History and Trials of the Baha'is of Egypt

Just published: official website of the Baha'is of Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 23:12:00 -0500

A milestone worth noting is the launch of the official website of the Baha'is of Egypt. The site is quite appealing and pleasing to the eye. It consists of five major components: an introduction on the main page, followed by the history of the Baha'i Faith in Egypt, then an open letter from the Egyptian Baha'is to their fellow citizens, succeeded by a section named "we will build Egypt together," and lastly ends with "guiding principles."

The main page shows a photograph of a corn field with scattered date palms and the step pyramid seen in the background. In the history section, it shows a photograph taken in the 1950s of children with their teachers after their classes. Additionally, that section includes photographs of the successors of Bahá'u'lláh (the founder of the Baha'i Faith) showing at first, his son, Abbas Effendi (`Abdu'l-Bahá), and secondly, the grandson of Abbas Effendi, Shoghi Effendi, who was the guardian of the Baha'i Faith until his passing. Currently the Baha'i Faith is headed by an intentionally elected Body of nine men, named the Universal House of Justice. The site also contains the full volume of a book authored by Dr. Suheil Bushrui on the life of Abbas Effendi that was published in 2011, in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of his frequent visits to Egypt between 1910 and 1913.

U.S. State Department Religious Freedom Report: Egypt 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:42:00 -0400

The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor has just released its Annual Report on International Religious Freedom (April 19: Video-1), (May 20: Video-2). Below is its section on Egypt. Along with other religious minorities, Baha'is continue to carry their usual burden of religious discrimination, repression and isolation:

Egypt

PDF

Permalink: http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/religiousfreedom/index.htm?year=2012&dlid=208386

Executive SummaryShare

The Constitutional Declaration of March 2011 and the new constitution ratified on December 22 provide for some freedom of religion, but certain constitutional provisions, laws, and government policies and practices limit that freedom. The government’s respect for religious freedom remained poor during the year. While the 2012 constitution stipulates that “freedom of belief is an inviolable right,” some provisions provide less protection than the previous constitution. The 2012 constitution requires that the government protect the right to practice religious rituals and establish places of worship only for adherents of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. It also makes these rights conditional by adding the ambiguous clause, “as regulated by the law.” Like previous constitutions, it stipulates that Islam is the official religion of the state and the principles of Sharia (Islamic law) are the primary sources of legislation. Some interpret Article 4 of the new constitution as granting Al Azhar, the country’s preeminent center of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, the authority to define and interpret Sharia; others believe the constitution leaves this authority primarily with the courts. The new constitution explicitly prohibits offending or criticizing religious prophets and messengers, whereas in the past demeaning or defaming Islam, Christianity, or Judaism was prohibited only by law. Prosecutors actively pursued criminal cases against those whose statements or actions were alleged to be blasphemous or denigrating of religion.

While recognized and unrecognized religious minorities mostly worshiped without harassment, the government generally failed to prevent, investigate, or prosecute crimes against members of religious minority groups, especially Coptic Christians, which fostered a climate of impunity. In some cases, government authorities reacted slowly or with insufficient resolve while mobs attacked Christians and their property, or encouraged Christians to leave their homes. Christians, Shiites, Bahais, and other minorities faced personal and collective discrimination, especially in government employment and the ability to build, renovate, and repair places of worship. The government also sometimes arrested, detained, or harassed members of minority Muslim sects. The government routinely failed to condemn incendiary speech, including anti-Semitic and anti-Christian speech.

There were reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice. Although lethal sectarian attacks decreased markedly during the year, compelled expulsions and collective punishment increased. Local Islamists also carried out isolated acts of intimidation against some Christians in Upper Egypt, likely leading to fewer Christians voting in some villages in the constitutional referendum in December 2012. Some members of the Muslim Brotherhood suggested that Christians were the only people protesting against President Morsy’s constitutional decree. Citizens also filed more cases than in previous years against Christians, accusing them of blasphemy or denigrating Islam.

The president, the secretary of state, the ambassador, and other senior administration officials have made clear that the Egyptian government has the responsibility to protect the rights of all citizens, regardless of religion, and have raised strong U.S. concerns about religious violence and discrimination with senior government officials and directly with the public. Specifically, Secretary Clinton met in July with Christian religious and lay leaders to better understand their concerns and convey U.S. support for religious freedom. She spoke publicly in the country about protecting individual and minority rights. The deputy secretary of state met earlier the same month with acting Coptic Orthodox Pope Bakhoumious. Embassy officers and other Department of State officials raised concerns about the government’s failure to prosecute perpetrators of sectarian violence, discriminatory prosecution and sentencing of Christians, ongoing discrimination against Christians in building and maintaining church properties, and the government’s treatment of Muslim citizens who hold heterodox beliefs or convert to other religions. The Department of State continued to sponsor programs in Egypt to promote religious tolerance and freedom.

Section I. Religious DemographyShare

According to a July 2012 U.S. government estimate, Egypt’s population is 83 million. Approximately 90 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim and about 10 percent is Christian. The majority of Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church. Other Christian communities together constitute less than 2 percent of the population and include the Armenian Apostolic, Catholic (Armenian, Chaldean, Greek, Melkite, Roman, and Syrian), Maronite, Orthodox (Greek and Syrian), and Anglican/Episcopalian churches, which range in size from several thousand to hundreds of thousands. A Protestant community, established in the mid-19th century, includes the following churches: Presbyterian, Baptist, Brethren, Open Brethren, Revival of Holiness (Nahdat al-Qadaasa), Faith (Al-Eyman), Church of God, Christian Model Church (Al-Mithaal Al-Masihi), Apostolic, Grace (An-Ni’ma), Pentecostal, Apostolic Grace, Church of Christ, Gospel Missionary (Al-Kiraaza bil Ingil), and the Message Church of Holland (Ar-Risaala). There are also followers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Shia Muslims constitute less than 1 percent of the population. There are also small groups of Quranists and Ahmadi Muslims. The country’s Jewish community numbers fewer than 70 persons, mostly senior citizens. There are 1,000 to 1,500 Jehovah’s Witnesses and 1,500 to 2,000 Bahais; however, the government does not recognize these groups.

Christians reside throughout the country, although the percentage of Christians is higher in Upper Egypt (the southern part of the country) and in some sections of Cairo and Alexandria.

Many foreign religious groups, including Roman Catholics and Protestants, have been present in the country for more than a century. These groups are engaged in education, social, and development work. Some foreigners are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), a group the government does not recognize but allows to meet in private residences.

In a March 2011 report, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics states 108,395 mosques and 2,869 churches exist in the country.

Section II. Status of Government Respect for Religious FreedomShare

Legal/Policy Framework

The Constitutional Declaration of March 2011 and the new constitution ratified on December 22 provide for some freedom of religion, but certain constitutional provisions, laws, and government policies limit that freedom. The new constitution states that “freedom of belief is an inviolable right,” but requires the government to protect the right to practice religious rites and establish places of worship only for adherents of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. It also makes these rights conditional by adding the ambiguous clause, “as regulated by law.” By implication, followers of other religious groups, including Bahais and Christian churches the government does not recognize, are precluded from applying their own religious laws and restricted from building places of worship. Critics also claim that some provisions of the new constitution are ambiguous about the interpretation and application of Sharia, and could be used to limit religious freedom. Some laws, policies, and court rulings also limit freedom of religion. Discrimination in government and private hiring remains widespread, even though the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) issued a decree in 2011 to amend provisions of the penal code to explicitly prohibit religious and other forms of discrimination.

Like the 1971 constitution and 2011 Constitutional Declaration, Article 2 of the new constitution stipulates that Islam is the state religion and the principles of Sharia are the primary source of legislation. Article 219 of the new constitution broadly defines the principles of Sharia to encompass all attestations and precepts found within Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence, and Article 4 states that the opinion of Al Azhar University’s Senior Scholars Committee “shall be taken on matters pertaining to Islamic Sharia.” Liberals and Christians criticize these provisions for being overly vague, leaving room for future interpretation that could be either benign or harmful to religious freedom, depending on the views of those leading the government or Al Azhar.

The 2012 constitution stipulates that the country’s political system is based on the principles of democracy, shura (consultation), and citizenship, and prohibits the formation of political parties that discriminate on the basis of gender, origin, or religion.

Article 44 of the 2012 constitution prohibits offending or criticizing prophets and messengers, and the penal code sets out the associated criminal penalties, including a minimum of six months and a maximum of five years’ imprisonment for citizens who promulgate “extremist thoughts with the aim of inciting strife, demeaning or defaming any of the heavenly religions, or inflicting damage to the national unity.”

The government interprets Sharia as forbidding Muslims from converting to another religion despite there being no statutory prohibitions on conversion. This policy, along with the refusal of local officials to recognize such conversions legally, constitutes a prohibition in practice.

Neither the constitution nor the civil and penal codes prohibit proselytizing, and the government generally tolerates foreign religious workers on condition that they do not proselytize Muslims. Non-Muslim minorities and foreign religious workers generally refrain from proselytizing to avoid legal penalties, such as for disrupting social cohesion, and extra-legal repercussions from authorities and local Islamists.

The constitution permits Christians and Jews to refer to their religious laws in matters pertaining to personal status issues, religious practices, and the selection of their spiritual leaders. In family law, the government only recognizes the legal principles of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. When family law disputes involve a marriage between a Christian woman and a Muslim man, courts apply Islamic law. The government recognizes only the marriages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Non-Muslim men must convert to Islam to marry Muslim women, although non-Muslim women need not convert to marry Muslim men. A non-Muslim woman who converts to Islam, however, must divorce if her husband is not Muslim and he is unwilling to convert. Custody of children is then awarded to the mother.

Both Islamic and Coptic Orthodox religious laws prevent Coptic men and Muslim women from marrying each other and prevent a marriage outside the country between such individuals from being legally recognized.

The law provides for “khul” divorce, which allows a Muslim woman to obtain a divorce without her husband’s consent provided that she is willing to forgo all of her financial rights, including alimony, dowry, and other benefits.

Muslim female heirs receive half the amount of a male heir’s inheritance. Christian widows of Muslims have no automatic inheritance rights, but may be provided for in testamentary documents. Converts from Islam to Christianity lose all rights of inheritance. Because the government offers no legal means for such converts to amend their civil records to reflect their new religious status, apart from the recent exception for reconverts, a convert’s loss of inheritance rights may not be indicated on civil documents.

The minor children of Muslim converts to Christianity, and in some cases adult children who were minors when their parents converted, may automatically remain classified as Muslims because the government does not recognize conversion from Islam. This is true irrespective of the religion of the other parent.

The Ministry of Education bans the hijab (Islamic headscarf) in primary schools and only allows it in preparatory and secondary schools upon written request from a girl’s parent.

Various ministries may obtain court orders to ban or confiscate books and works of art. The Council of Ministers may ban works it deems offensive to public morals, detrimental to religion, or likely to cause a breach of the peace. The Islamic Research Center of Al Azhar has the legal authority to censor and confiscate any publications dealing with the Quran and the authoritative Islamic traditions (Hadith), and to confiscate publications, tapes, speeches, and artistic materials deemed inconsistent with Islamic law.

The Ministry of Islamic Endowments (Awqaf) is required to license all mosques; however, many operate without licenses. The government in theory appoints and pays the salaries of all the imams who lead prayers in licensed mosques and monitors their sermons, but government control over mosques decreased after the 2011 revolution. The government does not compensate Christian clergy.

The constitution guarantees the freedom to establish places of worship for the “three divine religions,”--Islam, Christianity, and Judaism--but subjects that right to unspecified regulation by stating “in accordance with the law.” Non-Muslims must obtain a presidential decree to build new churches and synagogues, but can undertake basic repairs and maintenance with written notification to local authorities. The president delegated the authority to permit Christian denominations to expand or rebuild existing churches to the country’s 26 governors. Governors must examine all applications and their supporting documentation within 30 days. A Ministry of Interior (MOI) decree issued in the 1930s and still generally followed specifies a set of 10 conditions that the government must consider, including that a church may be no closer than 100 meters (340 feet) from an existing mosque and that churches in Muslim-majority neighborhoods need local approval, before forwarding an application to the president for a decree for construction of a new church.

To obtain official recognition a religious group must submit a request to the MOI’s Religious Affairs Department. The department then determines whether the group would, in its view, pose a threat or upset national unity or social peace. As part of this determination, the department consults leading religious institutions, including the Coptic Orthodox Church and Al Azhar. The registration is then referred to the president for decision. If a religious group fails to obtain official registration, its members potentially face detention and prosecution for harming social cohesion or, under article 98(f) of the Penal Code, for denigrating religions.

Only Islam, Christianity, or Judaism may be indicated in the religion field of government-issued national identity cards. However, Muslim-born citizens who convert from Islam may not change that field. After a lengthy court battle in 2009, members of the Bahai community are able to obtain identity cards with a “dash” in the religion field, but their marriages are not recognized or listed on the identity cards. Since 2011 Christians who convert to Islam and then back to Christianity may amend their national identification cards to reflect their chosen faith.

The law does not recognize the Bahai Faith and bans Bahai institutions and community activities. Bahais are able, however, to privately worship and engage in celebrations such as Naw-Ruz, the Bahai New Year. The lack of formal recognition for the Bahai Faith is an obstacle in registering marriages and inheritance. Whereas Muslims and Christians follow Sharia or their respective church laws for personal status issues, including marriage, the state does not recognize Bahai religious law, and there is no recourse to civil law for personal status issues. Married Bahais who choose not to accept identity cards showing their marital status as single report difficulty opening bank accounts and establishing businesses.

The quasi-governmental National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) is charged with strengthening protections, raising awareness, and ensuring the observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including religious freedom. It is also charged with monitoring enforcement and application of international agreements.

The government observes the following religious holidays as national holidays: Mawlid al-Nabi (the birth of the Prophet Muhammad), Eid Al-Fitr, Eid Al-Adha, the Islamic New Year, and Coptic Christmas (January 7).

Government Practices

There were reports of abuses of religious freedom, including reports of imprisonment and detention. The government failed to protect Christians and their property effectively when they were attacked in Dahshour, Alexandria, and Rafah, and often failed to investigate and prosecute crimes against Christians and other religious minorities, most notably in the cases of violence in October 2011 against Copts in Maspiro that killed 25 and the September kidnapping of a Coptic girl, Sarah Ishaq. In many cases the government continued to sponsor or permit informal “reconciliation sessions,” which generally precluded criminal prosecution for crimes against Copts and contributed to a climate of impunity. The government continued to harass Shiites and prohibit conversion from Islam. Some other minority religious groups reported a decline in government harassment. Discrimination against Christians and other religious minorities, including in government hiring, persisted. The government also failed to redress laws that prevented Copts and other minorities from building and repairing places of worship.

The government enforced laws against “insulting” or “denigrating” religion in a number of cases. For instance, authorities arrested Coptic activist Alber Saber Ayad in Cairo on September 13, a day after neighbors accused him of heresy, atheism, and defaming Islam for posting an anti-Islamic amateur video on his Facebook account, and for previous online blog entries that were critical of religion. Saber claimed that his account had been hacked. According to an Amnesty International statement in El Marg Prison, which quoted Saber’s lawyer, Saber lacked “clean drinking water and lighting… [and was] located near a collapsed sewer.” Saber also informed his lawyers that a “police officer incited other detainees to attack him.” On December 12, the Marg Misdemeanor Court sentenced Saber to three years in prison and a fine of EGP 1,000 ($170), after finding him guilty of defaming Islam. After posting bail, Saber was released on December 17 and at the end of the year remained free pending appeal.

Courts sometimes sentenced Christians to prison terms that exceeded those given to Muslims accused of the same crime. On April 19, a dispute over a speed bump outside the residence of Alaa Reda Roshdy, a local Christian politician, led to confrontations between Muslims and Christians in Abu Qurqas resulting in two deaths and at least four injuries. After the funerals of the two Muslim villagers, clashes escalated and mobs attacked Coptic residences and properties. The Egyptian armed forces intervened and imposed a curfew. Security forces arrested eight Muslims and 12 Christians, including Alaa Reda Roushdy, who was reportedly in Cairo when the clashes began. In May the Higher State Security Court sentenced the 12 Copts to life in prison after finding two of them guilty of premeditated murder and the others guilty of rioting, destruction of property, and/or possessing weapons, crimes that carry maximum penalties of a few years in prison. The court acquitted all eight Muslim suspects. Rights activists and families of the accused reported that the prosecution did not present evidence, such as weapons, but only the vaguely written testimony of police officers. Only the president had the power to annul the sentence, call for a retrial, or authenticate the ruling. On December 26, the 12 Christians were released after 20 months in prison. Reportedly the 12 men are to be retried. The Minya Criminal Court set January 20, 2013 as the date for the first new trial.

