Finally.

(CNS News) — A vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to establish a special envoy to promote religious freedom in parts of the Middle East and South Asia is causing ripples in Egypt, where a Muslim Brotherhood leader says the decision amounts to more U.S. “interference” in Egypt’s affairs.

Concerns about the plight of Egypt’s Christian minority — along with those in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan in particular — featured prominently in hearings leading up to the passage of the Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act on Friday.

The Senate has yet to vote on a related measure, but passage is considered likely. The Senate bill is sponsored by Republican Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.) and co-sponsored by a Republican and two Democrats.

On Tuesday, the vice president of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “Freedom and Justice Party,” Rafiq Habib, criticized the plan to appoint an envoy.

The Muslim Brotherhood Web site cited him as saying that U.S. lawmakers’ concerns for the safety of Copts and other minorities in Egypt were uncalled for and that Egyptians were “capable of handling their affairs without external interference.”

The legislation names 31 mostly Muslim-majority countries — 18 in the Near East and 13 in South and Central Asia — where the envoy should focus his or her attention, but calls for priority to be given to four countries — Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

It points to bombings and other attacks against Christians in Egypt and Iraq; apostasy cases in Afghanistan; and abuse ofblasphemy laws in Pakistan, including the case of Asia Bibi, the first Pakistani Christian woman to be sentenced to death for “blaspheming” Mohammed.

The text also refers briefly to anti-Semitism, citing “Holocaust glorification” in Middle East media.

Speaking on the House floor ahead of the vote Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), who authored the bill, said persecution of Christians was rampant in Afghanistan and Pakistan — “countries where the United States has invested its treasure and the lives of countless brave American soldiers.”

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) called the fate of Egypt’s Christian minority “the bellwether of the rights for religious minorities in the Middle East.”