BAHAIS’ STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION REVEALS A LESS TOLERANT FACE OF EGYPT
Mariam Fam
AP Worldstream
Jun 22, 2006
Tucked away in Labib Iskandar’s pocket is a neatly folded slip of
paper with fraying edges that tells the story of a community fighting
for recognition.
It’s a receipt Iskandar got when he applied for the computer-based
identification card Egypt had just then begun issuing _ more than
five years ago.
Iskandar is a Bahai, a member of a religious community that regards
a19th century Persian nobleman, Baha’u’llah, as its prophet _ a
challenge to the Muslim belief that Mohammed is the last prophet. Given
the pivotal role of Islam in Egyptian life, the government will
not issue an ID card to a Bahai, but only to members of the major
monotheistic faiths: Islam, Christianity or Judaism.
The issue broke into the news in April when a court ruled members of
Egypt’s little-known Bahai community had the right to have their faith
listed on official documents, sparking an outcry. The Interior Ministry
quickly filed an appeal, and last month another court froze the case.
It’s still a controversy, however. Some Muslim clerics openly declare
the Bahai faith is a heresy, and civil rights advocates complain
this heavy-handed approach threatens to set off clashes like those
that erupted recently between Muslims and minority Christians in the
northern city of Alexandria.
While the dispute directly affects only the country’s Bahais _
perhaps 2,000 of the 72 million Egyptians _ it provides a glimpse
into how a once cosmopolitan society has sunk into a culture where
fanaticism outweighs theoretical protections of religious freedom.
"Before, everything was simpler and everyone knew I was a Bahai and
had no problem with that," said Iskandar, a 59-year-old engineering
professor. "There were no biases. Fanaticism started to surface
only now."
The family whose suit led to the court ruling on the Bahai faith has
refused to speak with reporters. But the Bahais’ experience in Egypt
can be seen through Iskandar and his family.
His birth certificate and original government ID card list him as
a Bahai.
His sons have similar birth certificates. But when his oldest son,
Ragi, 24, applied for his ID card, officials would only agree to
drawing a line _ to indicate a blank _ in the religion section.
Later when 19-year-old Hady applied for an ID, he was told he
must identify himself as a follower of one of the three officially
recognized religions and never got his papers, Iskandar said.
"We worry sick about them when they stay out late, especially the
youngest son, since he has no ID, which could land him in trouble,"
said Iskandar.
"Because they’re young, they get upset and may say ‘let’s leave Egypt’"
_ an option the elder Iskandar rejects.
"I am an Egyptian. I was born in Egypt … and I won’t leave Egypt,"
he said.
The elder Iskandar was allowed to apply for the new computerized ID but
never got one. His two sons’ applications for the new documents were
not even accepted. At the end of the year, Egypt will not recognize
the old, paper IDs, replacing them with the computerized ones.
Iskandar recalled attending Bahai activities until a 1960 presidential
decree dissolved Bahai assemblies. Last October, he said, his sister
died and the family couldn’t obtain a death certificate because of
her faith.
"They don’t want to recognize the Bahai faith. Fine, no problem. But
as an Egyptian citizen, is it my right or not to have a birth
certificate and an ID card?" he said. "Why do you want me to change
my religion? Why do you want me to be a hypocrite? I refuse to lie."
Abdel Moeti Bayoumi, a Muslim scholar, said the Bahais demand for
recognition on official documents would cement a sectarian system
that could fracture the country.
"Believe in whatever you want to believe in, you and your children,
as long as you do so at home behind closed doors," he said. "Do not
undermine the public order."
Bayoumi is a member of the Al-Azhar Center of Islamic Research,
a leading institution of Sunni Muslim learning. Like many Muslim
scholars, he believes Bahaism is a splinter of Islam and not a religion
in its own right. He said the Bahais’ beliefs and practices _ including
considering Baha’u’llah as a prophet _ offend Muslims.
He added Bahais were lucky the Interior Ministry appealed the April
verdict because otherwise extremists could have attacked them.
A statement from Al-Azhar urged Egypt "to firmly stand against this
group which hurts the religion of God." It urged the government
to outlaw the Bahai faith, and another statement from Al-Azhar’s
research center, playing on the region’s anti-Israeli sentiments,
argued that Bahaism "serves the interests of Zionism."
Bahais say their holy sites in Israel are used to discredit their
community.
Baha’u’llah died in 1892 in Akko in what was then the Ottoman Empire _
and is now in Israel. The international headquarters for the world’s
5 million Bahais are in Haifa, Israel, and they have other holy places
in Turkey and Iran.
Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights,
which has monitored the Bahais’ case, said Egyptians’ ignorance of
the faith has fueled a "smear campaign."
"It is another manifestation of the narrow and heavy-handed approach
with which the Interior Ministry tackles religious affairs. There
are strong similarities between these events and the clashes in
Alexandria in terms of lack of tolerance," he said, referring to
clashes between Muslims and Christians that left two people dead and
40 wounded in April.
Political sociologist Hoda Zakareya said Egypt_ which until the 1950s
was home to significant numbers of Jews, Armenians, Greeks and other
foreigners_ has grown less tolerant.
"The religious rhetoric in the mosque and the church has become
harsher and more conservative," said Zakareya, who is against listing
religions on IDs at all. "People don’t feel secure and don’t feel that
the future is safe. When people are insecure they … seek refuge in
their religious identities as a Muslim or a Christian."
She said the growing influence of Islamic groups, such as the Muslim
Brotherhood, which aim to galvanize people through religion, not
nationalism, contributed to the change. "The brotherhood said it
would reconstruct the fractured collective conscience on religious
basis. But people are dividing, not uniting, around Islam."
Iskandar said many Egyptians were dangerously mixing the religious
and secular.
"Everyone is acting as if they were God’s envoy to the world, labeling
people believers and nonbelievers. This is not our job," he said. "If
you think we are nonbelievers, leave it for God to punish us."