On November 28, the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced in absentia seven Christians to death for their alleged connection to the production of an inflammatory and anti-Islamic amateur video. According to local media, the prosecution claimed the suspects used religion to spread extremist ideas, with the aim of inciting sectarianism and defaming one of the heavenly religions, and damaging national unity and societal peace. The case moved to the Grand Mufti for his non-binding opinion.

The government did not investigate and prosecute any military or police commanders responsible for ordering or failing to prevent violence against the mostly Coptic demonstrators at the Maspiro radio and television building in Cairo in October 2011 in which 25 persons were killed and over 300 were injured. In September a military court sentenced two low-ranking soldiers to two years in prison and handed down a three-year sentence to a third soldier for their involvement in the incident. The three soldiers, who drove vehicles that ran over demonstrators, were found guilty of wrongfully killing 14 civilians. A state media television announcer publicly called on Egyptians to “protect” the army from Christians. Two Copts accused of stealing weapons during the Maspiro incident were awaiting trial at year’s end.

Media and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) reported that in October 2010 the Supreme State Security Prosecutor detained 12 Shia on accusations of violating article 98(f) of the penal code by showing “contempt of religion,” forming an underground organization to overthrow the ruling regime, receiving foreign funds, and other crimes. The 12 were among a group of approximately 100 Shia who were detained and released in 2010. According to a member of the Shia community, the 12 were never tried and were released in late October.

The government often sponsored or permitted “reconciliation sessions” following communal violence and sectarian attacks instead of prosecuting perpetrators of crimes. In August the NCHR, claiming that impunity is a major reason for sectarian clashes and violates the law, called on state authorities to cease the use of “reconciliation sessions.” The lack of prosecutions contributed to a climate of impunity that encouraged further assaults. On January 27, security and police forces stood by as a mob of Muslim villagers in Alexandria’s impoverished Kobry El Sharbat village attacked, looted, and burned residences and stores belonging to Coptic villagers, following accusations that a Coptic man carried illicit photos of a Muslim woman on his mobile phone. The accused Copt surrendered to the police, who removed him and his family from the village. Instead of prosecuting members of the mob, the government convened an informal “reconciliation session” between Copts and Muslims. The participants in the session decided to evict eight Coptic families from the area.

Some Coptic Orthodox Church and Protestant officials indicated they were better able to build and repair churches in the aftermath of the revolution than in previous years, although they did so without official permission. The government failed to pass a law eliminating the discriminatory permit process by which Christians build and repair places of worship, despite the NCHR urgently calling on it to do so. The government promised to consider such a law after both the Imbaba riots in May 2011and the Maspiro violence in October 2011. The Coptic Orthodox Church and Al Azhar, along with some Protestant churches, reportedly agreed to draft legislation in late October 2011, but the government took no further action. Moreover, neither the SCAF nor President Morsy issued decrees authorizing construction of churches during the year, according to the Official Gazette.

Some church and human rights leaders also voiced concern that local officials abused their authority to issue repair permits or forward building petitions. They claimed local officials delayed the permits or required formal permits for matters that should have required a simple notification only, such as routine repairs and maintenance. In March a court in Edfu sentenced Father Macarius Boules, pastor of the Marinab Coptic Orthodox Church in Aswan Governorate, to six months in prison and an EGP 300 ($45) fine for violating a repair permit. Authorities accused the priest of building a steeple taller than one permitted by the license. Boules won on appeal and never served jail time.

There have been no violent anti-Semitic incidents in recent years; however, anti-Semitic sentiments routinely appeared in both government-owned and private media, and the government made few public attempts to distinguish between anti-Semitism and opposition to Israeli policies and practices. Media sometimes published cartoons demonizing Jews and accusing them of seeking to subvert Egypt and Islam and take over the world. Private Salafi media sometimes included anti-Semitic programming that glorified or denied the Holocaust, including in interviews with academics and clerics. Privately owned Al-Tahrir TV re-aired the 2002 anti-Semitic TV series “Horseman Without a Horse” in March, which includes a story line around the Tsarist forgery, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” There were reports of imams using anti-Semitic rhetoric in their sermons, including allegations of blood libel.

On October 19, President Morsy said “Amen” during televised prayers in Mansour after an imam stated, “Oh Allah ... grant us victory over the infidels. Oh Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters.” This is a common prayer in Egyptian mosques and came in a litany of other prayers.

For the second consecutive year, authorities cancelled the Abu Hassira celebrations that were slated for January, preventing the annual pilgrimage by non-Egyptian Jews to the shrine of 19th-century scholar Rabbi Yaakov Abu Hassira.

Government and official Islamic institutions also used anti-Shiite rhetoric. In July Al Azhar, Egypt’s leading Sunni religious authority, issued a statement condemning the building of Shiite places of worship and describing such efforts as attempts to create fractures in the society that threatened the social and spiritual unity of the Egyptian people. According to Al Shorouk newspaper, Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, speaking at an Al Azhar lecture in October, called for dialogue between Sunnis and Shiites, but warned against the spread of Shiism in Egypt. He claimed that spreading Shia beliefs could lead to strife, instability, and the shaking of societal peace.

Christians were discriminated against in government hiring and under-represented in senior government leadership positions, both elected and appointed. In the parliament seated in February and dissolved in June, there were 11 Christians (five appointed, six elected) in the 518-seat People’s Assembly and three Christians (all elected) in the Shura Council. Christians constitute approximately 10 percent of the population but held fewer than 2 percent of the seats in parliament, and political parties nominated relatively few Christians to run in elections as candidates.

There were no Christian members of the SCAF. Two Christian cabinet members, among a total of 35 ministers, served during the first half of the year. President Morsy appointed one Christian to his cabinet in July. The sole Christian among President Morsy’s four senior aides resigned on November 23 in protest over the president’s Constitutional Declaration. There were no Christians among the 27 governors. There were few Christians in the upper ranks of the security services and armed forces.

The government discriminated against religious minorities in public sector hiring and staff appointments to public universities. There were no Christians serving as presidents or deans of the country’s 17 public universities. Of nearly 700 president, dean, or vice dean positions in the country’s public university system, Christians rarely fill more than one or two. Only Muslims may study at Al Azhar University, a publicly funded institution with approximately half a million students. Additionally, the government bars non-Muslims from employment in public university training programs for Arabic language teachers because the curriculum involves study of the Quran.

Egypt’s new constitution does not prohibit parties based on religion, but rather only those that discriminate based on religion, gender, or origin. Laws remain in effect prohibiting religion-based political parties or political activities. However, political parties of the Muslim Brotherhood and various Salafi groups registered in 2011 were allowed to operate and participate fully in elections during the year. On the other hand, in March, prior to the passage of the new constitution, the State Council’s Political Parties Committee reaffirmed the denial of registration to the Shia-oriented Tahrir Party on the grounds that the party was based on religious principles.

Government Inaction

The government often failed to prevent societal violence and assaults against Christians and their property. On July 26, a Coptic-owned laundry in Dahshour accidentally scorched a Muslim man’s shirt, leading to violent clashes in which one Muslim bystander was killed, nine police were injured, and one vehicle destroyed. Villagers told the NCHR that the police were unable to stop the violence, and encouraged Copts to leave town to avoid further violence against them. The NCHR noted that while the police protected the church and lives, they “didn’t perform at the required level.” The government arrested nine suspects, including two Copts, for taking part in the violence but none were tried. Most of the 110 Coptic families who evacuated returned when additional governmental security was in place. However, many homes were uninhabitable and the government’s offer of EGP 10,000 (USD 1,500) per family was inadequate for the repairs.

In the North Sinai city of Rafah, the government failed to prevent attacks on Copts and did not identify or prosecute the perpetrators. On September 15, three Coptic store owners received pamphlets warning Rafah’s small Christian community to leave within 48 hours. Copts reported the threats to local authorities, but claimed they were ignored. On September 25, masked men fired shots at the store of a Coptic merchant. Copts then wanted to move to the relatively more secure city of Al Arish, which the governor supported, but their government jobs could not be relocated.

The government failed to condemn or counter incendiary speech. During the political crisis that followed President Morsy’s November 22 Constitutional Declaration, members of the Muslim Brotherhood and Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) negatively referred to Copts in public. Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat Al Shater, in an effort to delegitimize anti-Morsy protests, stated at a press conference that 80 percent of the demonstrators in front of the presidential palace were Copts while FJP Secretary General Mohamed El Beltagui stated that “50-60 percent of the demonstrators in front of the palace are Copts.” Speaking at a Muslim Brotherhood rally, Safwat Hegazy, a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islamist preacher, warned Copts and other Christian figures against “ever allying with remnants of the former regime against legitimacy.” He accused Christian politician George Ishaq of participating in secret meetings with the opposition. On November 4, the Al-Hafiz satellite television station broadcast Salafist Sheikh Abdallah Badr overtly threatening harm to Copts should their protests negatively affect the status of President Morsy. The government did not condemn the threat.

The government failed to return to her family a child who had been kidnapped and forced to convert, or to bring to justice the known perpetrators of the crime. On September 30, Sarah Ishaq Abdelmalek, a 14-year-old Coptic girl, was kidnapped in Al Dab’a. Her family filed a “missing persons” report at Al Dab’a police station. Days later, Sarah’s family learned she had converted to Islam and gotten married, despite laws criminalizing child marriage and prohibiting the conversion of minors. The National Council for Women condemned the kidnapping and called on the government to take action. The Salafi Front and its associated National Center for Defending Freedoms issued a statement claiming that Sarah married willingly and was “mature enough” to bear the responsibilities. The family’s lawyer claimed the interior ministry knew of Sarah’s whereabouts. Sarah remained missing at year’s end, and there was no indication that Egyptian authorities took any steps to investigate this case.

Some activists and religious leaders allege that there were additional instances of kidnapping for forced conversion. However, other human rights groups and religious leaders believe that kidnapping for forced conversion is rare. Families sometimes claimed kidnapping when women or girls ran away for reasons ranging from abuse to voluntary conversion or elopement.

During the year, the government did not effectively investigate and prosecute cases of sectarian violence that occurred in 2011, including the New Year’s bombing of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria, the Muqattum/Mansheit Nasr riots and the destruction of a Coptic Orthodox church in Atfeh/Sol village in March, and the May Imbaba riots. The government began to prosecute perpetrators of the Imbaba riots, but dropped the cases and released the suspects. The government brought no perpetrators to justice in any of these cases.

There were no indications in the media that the government enforced the 2011 amendments to the penal code that make discrimination a crime. The penal code defines discrimination as “any action, or lack of action, that leads to discrimination between people or against a sect due to gender, origin, language, religion, or belief.” The new amendments established higher penalties for government officials than for other offenders.

Positive Developments in Respect for Religious Freedom

The government sometimes sent extra security forces to protect churches and prevent the escalation of conflict. For instance, President Morsy traveled to Rafah in the Sinai Peninsula after Christians were threatened there; he ordered increased security and spoke about Muslims and Christians standing together against extremism. On October 5, President Morsy visited the city of Al Arish after threats against Copts in that area; he issued orders to increase security. He spoke about Muslims and Christians standing together against violent extremism and told the Copts, “your security is our security.”

After initially failing to protect Christians and their property when they were attacked in Dahshour, the government protected the Coptic Orthodox Church and provided extra security and some compensation to displaced Christian families. This allowed the large majority of the displaced Christians to return. Then-Minister of Interior Ahmed Gamal Eddin, along with the Giza governor, visited Dahshour where they met with Christian families.

On May 14, the Minya Criminal Court sentenced police cadet Amer Ashour to death for murdering one Copt and injuring five more on board a train en route to Cairo in January 2011. According to eyewitnesses, Ashour boarded the train and opened fire.

In October the Ministry of Education deducted one month’s salary and transferred Eman Al Kelany, a school teacher, after she cut the hair of two young students for not wearing a veil. The National Council for Women filed a lawsuit against the teacher, and on November 6, the Misdemeanor Court of Luxor issued a 6- month suspended sentence.

President Morsy met twice during his first months in office with senior representatives of Egypt’s Christian churches, something neither President Mubarak nor the SCAF had done in decades.

Section III. Status of Societal Respect for Religious FreedomShare

There were reports of societal abuse or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice. However, lethal sectarian attacks decreased during the year. Communal tensions remained high, although Christians and Muslims share a common culture and in most cases continued to live peacefully as neighbors throughout the country.

In October Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badei made several anti-Semitic statements. In a sermon that was also published online, he called for Muslims to unite and be willing to shed their own blood against “Jews (who) have increased the corruption in the world.” He added that “Zionists only know the way of force.”

Fayza Abul Naga, former Minister of International Cooperation, referred to a U.S. NGO as “a tool of the Jewish lobby.”

Citizens filed more cases against Christian and secular-oriented Muslim public figures, accusing them of blasphemy or denigrating Islam. The state prosecutor sent cases to trial and courts convicted and sentenced the accused. During the Mubarak era, the state prosecutor rarely forwarded such cases to trial.

On October 28, Muslim villagers in Marco village, Beni Suef Governorate, injured at least 10 Copts after surrounding an “unlicensed” church, throwing stones, and blocking the exit. In an informal “reconciliation session” between church officials and the heads of village families at the start of Ramadan in July, the church’s leaders had agreed to suspend sermons at the church until a permit was obtained, to avoid escalating tensions. The resumption of services without a permit reportedly sparked the October conflict.

On November 5, a group of Salafis attempted to seize an empty plot of land belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Shubra Al Kheima. They placed a sign on the land reading “Al Rahma Mosque” and conducted prayers. Bishop Morcos of the Shubra Al Kheima Diocese identified the trespassers and filed lawsuits.

In May Al Watan newspaper published the location of a house near the Nile Delta city of Tanta that Shias used for worship. The resulting pressure from the media and local Sunni Muslims compelled the Shia house owners to close the place of worship.

There were reports of isolated but increasing land thefts from Christians, especially in Upper Egypt. In some cases informal “reconciliation sessions” were used to justify stealing, or forcing the sale at low prices, of small parcels of Christian-owned land. Some Christians also reportedly decided to move from Muslim-majority villages to towns where they believed they would be more secure.

There were reports of isolated cases of Christians being disenfranchised during elections. These occurred mostly in poorer and rural areas, where local extremists attempted to intimidate inhabitants of Copt-majority villages to stay away from the polls.

Section IV. U.S. Government PolicyShare

Officials at all levels of the U.S. government, including the president, the secretary of state, the deputy secretary, the ambassador, the assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs, the assistant secretary for democracy, human rights, and labor, the ambassador at large for international religious freedom, and other Department of State and U.S. embassy officials raised religious freedom issues with the government. These included cases in which the government did not protect religious minorities and their property or arrest and prosecute perpetrators of violence, as well as cases in which Christians received disproportionately severe sentences. Officials also raised the ongoing discrimination that Christians face in building and maintaining church properties; official discrimination against Bahais; arrests and harassment of Muslim citizens whose religious views differ from the majority; anti-Semitism; and the government’s treatment of Muslim citizens who wish to convert.

In July the secretary of state met with government officials and religious and lay Christian leaders in Cairo. Secretary Clinton listened to their concerns about the political transition and assured them that the United States is committed to supporting universal human rights, including religious freedom. In Alexandria, the secretary publicly said that “real democracy means that every citizen has the right to live, work, and worship as they choose, whether they are man or woman, Muslim or Christian, or from any other background. Real democracy means that no group or faction or leader can impose their will, their ideology, their religion, their desires on anyone else. Democracy is not just about reflecting the will of the majority; it is also about protecting the rights of the minority.”

The deputy secretary of state visited the country separately in July and met with then Acting Coptic Orthodox Pope Bakhoumious, who shared concerns about protecting minority rights. The deputy secretary also stressed to government officials the importance of religious freedom, including with government officials.

