International Christian Concern (ICC)
Speaking Truth to Power
Over the past several years, ICC’s advocacy division has been working diligently to build strong relationships and trust with the U.S. State Department. We do this by providing policymakers with accurate, balanced and inside information which can’t be found elsewhere, always keeping the voices of the persecuted at the forefront. While in Cairo, we met with the U.S. Embassy staff. The Deputy Chief of Mission asked us to brief him on the state of Christian persecution in Egypt. We brought up a range of issues, and urged him to increase U.S. engagement with the Christian community. We also asked that the embassy staff do their best to put pressure on Egypt’s foreign ministry to forge rescue plans for the kidnapped Copts in Libya, who we warned were in serious danger. A week later, ISIS released a video showing the beheading of 21 Christians in Libya. We secured significant agreements from the embassy to take action in several areas. As we left the ambassador’s residence, our team felt confident that religious freedom and the persecution of Coptic Christians had been placed high up on the agenda of the U.S. government in Egypt.