more than a decade, since a massacre in 2000 left 21 Copts dead.

On 11 January, 2011 an off-duty police officer opened fire in a train in Minya province, killing one Christian and injuring five others. In early March this year 13 people were killed and nearly 150 wounded in clashes in Cairo that erupted during large-scale demonstrations by Christians protesting the destruction of a church in the provincial town of Sol. The 2011 report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom makes sobering reading. The commission is an independent bipartisan US federal government commission. Its commissioners are appointed by President Obama and the leadership of both political parties in the House of Representatives and the US Senate. Its report notes:

The Egyptian government engaged in and tolerated religious freedom violations before and after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11, 2011.

Serious problems of discrimination, intolerance and other human rights violations against members of religious minorities, as well as disfavoured Muslims, remain widespread in Egypt. Violence targeting Coptic Orthodox Christians remained high during the reporting period.

This high level of violence and the failure to convict those responsible—including two of the three alleged perpetrators of the 2010 Nag Hammadi attack—continued to foster a climate of impunity, making further violence more likely.

The Egyptian government has failed to protect religious minorities, particularly Coptic Christians, from violent attacks, including during the transitional period when minority communities are increasingly vulnerable.

Since February 11, military and security forces reportedly have used excessive force and live ammunition targeting of Christian places of worship and Christian demonstrators.

…   …   …

In addition, the government has not responded adequately to combat widespread virulent anti-Semitism in the government-controlled media.

For the first time the commission has recommended that Egypt be designated as a country of particular concern for its systematic ongoing egregious violations of religious freedom. In addition to violence, Christians face official and societal discrimination in Egypt.

Although the Egyptian government officials may claim that there is no law or policy that prevents Christians from holding senior positions, the Coptic community faces de facto discrimination in appointments to high-level government and military posts. Despite representing 10 per cent of the population, there are only a handful of Christians in the upper ranks of the security forces and the armed forces. There is just one Christian governor out of 28 and one elected member of parliament out of the 454 seats. There are no known university presidents or deans and very few legislators or judges. Under Egyptian law Muslim men can marry Christian women but Muslim women are prohibited from marrying Christian men. For all Christian groups government permission is required to build a new church or even to repair an existing one. The approval process for church construction is time-consuming and inflexible. The majority of applications made more than five years ago have yet to receive a response. Egypt continues to have a number of repressive policies and practices that violate freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief.

Although the attacks against the Copts were carried out largely with impunity under the indifferent Mubarak regime, the recent announcement that the Muslim Brotherhood movement would now seek the imposition of Islamic law in Egypt is sending shock waves through the Coptic community both in Egypt and worldwide. There is a real danger of the Arab spring falling into a dark Islamic winter.

Religious intolerance and extremism are incubators of violence. If radicals grow in influence, they might destroy any new democratic system that takes root, as democracy does not mean that 50 per cent plus one of the electorate has absolute rule over the rest. The true test of any democracy is how it treats its minorities. However, there are some hopeful signs. After a popular uprising that toppled Mubarak in February this year, ending 30 years of autocratic rule, the press in Egypt is now more free and vigorous, and Egypt will start parliamentary elections on 21 November. It still could work out. A real democracy in Egypt with some measure of tolerance of personal liberty may yet still emerge. However, there can be no real freedom for Egypt, there can be no real stability and there can be no economic growth lifting millions of Egyptians out of poverty and into prosperity unless there is full religious freedom in Egypt, not only for the Coptic minority but for all other moderate voices. Now is not the time for silence or appeasement by the international community, for as the Copts go so ultimately may go the entire the Middle East. If a Christian minority cannot live within a country which has a Muslin majority population without persecution or institutionalised discrimination, the future looks bleak. Although a number of world leaders, including President Obama and Pope Benedict XVI have expressed serious concern about the dramatic attacks against the Coptic Christian community, the current Australian government has so far been silent. This motion gives this parliament an opportunity to end its silence. Finally, I would like to thank leading members of the Coptic community in Australia, including Father Tadros Simon, Father Antonis Kaldas, and Father Mathew Attia. I commend this motion to the House and I trust it will have the support of all its members.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the motion that has been moved by the member for Hughes and welcome it as an important stepping stone within the process of, in our own way, providing a voice but also, more importantly, seeing potentially improvements in the quality of lives of Egyptian Copts. Like many Australians, I watched earlier this year the historic people's revolution unfold on television, which resulted in the departure of President Mubarak from a position that he had held for 30 years. The revolt was praised at the time by leaders worldwide, hoping that it would usher in a new era of peace and democracy for all Egyptians, I stress that—for all Egyptians.

