Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

Subhī Sālih, a member of parliament from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said there are some attempts to spark a falling out between youths in al-Tahrīr Square and parliament on one hand and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on the other. [Fātimah ‘Abd al-Bāsit, al-Akhbār, Jan. 30, p. 6] Read original text in Arabic

 AWR obtained the original text of the Azhar documents for Freedom. Please find it below.

Under the title Documented, Accurate Figure – Census of Copts is 18.565.484 million, Mājid 'Attīyah writes in a column in Watanī newspaper of January 15 that Dr. Tharwat Basīlī has said he has a documented, accurate figure of the Coptic population in Egypt and that he challenges anyone who would want to prove it is wrong. [Mājid 'Attīyah, Watanī, Jan. 15, p. 4] Read original text in Arabic

An ultra-rightist member of the Dutch parliament plans to present parliamentary questioning of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands as soon as she returns from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where she put on a headscarf before entering a mosque there. ['Abd Allāh Mustafá from Brussels, al-Misrī al-Yawm, Jan. 12, p. 16] Read original text in Arabic

Presidential hopeful Dr. Muhammad al-Barād'ī demanded a law that would protect the rights to practice religious rituals.

Barād'ī made the remarks during his visit to al-Sharqiya governorate.

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It was political venom wrapped in an enigmatic meaningless black comedy. This is the right description that applies to the annual U.S. report on religious freedoms in Egypt, released on September 13, 2011.

The Supreme Administrative Court in the Council of State headed by Counselor Majdī al-'Ajātī, ruled in favor of re-converters to Christianity and gave them the right to prove their religion on the national ID card and birth certificate. 

The Court will still have to consider another 12 similar cases [al-Jumhūrīyah said 15 cases]. Furthermore, the Court criticized the Ministry of Interior Affairs for not executing the verdicts.

[Reviewer's Note: News story was also covered in al-Jumhūrīyah, page 15, October 4, 2011 and has no link online.]

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In Banī Mazār village, al-Minya governorate, al-Shaykh Fadl Secondary School refused to let a Coptic girl, first secondary grade, in for the eighth day running for refusing to wear a hijāb.

When the girl's father went to school to object the measure, the school administration filed a libel report against him.

The school had imposed hijāb on all Coptic girls. All schoolgirls wore hijāb in order to be allowed in except this girl.

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Giza's security apparatus and the Artistic-Productions Investigation Department carried a campaign on a number of printing houses in Dokki (Duqqī), Imbābah and al-Warrāq for reprinting books not authorized for printing by its owners.

25 thousand books, seven thousand were calling for Shiism, were confiscated. Major General Ahmad Jamāl al-Dīn, Prime Minister of Interior for National Security, ordered to hold the seizures and to refer the owners of printing houses to the prosecution to take legal action against them.

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A report on the situation of religious freedoms around the world - and countries that have failed to effectively protect them - was issued yesterday (September 14) by the U.S. Department of State. Middle Eastern and African countries were numerous, and Egypt was one of these countries to be reported on, noting the sectarian strife plaguing the country in the post-Mubārak era.