The ambassador made public statements supporting religious freedom, interfaith understanding, and efforts toward harmony and equality among citizens of all religious groups. During a November trip to Minya Governorate, which has proportionately the largest Christian population in the country, the ambassador met with a local Coptic Orthodox Bishop, visited a religious site, and met with a group of approximately 40 Muslim and Christian leaders to discuss ways to improve interfaith dialogue. In August, the ambassador visited Mama Maggie, the leader of an NGO providing services to Cairo’s Christian trash collectors and recyclers. The ambassador also met with poor children and families at a school in the mostly Christian Muqattam neighborhood.

The embassy maintained formal contacts with the Office of Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The embassy also regularly discussed religious freedom matters with other government officials, including governors and members of parliament.

U.S. embassy officials maintained an active dialogue with leaders of the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Bahai religious communities, human rights groups, and other activists. U.S. embassy officials investigated complaints of official religious discrimination brought to the embassy’s attention. They also discussed religious freedom matters with a range of contacts, including academics, businessmen, and citizens outside the capital area. U.S. officials actively challenged anti-Semitic articles in the media through discussions with editors-in-chief and journalists.

In August and December the embassy hosted visits by prestigious U.S. imams to promote interfaith and cross-cultural toleration and understanding. They met with religious leaders, civil society representatives, and youth. The ambassador hosted events bringing together Christians and Muslims, liberals and Islamists, and a range of other guests to engage the visitors on how to improve interfaith dialogue and protect their rights.

U.S. programs and activities supported initiatives in several areas related to religious freedom, including promoting political participation by marginalized youth to foster peaceful coexistence, religious tolerance, and human rights. One program promoted interfaith understanding and sense of community in areas that recently suffered from religious strife. U.S. programs also supported NGOs that monitored the country’s media for sectarian bias.

The embassy supported the development of Arabic-language and English-language educational materials that encourage tolerance, diversity, and understanding of others. The embassy also supported programs that promoted tolerance among young religious leaders, interfaith understanding in communities that recently suffered from religious strife, and civic and political participation by marginalized youth.

Embassy officials worked with the Supreme Council of Antiquities to promote the conservation of cultural antiquities, including Islamic, Christian, and Jewish historical sites.

Anti-Sectarian Campaign in Egypt with Focus on ID Cards!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:23:00 -0400

Since the introduction of computerized ID cards in Egypt, the religion field on the card has been a major source of controversy and alienation as it limits the entry to three religions only (Islam, Christianity & Judaism), additionally, it has been encouraging discriminatory practices in just every imaginable interaction in daily living--whether job related or in civil transactions--or on any other occasion when an ID card is required for inspection.

Recently, with the rise of Muslim Brotherhood authoritarian control of key government agencies, and the escalating wave of sectarian violence in Egypt and bloody attacks on cathedrals and churches, Egyptian activists begun an online campaign against sectarianism, aimed at eliminating religious identity from ID Cards. This campaign is taking a number of forms, such as obscuring the religion field on the ID Card and writing "none of your business" over it. Below is an example of such a campaign, carried out by a an Egyptian journalist, named Sarah Carr:

None of your business

Sarah Carr

Tue, 16/04/2013 - 17:28

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During the particularly hair-raising moments of the revolution, when some of the popular committees manning checkpoints on the streets were taking their jobs extremely seriously and matters were more than a touch vigilante, I crossed paths with one of these committees in downtown Cairo after curfew.

A man with a huge stick, surrounded by other men with assorted weaponry, demanded to see my ID card because they were on the lookout for spies and “hidden hands.” After getting through the riddle of my name, he inevitably flipped the card over to read the back of it where gender, marital status and religion is listed.

His face contorted as if the ID card had magically been transformed into a turd.

“How can you be Muslim when your name is Sarah Marea Carr?” he said, clearly outraged by this assault on world order.

Just about everyone who finds my ID card in their hands has this compulsion to flip it over. The data they find there never has anything to do with whatever business I am doing with them, and yet they feel this need to satisfy their curiosity or categorize me according to some personal schema in which religion (and perhaps marital status) is indispensable.

For decades, Egyptian regimes have been peddling the line that Egyptians coexist in peaceful harmony. Egypt’s largest religious minority, Coptic Orthodox Christians, we were — and continue to be told — are happy partners in the homeland and everything is hunky dory.

Occasionally a door would open unexpectedly and we would get a glimpse of something ugly and frightening, but it would be closed again hurriedly and dismissed as the work of an individual madman.

Or maybe the media would be blamed for misrepresenting an ordinary dispute as sectarian. And then the incident would be forgotten about in a mist of platitudes and reconciliation sessions and images of priests and imams raising joined hands together in the air triumphantly.

But on many occasions there is little difference between the state and that angry stick-bearing man in downtown Cairo in its treatment of religion.

The unprecedented assault on the Abbasseya Cathedral earlier this month was important, not only because it was the first time security forces had attacked a major symbol of Coptic Orthodox Christianity, but because it exposed, in the clearest and most frightening fashion, this deceit: Egyptian society is obsessed with religious identity. In fact, some citizens hate people from other religions, and the state plays a huge role in this.

The clearest and crudest example is that the state bleats endlessly about citizenship and equality, while its bureaucracy categorizes citizens by religion on their identity cards.

After the cathedral events, I felt angry and powerless until the idea of covering up the religion field on my ID card came to me. I couldn’t think of a single use for the religion field; the Egyptian state has a well documented thirst for bureaucracy and collecting information about its citizens, but there is absolutely no need for it to have this information. It serves no purpose other than giving prejudiced state officials (and anyone else who sees the ID card) the opportunity to give a hard time to citizens.

I couldn’t be a part of this anymore. I wrote “none of your business” on a piece of paper and covered up the religion and marital status fields on my ID card and posted a picture on Facebook.

The response was great, and unexpected, and so I created the inevitable Facebook page with a friend, Mohamed Adam, and called it “None of Your Business.” People have sent in pictures of their religious field covered with slogans like “What the hell has it got to do with you?” and “human being” as well as stickers.

One woman had the great idea of covering the religious field with pictures and covered hers with the word “Sponge” from the popular children’s cartoon Sponge Bob.

Covering the religious field is both a temporary solution and a form of protest. We are aware, of course, that religion is recorded in our application forms for ID cards —Egyptians do not have the option to leave this field blank unless they are Baha'is. They must fill it with Muslim, Christian or Jewish, and that therefore the state has this information.

We are also aware that Egyptian Baha'is, who have the right to leave the religious field blank, cannot marry in Egypt because civil marriage does not exist. The tidiest, most logical — and still some way off — solution to all this is to remove religion from state paperwork altogether and ultimately remove state interference in personal matters.

There have been the inevitable accusations that this is a campaign against religion, while others point out that religious identity is often apparent from a person’s name or appearance. These critics have misunderstood the campaign’s point. It is not a campaign against religion or religious identity. It is about preventing the state from poking its nose in matters that does not concern it, and thereby preventing disastrous results, and from having any role in defining, controlling or exploiting religious identity.

Sarah Carr is an Egypt Independent journalist and blogger.

"If I were a Baha'i" by Tarek Heggy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:18:00 -0500

Yesterday, the prominent Egyptian intellectual and author, Dr. Tarek Heggy published an article in Arabic that was first noted to be posted in "Civic Egypt" website, and titled "If I were a Baha'i" which has gained a bit of attention because of its direct language and its straightforward statements of facts, that enumerated the trials and tribulations suffered by Egyptian Baha'is over the years, and up to the present time. Several sites picked it up afterwards, in Arabic (Al-Hewar Al-Motamaden--Modern Discussion), and was also translated to French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portugese, Farsi and English. This article is reprinted in its original language below, followed by an edited English translation that was based on various translations available online.This indeed is worth reading and contemplating!

لو كنت -بهائيا- فى مصر !

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Fofa

د: طارق حجي

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لأخبرت العالم بالمخطط المنهجي للقضاء على البهائية والبهائيين في مصر.

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لأعلمت العظماء والمفكرين في العالم بالحفاوة والتعظيم والتبجيل الذي قابل به أمثالهم عبد البهاء عند قدومه إلى مصر في أوائل القرن العشرين. ثم ازدراء وتكفير دعاة العظمة والفكر اليوم في مصر للبهائية والبهائيين. أافتقدت مصر الفكر أم هجرها المفكرون؟

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لحكّمت أهل العدل في العالم في شأن الأزهر الشريف لأقول لعلمائه المحترمين كيف تحكمون أن البهائية ليست دين بعد الذي حكمت المحكمة الشرعية العليا في ببا/سوهاج في 1925 بأن: “البهائية دين مستقل”.

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لحكّمت أهل العدل في العالم في شأن الأزهر الشريف الذي ضاقت به المساجد والجوامع ومدارس الكتاب التي لا حصر لها في مصر فانتزع مبنى مركز البهائيين الوحيد لاستعماله مدرسة لتعليم القرآن الكريم.

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لحكّمت أهل العدل في العالم في شأن سجن 92 بهائيا وبهائية يتراوح أعمارهم بين 2 و80 سنة اعتقلوا ونقلوا إلى طنطا من جميع أنحاء قطر مصر، ثم في نشر أفظع الأكاذيب والاتهامات الباطلة في الجرائد عنهم لا لشيء سوى أنّهم بهائيون!

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لحكّمت أهل العدل في العالم في شأن اعتقال البهائيين رجالا ونساء، ومن مدن وقرى مصر شمالا وجنوبا، في أعداد مختلفة، وحبسهم رهن التحقيق الأسابيع والأشهر، لا لشيء سوى أنهم بهائيون.

لو كنت بهائيا: لنشرت بين فناني الشرق والغرب أن من أعظم فناني مصر والشرق، حسين بيكار(البهائي)، اقتيد من بيته وأودع الحبس أياما تحت التحقيق فقط لأنه بهائي.

لوكنتُ بهائيا: لنشرت بين فناني الشرق والغرب أن من أعظم فناني مصر والشرق، حسين بيكار، مات وهو يناهز التسعين دون بطاقة شخصية لرفض السلطة في مصر كتابة بهائي في خانة الدين.

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لتوجهت للمنظمات الحقوقية والغير حكومية في العالم لأقول لهم: يا ناس! هل يُعقل أن البطاقات الشخصية في مصر القرن الواحد والعشرين تحمل خانة فرضية للدين؟

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لتوجهت للمنظمات الحقوقية والغير حكومية في العالم لأقول لهم: يا ناس! هل يُعقل أن البطاقات الشخصية في مصر القرن الواحد والعشرين تفرض كتابة واحد من ثلاثة أديان فقط بصرف النظر عن إرادة الشخص أو دينه؟

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لأبلغت العالم والمنظمات الحقوقية والغير حكومية أن الأبناء البهائيين والبنات البهائيات يحصلون على بطاقات شخصية بها (-) في خانة الدين، في حين أن آباءهم وأمهاتهم لا يحصلون على بطاقات شخصية: لماذا؟ لأن الدّولة لا تعترف بالزواج البهائي! تعالوا تعالوا يا أهل الإنصاف وشاهدوا معي عظمة الدقة والتصرف في تطبيق القوانين!

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لأخبرت وزراء التعليم في بلدان العالم أن وزير التعليم المصري لن يقبل الأطفال – إي نعم الأطفال – البهائيين بالمدارس الحكومية لأنهم بهائيون.

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لأخبرت العالم أن الدستور المصري الأخير أعدّ لإلغاء الأقلية البهائية في مصر.

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لأخبرت العالم أن حرق ديار البهائيين في مصر عادي لا يحتاج إلى تحقيق ولا تفسير.

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لأخبرت العالم والمنظمات الحقوقية والغير حكومية وهيئات الصحافة والإعلام أن الحض على قتل البهائيين علنا في التلفزيون وفي خطب المسئولين عادي لا يحتاج إلى مراجعة ولا حساب.

ومع كل ذلك:

لو كنتُ بهائيا: لتوجهت إلى المسئولين في مصر وقلت لهم أنني مخلص لبلدي ومحب لبلدي وأسعى لنجاح بلدي وأدعو إلى أخوة أهل بلدي وأطفال جاري مثل أطفالي دون أن أسأل عن دين أو عقيدة. ياليت تسلك حكومة بلدي نفس هذا النهج!

If I were -- a Bahá'í -- in Egypt!

By Tarek Heggy

If I were Bahá'í I would have informed the world of the systematic plan to eliminate all trace of the Bahá'í Faith and the Baháís from Egypt.

If I were Bahá’í: I would have brought to the attention of all the great personalities and the intellectuals of the world the respect and regard with which their peers in Egypt received ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (Son of Bahá’u’lláh) during His visit to this country in the early 20th. Century, and with what filth and disregard today's pretentious personalities and false intellectuals of Egypt smear the fair name of Bahá’í and the Bahá’ís.

If I were Bahá’í: I would have taken for witness the concourse of Justice in the world on the subject of the Al-Azhar Establishment and say to its honourable Ulamá: How could you decide today that Bahá’í is not a religion when the Superior Shar'ia Tribunal of Beba/Souhag ruled in 1925 that "Bahá’í is an independent religion."

If I were Bahá’í: I would have taken for witness the concourse of Justice in the world on the subject of the Al-Azhar Establishment which with all the mosques, mesdjids and kettab schools at their disposal in Egypt, have found it necessary to disown the Bahá’í Community of their main Centre building to use it for a Qur’ánic school.

If I were Bahá’í: I would have taken for witness the concourse of Justice in the world on the subject of the imprisonment of some 92 Bahá’ís--men and women--aged between 2 and 80 years. They were arrested between midnight and dawn from all over Egypt and transferred to jail in Tanta; then falsely accused of treason, misconduct and espionage, far and wide in the media, for no other reason than because they are Bahá’í.

If I were Bahá’í: I would have taken for witness the concourse of Justice in the world on the frequent arrest of Bahá’ís, men and women, their incarceration in jail for days, weeks or months for interrogation. The courts have never found them guilty of neither crime nor fault, but they were Bahá’í.

If I were Bahá’í: I would have taken for witness the concourse of Art in the west and in the east, to the case of one of the greatest and most admired artists of Egypt, Hussein Bikar, who was arrested in his home and driven to jail with other renowned Bahá’ís for days of interrogation regarding his and their Bahá’í Faith.

If I were Bahá’í: I would have taken for witness the concourse of Art in the west and in the east, and would say to them: Hussein Bikar, one of the greatest and most admired Artists of Egypt had no Identity card at his death at almost 90 years of age. The Egyptian Authorities refused to issue one with "Bahá’í" mentioned in the space for religion.

If I were Bahá’í: I would have taken for witness the world Organizations of Law and Justice and of Human Rights, government and non-government alike, and said to them: imagine that in Egypt of the 21st. Century, individual Identity Cards have to include the binding indication of the religion of the individual?

If I were Bahá’í: I would have taken for witness the world Organizations of Law and Justice and of Human Rights, government and non-government alike, and said to them: imagine that in Egypt of the 21st. Century, individual Identity Cards must include the binding indication of one of only three religions notwithstanding the individual's wish or faith?

If I were Bahá’í: I would have taken for witness the world Organizations of Law and Justice and of Human Rights, government and non-government alike, and said to them: in Egypt of the 21st. Century, the sons and daughters of Bahá’ís are issued individual Identity Cards with a dash (--) for religion while their parents are refused identity cards: WHY? Because the Egyptian State does not recognize Bahá’í marriage! O people of the world: come and take stock of administrative excellence!

If I were Bahá’í: I would have taken for witness all the Ministers of Education of the world and informed them that: the Minister of Education of Egypt has declared that he will refuse admittance of children--yes children of Bahá’ís to the government schools because the children are Bahá’í!

If I were Bahá’í: I would have informed the world that the new Egyptian Constitution contains the necessary elements for the elimination of the Bahá’í minority in Egypt.

If I were Bahá’í: I would have informed the world that burning the homes of Bahá’ís takes place with impunity in Egypt.

If I were Bahá’í: I would have taken for witness the world Organizations of Mass Media, of Law and Justice and of Human Rights, government and non-government alike, and informed them that in Egypt, inciting to kill Bahá’ís, through TV and speeches is normal and is done with impunity!

In spite of all this:

If I were Bahá’í: I would have said to those in authority in Egypt: I am loyal to my country, I love my country, I strive for the success and progress of my country and I consider the children of my neighbors as my children without consideration of religion or creed. How wonderful would Egypt be were you, who are in authority, to follow in this same path.

