CAIRO: Another court case and another wait for a permanent solution to determine the status of the Bahais of Egypt.
On Jan. 23, the less than 2,000 Bahais in Egypt will await another court hearing in the three year case of twins Nancy and Emad, 13, and their parents’ attempts to acquire Egyptian birth certificates for them.
Last week, Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court denied the family a birth certificate for the children on the grounds that “the national government has the right not to acknowledge the Bahai faith in official identification documents .
The constitution promotes freedom of belief for the three recognized heavenly religions and they are Islam, Christianity and Judaism, judge Sayed Nofal said in the appeal ruling.
As for the Bahais, Islamic jurists have all agreed that the Bahai faith is not one of the three recognized religions, he said.
Those who belong to this religion are apostates of Islam, because the faith s principles contradict the Islamic religion and all other religions.
The twin’s aunt, Wafaa Hindi, also a Bahai, told The Daily Star Egypt that “the state must find a solution. I am being discriminated against.
Hindi has concerns for her son as well, a university sophomore. She fears he could be arrested at any time since he does not possess an ID card.
Bahais are facing a struggle acquiring Egyptian paperwork because Egyptian documents require the stating of one’s religious affiliation, and the state refuses to accept the recording of “Bahai or even leaving it blank. One must be chosen from Islam, Christianity of Judaism.
The Bahais refuse to do this.
Nancy and Emad don’t have Egyptian birth certificates. They do have foreign ones as they were born in a Gulf country, and the birth certificates they possess were certified by the Egyptian consulate in that country. However, they need Egyptian birth certificates to go to school.
“We don’t care if you write Bahai or not, just leave it blank, Hindi said.
“I don’t want the state to recognize my religion, I just want to have my paperwork in order. We’re not asking for religious rights, but civil rights. I cannot get birth certificates for my children.
Hindi believes the outcry over the Bahai’s plight is the sound of fundamentalists and that this is a sign of a current shift in Egyptian society. She said “We are heading towards a religious state; we are supposed to be a secular one. Yes Islam is the religion recorded in the constitution but we have no problem with Islamic Sharia (Legislature), which are based on fairness and equality.
Hindi continued “Islam is about tolerance and love and the Quran states this, and then cited two verses from the Quran ” To you is your religion and to me is mine, and Whoever believes, will believe. And whoever does not, does not.
A 1983 ruling allowed the Bahais to state their faith on their IDs and other government documents. In 2004 however, the Interior Ministry reinstated the policy of Bahais having to pick another religion on their IDs.
Hindi believes that this whole issue arises from competitiveness amongst factions of Egyptian society to outdo each other in religiosity for political gain. “This is a competition between people to show who’s more religious. They are competing and the wants to show people that they are protectors of religion, especially in comparison to the Muslim Brotherhood.
In April, the Egyptian Administrative Justice Court had ruled in favor of the two Bahai parents who requested birth certificates for their three daughters because their original ones were confiscated by the Interior Ministry for having them documented as Bahais.
Sharia (Islamic law) prohibits discrimination against non-Muslims, the court decreed.
The Interior Ministry appealed and the First Circuit of Supreme Administrative Court ruled in the Ministry’s favor this month.
“This is great discrimination, Hindi said, “They refuse to acknowledge an ‘other’.
But former Deputy Head of Al Azhar and Member of the Islamic Research Council Seif Mahmoud Ashour, backed the government position and the court ruling.
“Bahaism is not a religion, he said. “What we recognize are Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Bahaism is a worldly belief, and not a heavenly religion, it is a man-made creation. We recognize only the heavenly religions.
Ashour added that from an Islamic standpoint “They are allowed to believe what they want, and to exercise their beliefs as they see fit, but the state will not recognize them.
Ashour then launched into a critique of Bahaism saying “We hear they permit incest, that a man can marry his sister, pray with nineteen raq’aa (prostrations), fast nineteen days a year and pray towards Acre (in Israel, resting place of Baha u llah’s) and not Mecca.
Dr Labib Iskandar Hanna, a professor of Engineering at Cairo University and a follower of the Bahai faith, disputed much of this rumor-mongering as babble propagated by an ignorant media. In an interview with The Daily Star Egypt he challenged anyone to present one case of incest amongst the Bahai community. He also dismissed the idea of nineteen prostrations in their prayer.
He said: “If you want to know about Muslims, you don’t ask a Jewish Rabbi, you ask Muslims themselves. People should ask us if they want to know something. He added that there are official Bahai sites on the Internet, in English and Arabic among other languages, where one can find out about the faith.
However, Bahais do fast nineteen days, and according to Hanna this is in accordance with their religious calendar, likening it to the lunar Islamic calendar and the Gregorian Christian calendar. Also true is the fact that they direct their prayers towards Acre, where their prophet’s remains are located.
Concerning the court case Hanna told The Daily Star Egypt: “We don’t want to mix recognition of the Bahai faith with required official paperwork. We want to be accurately portrayed. I don’t want to feel like I forged something, but this is what the government seems intent on forcing me to do.
“I’m filling out a form. The ID and birth certificate are required by the government. This is a civil issue and civil laws are made to protect minorities. My name is Labib. Do they ask me why my name is Labib? Do they tell me to write Nabil instead?
