The United States on Monday called on Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to follow through on promises to include religious minorities in his government and to hold accountable those who have committed violence against minorities, DPA reported.
In an annual report on global religious freedom, the State Department noted efforts toward greater inclusiveness and other progress in Egypt last year, but also pointed to failure to curb violence against Coptic Christians.
"What Egypt and other countries decide will have a major impact on the lives of their people and will go a long way toward determining whether these countries are able to achieve true democracy," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in remarks to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
She pointed to meetings she held with Morsi and representatives of Egypt's country's Christian communities, who worry if their rights will be protected under Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.
"Egyptians are building a brand new democracy. What it will look like, how it will work, how it will handle religious pluralism: Egyptians will be writing the answers to those and many other questions for years to come," Clinton said.
"The Egyptian people will look to their elected leaders to protect the rights of all citizens and to govern in a fair and inclusive manner, and so will we."
The US ambassador for international religious freedom noted in releasing the report that the drafting of a new constitution was an opportunity to declare protections for religious freedom and called on the Egypt to repeal or change laws that discriminate against minorities.
"President Morsi has said publicly that in his new government, he will include Coptic Christians, secular citizens and women. So we're looking for him to follow through on what his promise was," said Suzan Johnson Cook.
The 2011 report points to concerns about restrictions on religious freedom and attacks against religious groups, including those by Boko Haram in Nigeria, blasphemy laws in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the jailing of Christian and Baha'i leaders in Iran, and restrictions on religious practice in China. It also expresses concern about growing xenophobia, anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim views in Europe.