Egypt's New Constitution: No Religious Freedom for Minorities

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 22:58:00 -0500

In today's post, The Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights, indicated that Baha'i Rights in Egypt will be gravely violated by Egypt's newly passed controversial constitution, which was passed by an Islamically dominated constituent assembly.

The post is titled: "What Would Egypt's New Constitution Mean for Baha'i Rights?" For ease of access, the full article is re-posted below.

It should be noted though that, in reference to the fourth paragraph of the post which addresses prosecution under [contempt of religion] article-44 of the constitution, it must be made very clear that Baha'is never engage in "insult or abuse of [all] religious messengers and prophets." Thus, any accusations or claims that might arise under such a "prohibition" or an "article" would be blatant fabrications. And according to recorded recent revelations by some of those participating in drafting the constitution, its wording is specifically intended to alienate religious minorities and put a final stop to any minimal freedoms or rights the Baha'is of Egypt might have left.

Here is the post:

“Article 43: Freedom of belief is an inviolable right. The State shall guarantee the freedom to practice religious rites and to establish places of worship for the divine religions, as regulated by law.”
-Egyptian Draft Constitution

On December 15th and 22nd, Egyptians turned out to decide whether they would adopt their new constitution. Although the results have not been formally announced, the draft charter seems to have passed, despite the protests and intense debates that surrounded it. Many aspects of the constitution were discussed, including the role of religion in the state, what powers are granted to the military, and how well the constitution upholds the ideals of the Jan 25 revolution.

However, one conversation has been given little room in the context of the larger debate; should this constitution be passed, what would its effects be on the status of Egypt’s Baha’i minority?

Despite the fact that the constitution proudly declares “The individual’s dignity is an extension of the nation’s dignity”, the general consensus is that the Egyptian constitution fails to protect many individuals, mainly its minorities. There are no explicit protections against legal discrimination against women, and although the authority of Christians and Jews is recognized “for their personal status laws, religious affairs, and the selection of their spiritual leaders” (Article 3), it is still established that “principles of Islamic Sharia are the principal source of legislation.  ” (Article 2).

In the case of the Baha’is, they are not recalled in the constitution at all. Without even the minimal protections granted to Christians and Jews, the implementation of the constitution would likely continue the present marginalization of the Baha’i community. This lack of formal recognition has far reaching consequences. The Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights already revealed the Minister of Education’s remarks about denying Baha’i children education in government schools. In addition, because the constitution does not grant protections to the Baha’i community, any Baha’i religious activity could potentially be prosecuted under Article 44, where “insult or abuse of all religious messengers and prophets shall be prohibited.”

The constitution in general gives much more room for established Islamic institutions such as al-Azhar to influence judicial decisions. Despite the presence of Article 43, which affirms “freedom of belief”, the constitution repeatedly establishes the role of the government in promoting Islamic and family values. At the very least, religious practices other than Islam will receive no support from the government, and likely will even be actively suppressed. For example, the phrasing of Article 215, which lays out the guidelines for the National Media Council, explicitly says that it will “observe the values and constructive traditions of society.” When mainstream Islamic scholars and long-standing institutions are the ones who influence the values and traditions of society, Article 215 leaves open the possibility that Baha’i media may be subject to censorship for failing to uphold the “constructive traditions of society.”

In essence, the draft constitution follows the lead of the Mubarak era in that it does nothing to protect the rights of Egypt’s Baha’i citizens. Unless all groups are explicitly allowed to fully function in society as equals, with the full right to Egyptian schools, media, and religious practice, then the demands of the January 25 revolution, for freedom and dignity for all, will go unfulfilled.

Egypt's Minister of Education will forbid schooling of Baha'i children

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:22:00 -0500

According to a recent article in Egypt's Al-Sabah (Morning) newspaper, the current Education Minister, Dr. Ibrahim Ghoniem, who is also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, stated that he would not allow admission of Baha'i children into public schools.

The interview was about his vision for the future of education in Egypt, and his intentions regarding the operations of his Ministry and the administrative structure of the educational system and his relations to the various authorities and systems relating to his administration.

When he was asked "what is the position of the Ministry regarding the 'sons' of Baha'is' right to admission to the Ministry's schools?" He responded, "The law of the nation, based on the civil status laws, is that it does not recognize more than three religions, Baha'i is not one of them, therefore their sons have no right to admission to the Ministry's schools."

When reading this, one is left in a state of shock, and clearly there is so much to say and do to prevent such hideous acts from ever coming to fruition, but one's first response is to try to point out the injustice and some of the obvious and flagrant facts:

1) depriving innocent children their right to education merely because of their belief, or their parents' belief in this day in a so-called "modern country" cannot happen without major consequences.
2) only using the word "sons" and completely ignoring the "daughters!" Don't they exist? Is this the new language to be expected of this esteemed educator who is charged with the education of Egypt's next generation? Where is gender equality? Or should we assume that "daughters" are exempt from this exceptional and enlightened vision of the Minister, and they will be permitted admission to his prestigious schools?

Latest Media Coverage on Baha'is in Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 18:20:00 -0400

Yesterday, Daily News Egypt, Egypt’s Only Daily Independent Newspaper In English, published a comprehensive story about the life of the Baha'is in today's Egypt. As the article speaks for itself, it would only be fair to quote it in its entirety here:

Baha’is in Egypt

Lucy Provan / October 14, 2012 / 1 Comment

The 25 January revolution gave everyone hope for change, and the Baha’i hope for acceptance.

Baha’s cheerful smiling face belies his family history. When Baha’s father, a Quranic sheikh in a village in Upper Egypt, converted to the Baha’i faith, their neighbours accepted his choice and the small community lived in peace. This changed early one morning in 2001, when armed men in army fatigues took away his father, mother, two uncles’ and one uncle’s wife. His father was sent to Tora prison for nine months, his mother for seven.

After this event and his father’s public admittal to being a Baha’i, “the village started to get a reputation for its Baha’is,” Baha remembers. “People from the other districts would gossip and it hurt the pride of the people in the village.”

All this came to a head in 2009, when Baha’s father and Baha’i activist, Basma Moussa, went on the TV show “Al-Haqiqa.” Gamal Abdel Rahim, a journalist on the show, accused them of being apostates. “You are an infidel and should be killed,” he told the two. “Go build a country in Israel.”

Soon afterwards, the Baha’i homes in Baha’s village were looted and torched. The Baha’is had to flee and have not returned since. Rahim, this year appointed editor-in-chief of Al-Gomhuria newspaper, congratulated the attackers.

Whether living accepted in communities around Egypt or being attacked for being Zionists spies, the fortunes of Egypt’s estimated 2,000 Baha’is have fluctuated since their arrival in the 1860s. Today, the draft Egyptian constitution only recognises three state religions; Islam, Christianity and Judaism, meaning the Baha’is could be written out of Egypt’s future. So who are the Baha’is and what are they going to do about it?

One Thursday night in Cairo, Baha is sitting on a large grey sofa, it is one of many gathered in a circle in the white apartment. Young men and women trickle in to the room, greeting each other warmly. In what seems an unwritten rule, no one questions each other’s religion; attendees have come from all faiths. “We have come to discuss our similarities, not our differences,” announces the host as the session starts. Slips of paper are handed out, printed with sayings from the Torah, Quran, Bible and other holy books. Sitting here you might not even guess it is a Baha’i devotional meeting, save for the framed photograph standing in the corner; a portrait of a turbaned man with violet coloured eyes.

Origins

The violet coloured eyes belonged to a Persian named Abdul Baha. He was the son of Mirza Hussein Ali, or Baha’u’llah, prophet of the Baha’i religion. Hussein Ali claimed to be the latest in a line of prophets including Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ and Muhammad. He believed humans were progressing towards a global society without conflict or prejudice. He promoted gender equality, universal education and the elimination of poverty. Baha’is believed in the independent seeking of truth, abrogation of the clergy, and election of Baha’i representatives. For these beliefs, Baha’u’llah was persecuted in his birthplace of Iran and imprisoned in Acre, modern-day Israel, where he died.

Abdul Baha toured the Middle East after his father’s death, spreading word of the new religion. While in Lebanon he met a kindred spirit; the Egyptian Mohamed Abduh. Abdul Baha would go on to spread a faith which now has seven million followers and is the second most geographically widespread religion after Christianity. Abduh would become the father of the modern idea of an Islamic state and a great influence on Hasan Al-Bana, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Their friendship indicates Egypt’s openness to Baha’is at the time.

Picture of Abdul Baha as a young man.

“They discussed matters which concerned the east; how to progress and develop while protecting eastern and religious values and principles,” says historian Suheil Bushrui. “It was not an issue that he [Abdul Baha] was not a Muslim; at that time in the culture of the Arab world, and especially Egypt, there was a great deal of discussion and especially dialogue opening up and investigating new ideas.”

Early acceptance

By 1924, a Baha’i National Spiritual Assembly, the elected governing body of the Baha’i faith in Egypt, was established. It was the fourth in the world. Egypt became a hub for Baha’i pilgrims travelling to Acre. In 1925 in Beba, Upper Egypt, a Shari’a appellate court annulled the marriages of three Baha’i men who had married Muslim women. However, in so doing the judge legitimated the Baha’i faith, declaring it “a new religion, entirely independent with principles and laws of its own.” The Baha’i faith was officially recognised in 1934. By the late 1950s, there were approximately 5,000 Egyptian Baha’is, local Baha’i assemblies in 13 cities and towns and the community had purchased 17,000 square meters of land on the banks of the Nile for a Baha’i house of worship.

Basma Moussa, the Cairo University professor who appeared on television with Baha’s father, sits in her garden looking through photos. In one, her mother peers excitedly from behind a large crowd inside the National Spiritual Assembly building in Cairo. She remembers her mother’s stories of the assembly, “there were always people coming and going, visits from different countries and an equal number of men and women, which was quite unusual at the time. People in the area accepted the assembly as something normal.”

Persecution

This acceptance was not to last. Forty years after Saad Zaghloul led a revolution under the slogan, “religion belongs to God and the homeland to all,” Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser became concerned about the rise of Baha’is and their links to a nascent expansionist Israel on his borders. In 1960, he issued Decree 263, paragraph six of which proclaimed “all Baha’i assemblies and centres [are] hereby dissolved, and their activities suspended.” Baha’is were allowed to practice in their homes, but all official Baha’i properties, funds and assets were confiscated. They have still not been returned.

Nasser’s actions were driven by a desire to reinforce secularism, but subsequent administrations would target Baha’is for their perceived heresy. The 1971 constitution promised, “the state shall guarantee the freedom of belief and the freedom of practice of religious rites.” Four years later, however, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of Decree 263 and ruled constitutional protections only extended to the three “heavenly” religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

From 1965 to 2001 there were 236 arrests of Baha’is, charged under Article 98(f) of the Penal Code which proscribes “disparaging contempt of any divinely-revealed religion or its adherents, or prejudicing national unity or social harmony.” It was rare for these cases to be followed by prosecution; most were simply released after being detained. Albert-Ludwig University of Freiberg’s Professor of Islamic Studies, Johanna Pink, has suggested the government was not so much concerned with the Baha’i being a real threat, but was attempting to “legitimise” its authority in the eyes of the people, presenting themselves as “defenders” of Egypt as an Islamic state.

Public attitudes

The government’s opportunistic discrimination against Baha’is was based on the fact public perception was generally negative and based on rumours. After the 1960s, “the tone of the press became much more negative and even polemical,” wrote Pink in a 2005 paper on freedom of belief. She added that by 2005, a connection between the Baha’i faith and Zionism was taken for granted in the media. In 2008, the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and anti-Violence Studies noted many national newspapers’ reports “implie[d] direct incitement to hatred against Baha’i.” Baha’is were also often seen as a security threat, and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, cites claims made most frequently by conservative clerics such as Abdel Moneim Al-Shahat, a prominent Salafi leader, that “Baha’is deserve no rights in a new constitution and…should be tried for treason.” From 1910 to 2010, 15 fatwas(Islamic religious rulings) labelled Baha’is heretics, based on the fact that Baha’is believed in a prophet after Muhammad.

All this affected the personal lives of the descendants of those converted by Baha’i Iranian traders years ago. Sumaya Mohamed Ramadan, winner of the Naguib Mafouz prize for literature, remembers her introduction to the Baha’i faith in England. “I saw a picture of this oriental man with a turban and I thought what is he doing in this living room in Brighton? I started to ask and I missed the train home that night.” Coming back, Ramadan’s conversion was accepted by her family, although occasionally her religion would cause others embarrassment. “One time we were talking about equality, everyone was agreeing with what I was saying and then I mentioned some of my ideas were based on the fact I was a Baha’i, and the whole room went silent,” she recalls.

Moussa graduated in the top ten of her class in dental medicine and started working in Cairo University. When her colleagues questioned her different fasting patterns, she revealed her religion, “some started not to speak to me or eat with me.” Some started to accuse her of missing work, she says. Moussa was continually overlooked for promotion and spent a long time fighting the administration of her university. “I lost five years of my life and career complaining about it and I had to do it alone,” she says. “I couldn’t mention the discrimination was because I was Baha’i.”

A more positive wave of support followed a court case in 2009, when Baha’is won the right to declare their religion on their ID card. Not declaring their religion would have removed their entitlement to a range of rights including education, housing and franchise. Their only other option was to commit fraud or lie about their religion. Many media outlets highlighted the case, helping create more public understanding. “The media was biased before… in 2009 there was a legitimate and neutral report,” a reporter in Masry Al Youm told Daniel Perrell, author of a 2010 study on Baha’i rights. Many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also got behind the case. Despite this, Pink says other “Egyptian human rights groups have been reluctant to take up the case of unpopular minority religious groups like the Baha’i Faith… fear[ing] that this might compromise their ability to speak out on other issues which they consider more important.”

The revolution

The 25 January revolution gave everyone hope for change, and the Baha’i hope for acceptance. The Baha’is of Egypt released an open letter to the nation enthusing about the possibilities for the future.

Baha’i National Spiritual Assembly before 1950.
Basma Moussa / Daily News Egypt

“Media concentrates on the negative aspects to Baha’is… but we want to help build the country, all Egyptians together, and since the revolution we are more able to do that,” says Baha’i NGO worker, Shady Samir.

Moussa noticed a great difference in her treatment since the revolution. “People started stopping me in the street and saying ‘I’m not a Baha’i but I respect your struggle.’ Before they were scared to speak about religious freedom, after the revolution everyone started to speak about his opinion.” Her employer’s attitude also changed, “last March they promoted me to professor… and I didn’t have to push for it,” she smiles.

Where to now? The constitutional question

The current debate about the new constitution raises many issues of concern for the Baha’i community. For example, the proposed Article 8 which states, “freedom of religion is absolute and practices shall be conducted in accordance with public order. The state shall ensure freedom to establish places of worship for adherents of Abrahamic religions in accordance with the law.”

The clause would mean Baha’is would not be able to practice their religions in public or build places of worship. Nor does it suggest that the state would be involved in protecting freedom of religion.

Much depends on how the constitution is interpreted by the new legal system. “Anything written in a constitution is only as valuable as the enforcement of it,” says Perrell. “Constitutions have tremendous normative value and by listing only a few religions… they inhibit legitimate conversation about what constitutes a religion and validates those who would discriminate against any unlisted religion.”

Mohsen Kamal, deputy director of the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti Violence Studies, suggests further implications. The 2009 ruling on ID cards could be nullified, he says. It could be even harder for Baha’is to go to the media and talk about their rights. “If they are talking about their religion they could be accused of insulting Islam.” The article of the new constitution implementing “the principles of Shari’a law,” could result in Baha’is being punished as apostates.

“In plain words,” wrote Baha’i blogger Bilo, “and according to the current rhetoric, promulgated by Islamists and many of those participating in drafting Egypt’s new constitution, if you are a Baha’i in Egypt, you are not recognized or protected under the constitution or any laws that enforce equal rights because only adherents of the three religions are entitled to such protections.”

Mahmoud Ghozlan, spokesperson of the Muslim Brotherhood and a member of the new Egyptian National Council of Human Rights, defends the implementation of Article 8. “Baha’ism is not a religion,” he asserts, before describing how the constitution will not negatively affect Baha’is. “They will have the freedom to worship but they will not be recognised as a religion.”

This sentiment was echoed by a Constituent Assembly member, Farid Ismael, in a recent broadcast television programme, Akher Kalam. Ismael claimed this article should not cause Baha’is to fear for their safety, stating the assembly did not condone attacking anyone because of their religion and if Baha’is were threatened then the government would protect them.

