Unemployed among Christian in Egypt

 

5/28/2013 Egypt (World Watch Monitor) – It's harder than ever to find a job in Egypt, where the unemployment rate has risen to a record 13 percent. For young Egyptians, the jobless rate is much higher. For out-of-work Christians, finding a job can be especially tough. They are 10 to 12 percent of a country where Islam is the state religion. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party holds the highest offices in the government. When quarreling citizens arrive at legal loggerheads, the new constitution turns to Islamic law to resolve the impasse. In the streets, kidnappings for ransom are increasing and churches are often attacked and burned.

The International Monetary Fund, which is negotiating a multibillion-dollar loan to Egypt, put the situation in diplomatic language in April: "Prolonged political and policy uncertainty, social unrest, and security problems have taken a toll on confidence. As a result, real GDP growth has remained sluggish."

Along with measures to instill government fiscal discipline, the IMF says "The most immediate challenges are to . . . protect the most vulnerable segments of the population." Longer term, the report urges Egypt to enact "structural reform" that results in "more socially balanced growth."

At ground level, Egyptian Christians use a more personal language to describe their place in the economy. World Watch Monitor spoke with three Cairo Christians who are looking for work, and their comments are below. Each of them asked not to be photographed or identified in full. Publicly criticizing a system they view as favoring Muslims, they said, would only make the long odds against finding a job even longer(Source).