4 May 2006 News Article from "Elaf”
Thursday, 4 May 2006

A bill to criminalize embracing the Bahá’í Faith in Egypt

A government, “Moslem Brotherhood” campaign of hatred against its followers.
By Nabíl Sharafi’d-Dín from Cairo:

In one of the few issues that are consistent with the Egyptian government and the “Muslim Brotherhood”, the Egyptian parliament has witnessed a race between the deputies of the governing party and the deputy group in proposing actions to victimize the followers of the Bahá’í Faith and launching what could be described as a campaign of hatred against the Bahá’ís, following the effects of this ruling issued by the Administrative Judiciary Court in Alexandria last April, which obliged the Ministry of the Interior to issue personal ID cards for Egyptian Bahá’ís where “Bahá’í” is written in the entry for religion. While the Minister of Religious Endowments in Egypt declared that the government decided to appeal to the appellate court, deputies of the “Moslem Brotherhood” described the Bahá’ís as “infidels and traitors” and demanded that the Parliament issue an Act to criminalize embracing the Bahá’í Faith. The deputies of the group, which has 88 seats in parliament, also accused the Bahá’í believers of being “agents for Israel and the West powers”. The Minister of Religious Endowments quoted the Sheikh of Al-Azhar as saying that “the Bahá’í Faith is not one of the three acknowledged Divine religions; that it deviates from the religion of the people of the Book; that this is the opinion of all the people of jurisprudence; and that the Supreme Constitutional Court decided in a ruling in 1975 that even if the freedom to profess religions is absolute, it is limited to monotheistic religions. The Bahá’í religion is not one of the recognized religions”.

The ruling was issued by the Administrative Judiciary Court in Alexandria on a lawsuit lodged by a couple, who asked to have “Bahá’í” written in their ID cards and in the documents of members of their family. This ruling was welcomed by several civil associations as a victory for the freedom of religion guaranteed by the Constitution in theory, but which the government imposes restrictions on the ground.

Draft by the “Brotherhood”

For his part, MP Akram A’sh-Shá‘ir of the “Muslim Brotherhood” said that the Bahá’í Faith is not a faction of Islam; they are “infidels”. He added, “This is the opinion of a number of senior Shaykhs of Islam, such as Sheikh Al-Qaraḍáwí, Sheikh A’sh-Sha‘ráwí, in addition to Al-Azhar. If this is the case, how could they be allowed to be recognized? Furthermore, the Islamic Sharia is the main source of legislation, which criminalizes this deviant belief”.

A’sh-Shá‘ir continued saying “Bahá’ís are supported from abroad, specifically by Russia and Britain, which protected them from exposure to cases of executions in Iran.” He added that “the United States is putting pressure on Egypt and the Arab States through human rights that Bahá’ís should have a presence and a recognized status. We affirm the impossibility of this happening in Egypt; the Parliament cannot allow a law to recognize them, in as much as they are supporters of the Zionists”, so far as the allegations go.

Then MP Mr. ‘Askar said that he had decided to go ahead with a bill to criminalize the Bahá’í Faith and its believers, adding that the judicial laws have the means to appeal it.

‘Askar wondered saying that the ruling was issued about a month ago, so where were those in charge all during this period? Why did they not move to appeal against the ruling, when there exists a judgement by the Constitutional Court criminalizing Bahá’í ideology?”

MP Zaynab Riḍwán, deputy speaker, demonstrated her support for the Bahá’í religion to be recorded on ID cards. She added, “The Bahá’í ideology is deviant and extremist, but in the public interest it is required that Bahá’ís be registered in the official certificates and cards, because their names are similar to Moslem names.” She went on saying that it is “good that they be known and not unknown so that they do not succeed in infiltrating the ranks of society and spreading extremist and deviant thoughts”.

As for Fatḥí Surúr, President of the People’s Assembly (parliament) of Egypt, he clarified saying: “The judicial ruling presents a legal problem with a religious aspect; it is clear that the Bahá’í religion is not a Divine religion; hence, the ruling is inconsistent with what has been said by Moslem Jurisprudence”.

Hate campaigns

Since the 1980s, the Departments of Civil Registry in Egypt refrained from issuing identification cards for Bahá’ís, so they [the Bahá’ís] resorted to the Supreme Administrative Court, which stated in its ruling issued on the 29th of January 1983 that “the civil registry’s refusal to provide personal ID cards to the believers in the Bahá’í Faith is an administrative decision contrary to the law; the civil registry should not refrain from issuing personal ID cards to the followers of the Bahá’í Faith and should not neglect mentioning this religion on the cards of those who embrace it.”

However, in practice, the majority of the departments of the Civil Registry ignored applying this ruling; they continued issuing identity cards for the Bahá’ís and put a dash “–” in the entry for religion. The Bahá’ís accepted this solution, out of fear of escalation against them by the State agencies. However, in early February of 1985 the State Security Investigation Bureau in Cairo arrested a number of Bahá’ís, at the top of which was the plastic artist the late Husayn Bicar; he was released a few months later owing to old age in spite of the fact that he held fast to what he avowed in front of the investigating authorities that he is “Bahá’í and that the Bahá’í Faith is an independent religion just like Islam, Christianity and Judaism, and all other religions

Despite not involving the Bahá’ís in any new cases since then, the campaign of incitement and hatred against them in many newspapers and the government media continued, as well as the continuation of their dilemma with the official government departments they deal with.

In December 2003, the Islamic Research Academy of Al-Azhar issued a Fatwa stating that “Islam does not recognize any religion other than what the Qur’an has asked us to respect; there should not be, rather, it is forbidden for Egypt to have any religion other than Islam, Christianity and Judaism, in as much as any other religion is illegal and contrary to public order”. Then the Fatwa by Al-Azhar singled out the Bahá’í Faith saying “This Bahá’í creed and its likes are considered a type of intellectual deadly epidemic which the State must mobilise all its potential to combat and eradicate.”

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"it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."
- Johannes Kepler