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Dr. Georgette Sobhi Kellini is an Egyptian politician and human rights activist. [1]
Born in Cairo to a Coptic Christian family, Georgette Kellini holds a doctorate in international trade law. She has served as a Member of the Parliament of Egypt, and is a member of the National Council for Human Rights. [1]
The Coptic Orthodox Church, also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the See of Alexandria is the pope of Alexandria on the Holy Apostolic See of Saint Mark, who also carries the title of Father of fathers, Shepherd of shepherds, Ecumenical Judge and the 13th among the Apostles.
Copts are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to Northeast Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan, and predominantly follow the Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria. They are the largest Christian denomination in Egypt and the Middle East, as well as in Sudan and Libya. Copts account for roughly 5–15 percent of the population of Egypt; while in Sudan they account for 1 percent of the population, and in Libya they similarly account for 1 percent of the population.
The Egyptian Football Association is the governing body of association football in Egypt. A member of FIFA since 1923 and a founding member of the CAF, the EFA has jurisdiction over the Egyptian football league system and is responsible for the men's and women's national teams.
Pope Benjamin I of Alexandria, 38th Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. He is regarded as one of the greatest patriarchs of the Coptic Church. Benjamin guided the Coptic church through a period of turmoil in Egyptian history that included the fall of Egypt to the Sasanian Empire, followed by Egypt's reconquest under the Byzantines, and finally the Arab Islamic Conquest in 642. After the Arab conquest Pope Benjamin, who was in exile, was allowed to return to Alexandria and resume the patriarchate.
Religion in Egypt controls many aspects of social life and is endorsed by law. The state religion of Egypt is Islam, although estimates vary greatly in the absence of official statistics. Since the 2006 census, religion has been excluded, and thus available statistics are estimates made by religious and non-governmental agencies. The country is majority Sunni Muslim, with the next largest religious group being Coptic Orthodox Christians. The exact numbers are subject to controversy, with Christians alleging that they have been systemically under-counted in existing censuses.
Human rights in Egypt are guaranteed by the Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt under the various articles of Chapter 3. The country is also a party to numerous international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. However, the state of human rights in the country has been criticized both in the past and the present, especially by foreign human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. As of 2022, Human Rights Watch has declared that Egypt's human rights crises under the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is "one of its worst ... in many decades", and that "tens of thousands of government critics, including journalists, peaceful activists, and human rights defenders, remain imprisoned on abusive 'terrorism' charges, many in lengthy pretrial detention." International human rights organizations, such as the aforementioned HRW and Amnesty International, have alleged that as of January 2020, there are some 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt. Other complaints made are of authorities harassing and detaining "relatives of dissidents abroad" and use of "vague 'morality' charges to prosecute LGBT people, female social media influencers, and survivors of sexual violence." The Egyptian government has frequently rejected such criticism, denying that any of the prisoners it holds are political prisoners.
Christianity is the second largest religion in Egypt. The vast majority of Egyptian Christians are Copts. As of 2019, Copts in Egypt make up approximately 10 percent of the nation's population, with an estimated population of 9.5 million or 10 million. In 2018, approximately 90% of Egyptian Christians were Coptic Orthodox.
Egyptian Canadians are Canadian citizens of Egyptian descent, first-generation Egyptian immigrants, or descendants of Egyptians who emigrated to Canada. According to the 2011 Census there were 73,250 Canadian citizens who are from Egypt, having an increase compared to those in the 2006 Census.
