The Christians of Egypt 9 or 8 million or less ?

Two days ago i wrote about Usama al Baz lecture at the Swedish Institute of Foreign affairs, where he stated that the christians in Egypt amounted to 9 million. This is to my knowledge the highest figure stated by any government official. In a interview that al Baz gave to the Swedish news agency tidningarnas telegrambyrå later that day, published in the second largest morning paper in Sweden Svenska Dagbladet the number of Christians in Egypt was reduced to 8 million.
The subject of how many Christians live in Egypt has been the subject of confussion and controversy. The census of 1976 claimed that out of Egypts´s population of 38.1 million the Christians share was 2.3 which makes it 6%. This figure correlates with Mustafa al Feqqis number of 700 000 in 1912. Saad Eddin Ibrahim stated that they amounted to 8% in 1995 and Adel Hussein claimed that they where two million in 1997. Refaát Said said in 1997 that ¨We count everything in Egypt: cups, shoes, books. The only thing we don´t count are the Copts. They have been two million since 1945. No one has died ; no one has been born,¨
Officials from within the Christian community claims the figure is much higher, and that The Christians is not represented in sufficent numbers in the govrnment, Parliament or in the upper echelons of the state burueucracy.