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

I am pleased to have this opportunity to support the motion moved by the honourable member for Menzies on the rights and freedoms of religious and other minority groups in Egypt, a country of 77 million people who are heirs to a great civilization and a country with enormous potential in land, resources and energy. Sadly, some of this potential has been wasted by many decades of poor government. Ever since Colonel Nasser and his colleagues seized power in 1953, Egypt has been a dictatorship and the current ruler, Hosni Mubarak, has been in power for over 30 years, with no real opposition to his regime allowed. I note that his son Gamal looks like being the regime’s favoured dear leader of the future.

Although there are worse regimes in the Middle East than Egypt’s, people have suffered under oppression, corruption and the failed policies of the Mubarak regime. Egypt’s indigenous Christian minority, the Coptic Christians, have survived many changes of regime for nearly 2,000 years. The motion refers to eight million Egyptian Christians, although I have seen estimates of up to 12 million or 15 million. Visitors to Cairo, which is about 20 per cent Christian, can see magnificent Coptic churches and schools. Egypt’s constitution guarantees religious freedom and, for the most part, Copts and other Egyptians can worship and educate the children. But it is a disturbing fact that Egyptian Christians face increasing levels of harassment, discrimination and violence, particularly in small towns and rural areas.

Over the past five years there has been an increasing incidence of violence against Egyptian Christians. In January this year, six Christians were killed in an attack on a church in Naj Hammadi. There have been similar incidents this year. The police did little to stop them, and the courts rarely convict those responsible. Egypt’s state controlled media draw a veil of silence across these incidents. Christians also complain of systematic discrimination in government employment, such as the police and civil service. That is why an increasing number of Egyptian Christians are immigrating. Not many people realise that we have about 70,000 Egyptian Christians living in Australia. I know some of them well. Some of them are very high achievers, and some of them are good friends. They are, of course, very welcome and make a great contribution to our Australian society, but it is a tragedy that members of such an ancient religious community should feel no choice but to leave their homeland. The deteriorating position of Egyptian Christians reflects the rise of militant Islamist groups in Egypt in recent years.

Islam is a great monotheistic religion itself. I deliberately used the word ‘Islamist’ rather than ‘Islamic’ because ‘Islamist’ refers to people who use a great monotheistic religion for a political purpose, not the religion itself. These groups seek to further their aims by attacking the Christian community. The rise of these groups has been made easier by the lack of economic opportunity and political freedom under the current Egyptian regime. Instead of reform, the regime deals with these groups through repression, which only enables them to make more recruits.

Egypt could learn something from Indonesia about how to defeat militant Islamism through fostering democracy and economic opportunity. It is very interesting to see our great Muslim neighbour to the north in its progress under democratically elected President Yudhoyono compared to the years of stultifying lack of economic progress in Egypt. One of the crucial ways that Australia is involved is with the very large amounts of economic aid that the American congress gives to Egypt. The Egyptian regime buys Australian wheat, and bread in Egypt is very heavily subsidised in order to keep the fellahin, the peasants, from revolting.

This motion refers to other minorities. I would like to mention that there is increasing persecution of gay people in Egypt as well. This is seen as an attempt by the Egyptian government to appease the militant Islamists by scapegoating gay people as well.

The industrialised world has faced a big problem as far as Egypt is concerned. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice under President Bush sought democratic elections in Egypt after the successful Lebanese ones. There was such great hope for that region in a brief period back then. The persecution of the Egyptian Copts is a longstanding problem that the country faces. While the lack of democracy exists in Egypt that prevents them freely expressing themselves and participating in their religion, it is a great shame for an ancient civilisation and an ancient country which deserves better.

See this speech in context