The persecution of Copts and discrimination against Coptic Orthodox Christians are historic and widespread issues in Egypt. Their treatment is indicative of the poor status of Christians in the Middle East more widely, despite the fact that the religion is native to the Middle East, and that Christianity in Egypt dates back to the Roman era. Copts are the indigenous Christians in Egypt, usually Oriental Orthodox, who currently make up 10% of the population—the largest religious minority of that country. Copts have cited instances of persecution throughout their history and Human Rights Watch has noted "growing religious intolerance" and sectarian violence against Coptic Christians in recent years, as well as a failure by the Egyptian government to effectively investigate properly and prosecute those responsible. However, as political violence is common many churches believe that the attacks against the church are not religious statements, instead political statements. Since 2011, hundreds of Egyptian Copts have been killed in sectarian clashes, and many homes, churches and businesses have been destroyed. In just one province (Minya), 77 cases of sectarian attacks on Copts between 2011 and 2016 have been documented by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. The abduction and disappearance of Coptic Christian women and girls also remains a serious ongoing problem.
The Oriental Orthodox Churches are Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with approximately 50 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches adhere to the Nicene Christian tradition. Oriental Orthodoxy is one of the oldest branches in Christianity.
The Nag Hammadi massacre was a massacre of Coptic Christians carried out on the eve of 7 January 2010, in the Egyptian city of Nag Hammadi. The massacre occurred at the hands of Muslim gunmen in front of the Nag Hammadi Cathedral, as Coptic Christians were leaving the church after celebrating the midnight Christmas Divine Liturgy. The massacre resulted in the murder of eight Copts and one Muslim bystander. Nine other Copts were confirmed to be wounded, and two Muslims were reportedly wounded in the attack. Egypt's Interior Ministry said it suspected the attack was motivated by the alleged rape by a Christian of a Muslim girl.
The Maspero Massacre initially started as demonstrations in October 2011 by a group dominated by Egyptian Copts in reaction to the demolition of a church in Upper Egypt claimed to be built without the appropriate license. The peaceful protesters who intended to stage a sit-in in front of the Maspiro television building were attacked by security forces and the army, resulting in 24 deaths, mostly among the Coptic protestors, and 212 injuries, most of which were sustained by Copts.
George Isaac was an Egyptian politician and activist. During the later part of Hosni Mubarak's presidency, he co-founded the grassroots Kefaya opposition movement.
Freddy Safwat Naguib Elbaiady is an elected member of the Egyptian Parliament. He is also vice president of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party. He is a former member of the Shura Council, the Upper House of the Egyptian parliament, appointed in 2012, resigned June 29, 2013.
Copts in Egypt refers to Coptic Christians born in or residing in Egypt.
Sudan has a native Coptic minority, although many Copts in Sudan are descended from more recent Coptic immigrants from Egypt. Copts in Sudan live mostly in northern cities, including Al Obeid, Atbara, Dongola, Khartoum, Omdurman, Port Sudan, and Wad Medani. They number between 400,000-500,000, or slightly over 1% of the Sudanese population. Due to their advanced education, their role in the life of the country has been more significant than their numbers suggest.
Coptic Australians are Australians of Coptic descent or persons of Coptic descent residing in Australia. According to the 2011 census, there were 24,693 Copts in Australia, mostly members of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Coptic population within Australia is estimated to be between 70,000 and 100,000 people.
Coptic nationalism refers to the nationalism of the Copts, a Christian ethnic and religious minority that primarily inhabit the area of modern Egypt. Coptic nationalism does not have a claim for a Coptic nation but asks for an equal position for Copts in Egypt. Most Copts live in the south of Egypt but the largest concentrations of Copts lives in Cairo and Alexandria. The Copts, like the rest of Egyptians, are descended from the pharaonic inhabitants of Egypt. Most ethnic Copts belongs to the Coptic Orthodox Church. Copts number between 10-15 percent of the Egyptian population of 104 million
On 11 December 2016, a suicide bomber killed 29 people and injured 47 others at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, a chapel next to Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope, in Cairo's Abbasia district. Egypt's President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi identified the bomber as 22-year-old Mahmoud Shafiq Mohammed Mustafa, who had worn a suicide vest. el-Sisi reported that three men and a woman have been arrested in connection with the attack; two others are being sought. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mona Makram-Ebeid is an Egyptian politician and academic, Professor of Political Science and Political Sociology at the American University of Cairo.