By Essam Fadl
CAIRO: As protesters push for regime and constitutional changes regarding elections, a rights group has been working on articulating a unified vision of citizenship issues and Coptic and sectarian problems to be included in any constitutional amendments.
The Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization kicked off meetings on Saturday and were expected to continue through Monday.
“Copts are part of the national fabric and should take part in the decision making process especially the constitutional amendments scheduled to take place soon,” said Head of Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization Naguib Gobrael. “How come the Muslim Brotherhood is invited for negotiations and Copts are not?”
The meetings were attended by Coptic public figures in addition to Coptic diaspora, who sent a memo to Vice President Omar Suleiman to have a Coptic delegation in the negotiations that he was conducting with opposition.
These included representatives of the Netherlands Copts Organization, Bahaa Ramzy; UK Copts Organization, Helmy Girguis; US Copts Organizations, Ihab Aziz and Munir Dawood; and France Copts Organization Adel Demian.
Egyptian participants included Coordinator of Secular Copts Organization Kamal Zakher, Head of Al- Kalima Center for Human Rights Mamdouh Nakhla, Romani Gad El-Rab Mansour, Gameel Ebaid and Mamdouh Mansour.
Participants told Daily News Egypt that they want to present Suleiman, stressing that their dialogue does not represent the official stance of the church.
Gobrael told Daily News Egypt that the aim is present a vision that would enhance citizenship and civil state and solving problems related to sectarian tension.
The suggestions include “canceling the second article of the constitution that states that Islam is the main source of legislation, enhancing citizenship and equality, a unified law for places of worship, amending new laws to prevent sectarian violence, and ending religious based discrimination,” Gobrael said.
In what is seen as a Coptic disagreement over removing the second article of the constitution Zakher told Daily News Egypt that canceling the article is not beneficial at this stage since this would be met by a social uprising by the Muslim majority.
“As long as the rest of the constitution guarantees citizenship and a civil state then the second article will have no effect over the rights and freedoms of religion,” he said.
Angelical and Catholic priests urged the Egyptian regime to listen to the demands of protesters in Tahrir Square in a statement signed by 20 priests calling for the necessity of putting a new constitution granting citizenship rights.
Priests who signed the statement included Priest Ekrami Lamie, Father William Sedhom El-Yasou’ey, Head of Evangelist Union in Cairo Ashraf Shouk, Preist Refaat Shokry, Priest Gammal Zaki, Priest Nady Labib and Priest Fawzy Faragallah.
The statement said that the regime should respond to the demands of the protestors to keep the country’s stability, stressing the need to put to trial whoever was responsible for the violence against protesters in Tahrir Square.
