1) Collecting cases of human rights abuses from nonprofit and charitable and religious organizations and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the field in Middle Eastern countries.

2) Maintaining a database of these abuses.

3) Carrying out research in the region, writing reports, handling queries from the press, and formulating actions to improve overall respect for human rights in the Middle East, particularly as those human rights relate to the freedom to reasonably exercise one's personal beliefs without molestation.

4) Publishing reports, articles, press releases and editorials and submitting these items to political bodies, human rights advocates, the media, and Christian organizations.

5) Personally petitioning governmental authorities on behalf of those particularly egregious cases where a person's life or freedom hangs in the balance.

1) False accusations that are motivated by individual cases of human greed or avarice, in which the accusers seek to gain personal advantage by exploiting the institutionalized second-class status of professing religious minorities in these countries.

2) False accusations from individuals or societal groups motivated by religiously-rooted prejudices against religious minorities.

3) False accusations brought by government officials who are trying to avoid public exposure, by obscuring their real intent to oppose the practice of minority religions.

4) Exploitation of Christian women and girls through kidnapping, date rape, violent rape, physical mutilation, and other forms of sexual aggression, violence and exploitation for the purpose of illegally compelling these women and girls to convert to Islam through a forcible marriage to a Muslim, or, for shaming and persecuting them because they are Christians. In these cases, governmental authorities may not extend ordinary lawful protection to the victims, and authorities may refuse to conduct a lawful investigation into these criminal acts. Furthermore, both governmental authorities and civilian perpetrators sometimes threaten and attack these victims' family members when they continue to press for justice on behalf of their loved ones.

5) Hostile actions committed against Christians and other religious minorities by individuals or mobs. These actions include personal assault, crimes against private and public property and attacks on places of worship.

6) Governmental regulations that limit the expression of freedom of religion or freedom of speech. These regulations include limits on public meeting places, including laws against erecting and/or repairing places of worship; provisions forbidding an individual from changing religious beliefs; and governmental requirements of religious registry through such means as identification cards that may be necessary for freedom of movement, or exercising ordinary civilian rights, such as voting, traveling, and conducting economic activities.

7) Underlying deficiencies in these nations' legal systems that create a climate in which human rights abuses can flourish.

In some of these cases, governmental authorities do not defend the victim's human rights, or, worse yet, actually abuse the victim's human rights further through restrictive laws and policies, or even direct persecution through violent attack perpetrated by police.

Although other human rights organizations are addressing some of these problems, we believe there is a need for additional manpower and advocacy simply because of the scope of the problem. For example, in Egypt other ministries that serve those persecuted for their faith have done an exemplary job of bringing particularly egregious cases before the U.S. public, and urging actions such as letter writing to embassies, and government officials, as well as securing the release of some prisoners of conscience. Yet, there remain hundreds, if not thousands, of cases that receive scant attention, and in which the innocent continue to suffer in silence, with their cries unheard.

First, we are Egyptians and Americans as partners. As a result we will be better able to respond to situations within an appropriate cultural context as they develop, in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries.

Secondly, although we are will be advocating for Christians who suffer human rights abuses, we will also undertake advocacy for human rights abuses affecting other religious minorities in Middle Eastern Countries. We will do this in recognition of God's unconditional mercy to all of us; and, in acknowledgement that the divine image from which we have been created necessarily imbues each of us with dignity and the right to freedom of belief and respect for our uniqueness as creatures of a holy, loving God.

Thirdly, our focus will be on directly reaching out to secular journalists, government officials, and other human rights advocates as well as Christian organizations.

Fourthly, we will attempt to be as universal as possible in collecting names and circumstances of individual cases of human rights abuses in those areas where we have local contacts.