In July I spoke in this chamber about the fears of local Coptic Christians in Chifley for friends and relatives at home in Egypt. I was actually approached, while holding a mobile office in Woodcroft, by a number of representatives of the local community who had met with me to discuss their concerns on behalf of family and friends and their fear of genuine persecution for Coptic Christians living in Egypt. The fears that were expressed to me all those months ago continue to exist today, as the transitional government works towards fresh elections and drafting a new constitution. The constitution itself and the parliament remains suspended.

Members will remember with horror the outrageous suicide bombing of an Egyptian church in January, as Orthodox Christians celebrated the new year with 21 innocent lives lost in this attack on the Church of the Two Saints. There could be nothing worse than people who are observing their faith having that observation shattered in such a violent way. I certainly condemn it, as many others do and rightly should worldwide.

Although Christians are a minority in Egypt, the Coptic Orthodox Church has existed there, where it was founded by St Mark in the first century. Since the 1952 coup in which the Republic of Egypt was formed Copts have faced increasing marginalisation and restrictions. Religious freedom is guaranteed by the now suspended constitution; however there still remain restrictions on building new churches and for people converting to Christianity.

I welcome the Egyptian government's statements condemning sectarian violence and their commitment to bringing those responsible to justice, a necessary pre-condition for Egypt to truly be able to say that it is celebrating democratic rights, religious freedom and freedom for all religions. I would hope that the transitional government and the government that follows commit to protecting religious freedom and affording all those in Egypt equal rights as enjoyed by the majority.

I am grateful that the member for Hughes has kept this important international situation in the spotlight here, and I am more than happy to support him and lend my efforts, albeit small, in supporting what I think is a very important move. I know the Australian government is closely watching to see how minority rights are respected in Egypt's political transition and is deeply concerned by recent escalation in sectarian tension. Certainly, from my own point of view, I have expressed within government, my concerns about the situation and, if there are situations where there is persecution, I have raised being able to provide some sort of humanitarian avenue to assist those people who have that genuine fear of persecution and fear for their lives.

Our government has long expressed its concerns for Egypt's Coptic Community, both publically and in diplomatic exchange. I am advised by the foreign minister that Australia's ambassador to Egypt has met with and written to his holiness, Pope Shenouda III, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, to convey the government's condolences for the 1 January attack and to discuss the situation effecting Christians in Egypt. I understand the member for Griffith, Mr Rudd, raised the situation of the Coptics with members of the Egyptian government when he visited Egypt in February this year and in December last year. I am also told that he met with Bishop Suriel of the Coptic Church in Melbourne in February and the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Mr Bowen, met with the bishop in early February as well in a sign of how important this issue remains for the government.

Australia's position on religious freedom in Egypt is consistent with our proud legacy of defending human rights at the multilateral level, particularly in the UN. Australia co-sponsored the UN general assembly's resolution on the elimination of religious discrimination in 2010, sponsored the mandate of the special rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief at the UN Human Rights Council and is involved in the UN Alliance of Civilisations, which promotes interfaith dialogue, an exceptionally important exercise in ensuring that people of all faiths work together for the common good and that avenues for religious persecution are minimised, with the ultimate aim of ensuring that it does not occur at all.

In February last year, the government also submitted a written intervention in Egypt's universal period review at the UNHCR, seeking advice on the status of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights' proposal for a unified law on the construction and renovation of houses of worship. The government welcomed the interim Egyptian government's announcement in May that it would draft such a unified law and urge the swift adoption of final legislation which will significantly simplify regulations governing the construction and renovation of churches. I hope they take this opportunity to enshrine in legislation all the elements of political freedom which Christians in Egypt have long been denied or have been pressured to not be able to enjoy, and I look forward to seeing progress on this front.

Again, for the vibrant Coptic community that exists and for the schools and churches within Chifley, I state in this House my strong commitment and desire to speak up for them on this critical issue. They, like all others, should be able to celebrate and observe their faith free of persecution. Anything that I can do to help them in this cause and to represent this matter elsewhere I will do with every vigour I possibly can muster.

Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great privilege to rise to support this timely motion from the member for Hughes. I second the motion in relation to the Coptic community in Egypt and note my support for the Coptic community in Australia today. There are about 100,000 Copts in Australia. My own experience with that community is that they are making a fantastic contribution to our nation in a peaceful way and are integrating well with our organisations and institutions.

