EWTN News reports that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has called for Egypt’s inclusion on a religious freedom watchlist following the five-year imprisonment of Christian convert Augustin Samaan under Egypt’s blasphemy laws. The January 28, 2026 statement condemns Egypt’s enforcement of Article 98(f) of its Criminal Code, which allegedly targets Christians and Ahmadis through detentions and forced renunciations of faith. USCIRF Commissioner Mohamed Elsanousi demands repeal of blasphemy laws while paradoxically acknowledging Egypt’s previous prisoner releases, exemplifying the incoherent moral calculus of secular human rights regimes.
Naturalism Masquerading as Moral Concern
The report’s framing reveals the fundamental theological error underlying all secular human rights mechanisms: the elevation of “freedom of religion or belief” (libertas religiosa) as an absolute good. Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors explicitly condemned the notion that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Error 15). The USCIRF operates on precisely this condemned principle, treating Islam’s theological errors and Christianity’s divine truth as morally equivalent “belief systems” deserving equal protection.
When Commissioner Elsanousi demands Egypt repeal blasphemy laws while praising previous prisoner releases, he inadvertently demonstrates the incoherence of this secular framework. The Catholic position remains unchanging: while no one may be forced to embrace the Faith (Catechism of Trent), states have no right to permit public blasphemy or false worship. As Leo XIII taught in Libertas Praestantissimum: “To hold…that it is lawful to insult with impunity the most sacred beings, and that this may be rightfully done, is absolutely false and contrary to reason and nature.”
Theological Amnesia Regarding Islam’s Violent Nature
Nowhere does the EWTN report acknowledge Islam’s inherent incompatibility with Christian civilization – a truth articulated by Blessed Pius IX: “The sect of Mohammed is the synthesis of all heresies” (Allocution Nostis et Nobiscum, 1849). Egypt’s persecution of Christians constitutes the predictable fruits of Islamic doctrine, which mandates death for apostates (Quran 4:89) and institutionalizes Christians as second-class dhimmis.
The article’s silence about Islam’s theological imperatives for persecution constitutes grave journalistic malpractice. Instead of diagnosing the disease – Islam’s denial of Christ’s divinity – it treats symptoms through bureaucratic appeals to “international law,” a construct built upon the same naturalist foundations as USCIRF itself.
False Equivalence Between Truth and Error
By grouping Christians with Ahmadis (an Islamic sect considered heretical by mainstream Muslims) and “nonbelievers,” the USCIRF commits the cardinal error of equating divine truth with human error. The Catholic Church alone possesses the fullness of religious truth, making all other belief systems objectively disordered. As Pius XI declared in Quas Primas: “The rebellion of individuals and states against the authority of Christ has produced deplorable consequences.”
EWTN’s uncritical reproduction of USCIRF’s relativistic language – treating Christianity as merely one “religious life” among others – betrays its post-conciliar captivity to modernism. Authentic Catholic journalism would demand Egypt recognize Christ the King’s social reign, not merely tinker with blasphemy statutes while leaving Islamic supremacy intact.
The Abandoned Mission of Conversion
Most damningly absent is any call for Egypt’s conversion to Catholicism – the only true remedy for religious persecution. The article reduces Christianity to a private “belief” rather than the universal salvific plan ordained by God. Contrast this with the missionary imperative expressed by Pius XII: “The Church…must be missionary by her very nature, since it is from God Himself that she received the command to make all men partakers of the truth and of the grace which saves” (Evangelii Praecones, 1951).
Until Egypt’s legal system submits to the Social Kingship of Christ – abolishing sharia and establishing Catholicism as the state religion – no bureaucratic watchlists or prisoner releases will address the root cause: rejection of divine truth. The USCIRF’s secular framework proves spiritually bankrupt, offering Band-Aids where only the sacraments and Catholic governance can heal.
Source:
Place Egypt on watch list, Commission on International Religious Freedom says (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 29.01.2026