Sidhum begins by summarizing President Husnī Mubārak’s recent speech before the commencement of the new parliamentary round.

He provides a largely positive analysis of the speech’s content, saying that if his government succeeds in accomplishing the social and economic goals that Mubārak mentioned, it could lead to “a shift in the general mood of frustration and despair to one of hope.”

However, Sidhum is disappointed that the President ignored, “for the fifth year in a row,” a unified law for building places of worship. According to Sidhum, such a law has been lying dormant in parliament for six years.

Sidhum cites recent incidents regarding church construction as reason enough for the passage of such a bill, saying that “escalating sectarian violence” is proof that Copts suffer injustices and inequality.

“Despite the President’s repeated declaration that there is no difference between Muslims and Copts,” says Sidhum, “there appears no end in sight to the grating inequality in the laws and regulations governing places of worship.”