Following all that has been happening in the Middle East in recent times—the people's revolution in Egypt and the revolutions that have been sweeping through the Middle East—it is important that we stand up for the principle of human rights and defend people's right to practice their own faith and to exist in freedom and peace. I note in particular that Egypt is a signatory to the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which states in article 18:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

I think it is important to note those words because all of the evidence we are seeing out of Egypt and that we are hearing from the Coptic community in the international media is that this is not occurring in Egypt today and has not been occurring for some time. The Alexandrian bombing, of course, was one of the most serious and more brutal examples of that, but even a brief summary of the violence and the outrageous acts going on in Egypt today provided by the Coptic community in Australia runs to some four pages, with incident after incident recording horrific tales of injury, bombings, attacks, murders, rapes and other serious crimes affecting the Coptic community in Egypt. It is right that Australia, also a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, stand up and articulate our position that we want to see a constitution and a system of government in Egypt that recognises the human rights of all individuals. That is what is at stake here in this motion today. We are expressing our support for the constitution of Egypt to universally respect human rights in Egypt and ensure that this continuing campaign of violence is ended. It is important to note that, with the removal of Mubarak, there is a historic opportunity to do this. He was a corrupt dictator, and estimates of his personal wealth run up to some $70 billion. For a leader to accumulate $70 billion off the back of his own people when some 40 per cent of them are living on $2 a day is a horrific example of corruption and wrongdoing by Mr Mubarak.

His removal during the people's revolution there represents a great opportunity. It also represents an opportunity for extreme groups to seize power. We express our support for the 21 November parliamentary process which we hope will see a tolerant and pluralistic regime in Egypt that will support Coptic Christians as well, realising that they are only 15 million and are a minority within the Egyptian population. They have the right to practise their faith, which is an ancient faith, as they practise it in Australia today.

I want to endorse the actions of the Australian Coptic community in holding many peaceful rallies, particularly one in January at Martin Place, where statements of support were read out by various members of this House and by ministers within the government. It is appropriate that we call upon the government to ensure that we are doing all that we can to support the Coptic community in Egypt and to use all our available organisations and resources to ensure that the process in Egypt delivers an outcome that will recognise of the rights of the Copts to practise their faith, free of this intolerance and systematic abuse of their rights.

We know from the member for Hughes that many high-ranking jobs and other positions are out of reach for Coptic Egyptians, in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and that there is a systemic problem in the Egyptian constitution in not recognising their right of freedom to worship, in direct contravention with Egypt's international obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At this juncture, I want to record my great support for the Coptic community in Egypt and also in Australia. I recognise their peaceful nature and willingness to practice their faith in peace and freedom with others.

Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Hughes for this motion which allows us on both sides of the political divide to talk about an issue that causes great concern to members of our community, the Coptic Christian community. I am very blessed, I guess I would have to say, in having a very large and vibrant Coptic community in my constituency. As you drive along the Princes Highway towards the Fountain Gate shopping centre, you can see very clearly from Princes Highway this beautiful church, St Mina and St Marina. It is growing, as the Coptic community is growing, and it is evolving. One of the great things about being the local member of parliament is being able to go to an Easter service or a Christmas service and to share that with friends in the Coptic community, particularly my good friend Father Abanoub, from this particular parish.

In doing that I have a window into an ancient faith, practised for thousands of years. For those people to share that with you is a humbling experience that opens a window into the Coptic community's feelings, spirit, soul and history, which are all very rich. Reflecting on that, and speaking to Father Abanoub and to His Grace Bishop Suriel, it pains me deeply to see the distress within the Coptic community about the atrocities being perpetrated on them. As I said, you can drive along Princes Highway and you can see this place of worship, and you can practise your faith there, without oppression, persecution, hate or fear. There is nothing more lovely than walking out after those services and sharing discussions with these great people, watching how successful their community has been.

In my parish, I would say, I have close to 2,000 Copts, made up of about 600 families. One of their community, Councillor Sam Aziz of the Casey Council, of whom we are all very proud, has asked me to mention a few things about the community, particularly given his knowledge of the motion that has been put forward by the member for Hughes. He would like to say that over the last 10 years a number of families have come to Melbourne after fleeing persecution in Egypt. He would like to say that amongst these families there are a number of doctors who fled after their businesses were burned down. Since coming to Australia, these doctors have passed Australian accreditation and have opened their medical practices. A number of these refugees have also gone into business, opening retail franchises and construction companies. He wanted me to point out that, after fleeing the persecution that they had experienced, there are so many successful lives that have been led in this community by members of the Coptic community.

