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Bahai followers in Egypt find themselves being denied IDs
By Mariam Fam Associated Press
Labib Iskandar's old ID paper will expire soon but officials won't issue him a new one unless he identifies himself as a Muslim, Christian or Jew. Iskandar is a Bahai, a faith Muslim clerics declare to be heresy.
MOHAMED AL-SEHETY | Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt 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 19th-century Persian nobleman Baha'u'llah as a prophet a challenge to the Muslim belief that Muhammad was the last prophet. Given the pivotal role of Islam in Egyptian life, the government will not issue an ID card to a Bahai, only to Muslims, Christians or Jews.
The issue broke into the news in April when a court ruled that 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. Some Muslim clerics openly declare the Bahai faith a heresy, and civil rights advocates complain that 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 changed into a more religiously charged one.
"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 draw 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," Iskandar said. "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."
Muslim scholar Abdel Moeti Bayoumi 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 a prophet offend Muslims.
He contended that 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."
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.
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I had a long and eventful conversation with an Iraq store owner.
Nice guy and all but when I brought up the subject of Yezidis he really did believe that Yezidis were devil worshipers. I was floored, but people do believe what they are told without checking things out for themselves:
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so tell us your actual view ,im not got a problem with them they just different in thinking and doing things is that a problem we are all mixed up and if you think about it arnt we called devil worshipers too ,
they live there and then they shud be give ids any way stupid bloody id system any way
Posts: 354 | From: deputydawgland | Registered: Jun 2006
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well I have a bahai's friend and it seems that this issue is a group movement issue, and although there sum in Egypt doesn't exceed hundreds they want to make a seprate identification for them. I think that they are a group of shiaa's because the believe in Mohamed and Allah, although they have there own book (other than Quran) they also belive that the quran was the book upon mohamed (PBUH) they have also another rituals .. but they come as a branched group from muslims, and there faith resembles some other groups of shiaa's "like Deroose", so I actually think it will be very distinguishable to do such a thing and also it may cause discrimination, I don't think that such a behavior will be in there interest at any level. Yet, even if some cleric says they are hersey, Bahai's are never subjected to violence because they are treated like shiaa's, as far as my knowledge goes there have never been reported any violence against them, and although bahaai's are the most new shiaa's group because they were formed about 200 yrs from now, they have come to Egypt for refuge and they never had been treated with any descrimination like what happened to them in there own country (they were formed in what is so called el Sham), I think that this way of identification will never lead except for discrimination .. Do they really want that, and if so why do they have such demands? I doubt alot the first news you have written .. my friend the bahai's one although he is not a close one he is not treated anyway other than any muslim or christian I truly didn't know about him being bahai's until one day he told me after work of this issue ..
Posts: 1022 | From: cairo | Registered: Oct 2005
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I am very ignorant on the registration of people when it comes to Egypt. I am especially not very knowledgeable in what way registration is still part of christian and islamic institutions, except for marriage. But is it not possible for Egypt to skip the religious notation on the ID? Would that be a problem and what problems would occur? And why? I know over here only as short as 30 years ago, we had this discussion of stopping the gouvernment registrating the religious tradition one was in. Denominations of churches would get subsidized by the number of people that were registrated with that particular denomination. Even atheists that were only christian by birth were registrated and only with a certificate of the churh you were in you could change you're registrated religion. 30 Years ago it became possible to remove you're registration and lots of people did it then. I did so too, I came from a very rigid orthodoxy and wanted to be able to have a new choice, not to be registrated by the gouvernment. So again, could it be possible that Egypt would drop the registration of religious denominations at all?
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