One issue, and this was most obvious under SCAF rule rather than under the current FJP—which is the Freedom and Justice Party belonging to The Muslim Brotherhood.... It was pretty bad under President Mubarak; it got worse, and seemingly has gotten worse because of the impunity or lack of accountability and lack of rule of law. As I was saying in my statement, the issue is an issue of rule of law and lack of prosecution of those who are committing this violence.
There is obviously accountability on the side of the state. We hold the state accountable, including the Ministry of Interior, in a lot of these issues. They've caused some of these issues and continue to be held culpable on them. But I think there is a distinction, as you saw when I mentioned the Bahá'ís, between the regulatory issues and the allowing of violence that doesn't start with them.
Unlike what happened in Maspero.... Thank you for the opportunity to mention this, because I had forgotten to mention the attack against the Christian protesters in front of the Maspero building where many died. It started a wave of attacks that ended 2011 in rather bloody fashion and then started again, in memory of those attacks, last year.
So yes, there are times when the state is actually culpable, and there have been incidents of state violence against Christians. But this doesn't hold only against the Christian community or in the context of religious freedom; it's also true against a lot of other minorities, and now the opposition as well.