“There is something called the general order. We won’t let a minority promote their religion, which would go against the general order, and jeopardise social peace,” justifies Ghozlan. This attitude was similarly recorded in a paper by academic Daniel Cantini in 2009, “the view of Egyptian jurisdiction is that public interest, even as vaguely defined ones [such] as Shari’a, respect of recognised religions, social peace or national unity, have priority over the individual right of freedom of belief.”

The importance of the Baha’i case for Egypt rests on what it tells us about the attitude of Ghozlan and other decision makers. Their fate indicates how much fundamental change Egyptian institutions have undergone since the revolution.

“Why do we point to what has happened to the Baha’is?” asked Faraj Fuda, a renowned secularist, before his assassination by Islamists in 1994. “What happens to the Baha’is today may happen to others tomorrow and that the chain [of events] that starts with the Baha’is will inevitably end with enlightened Muslims.”

The future

The Constitution remains in draft and much debated. What can Baha’is do to influence its provisions?

Fundamentally, the problem Baha’is have always faced is ignorance and prejudice in a society in which religion is often a crucial aspect of identity. Legal changes are essential, but the importance is in the implementation, and this is grounded in the attitude of the people. As recorded in an interview with the former UN secretary general, Boutros Boutros Ghali in 2010, “there is still a lot of work to be done socially…according to Boutros Boutros-Ghali, there is still limited success, ‘when the small administrator may consider the Baha’i the devil.’”

Baha reflects three years on from when his family’s houses were torched. “Even the people who attacked [my family] were usually nice people” he says, “friends of friends, I think people did not know about the religion. They believed rumours… if there has been a misunderstanding, as a Baha’i it’s my fault. I need to clear that misunderstanding.”

Shady Samir is the grandson of one of the Baha’i men whose marriage was annulled in the Beba case in 1925. He works for an NGO which helps young people learn how to use information technology. It is a job he has chosen, he says, as part of the “service” all Baha’is must perform in order to promote unity and peace. Samir says Baha’is should not just focus on their rights, but wider issues, such as the position of women. By demonstrating their positive contribution to society inclusive of all Egyptians, Baha’is might gain the trust and change attitudes of those around them. “When I was growing up, the community was more afraid and enclosed,” he says, “more of a minority mentality. Now especially we are being more open.”

Running youth groups, volunteering in their community, helping their neighbours are all ways in which Baha’i are encouraged to foster understanding and acceptance of their faith.

Ramadan suggests, “evolution can be a revolution. Plant a seed and it will cost you, but with work and perseverance and faith there will be fruit. There is no point revolting to try to make the tree grow in a second. The revolution is a learning process for everyone, just because it has aspects that don’t suit me doesn’t mean it is not a good thing… you choose to be grateful and work with what there is.”

The Baha’is appear determined to keep on preparing for the time of unity predicted by their holy books. At the end we have to “grin and bear it” says Ramadan. She intends to “build little circles of influence and big circles of concern… so you can influence your circle and change society.”

Back in Zamalek at the inter-faith meeting, the slips have been read out and people gather in groups to discuss the subject of “peace.”

What is peace, we are encouraged to ask ourselves. How could we achieve it? Some think that you should understand yourself, others reject this. “Just being at peace with yourself is selfish. We need to think about world problems.” Some quote Martin Luther King Junior, others religious texts. “What’s so great about peace anyway?” grumbles one participant, initiating a string of refutations and strong admonitions from the Martin Luther King fan.

Afterwards, I ask people what the session means for them. One attendee tells me it helps him to think about his life. He goes back to the people at work, his family and talks about the other perspectives he’s heard. “Many people here come to learn about others and have the freedom to express ideas,” notes the organiser. “It might be the first time they read the Bible for example,” and certainly the first time to gain an understanding of Baha’i texts.

In 2009, Baha’s father was being accused on television of being an infidel and threatened with death. His words then reflect a hope which continues with Baha’is today. “I would like to tell the nation, [quoting from the Quran] ‘if a wicked person brings any news to you, you shall first investigate, lest you commit an injustice towards some people out of ignorance and become sorry and remorseful for what you have done,’” he said. “I ask the Muslims and Egyptians to seek the truth.”

Draft Egyptian Constitution Takes Away Religious Liberties Stipulated in Former Constitutions

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 3 Oct 2012 14:41:00 -0400

With the drafting of Egypt's new constitution by a "Constituent Assembly," mostly led by Islamists, religious freedom is becoming an exclusive right rather than an inclusive one.

A case in point is the debate over Article-8 of the draft of the constitution, which is restricting absolute religious liberties only to the three recognized religions in Egypt, i.e. Islam, Christianity and Judaism. All the rest, will have the freedom to "belief" but not the freedom to practice or to construct houses of worship. This clearly poses a contradiction in logic, interpretation and in application: how could one believe, but not practice?

According to this draft, and as an example, Buddhists, Hindus, Baha'is and others cannot freely practice their belief in Egypt, even though Egypt's government does deal and rely on large-scale investments and commerce with governments of countries with religious majorities representing most of these beliefs (Hindu & Buddhist). Since there are hardly any organized Hindu or Budddhist communities in Egypt, the influence on such populations in Egypt is only theoretical. That leaves the Baha'is--the most significant religious minority in this category--to be singled out for lack of civil rights and wide open to more discrimination.

Furthermore, in plain words, and according to the current rhetoric, promulgated by Islamists and many of those participating in drafting Egypt's new constitution, if you are a Baha'i in Egypt, you are not recognized or protected under the constitution or any laws that enforce equal rights because only adherents of the three religions are entitled to such protections. Very similar to the rhetoric used in Iran when its leader is asked about the persecution of Baha'is, his usual response has been "we do not persecute any religious minorities...then he would continue to respond by saying "what Baha'is?" Thus their mere existence is denied, and according to him there is no problem! The same trend seems to be prevailing in Egypt when the "party line" is always "we do not discriminate against any religious minorities," but what they really refer to is the Egyptian Christian minority and nothing else, even though Christians in Egypt continue to face much discrimination and persecution.

Egypt's Baha'is, even under the more liberal constitution of 1971, which allowed for freedom of belief and practice, have been constantly struggling for their civil rights, being deprived of identity cards, marriage certificates, birth certificates and death certificates, as well as discrimination in employment, health care and education. One can only imagine what it would be like, and the magnitude of hardships that would influence their daily living, if this new constitution is passed!

In its 2 October 2012 issue, Ahram Online, the English version of Egypt's leading semi-official newspaper, published a balanced report, by Osman El Sharnoubi, on this very question, including interviews with an Egyptian human rights lawyer, a scholar, a representative of Egypt's Baha'is, and another religious leader. The entire article, titled "New Egyptian constitution offers fewer religious freedoms, critics allege," and subtitled, "Article 8 of Egypt's draft constitution may take away religious freedoms stipulated in previous constitutions," is posted below:

Members of Egypt’s Constituent Assembly, the body tasked with drafting Egypt’s post-uprising constitution, are purportedly finished with drafting the chapter on the freedoms, rights and duties of citizens.

The assembly is largely seen as being dominated by Islamist forces, which have won large gains in legislative and presidential elections after the 2011 January Revolution.

Liberals and secularists have expressed concerns about the impact an Islamist-dominated drafting body will have on the character of the future charter, in particular in relation to key freedoms.

Article 8 of the draft constitution is at the heart of the debate, as it stipulates citizens’ religious freedoms. Religious rights and freedoms, and the issue of sectarian tensions between members of Egypt’s majority Muslim population and its Christian minority, remain controversial.

One of the many problems that Egypt’s Christian minority complains of are the difficulties of building and repairing churches, as both acts are subject to state control. A law was drafted in 2011 to address the problem but is yet to be put into effect.

Facing even graver difficulties than Christians are followers of the Bahai faith, a monotheistic religion established in the nineteenth century by the religion’s prophet Bahaaullah. The Egyptian state does not recognize the faith, leaving its Egyptian followers to face discrimination and difficulties in the most rudimentary aspects of civil life, such as registering marriages.

Article 8

Article 8 is the constitutional article on freedom of belief and religious practice, the mother clause stipulating the freedoms and rights of all matters religious within the Egyptian state.

The article was recently revised, and its multiple revisions published on the official website of the constituent assembly for public scrutiny.

“In the current draft, the state is not tasked with protecting freedom of belief,” political researcher and director of the Arab Forum for Alternatives Mohamed El-Agati said. El-Agati contends that the Mubarak-era 1971 constitution fares better on this point.

Article 8 of the current draft starts by stating: "Freedom of belief is absolute, and religious rights are practiced if not in contradiction with public order."

El-Agati says that the article withdraws from the state the duty of protecting religious freedoms, which was required of it as stipulated in Article 46 of the 1971 constitution, which read that “the state shall guarantee the freedom of belief and the freedom of practice of religious rites.”

The new draft article adds the condition “if not in contradiction with the public order” to the practice of religious rites, said El-Agati, putting further limits compared to the last constitution.

In the Turkish constitution, the state restricts putting limits on worshiping and in Indonesia the constitution gives the state the duty to guarantee the freedom of practicing religion, said El-Agati. This won’t be the case if the current draft article is enshrined in Egypt’s constitution.

The problem didn’t exist in an earlier version of Article 8, written earlier in the drafting process and amended to its present form.

Human rights lawyer Ahmed Seif El-Islam, founder of the Cairo-based Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, points to the form of the previous version, which had stated that the freedom of belief and the freedom of practicing religion is granted.

“The freedom of belief and practicing religious rights is safeguarded,” the article had said before being amended.

Seif El-Islam criticised the amended phrasing, saying that it deals with freedom of belief only in a private, personal way, rendering it useless. "The freedom of belief must be followed by the freedom of practice, otherwise it loses its essence," Seif El-Islam said.

Nevertheless, Seif El-Islam sees a positive - albeit limited - development in the article’s current form, which stipulates that the state guarantees the freedom to construct places of worship for Abrahamic religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism).

“This is a step forward for Christians and Shiites, yet not so much for members of other religions,” said Seif El-Islam. “A community of expatriate Chinese Buddhists for example wouldn’t be able to establish a temple,” said Seif El-Islam, adding that since Egypt doesn’t have large expat communities from other religions the problem remains only theoretical.

“In reality, it is members of the Bahai faith who would suffer under this article,” Seif El-Islam asserted.

El-Agati sees a further implication to the restriction of building places of worship to the 3 major religions by the article, related to Egyptian Muslims living abroad.

“The article weakens the positions of Muslims living in non-Muslim countries and suffering under certain forms of discrimination such as restrictions on building mosques,” says El-Agati.

“Egyptians wouldn’t be able to object to restrictions on building minarets in Switzerland, or wearing the veil in France,” he told Ahram Online.

El-Agati believes the article is generally detrimental to the concept of citizenship and opens the door for discrimination on the basis of religion.

Constitution vs. reality

Labib Iskandar, a Bahai professor of engineering at Cairo University, highlights what he says is a contradiction in the draft article - “how can you say freedom of belief is absolute and then only mention main religions?” he asked.

To Iskandar, however, it is not the constitution that matters but what happens in reality. The 1971 constitution hadn’t limited the religions which have the right to practice their rituals, and yet Bahais still struggled for recognition and rights.

Still, for Iskandar, what’s more important than the state recognizing the Bahai religion is to enjoy civil rights, which the state so far does not grant.

The state continues to pose many obstacles for Bahais, including not recognising their matrimonial contracts and thus refusing to give them a “married” status on their national IDs, as well as refusing to issue electronic copies of their death certificates, causing legal hurdles and risks for members of the faith.

“Implementing constitutional laws is key. In the 1971 charter freedom of religion was protected yet it is up to officials to interpret it, easily deciding that the Bahai faith is not a religion to begin with,” Iskandar explained.

Seif El-Islam took up this point, saying that “a state could have a wonderful constitution and shelve it,” a situation wherein practices on the ground would be in complete contradiction to the spirit of the constitution.

A good case in point is the position of Egypt’s Shiites, which contradictory sources say range from just over 10,000 to more then 1 million Egyptians. Many pundits don’t consider the constitutional article to be a threat to Shiites, since Shiism is a Muslim sect.

However, as Seif El-Islam points out, what is written on paper could differ by leagues from the case in reality, where the mainstream Sunni stance on Shiism isn’t favourable.

“There will never be a struggle between Sunnis and Shiites in Egypt,” El-Tarek El-Hashimi, a leading Egyptian Shiite told Ahram Online, saying Shiites are keen on preventing sectarian strife.

El-Hashimi stresses that Shiites follow the same school of Islamic theology, the Ashaarite theology, as does the leading Sunni institution of Al-Azhar, foreseeing no problem concerning freedom of belief and religious practice.

“Religious rights between both sects are the same,” argues El-Hashimi.

Despite El-Hashimi’s optimism, a Shiite was sentenced to a year in prison in September for allegedly starting a fight due to his mode of prayer - or “his actions that violate the Sunni sect” - in a village mosque.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights appealed the sentence of Mohamed Fahmy Asfour, the Azharite teacher, saying he was handed it due to his belonging to the Shiite faith and expressing its concern regarding attacks on freedom of belief and expression.

The court said some of Asfour’s practices during prayer which are different from Sunni’s “incited discomfort” among other worshipers, which caused the scuffle.

Constitution vs. law

Seif El-Islam raised yet another concern about the constitution, saying it doesn’t necessarily follow that laws are based on the constitution, explaining that a constitution could be drawn up but the legal structure preceding it could remain unchanged.

Seif El-Islam is wary that the laws would not respect the new constitution, saying it would be left for individuals on a case-by-case basis to change laws, as courts may decide the unconstitutionality of certain laws according to each case, a long and tedious process.

“As soon as the constitution is drafted, there should be a period of 5 years within which the process of amending laws to conform to the constitution should be institutionalised,” Seif El-Islam suggested.

Institutions such as the parliament, trade unions, NGOs and others should be tasked with this process, he said, allowing the country’s social forces to make sure their constitution is being followed. This is assuming the current draft would be viewed favourably by Egypt’s citizens.

The Case of the Baha'is in Egypt: a scholarly legal essay

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 15:23:00 -0400

Here is another well-researched legal brief on the case of the Baha'is in Egypt that explores their history in that land, their trials and tribulations, and their current struggle in post-Mubarak Egypt.

This article was written by Naseem Kourosh and appeared in the International Law News Volume 41, Number 3, Summer 2012, a publication of the American Bar Association (ABA). It is posted here with the permission of the author.

A Cold Winter in North Africa:The Case of the Bahá’ís in Egypt
By Naseem Kourosh

For Egypt’s tiny Bahá’í community, the coming winter may be an especially cold one. The Bahá’í Faith is an independent religion with an estimated 500 to 2,000 followers in Egypt, many of whom have faced significant discrimination in recent years. In early 2011, many expected that the Arab Spring, blooming most visibly in Egypt, would usher in a new era in the region. However, more than a year on, amidst fears that Spring in the Middle East may be turning frosty, the status of Egypt’s Bahá’í community provides an important if unflattering metric of the progress of Egyptian society towards freedom, democracy, and human rights.

The History of Egypt’s Bahá’í Community
The Bahá’í community in Egypt was established in the mid-1800s and, with a few notable exceptions, developed largely undisturbed for nearly a century. However, in 1960, the government issued Presidential Decree 263, which dissolved all Bahá’í institutions, seized all Bahá’í properties, and made engaging in public Bahá’í activities a criminal act punishable by imprisonment. In subsequent years, several dozen Bahá’ís were arrested and detained on the basis of the law, though none were ever found guilty.

While Article 40 of the 1971 Egyptian Constitution protects equal rights and prohibits religious discrimination, and Article 46 guarantees freedom of belief and freedom to practice religious rites, the legal status of Bahá’ís in Egypt has never been deemed equal to that of Muslims, not only because of the 1960 Presidential Decree, but also because of two important structural issues.