We all thank them for the contribution that they make to this country, but we share their grief at what is continuing to occur: the fundamental breach of human rights in their continual persecution. Here is one thing that staggered me, particularly when I heard about this unbelievably outrageous suicide attack on the Coptic church which occurred in January 2011—the 22 people that died and the 97 people who were injured. Remember how I was talking about being able to walk out after sharing a spiritual experience with a community. But the perpetrators of this evil atrocity knew that that would cause the maximum impact to that particular community. It was a very powerful message—a message of fear, a message of hate and a message of trying to destroy a community practicing its inalienable human right—and that has to be condemned. It cannot be condoned.

There have been further atrocities that have been committed, and the great thing about the Coptic community, led by His Grace Bishop Suriel—whom I have met, whom we have heard the foreign minister has met and whom my colleague Michael Danby has met as well—

Mr Ruddock interjecting—

The member for Melbourne Ports—apologies. They communicate this so powerfully. I am running short of time here, but can I say to you: thank you very much for this. We cannot continue to allow these people to suffer in silence. Their voices must be heard. This persecution must be stopped. You must be allowed to practise your faith without being persecuted, without being killed and without being oppressed.

Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I congratulate my colleague the member for Hughes on moving this motion and doing it so eloquently and thoroughly. Although I did not arrive in the chamber immediately, I heard his early introduction in my office, and he has outlined fully and comprehensively the plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt now. It is very timely that he has done so. It is not the first time these issues have been raised by members. I noticed the member for Aston has spoken in the House on the matter. The member for Hinkler and the member for Menzies have spoken on it, and the member for Holt has spoken previously. I note also that this motion had previously been considered in the Senate.

Mr Danby, the member for Melbourne Ports, will be summing up shortly, and he may be able to clarify for me the government's position on this very important matter .I note that this resolution has been strongly supported by the two members who have spoken before—the member for Chifley and the member for Holt—but, on the occasion on which this same resolution was considered in the Senate, Senator Joe Ludwig, responding on behalf of the government ,said:

We do not support the motion.

I will read that again:

We do not support the motion. It has been a longstanding practice of the government to not deal with complex foreign policy matters by way of simple motion.

If that is the government's position, it should be stated in this debate. I would hope it is not, because I would hope that we will give you an opportunity at some time to vote on this matter in the main chamber.

The Copts have been present in Egypt since the establishment of Christendom. The role of St Mark, as one of the apostles of Christ taking the message to the people of Egypt, was very much a founding member of the early Christian church, and the Copts have played a very significant part in Christian history. I am one who is strongly of the view that, in the Middle East, Christians still have a proper role. It is where their history is rooted and where early messages were established. I would hope that the tragedy of these events will not lead to people evacuating the Middle East. I think for that reason our encouragement and support is absolutely essential.

I have had the great privilege of meeting Pope Shenouda on two occasions. I do know Bishop Suriel, I know Bishop Daniel from Sydney, and I have dealt with the Very Reverend Father Tadros El-Bakhoumi OAM, JP in Sydney, who has been many times Pope Shanouda's personal emissary. I have a small Coptic Church in my own electorate, at Galston—St Mary and St Sidhom Bishay. I was there only yesterday with the congregation. I am one who has played a part in helping to secure sanctuary in Australia for Copts who find it very difficult to survive, particularly those people who have been the subject of conversions. They are sometimes put under very significant pressure at later points in time. Australia has played a valuable role. I hope that is a role that will continue.

For me, the resolution that has been moved builds on the support that we and the Liberal Party have been able to offer to the Australian Coptic community. We have had a number of very significant demonstrations, one as recently as 21 May in Sydney, in Martin Place. I sent a message on that occasion, because it was after the attack on the Coptic Church in Alexandria in which, as has already been referred to, 21 parishioners lost their lives. The escalation of violence against the Copts, including kidnapping, rape and forced conversion is something that has to be condemned by all fair minded Australians. That is why I am gratified that we have this motion that we can vote on and send a very clear message to the Coptic community here in Australia that we support them and we support their fellow Egyptians in the freedom that they seek to exercise, the fundament right of freedom of religion, which we here in this country respect.

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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