Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

Egypt’s Islamic regime is allegedly waging a lobbying war to cover up crimes against Egyptian Christians.

A damning new report from Coptic Solidarity researcher Mark Basta exposed what he calls “covert channels” used to gloss over human rights abuses.

Such as the Muslim abduction and forced conversion of Christian women, described by CS in 2020 as: Jihad of the Womb.

Titled Cairo’s Covert Power in Washington, the 37-page analysis goes back as far as 2014.

Basta alleges that since 2014, the Egypt Lobby has used 13 US-based consultants at a cost to Cairo of 18.8 million dollars to steer foreign policy.

Egypt’s lobbying in Washington, D.C. is largely about foreign aid and maintaining the majority Muslim country’s pro-freedom illusion.

“While Cairo’s lobby is not the most active foreign lobby in DC,” Basta confirmed, “it has utilised an episodic, multi-target approach to accomplish its objectives.”

These objectives include “preserving Egypt’s annual US aid package, American support on regional issues, and to present the regime as religiously tolerant.”

PR agents target both American politicians and religious leaders.

Cairo, Basta adds, “relies on a diverse set of agents, ranging from traditional lobbyists to religious leaders to deliver its [curated] messaging effectively.”

As a result, some well-meaning Christian leaders (mostly Protestant)  have unknowingly spread the Egypt Lobby’s polished propaganda, becoming inadvertent conspirators.

The Islamic regime achieved its goal by playing Christian leaders, who, Basta stated, end up “significantly distorting Washington’s view of the Copts’ situation in Egypt.”

So much so that the first Trump administration, which “imposed restrictions on Egypt over human rights abuse concerns, lifted restrictions 12 months later.”

More “strangely”, Basta reported, in 2023, those same Christian leaders lobbied at the UN, allegedly on behalf of Egypt Lobby’s agents, in order “to pitch Cairo’s progress in improving religious coexistence in Egypt.”

Pushing Propaganda

America’s media wasn’t inoculated against the Islamic regime’s influence either.

With evidence, Basta exposed how the Egypt Lobby had “targeted Fox News, CNBC, Newsweek, the Washington Post, and the Associated Press, to distribute op-eds and articles in support of various Egyptian positions.”

“Media products seed Egypt’s arguments and stances within the American policy machine, indirectly lobbying the government through the media pipeline,” his CS report concluded.

While the Egypt Lobby isn’t the only agent seeking to exert its self-interests on American foreign policy, Egypt’s Islamic regime is one of the most tactically minded.

In response to Basta’s findings, Coptic Solidarity issued 7 recommendations.

The first two were for lobbyists and Christian leaders:

1. Perform a due diligence review on all clients they work with, particularly foreign clients.
2. The immediate termination of all contracts with autocratic governments that violate human rights.

CS’s remaining 5 recommendations were directed at Western politicians:

3. Improve transparency and record-keeping when approached by foreign political activists.
4. Biannual reporting on the “nature, sources, and content of political propaganda disseminated and distributed.”
5. A total ban on direct lobbying for autocratic countries with a history of human rights abuses.
6. Restricting agent influence by closing backdoor access to US government officials.
7. Move Egypt from USCIRF’s watch list to the countries of particular concern list.

Islam and Identity Politics

A key takeaway for me from this report is how the Egypt Lobby uses identity politics.

For their 18.8-million-dollar public investment, Cairo’s Islamic rulers get a designer public relations – “religion of peace” – reassurance package.

This image management deal comes complete with gaslighting and “narrative correcting”.

Such as “all criticism of Islam is Islamophobia,” and “human rights abuse accusations are from ‘racists’ spreading fake news.”

Lobbying lies (taqiyya) ensure the status quo: an uninterrupted flow of financial, military, and political aid from US taxpayers – happy handouts from “infidels”.

The Islamic regime’s agents speak Woke (Marxist Critical Theory) lingo.

According to Basta, they’re adept at using critical theory and moral relativism to charm political or religious assets.

Dropping “progressive” buzzwords like “efforts”, “women’s empowerment”, and “religious tolerance” is enough to grease the wheels.

This tactic ensures the Islamic regime and its policies are kept off any naughty list.

As Basta wrote, lobbying this way “has helped to conceal numerous violations against Christians in Egypt that might merit more negative designations.”

It’s easy to see how complaints about Muslims violating the human rights of Christians are subsequently suffocated or simply shrugged off.

Coptic Solidarity’s latest report is an important look into just how influential the Islamic regime’s Egyptian lobby is and how far they can go to curate a false narrative.

Basta’s clear warning is this: Westerners need to pay closer attention.

“Islamophobia” isn’t just gaslighting, it’s blatant misdirection.

___

Image courtesy of Adobe.