First, in the Egyptian legal system, matters of personal status are governed not by civil law, but by religious law— specifically the family law systems of the only three staterecognized religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Because Bahá’í law is not recognized and Islam is the official state religion, personal status for Bahá’ís has often been determined according to shari’a (Islamic family law), which does not recognize Bahá’í family relationships, or fatwas (Islamic judicial rulings), many of which are hostile to the Bahá’í Faith. Indeed, at least 15 fatwas have declared the Bahá’í Faith to be heresy and blasphemy. In 2003, the Islamic Research Center of Al-Azhar University—one of the oldest and most respected centers of Islamic learning in the world—issued a fatwa stating that Bahá’ís are apostates and that the Bahá’í Faith is a “lethal spiritual epidemic” that the state must “annihilate.”

As a result of the nonrecognition of Bahá’í family law and the influence of anti-Bahá’í fatwas, Bahá’ís are not accorded equal treatment under the law: Bahá’í marriages are not recognized, Bahá’í children are regarded as illegitimate, and Bahá’ís have no means of controlling matters such as family allowances, pensions, inheritance, divorce, alimony, and custody of children.

Second, the free exercise of religion has traditionally been permitted only insofar as it has not been deemed to disturb public order and good morals—both of which have historically been defined according to Muslim clerics who believe that the Bahá’í Faith inherently violates public order and good morals because it is heresy or apostasy against Islam. Thus, a 1975 decision of the Supreme Constitutional Court held that the constitutional freedom of belief guaranteed by the constitution protected only the Bahá’ís’ right to inwardly believe in their religion, and not their right to practice it.

The ID Card Controversy
The Egyptian government requires all citizens to possess standardized government ID cards, which are necessary for obtaining basic services. These ID cards, like other official documents, require the individual to list his or religious affiliation. Bahá’ís do not, as a matter of principle, misrepresent their religion. Thus, although the government only recognizes three “heavenly” religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—Bahá’ís will generally not misidentify themselves as a member of one of these religions. Historically, this was not problematic, as Bahá’ís were permitted to write “Bahá’í” or insert a dash in the religion field of official documents. However, following the issuance of the 1960 Presidential Decree, many government officials refused to register Bahá’ís as such, and ID card registration for each Bahá’í became dependent on the actions of the particular clerk in a given government office. This led to serious inconsistencies, with Bahá’ís being variously identified as Christian, Muslim, Bahá’í, or no religion at all—or being denied ID cards altogether. In 1983, an administrative court affirmed that Bahá’ís should be allowed to list “Bahá’í” or “other” on their ID cards, but it held that a Bahá’í student who had been expelled from university for not possessing a valid ID card could still be rightfully expelled, even after receiving a valid ID card, as he was an apostate, and apostates should not be allowed to pursue education.

In 2004, the Ministry of the Interior issued Circular 49/2004, a directive that instructed government officials not to issue a new ID card or any other new government document to any individual unless she or he identified as a member of one of the three recognized state religions. Bahá’ís were explicitly denied the right to write in “other,” insert a dash, or leave the religion field blank. Bahá’ís were therefore forced to either falsely identify their religion or go without documents. Because they would not willingly misrepresent their religious identity, many Bahá’ís were unable to obtain ID cards and other official documents, which resulted in a denial of access to many essential government services. Bahá’í children were denied birth certificates and were therefore unable to attend public school or receive immunizations; Bahá’í youth and adults were denied national ID cards and were thus unable to obtain employment, attend university, obtain medical treatment at public hospitals, acquire driver’s licenses, or engage in financial transactions such as opening a bank account or acquiring title to property. Bahá’ís were also unable to obtain death certificates for deceased family members,leaving their heirs unable to legally acquire inheritance.

Soon after the policy was implemented, a Bahá’í couple, unable to obtain ID cards or register their daughters for school, challenged the 2004 policy. Represented by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (“EIPR”), an independent Cairo-based NGO, the couple obtained a favorable ruling in the Court of Administrative Justice. The court’s April 2006 ruling held that Bahá’ís must be allowed to identify their religion properly on government forms and that the government cannot deny them official documents if they do so. The Ministry of the Interior appealed the ruling, which was publicly decried by Al-Azhar and the Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative political movement. In December 2006, the Supreme Administrative Court overturned the lower court’s decision and upheld the 2004 policy, holding that only individuals identifying themselves with Islam, Christianity, or Judaism were eligible to receive government documents.

These decisions received intense media coverage in Egypt and also garnered international attention. The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom noted the December ruling with concern. In a 2007 report, Human Rights Watch and EIPR documented in detail the genesis and implementation of the new government policy; the Egyptian government’s violation of its own constitution and international human rights norms, including several rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt has been a state party since 1982; and the personal stories of Bahá’ís, Copts (Egyptian Orthodox Christians), converts from Islam, and others whose lives have been negatively impacted by the policy.

In 2007, a second Bahá’í couple, who were unable to obtain birth certificates for their twin daughters, challenged the policy. Once again represented by EIPR, the couple obtained another favorable ruling in the Court of Administrative Justice. The lower court’s January 2008 ruling stated that, while Bahá’ís could not list “Bahá’í” as their religion on government documents, they must be permitted to insert a dash in the religion field. In March 2009, the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed an appeal, allowing the lower court’s ruling to stand. The following month, the Ministry of the Interior implemented a new policy consistent with the court’s ruling: government officials must place a dash (–) in the religion field of official documents of citizens who show they are followers of a religion other than the three recognized by the state. In August 2009, five years after the problematic new policy was introduced, the government issued the first new ID cards to Bahá’ís with a dash in the religion field.

Bahá’ís in Post-Mubarak Egypt
Much has happened since 2009. On January 25, 2011, motivated by Tunisia’s success in ousting President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, millions of Egyptians took to the streets, participating in an 18-day popular uprising that ultimately led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. The wave of uprisings that swept the Middle East beginning with Tunisia in late 2010 and continuing through Egypt and several other Arab countries throughout 2011 was initially dubbed the Arab Spring, in reference to an anticipated renewal of freedom, democracy, and human rights throughout the Arab world as a result of the revolutions.

In the last several months, however, some commentators have rejected this label, quipping that the movement may be more aptly referred to as the Arab Winter. There has been violent, bloody, and brutal repression of uprisings in countries such as Libya, Bahrain, and Syria. And even in Egypt, where the revolution was relatively brief, largely nonviolent, and initially deemed quite successful, the year after the revolution has raised serious doubts about the democratic future of Egypt.

In this context, the future of Egypt’s Bahá’í community remains particularly uncertain. First, the 1960 Presidential Decree, which criminalizes many aspects of the practice of the Bahá’í faith, remains in effect. Second, while the 2009 accommodation with respect to ID cards was a positive development, delays and complications have arisen in the implementation of the new policy. Ultimately, Bahá’ís are still denied the right to do what members of the three staterecognized religions are able to do: truthfully list their religion on government documents. Third, Bahá’ís have been the target of recent social hostilities, including a 2009 incident that remains uninvestigated in which several Bahá’í homes in a village were vandalized and a February 2011 incident in which several Bahá’í homes in the same village were torched. Finally, and perhaps of greatest concern, there are indications that Bahá’ís may be excluded from, and perhaps even specifically targeted by, the new political order. Leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, which won the highest number of seats in the recent parliamentary elections, have stated that they have no plans to amend Article 2 of Egypt’s current constitution when they draft its new one. Leaders of the Salafi movement, a fundamentalist group that won the second highest number of seats in the parliamentary elections, have made similar statements. Article 2 currently provides that Islam is the state religion and principles of Islamic law are the chief sources of legislation. Apparently, it will be incorporated into the new constitution. In addition, in February, Abdel Moneim alShahat, a spokesperson for the Salafi movement, publicly stated that Bahá’ís are not entitled to rights under Islam and are a threat to national security. Citing the 2003 AlAzhar fatwa, al-Shahat asserted that Bahá’ís “do not exist” by virtue of their faith and should be prosecuted for treason. Thus, at present, the legal status of Egyptian Bahá’ís does not seem likely to improve, and may in fact worsen. If there is to be a winter in Egypt, it may be a long and cold one for the Bahá’ís.

A society’s treatment of its minorities is often a barometer of its general level of freedom and equality, and its persecution of its religious minorities frequently foreshadows wider repression. Thus, those concerned about the democratic future of Egypt would do well to keep a close eye on the situation of religious minorities such as the Bahá’ís under the new régime.

Arab Spring becomes Cold Winter for Egypt's Baha'is!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 7 Sep 2012 19:12:00 -0400

Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, a Senior Fellow with the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels, just published a clear analysis of the question of freedom and equality in the new Egypt, using the Baha'i case as an example and a barometer for what direction events have taken its governance. The entire essay, titled "A barometer for freedom and equality in Egypt: The persecution of minorities in an Islamic society is truly a barometer of the lack of freedom and equality that prevails there," is quoted below:

Can the discrimination and persecution of the Baha'is serve as a barometer for freedom in an Islamic society such as Egypt? This answer is yes.

At the beginning of August 2012, the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the human rights abuses committed against religious minorities in Egypt, remarks that were promptly rejected by Mahmoud Ghozlan, spokesman for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. He accused Clinton of lying and claimed that “non-Muslims in Egypt have the same rights as Muslims”.

However, Mahmoud Ghozlan has clearly stated that the Egyptian Baha'is are forbidden from practicing their religion freely according to the Egyptian English-language newspaper, Daily News. Ghozlan erroneously assumes that theBaha'i faith “stems from Zionism”. The Baha'i faith sees itself more as a religion in favour of equality of the sexes and of all people. In addition, Baha’is support universal human rights, something that is a thorn in the side for some fundamentalist Muslims.

Persecution of the Baha'is in Egypt

There are about 2,000 members of the Baha'i faith in Egypt. This is not a large number compared to an estimated 170,000 Baha'is in the United States, 300,000 in Iran and more than two million in India. Yet the treatment of this minority is significant in gauging the freedom of other minorities in an Islamic country like Egypt.In fact, for theBaha'is the Arab Spring has turned into a cold winter – particularly in Egypt.

It is worthwhile taking a brief look at the history of the persecution of Egyptian Baha'is. Already in 1960, as a result of the so-called Presidential Decree number 263, all Baha'i institutions were dissolved and the property of the Baha'iwas confiscated. Under the decree Baha'i public activities were prosecuted and this was strictly enforced. In the sixties, dozens of Egyptian Baha'is were arrested, solely because of their religious affiliation, according to NaseemKourosh in the journal of International Law News (Volume 41, 2012).

As in the “Islamic Republic of Iran”, in Egypt not even Baha'i marriages were recognised, with tragic consequences for many families. In 1975, another law was passed that banned Baha'is from practicing their faith, even in private.

In 2003, the scientific centre of Al-Azhar University (the most important theological school of Sunni Islam) issued a fatwa against the Baha'i faith, which constituted an additional basis for discrimination and persecution of the Baha'is. It stated that the Baha'i religion was a “deadly spiritual epidemic”, which must be destroyed by the state. Even in the face of this, the Baha'is advocate peace between religions on the grounds that all religions have the same divine origin.

Egyptian identity card

In the journal of International Law News, Nasseem Kourosh highlights the fact that Baha'is do not deny their religious identity. This made it especially problematic when they had to declare a religious affiliation.

A person’s religion must be specified on Egyptian identity cards, but there are only three categories: Jew, Christian and Muslim. Those who do not want to put themselves in any of these categories are, from the point of view of the state, theoretically non-existent and must deal with myriad consequences.

Since the Presidential Decree of 1960, the Egyptian state has decreed that the Baha'is are not allowed to register as Baha'i. Therefore, if Baha'is got identity cards, they were involuntarily registered as Christians, Jews or Muslims, and sometimes atheists.

Only in 1983 did the Baha'is have permission from the Egyptian government to identify themselves either as Baha'i or “other” on their passports. However, problems remained. For example, Baha'is are considered apostates and as apostates they are not allowed to study.

In 2004 the Egyptian state withdrew permission for the Baha’is to state their faith on their identity cards. Now, when an Egyptian applies for a new identity card, he or she can only belong to one of the three recognised religions. The Baha’is were also not allowed to identify their religion as “other” or simply leave the field blank.

The problems of the Egyptian Baha'is are growing

As the Baha'is refused to deny their religion, they were no longer entitled to an identity card. This had tragic consequences. Baha'i children had no birth certificates and therefore could not attend school. They were even denied vaccinations.

Baha'i youth and adults also did not have identity cards, which meant that they could not work, could not study and could seek care in public hospitals. They also could not apply for a driving license. They were even not entitled to a death certificate if a family member passed away.

Because of this, they lost their right to inheritances. The possession of Baha'i money, goods and property thus passed into state ownership. The persecution of the Baha’is was certainly a comfortable situation for those in power.

In April 2006 Egyptian Baha'is were given the right to a religious identity, which could be officially registered in state documents. However, as the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Azhar University protested against the government decision, it was reversed in December 2006.

In 2007, several human rights organisations denounced the situation in Egypt, as well as the U.S. government in an annual report on religious freedom. So far this has had little actual effect. It’s not only the Baha’is who are negatively affected by religious prejudice, but also Copts and newly converted Christians.

It was only in August 2009 that the Baha'is were granted the right leave blank the box for religious affiliation on their identity cards. This was a step forward as they could now apply for passports, even if their religion was not registered and was only denoted with a hyphen.

With the “Arab Spring”, the situation of the Baha'is has not improved. In fact, the opposite is true. The “Arab Spring” that began in Tunisia and toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak does not seem to be bringing democracy and human rights to the region. Especially considering the bloody chaos and violence in Libya, Bahrain, Syria, and also Egypt, it can be surmised that positive developments in the Arab world are unlikely in the medium-term.

The situation of members of the Baha'i religion in Egypt is indeed a litmus test for the overall development of an Islamic society such as Egypt’s.

As Nassim Kourosh notes, the positive steps forward in 2009 regarding the treatment of Baha'is are currently being rolled back. In the “Arab Spring” that is rapidly turning into a winter, the Baha’is are still not being treated equally alongside members of the other three religions. As far as the “Arab Spring” is concerned, civil rights are non-existent.

Attacks and arson

If the State acts as an ideological arsonist, one need not wonder whether the citizens of such a state will become arsonists themselves. In Egypt, an increase in attacks on the Baha'is has been recorded and in some villages, their houses have been attacked and set on fire.

The Muslim Brotherhood, who got the most votes in the general election, will not take it upon themselves to improve the situation of the Baha'is. Neither the Brotherhood nor the Salafists have any inclination to change Article 2 of the Egyptian constitution, according to which Islam is the state religion and Islamic law is to the fore.

The Salafist Abdel Moneim al-Shahat demonises the Baha'is and describes them as a “threat to national security”. This Salafist even referred to a fatwa issued by Al-Azhar University, according to which the Baha’i should be prosecuted for “high treason”.

It is very likely that the situation will deteriorate for the Egyptian Baha'is. The persecution of minorities in an Islamic society is truly a barometer of the lack of freedom and equality that prevails there.

Wahied Wahdat-Hagh is a Senior Fellow with the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels.

The Baha'i Case in Egypt: as seen by an independent observer

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 09:53:00 -0400

Yesterday, an article written by Dwight Bashir, Deputy Director for Policy and Research at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, appeared in the Cairo Review of Global Affairs, a publication of the American University in Cairo, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. This article appears to be, by far, the most comprehensive, accurate, unbiased and concise review of the status of the Baha'is of Egypt as they are influenced by the recent developments and the prevailing political & religious environment in their country.

The full article can be accessed at this link, and, for convenience, is posted below as well:

A BAHA’I LITMUS TEST FOR EGYPT
Dwight BashirAugust 22, 2012

In 2006, Saad Eddin Ibrahim – the revered Egyptian human rights advocate and former political prisoner – commented to the press on the precarious situation of Baha’is in Egypt, who were forced, at the time, to use the court system to obtain identity cards which the state had denied them.

The Baha’i faith is an independent world religion whose adherents seek global peace and unity for humankind through the promotion of central tenets, including the full equality between women and men, the elimination of all forms of bigotry, the abolishment of extremes of wealth and poverty, universal education, and the establishment of a world federal system based on collective security. The estimates vary widely for numbers of Baha’is in Egypt, from several hundred to more than five thousand. There are approximately 170,000 in the United States, more than 300,000 in Iran (the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority), at least two million in India (by far the largest concentration in one country), and nearly six million worldwide. Today, Baha’i communities are established globally and are recognized as an independent religious community in most countries in the world, with the exception of a number of Arab and predominantly Muslim countries, including Egypt, where varying forms of discrimination continue.

