On January 20, 2011, Dina Guirguis, a Keston Family research fellow with The Washington Institute's Project Fikra: Defeating Extremism through the Power of Ideas, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The following is an excerpt from her prepared remarks.
"2010 is over.... I had the most wonderful days of my life in 2010, and I wish 2011 will be even better, I have so many wishes for 2011. Lord, stand by me and help me achieve them." Mariam Fekry, a girl of twenty-two, wrote those words on Facebook a few hours before she was killed in a brutal attack on the Saints Church in Alexandria, Egypt, on New Year's Eve that left at least twenty-five people killed and dozens injured. Mariam's hopes, and ultimate fate, so tragically and poignantly illustrate the plight of the Coptic people, Egypt's native Christians, who represent 10-15% of Egypt's 83 million people. They are the Middle East's largest Christian minority but in the past decade have faced an alarming escalation of violence as state protection has dwindled....
