Egypt denounces religious freedom accusations

CAIRO — Egypt has denounced a U.S. report on the African nation’s worsening condition of religious freedom. The State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report, released Sept. 14, says that within the past year the Egyptian government’s respect for religious freedom had “declined.”

Harsh treatment of converts from Islam to Christianity, ongoing difficulties building churches and official discrimination against the country’s Baha’i minority topped the report’s list of violations.

A spokesman for Egypt’s foreign ministry said he regretted “fallacies” in the report, according to semi-official daily al-Ahram Sept. 17. The official did not elaborate on any of the report’s purported mistakes.