Historically, Baha’is were persecuted most severely in the land of the faith’s birth, Iran, where, in the mid 1800s, approximately 20,000 Baha’is were killed because they were deemed by Muslim clerics as heretics from Islam. Since the Islamic revolution in Iran in the late 1970s, more than 200 Baha’i leaders have been killed and thousands of others have been arrested or imprisoned by authorities for no other reason than their identity as Baha’is.

Ibrahim said the contested status of Bahai’s in Egypt was as important as anything else going on in the country and its outcome would demonstrate “where the government is heading on the issue of freedom.” Members of the community eventually won the right to have dashes (--) on official ID cards but not their religious affiliation in the mandatory section which permits only “Muslim, Christian, or Jew.” While an improvement from not having ID cards at all, Baha’is still were being denied the rights of other Egyptian citizens.

Now more than 18 months removed from the January 25 revolution, as many Egyptians still seek full freedom and equality, the plight of Egypt’s Baha’i community remains a powerful litmus test for where things might be headed. A recent spate of public statements and actions about the Baha’is by various entities in society provides a compelling indicator of the trajectory.

The religion dates back to the 1860s in Egypt. It formed a national governing body in 1924 and suffered only periodic verbal attacks by extremist clerics until president Gamal Abdel Nasser, allegedly under Islamist pressure, issued a decree in 1960 banning all Baha’i activities. For decades since, Baha’is have been harassed, vilified, discriminated against, and imprisoned because of their beliefs.

Over the years, Egypt’s government-controlled media has been a key propagator of false and inflammatory information about Baha’is. In a new Egypt, could things actually be changing for the worse? The appointment this month by the Shura Council of Gamal Abdel Rahim as chief editor of the state-controlled newspaper, Al-Ghomhurryia, bodes ill for Baha’is. Rahim was accused in 2009 of calling for the murder of a Baha’i activist on live television and inciting residents in Sohag to burn Baha’i homes. Three days after the program aired, arson destroyed several Baha’is houses in a Sohag village. The denigration and repression of Baha’is in Egypt has been fueled by bogus and inflammatory accusations that state media and political and religious leaders have perpetuated for generations. They can be boiled down to three myths.

Myth #1: Baha’is are a Zionist entity and, therefore, not entitled to any rights. Last month, Mahmoud Ghozlan, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, said Baha’is are of “Zionist origin” and, thus, should not be protected under the constitution to practice their faith publicly. What “origin” has to do with constitutional protections for any of Egypt’s citizens is anyone’s guess. Leaving this point aside, the particular accusation is baseless. It is leveled solely because the Baha’i world headquarters is in Haifa, Israel. This, however, was clearly not the preference of Baha’i leaders at the time. The faith’s founder, Baha’u’llah, was imprisoned and exiled throughout the region during Ottoman rule in the 1800s: from Iran and Iraq to Turkey and Palestine. Baha’u’llah died while under house arrest in 1892 in Acre, Palestine. It was his family and followers who established the administrative center of the faith there, more than a half century before 1948, the year the state of Israel was born. Moreover, based on the logic of his position, Ghozlan would be forced to call every resident of Palestine or Israel a Zionist. Clearly, that’s not what he meant, but this demonstrates the absurdity of his claim about the Baha’is. Of the nearly six million Baha’is in the world today, fewer than 1,000 reside in what is now Israel. They serve as temporary volunteers at the Baha’i World Center and eventually return to their home countries after a short period.

Myth #2: Baha’is are a threat to national security. Like Myth #1, this dubious claim hinges on the location of the Baha’i world headquarters in Israel. This claim is made most frequently by conservative clerics such as Abdel Moneim al-Shahat, a prominent Salafi leader who reportedly once said that Islam forbids playing or watching soccer. In February, he stated that Baha’is are a security threat, claimed that Baha’is deserve no rights in a new constitution, and asserted that Baha’is should be tried for treason. Such irresponsible statements promote the further demonization of Baha’is in society and pour fuel on the fire of extremist attacks on Baha’is.

Myth #3: Baha’is are apostates from Islam and, therefore, should be eliminated by the state. Al-Shahat, and others like him cite Al-Azhar’s fatwas declaring Baha’is as apostates. This accusation is based on numerous fatwas issued by the Islamic Research Academy at Al-Azhar University over the years, most recently reiterated in 2003. The gist of the argument is a theological one, that Baha’is claim divine revelation after the Prophet Muhammad, which makes them apostates from Islam because, in their view, Muhammad was the last of the Prophets from God.

However, religion experts explain that the Baha’i faith emerged out of Islam similar to the way Christianity sprang from Judaism and is separate and distinct. In fact, in 1925, Egypt became the first predominantly Muslim state to recognize the Baha’i faith as an independent religion after an Egyptian court ruled that the faith indeed was separate from Islam, and consequently, Baha’is could not be deemed heretics or apostates. This ruling led to greater emancipation for the Egyptian Baha’is in the decades thereafter, and they were legally recognized in the 1930s until the 1960 ban. Since then, conservative clerics and political leaders alike have used Al-Azhar’sfatwas and Nasser’s ban to justify discrimination, vilification, and incitement.

The Egyptian Baha’i community appears destined toward experiencing another generation of marginalization and, perhaps, outright persecution. To be sure, no one expects the state-controlled press, Al-Azhar, the Muslim Brotherhood, or the Salafists to agree with Baha’i views, or for that matter, cease from criticizing its theology. However, the burden rests on them to refrain from inciting violence and hatred, justifying repression on the basis of their faith, and calling for restricting Baha’i rights by insisting that only the “heavenly religions” (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) be protected by law. If all these entities truly espouse the principles of the January 25 revolution, they would champion the rights of all Egyptian citizens, regardless of religion or belief.

The burden is also on Egyptian human rights defenders and independent media to debunk the myths about the peaceful, law-abiding Baha’is and demand that they, along with their fellow Egyptians who are Muslims, including Sunni, Shi’a, Sufi, and Quranist, Christians, Jews, atheists, and other persuasions, be protected under the same laws that apply to all citizens. There should be no distinction when it comes to the inalienable right of religious freedom.

Judging by Saad Eddin Ibrahim’s sage words in 2006, Egypt’s democratic transition appears to be headed in the wrong direction. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Dwight Bashir is the Deputy Director for Policy and Research at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The views expressed here are his own, and may or may not reflect the views of the Commission. He can be followed on Twitter @DwightBashir.

Would Egypt's New President Enforce Equal Rights and Full Integration for All Minorities?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 1 Jul 2012 18:00:00 -0400

Based on several recent media reports, Egypt's newly elected president Mohamed Morsi has vowed to be a "leader for all Egyptians" and vowed "to protect citizens' rights"

According to the Guardian's 25 June 2012 report from the Associated Press, the following was stated:

The Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi proclaimed himself a leader "for all Egyptians", after being declared the winner of Egypt's first free presidential election on Sunday.

Speaking on Egyptian television late on Sunday evening, Morsi vowed to "protect the rights of women and children", as well as Christians and Muslims alike.

"I tell everybody in this memorable day that because of your choice, your will and after God's favour, I am a president for all Egyptians," the 60-year-old engineer and professor said in his speech.

Morsi sought to reach out to the activists by paying tribute to the nearly 900 protesters killed in the uprising. "I wouldn't have been here between your hands as the first elected president without … the blood, the tears and sacrifices of the martyrs," he said.

The president-elect declared he had a "message of peace" and that he would respect all international agreements. He did not mention Israel but the remark seemed to be a reassuring indication that he would respect the peace treaty with the country.

One of Egypt's small religious minorities, the Baha'is, remain without their citizenship rights. They are poorly treated by the authorities. They are discriminated against in education and employment, and to this day, many of them remain without identity documents as described earlier in this blog.

Thus, if President Morsi is committed indeed to social justice, equality and the protection of "citizens' rights," as "a president for all Egyptians," only his actions would confirm his words and his proclamations, and there are plentiful opportunities for him to fulfill his promises. It is time for all Egyptian minorities to be fully integrated into their society and to receive their overdue full citizenship rights. They have honorably served their homeland and their fellow citizens for so long, and in return they received nothing but ridicule and repression.

What is Happening in Egypt?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 4 Mar 2012 12:57:00 -0500

Egypt's new Parliament (photo: Ahmed ElMasry, el-Masry el-Youm)

As the state of chaos lingers on, with leaderless anarchy, violence and radicalism spreading, the Baha'i community of Egypt continues to struggle in its ongoing quest to be integrated in its society, and to be justly treated by the emerging elected Parliament, which is dominated by members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist Islamist Parties.

Recently, in a televised telephone interview, a leader of the extremist Salafist movement, said the Baha'is in Egypt should not have any citizenship rights and he called for trying them for "grand treason," an absurd call that has been traditionally repeated by the extremist enemies of the Baha'is in Egypt in the past without any cause or justification.

As to the continued question of ID cards, "single" Baha'is have been able to obtain identification documents, but married, divorced or widowed Baha'is are still unable to obtain such documents because they must prove their marriage status in order to obtain an ID card, and Baha'i marriage certificates/ceremonies are not recognized in Egypt by the authorities.

True, Egypt has gone through a revolution, but its outcome, so far, is not what the young and the innocent who began this noble struggle had hoped for. Now, it is left to time, and to the resilient Egyptians to determine what they would want their country to turn into....

Tomorrow!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:02:00 -0500

Tomorrow (Bokra)...a song extolling a wonderful future for the Middle East submerged in justice, peace, prosperity, happiness, equality, and acceptance across all religions and beliefs.

Legendary Music Producer, Quincy Jones has collaborated with Emirati social entrepreneur Badr Jafar, to jointly Executive Produce the Arabic charity single entitled 'TOMORROW / BOKRA'. The song involves 24 leading Arab Artists from 16 nations across the Middle East and North Africa singing with one voice for a better tomorrow. Grammy-nominated international superstar Akon has also lent his vocals to the track, and Shakira, who is of Lebanese descent, has recorded a special introduction to the music video.

Quincy Jones' original Grammy-winning version of the song 'Tomorrow (A Better You, A Better Me)' has now been re-adapted and produced by Quincy Jones and Grammy Award-winning Moroccan producer- RedOne, with Arabic lyrics written by Majida El Roumi and musical adaptation by Kadim Al Sahir. The music video and documentary film have been directed by Malek Akkad (son of Moustapha Akkad, Director of 'The Message').

Associate Producers include Mawazine, Rabat; The Doha Film Institute; & the Qatar Museum Authority.

All funds raised as part of the single's global distribution will be collected by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture in support of the United Nations World Food Program, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation among others, to finance educational programs in music, arts and culture for children from across the Arab world.

تعاون المنتج الأسطوري كوينسي جونز مع رجل الأعمال الإماراتي بدر جعفر المهتم بالمشروعات الاجتماعية لإنتاج الأغنية الخيرية العربية "بكرا"، وشارك بالغناء 24 من كبار الفنانين العرب من 16 بلداً من مختلف أنحاء الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا، والذين غنوا بصوت واحد من أجل غد أفضل. كما شارك النجم العالمي المرشح للحصول على جائزة غرامي "إيكون" في تسجيل أغنية "بكرا"، إضافة إلى المغنية المعروفة ذات الأصول اللبنانية "شاكيرا" التي سجلت كلمة متلفزة حول الأغنية الخيرية. النسخة العربية من أغنية كوينسي جونز أنتجها المنتج المغربي الفائز بجائزة غرامي "ريد ون"، وكتبت كلمات الأغنية الفنانة القديرة ماجدة الرومي وقام الفنان والملحن القدير كاظم الساهر بإعادة التوزيع الموسيقي لها. وقام المخرج مالك العقاد (نجل الراحل مصطفى العقاد مخرج فيلم "الرسالة") بإخراج الفيديو الموسيقي والفيلم الوثائقي. يتولى الصندوق العربي للثقافة والفنون (آفاق) عملية جمع التبرعات التي ستتأتى من توزيع الأغنية إلى مختلف أنحاء العالم، وستوجه المبالغ المتبرع بها إلى برنامج الغذاء العالمي التابع للأمم المتحدة وهيئة دبي للثقافة والفنون ومجموعة أبوظبي للثقافة والفنون وجهات أخرى، وذلك لتمويل البرامج التعليمية الموجهة لأطفال المنطقة العربية في مجال الموسيقى والفنون والثقافة.

Education Under Fire: a Documentary

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:27:00 -0400

The following paragraphs describe a newly released documentary, screened tonight and tomorrow in New York City, regarding the suppression of educating Baha'is in Iran by its government (trailer linked here):

Education Under Fire is produced by Single Arrow Productions and co-sponsored by Amnesty International. The 30-minute documentary profiles the growth, struggle, and inspiring spirit of the Baha´i Institute for Higher Education. Baha´is in Iran have been subjected to systematic persecution, including arrests, torture, and execution simply for refusing to recant their beliefs. They are also prohibited from going to college (and blocked from many professions).

In 1987, the semi-underground Baha´i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) was formed to give young Baha´is their only chance for a university-level education. Despite repeated raids and arrests, volunteer teachers and administrators created an independent, decentralized university system that has lifted the lives of thousands of Baha´i students across Iran. In May, 2011, an organized assault was launched by the Iranian government in an attempt to shut down the BIHE. Over 30 homes were raided and over a dozen BIHE professors and administrators were detained. Several are still in prison for doing nothing more than trying to teach. The film connects a diverse audience to a grave human rights issue, a powerful story of resilience against oppression, and the need to respect human rights everywhere.

We filmed in nine cities with a dozen BIHE students or teachers (several whose parents were imprisoned or executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran), plus: Bani Dugal (Representative of the Baha´i International Community to the United Nations), Elise Auerbach (Iran Specialist for Amnesty International), Hadi Ghaemi (with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran), Hamid Dabashi (Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University), and Dr. Ramin Ahmadi (Co-founder of Iran Human Rights Documentation Center). The film features footage and photos spanning two decades of BIHE classes, rare video from inside Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, and photos and a film that bring alive a series of personal stories.

In the documentary, BIHE graduate Shahrzad Missaghi expresses a shared resolve, "The government can crush our bodies, but they cannot crush the mind and soul." Mojdeh Rohani, a BIHE graduate whose father was executed in 1981, says, "We can use this experience to not only just think about ourselves and what is important to us, but to look at the bigger picture; to think of people of this world as they were our own family." That is the larger, universal message of this film. Education Under Fire will inform and move a diverse audience around the world.

Iran Demonizes an Entire Community: Is History Being Repeated?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:29:00 -0400

The United Nations Office of the Baha'i International Community has just issued a report titled "Inciting Hatred: Iran's media campaign to demonize Bahá'ís" which Analyzes more than 400 press and media items issued in Iran by state-controlled or pro-government media over a 16-month period from late 2009 to early 2011, this report documents a wide-ranging campaign by the Islamic Republic of Iran to incite hatred and violence towards the 300,000 member Bahá'í minority. Using false accusations, inflammatory terminology, and repugnant imagery, this campaign is shocking in its volume and vehemence – and entirely in violation of international human rights law.

Inciting Hatred: Iran's media campaign to demonize Baha'is (PDF)

Inciting Hatred -- Appendix II (PDF)

Press Release (PDF)

Persian translation (PDF)
تحریک به نفرت: اقدامات رسانه های جمعی ایران برای شیطانی جلوه دادن بهائیان

A story, published 21 October 2011, on the Baha'i World News Service states the following:

NEW YORK — In a wide-ranging media campaign that has gone largely unnoticed outside of Iran, hatred and discrimination are being systematically stirred up against the country's 300,000-member Baha'i minority.

In a report released today, the Baha'i International Community documents and analyzes more than 400 press and media items over a 16-month period, that typify an insidious state-sponsored effort to demonize and vilify Baha'is, using false accusations, inflammatory terminology, and repugnant imagery.

Read the full report here (PDF)

"This anti-Baha'i propaganda is shocking in its volume and vehemence, its scope and sophistication," said Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations.

"It's all cynically calculated to stir up antagonism against a peaceful religious community whose members are striving to contribute to the well-being of their society," she said.

