Human Rights in Egypt - Freedom of Religion

Freedom of Religion

See also: Persecution of Bahá'ís in Egypt and Egyptian identification card controversy

Islam is the official state religion of Egypt. According to a 2003 US State Department report, "members of the non-Muslim minority worship without harassment. The government has made efforts toward greater religious pluralism and Christians are a significant minority who have served in government. Coptic Christmas (January 7) has been a national holiday since 2002.

That said, intolerance at a cultural and political level remains according to two US-based sources. Islam is the state religion and the government controls the major mosques. There have been disputes between Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria and the government. Christians have found the building and repair of churches, however, to be problematic. Government regulations dating from Ottoman times require non-Muslims to obtain presidential decrees before building or repair a place of worship. Although in 1999 President Mubarak issued a decree making repairs of all places of worship subject to a 1976 civil construction code, in practice Christians report difficulty obtaining permits. Once permits have been obtained, Christians report being prevented from performing repairs or building by local authorities.

Human Rights Watch also indicates issues of concern. For example they discuss how the law does not recognize conversion from Islam to other religions. According to a poll by the PewResearchCenter in 2010, 84 percent of all Egyptian Muslims (75 percent of the entire population) is in favor of imposing the death sentence for leaving Islam. Human Rights Watch also mentions strict laws against insulting Islam, Christianity or Judaism and detention for unorthodox sects of Islam, such as Ahmadiyya. In 1960, Bahá'í institutions and community activities were banned by Presidential decree of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. All Bahá'í community properties, including Bahá'í centers, libraries, and cemeteries, were subsequently confiscated. Bahá'ís are also not allowed to hold identity cards, and are thus, among other things, not able to own property, attend university, have a business, obtain birth, marriage and death certificates. This ban had not been rescinded as of 2003. In 2001 18 Egyptian Bahá'ís were arrested on "suspicion of insulting religion" and detained several months without being formally charged.

On 6 April 2006, the Administrative Court ruled in favour of recognising the right of Egyptian Bahá'ís to have their religion acknowledged on official documents." However, on 15 May 2006, after a government appeal, the ruling was suspended by the Supreme Administrative Court. On December 16, 2006, only after one hearing, the Supreme Administrative Council of Egypt ruled against the Bahá'ís and stating that the government may not recognize the Bahá'í Faith in official identification numbers. The ruling left Bahá'ís unable to obtain the necessary government documents to have rights in their country unless they lie about their religion, which conflicts with Bahá'í religious principle. Bahá'ís cannot obtain identification cards, birth certificates, death certificates, marriage or divorce certificates, or passports. Without those documents, they cannot be employed, educated, treated in hospitals, or vote, among other things. In 2008, a Cairo court ruled that Bahá'ís may obtain birth certificates and identification documents, so long as they omit their religion on court documents.

An Egyptian convert from Islam to Christianity, Mohammed Beshoy Hegazy has recently sued the Egyptian government to change his religion from Islam to Christianity on his official ID card. Earlier this year, Egyptian courts rejected an attempt by a group of Christians who had previously converted to Islam but then returned to Christianity and then sought to restore their original religion on their ID cards. The case is currently before an appeals court. The most recent violations of human rights towards Christians include the Nag Hammadi massacre which occurred in January 2010, and the 2011 Alexandria bombing which occurred on January 1, 2011.

In October 2012, a number of legal cases against Egyptians, particularly Christians, were filed because the defendants allegedly showed contempt for Islam. The large number of Islamists on the panel to draft the Egyptian constitution after the fall of Hosni Mubarak in the Egyptian Revolution has led to concern by minorities and liberals. Rights groups have said that Islamic conservatives have felt emboldened by the successof the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafi Nour, and other Islamic groups in the Egyptian elections, and have been more bold in imposing their standards on other Egyptians. In one example, an Egyptian teacher cut the hair of two 12-year-old students because they didn't wear a Muslim headscarf.