Sisi Appoints Egypt’s First Christian Chief Justice
Judge Boulos’ high position a step toward equal rights for the Copts, the largest Christian minority in the Middle East
[CAIRO] Boulos Fahmy Iskandar Boulos took the oath of office as chief justice of Egypt’s top court on Wednesday, becoming the first Christian to head the tribunal since its establishment in 1969.
“President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi witnessed this morning the swearing-in of Judge Boulos Fahmy as head of the Supreme Constitutional Court,” the spokesperson for the Presidency of the Republic said.
“El-Sisi expressed his deep appreciation for the important role of the Supreme Constitutional Court, which represents an important episode in the long history of the Egyptian judiciary, expressing his sincere wishes for the new president of the court. The Supreme Constitutional Court succeeds in exerting effort, dedication and responsibility to support justice and the application of the law,” the spokesperson continued.
The appointment is historic, Judge Amir Ramzy, president of the Alexandria Criminal Court, told The Media Line, “because there has never been a Copt appointed to this high position, because the Constitutional Court is the highest judicial body. This has never happened before.
“Judge Boulos is diligent and knowledgeable in judicial work, and he deserves this position,” Ramzy added.
Ezzat Ibrahim, spokesperson of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), told The Media Line that the decision to appoint Boulos is “an unprecedentedly progressive step in the past 50 years, particularly since the rise of political Islam in Egyptian politics and the state’s fear of the consequences of any step that angers religious extremists.”
“But el-Sisi was inspired by the spirit of the popular revolution of June 30, 2013, which stood in the face of a radical group that wanted to undermine the civil state. From here comes this latest step, and we expect other steps to follow,” Ibrahim said.
Estimates of the number of Copts – an indigenous ethno-religious group – in Egypt vary widely, with the community saying there are at least 20 million in a nation of 110 million people, while the government puts the figure at about half that. Approximately 90% of Egyptian Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, according to Christian leaders.
The national protests that began in Egypt on June 30, 2013, marking the first anniversary of the inauguration as president of Mohamed Morsi and demanding his immediate resignation, led to his arrest and the arrest of other Muslim Brotherhood leaders on July 3.
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Boulos, 65, is the 19th chief justice. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Cairo University in 1977, and worked in the Public Prosecution Office beginning in 1978. He earned a diploma in Judicial Administration in the United States in 1994, and supervised the General Secretariat of the Supreme Constitutional Court starting in October 2014.
“This decision is a reflection of President el-Sisi’s new republic based on national institutions, the supremacy of the constitution and rule of law, citizenship, and true equality for all who live in this good and blessed land,” said Tarek Radwan, chairman of the Human Rights Committee in Egypt’s House of Representatives.
Egypt under the stewardship of President el-Sisi has entered a new era in all things related to human rights. The principle of equal opportunity for all citizens without any discrimination based on religion, gender or any other reason, means that all Egyptians enjoy equal rights and that merit alone is the criterion for advancement.
In August 2018, el-Sisi appointed Christian governors to two of Egypt’s 27 governorates, Damietta and Daqahliya. They were the first such appointments since April 2011, when the government suspended the appointment of a Copt to the Qena Governorate in Upper Egypt following protests. Manal Awad Mikhail, still in office in Damietta, was the country’s second-ever female governor and first-ever female Christian governor.
“Egypt under the stewardship of President el-Sisi has entered a new era in all things related to human rights. The principle of equal opportunity for all citizens without any discrimination based on religion, gender or any other reason, means that all Egyptians enjoy equal rights and that merit alone is the criterion for advancement,” Radwan said.
“This is how President el-Sisi proves daily to the Egyptian public, with all its political, popular and partisan affiliations, that all Egyptians enjoy their full rights, and that application of all the provisions of the Egyptian Constitution is central to his effort. Again he shows that he is determined to implement the national human rights strategy as the foundation for a new republic,” Radwan added.
According to the US State Department’s 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom: Egypt, “Christians reported being underrepresented in the military and security services, and they stated that those admitted at entry levels of government face limited opportunities for promotion to the upper ranks. No Christian has served as president of the country’s 27 public universities. The government barred non-Muslims from employment in public university training programs for Arabic-language teachers, stating as its reason that the curriculum involved study of the Quran.”
The White House and Congress frequently urge the protection and guarantee of equal rights for the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.
Last October, Sen. Bob Menendez, chairman of US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, tweeted from Cairo: “Appreciated meeting with President el-Sisi today. We discussed our shared interests on security, protecting religious minorities like Coptic Christians, economic cooperation and maintaining CAATSA. I also urged full implementation of Egypt’s new human rights strategy.”
CAATSA, the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, is a US law that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea and Russia. Under it, Egypt and other countries are asked not to buy arms from Russia.
Said, a Coptic lawyer and a doctoral student in law at Alexandria University, told The Media Line that Boulos’ appointment “is a monumental step, and one that must give pause.”
The chief justice is third in the order of succession to the presidency after the prime minister and the speaker of the parliament. In July 2013 after the army overthrew Morsi, the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mansour, assumed the presidency on an interim basis. Also, in the absence of the Lower House of Parliament, the president of the republic is sworn in by the chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court.
“In 2013, while Egypt was preparing to oust Morsi, one strong argument against his ouster was [the false claim] that a Christian would replace him! Of course, the message was targeting Islamist movements and their supporters. It touched a religious chord based on Sharia law in which it is not permissible for a non-Muslim to govern,” Fayez said.
In Egypt, one way to distinguish a person’s religion is by name. But “Adly Mansour” is a common name for both Christians and Muslims.
“This made the media repeat the full name of Adly Mansour [which is Adly Mahmoud Mansour] in order to thwart the process of mobilization against the ouster of President Morsi in the Muslim-majority country. The result was that Adly Mansour became the interim president of the republic,” Fayez said.