Titled Inciting Hatred: Iran's media campaign to demonize Baha'is, the report's main conclusions are:

• anti-Baha'i propaganda originates with – and is sanctioned by – the country's highest levels of leadership, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who gave a highly discriminatory speech in the holy city of Qom a year ago;

• the campaign spurns international human rights law and norms, including a precedent-setting resolution passed earlier this year at the United Nations Human Rights Council that specifically condemns and combats the negative stereotyping and incitement to hatred of religious minorities;

• Baha'is are branded as "outsiders" in their own land and as enemies of Islam in a manner that is clearly calculated to provoke the religious sensibilities of Iranian Shiite Muslims;

• the campaign aims to deflect attention away from calls for democracy in Iran by using Baha'is as an all-purpose "scapegoat" – and, in so doing, to smear those who oppose the government as well as human rights campaigners as Baha'is, "as if that were the most heinous crime."

• the authorities disseminate ludicrous conspiracy theories including that foreign broadcasters, in particular the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Voice of America (VOA), are controlled by or under the influence of Baha'is because they report stories about human rights violations in Iran;

"The diverse content of these attacks demonstrates tremendous effort and commitment of resources by the Islamic Republic," says the report.

"Many attacks are built on gross distortions of Baha'i history; some attempt a strategy of guilt by association through lumping Baha'is together with completely unrelated groups – such as 'Satanists' or the Shah's secret police; still others deploy a tactic of connecting Baha'is with 'opponents' of the regime, which allows the Government to discredit both the Baha'is and its opponents in a single transaction. The campaign makes extensive use of the World Wide Web, and often uses graphic images that portray Baha'is as fiendish ghouls or agents of Israel."

Bani Dugal said the demonization of Iran's Baha'i community is a matter that deserves the attention of governments, international legal institutions, and fair-minded people everywhere.

"The campaign not only clearly violates international human rights law," she said, "it also utterly contradicts Iran's long-standing claim at the UN and elsewhere that it is working to support measures to outlaw or condemn hate speech directed against religions or religious followers."

"The parallels between the campaign of anti-Baha'i propaganda in Iran today and other state-sponsored, anti-religious campaigns of the past are undeniable. History shows us that such campaigns are among the foremost predictors of actual violence against religious minorities – or, in the worst case, precursors of genocide.

"It is time for Iran to be told that such egregious violations of international law and norms cannot be tolerated," said Ms. Dugal.

The report in its entirety can be accessed HERE....

Journalism Students in Vietnam Study the "Open Letter to the People of Egypt"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:50:00 -0400

A newsworthy example of the global interest in Middle East affairs, comes out of Vietnam. This piece of news was just shared with me by a professor of journalism and English, currently working in one of Vietnam's leading educational institutions. He indicated, in his communication, that the English-Translation-Editing class at the National Academy of Journalism & Communication in Vietnam is currently studying a document that was authored by the Baha'is of Egypt back in April 2011, titled "An open letter to the people of Egypt" and presented to their fellow citizens shortly after Egypt's revolution of 25 January 2011, published at this link. One would hope and expect that such an example of interest in this momentous document would be as highly valued and carefully studied by the people of Egypt for whom it was intended. A number of photographs of the class were provided, with the consent of the students, to be posted along with this brief story.

The Power of Interfaith Collaboration

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:23:00 -0400

While the news of mounting sectarian tensions in Egypt continue to trouble its emerging democracy as well as the world community at large, the benefits of religious unity and interfaith collaboration are felt as the G8 bloc of nations welcomed contributions from the religious summit held in conjunction with the G8 Deauville Summit. This body of religious leaders is composed of delegates from the Baha'i, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Shinto and Sikh religions along with members of interfaith organizations.

Leaders of the G20 countries, expected to meet in November 2011 in Cannes, will be also presented with the statement, drafted by the G8 Religious Leaders Summit, that was already submitted to the G8 leaders.

Posted below is the story regarding these vital recommendations, which was published today by the Baha'i World News Service.

Religions unite to urge G8 leaders to take bold action on global issues
31 May 2011

BORDEAUX, France — Representatives of the Baha'i Faith have joined a call for the G8 bloc of nations to take bold action on the interconnected crises faced by humanity.

Two Baha'i delegates gathered with Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Shinto and Sikh colleagues, as well as members of interfaith organisations, at the Religious Summit in Bordeaux to deliberate on matters related to the agendas of the G8 Deauville Summit and the G20 Cannes Summit, scheduled for 3-4 November 2011.

Summit Moderator His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel Adamakis, Co-President of the Council of Churches of France, told participants that they were face-to-face not just as religious leaders but as representatives of humanity, speaking with one voice to the leaders of the G8 and G20 countries.

That voice was heard in a unanimously agreed statement drafted at the meeting and later presented to the Secretary General of the G8.

In addition to recommendations on five major themes – reforming global governance, the macro-economic situation, climate change, development, and investing in peace – the statement called for representatives from the African continent and the Middle East to be included in the G8 and the G20 meetings.

"Our diverse backgrounds and experience enriched our consultation," the statement said.

"The trauma of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster described by our Japanese colleagues, the experience and aspirations of our friends from countries in the Middle East and the deep concern of our African colleagues at the continued marginalization of their voice underlined the urgency of the issues under consideration."

The statement concluded by urging the G8 and G20 "to continue to expand and strengthen the needed global response to global challenges."

"We – leaders of diverse religious communities throughout the world – re-commit ourselves to working together across religious lines for the common good and with governments and other partners of good will. We remain convinced – each in accordance with the teachings of their tradition – that justice, compassion and reconciliation are essential for genuine peace," the statement said.

Baha'i representation

"The participants in this Summit demonstrated a sincere desire to find a way to translate the spiritual principles that inform their worldview into concrete and practical recommendations that would assist G8 leaders to address the challenges facing humanity," said Baha'i representative Susanne Tamas from Canada.

"The genuine respect and keen interest with which people listened to one another and sought to deepen their understanding of complex issues was very impressive," said Ms. Tamas.

Fellow Baha'i delegate Barney Leith, from the United Kingdom, agreed.

"The spirit of unity that infused the gathering was deeply moving," he said.

"There was a strong sense in which all those at the Summit understood themselves to be part of a single human family and to be utterly committed to reminding leaders of powerful nations of their moral commitment to reducing human suffering."

The G8 Religious Leaders Summit was held in Bordeaux on the 23-24 May. It was the seventh in a series of interfaith gatherings aimed at identifying areas of moral consensus among religions. Previous Summits were held prior to each G8 Summit in the United Kingdom (2005), Russia (2006), Germany (2007), Japan (2008), Italy (2009) and Canada (2010).

'Abbas Effendi & Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:20:00 -0400

The son of Bahá'u'lláh the founder of the Baha'i Faith, 'Abbas Effendi ('Abdu'l-Bahá 'Abbas), became the head of the emerging religion after the passing of Bahá'u'lláh—in accordance with His Covenant. When 'Abbas Effendi embarked on his travels in Europe and North America, he frequented Egypt between 1910 and 1913, where he was well received and hosted with respect and dignity by the generous Egyptian people during his sojourn in a number of its cities in these enlightened days of Egypt's modern history.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of 'Abbas Effendi's visits to Egypt, a book was authored and released by Professor Suheil Badi Bushrui, a distinguished author, poet, critic, translator, and media personality who is well known in the United States, the Middle East, India, Africa, and the Arab world. Presently, Bushrui was the first incumbent of CIDCM's (Center for International Development and Conflict Management) Bahá'ì Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland, a position to which he was appointed from 1992 to 2005. He is the founder and current Director of University of Maryland's Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project. Well known for his seminal studies in English of the works of W.B. Yeats and for his translations of Yeats' poetry into Arabic, Bushrui is also the foremost authority on the works of Kahlil Gibran. Of note, the author's father, the late Mirza Badi Bushrui who was a resident of Alexandria, had spent much of his childhood and youth years in the home of 'Abbas Effendi in Palestine.

In order to accurately document the historical events during these momentous times, the book, authored in Arabic, was extensively researched and meticulously written by Professor Bushrui. A permission to publish the electronic version of the book was granted by the publisher (© Al-Kamel Verlag 2011) and can be viewed and downloaded in its entirety at the following links:

Cover

Pages 001-008

Pages 009-100

Pages 101-200

Pages 201-300

Pages 301-400

Pages 401-448

For easiest viewing and download, please click HERE....

Entire book in one file

Another site for file download (entire book--one file) here....

The book is also available for download at this link...

A link for reading the book online is available here....

Story in BWNS

An open letter to the people of Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 6 Apr 2011 11:08:00 -0400

An open letter to the people of Egypt

[English version of a statement issued in Arabic by the Bahá’ís of Egypt dated April 2011]

April 2011

An open letter to the people of Egypt

Our fellow citizens:

   The events of recent months have provided us, the Bahá’ís of Egypt, with an opportunity we have never experienced before: to communicate directly with you, our brothers and sisters. Though small in number, we are privileged to belong to this land wherein, for more than a hundred years, we have endeavoured to live by the principles enshrined in our Faith and striven to serve our country as upright citizens. This chance is one for which we have longed—especially because we have wished to express our thanks to those countless fair-minded, compassionate souls who supported our efforts in the last few years to obtain a measure of equality before the law. But we rejoice primarily in the fact that, at such a critical juncture in our nation’s history, we are able to make a humble contribution to the conversation which has now begun about its future and to share some perspectives, drawn from our own experience and that of Bahá’ís throughout the world, as to the prerequisites for walking the path towards lasting material and spiritual prosperity.

   Whatever directly motivated the rapid change that has occurred, the outcome demonstrates the collective desire of us all, the people of Egypt, to exercise greater control over our destiny. The freedom to do so is unfamiliar to us, having not previously enjoyed this degree of liberty. And our collective history, as Egyptians, Arabs, and Africans, has taught us that there is no shortage of self-interested forces in the world that would prevent us from determining our own future or, alternatively, would invite us to voluntarily abdicate this responsibility. Colonialism, religious orthodoxy, authoritarian rule, and outright tyranny have all played their part in the past. Today, the “gentler” force of consumerism and the erosion of morality which it fosters are equally capable of holding us back, under the pretence of making us more free.

   The fact that, as a people, we have chosen to become actively involved in determining the direction of our nation is a public sign that our society has reached a new stage in its development. A planted seed grows gradually and organically, and evolves through stages of increasing strength until it attains to a state that is recognizably “mature”; human societies share this trait too. At a certain time, dissatisfaction grows within a population at being held back from full participation in the processes that steer the course of a country, and the desire for more responsibility to be ceded to the citizens becomes overwhelming. Set in this context, the events that have taken place in Egypt can be seen as a response to forces that are, in fact, drawing the entire human race towards greater maturity and interdependence. One indication that humanity is advancing in this direction is that aspects of conduct which did not seem out of place in an earlier age—behaviours that resulted in conflict, corruption, and inequality—are increasingly seen as incompatible with the values that underpin a just society. Over time, people everywhere are becoming bolder in rejecting the attitudes and systems that prevented their progress towards maturity.

   The movement towards greater maturity is thus a global phenomenon. Still, it does not follow that all nations and peoples advance along the path at a uniform speed. At certain points, circumstances may converge upon a historically significant moment wherein a particular society can fundamentally re-direct its course. At such times, an expression of collective will can have a decisive and abiding effect on the future of the country. Egypt has arrived at precisely such a moment. It will not last forever.

   At this juncture, then, we face the weighty question of what we seek to achieve with the opportunity we have acquired. What are the choices before us? Many models of collective living are on offer and being championed by various interested parties. Are we to move towards an individualistic, fragmented society, wherein all feel liberated to pursue their own interests, even at the expense of the common good? Will we be tempted by the lures of materialism and its beholden agent, consumerism? Will we opt for a system that feeds on religious fanaticism? Are we prepared to allow an elite to emerge that will be oblivious to our collective aspirations, and may even seek to manipulate our desire for change? Or, will the process of change be allowed to lose momentum, dissolve into factional squabbling, and crumble under the weight of institutional inertia? It might justly be argued that, looking across the Arab region—and, indeed, beyond—the world wants for an unquestionably successful model of society worthy of emulation. Thus, if no existing model proves to be satisfactory, we might well consider charting a different course, and perhaps demonstrate to the community of nations that a new, truly progressive approach to the organization of society is possible. Egypt’s stature in the international order—its intellectual tradition, its history, its location—means that an enlightened choice on its part could influence the course of human development in the entire region, and impact even the world.

   Too often, change brought about by popular protest eventually results in disappointment. This is not because the movement that provided the catalyst for change lacks unity—indeed, its ability to foster unity among disparate peoples and interests is the essential feature that ensured its success—but rather because the realization quickly dawns that it is far easier to find common cause against the status quo than it is to agree upon what should replace it. That is why it is vital that we endeavour to achieve broad consensus on the operating principles that are to shape a new model for our society. Once agreement is reached, the policies that follow are far more likely to attract the support of the populations whom they affect.

   A natural temptation, when considering how our nation should progress, is to immediately seek to devise practical solutions to recognized grievances and acknowledged societal problems. But even if worthy ideas were to emerge, they would not constitute in themselves a compelling vision of how we wish our country to develop. The essential merit of principle is that, if it wins support, it induces an attitude, a dynamic, a will, an aspiration, which facilitate the discovery and implementation of practical measures. Yet a discussion of principles must be prepared to move beyond the level of abstraction. At the conceptual level, it may prove relatively easy to bring about agreement on a set of guiding principles, but without an examination of their ramifications they may amount to little more than empty slogans. An attempt to reach consensus should allow for the most searching exploration of the specific, and profound, implications that the adoption of a particular principle would carry for our nation. It is in that spirit, then, that the following principles are set out.

   A mature society demonstrates one feature above all others: a recognition of the oneness of humanity. How fortunate, then, that the most abiding memory of recent months is not of religious divisions or ethnic conflict, but of differences being put aside in favour of a common cause. Our instinctive ability, as a people, to recognize the truth that we all belong to one human family served us well. Nevertheless, to develop institutions, agencies, and social structures that promote the oneness of humanity is an altogether greater challenge. Far from being an expression of vague and pious hope, this principle informs the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family. Its genesis lies in the recognition that we were all created out of the same substance by the one Creator, and therefore, it is indefensible for one person, tribe, or nation to claim superiority over another. Its acceptance would require an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change with far-reaching consequences for every aspect of our collective life. And beyond its societal implications, it calls for a profound re-examination of each of our own attitudes, values, and relationships with others—ultimately, for a transformation in the human heart. None of us are exempt from its exacting demands.

   The ramifications of this fundamental truth—the oneness of humanity—are so profound that many other vital principles, essential for the future development of Egypt, can be derived from it. A prime example is the equality of men and women. Does anything retard progress in our country more efficiently than the persistent exclusion of women from full participation in the affairs of the nation? Redressing this balance will by itself bring about improvement in every aspect of Egyptian life: religious, cultural, social, economic, and political. Like the bird that cannot fly if one wing is weaker than the other, so humanity’s ability to scale the heights of real attainment are severely impeded so long as women are denied the opportunities afforded to men. Once the same prerogatives are accorded both sexes, they will both flourish, to the benefit of all. But beyond the matter of civil rights, the principle of gender equality brings with it an attitude that must be extended to the home, to the workplace, to every social space, to the political sphere—ultimately, even to international relations.

   Nowhere could the equality of the sexes more helpfully be established than in education, which exists to enable men and women of every background to fulfil their innate potential to contribute to the progress of society. If it is to succeed, it must offer adequate preparation for participation in the economic life of the nation, but so, too, it must possess a robust moral dimension. Schools must impress upon their students the responsibilities inherent in being a citizen of Egypt and inculcate those values that tend toward the betterment of society and care for one’s fellow human beings. Education cannot be allowed to be the means whereby disunity and hatred of others are instilled into innocent minds. With the right approach, it can also become an effective instrument for protecting future generations from the insidious blight of corruption that so conspicuously afflicts present-day Egypt. Furthermore, access to basic education must be universal, regardless of any distinctions based on gender, ethnicity, or means. Strategies for harnessing the resources of our nation—our heritage, our agriculture, our industry—will prove fruitless if we neglect the most important resource of all: our own God-given spiritual and intellectual capacities. To prioritize improving the means by which we educate ourselves will yield an abundant harvest in the years to come.

   Related to the topic of education is the interaction between science and religion, twin sources of insight that humanity can draw upon as it seeks to achieve progress. It is a blessing that Egyptian society, as a whole, does not assume that the two must be in conflict, a perception sadly commonplace elsewhere. Indeed, we possess a proud history of fostering a spirit of rational and scientific enquiry—with admirable results in the areas of farming and medicine, to name but two—while retaining a strong religious tradition and respect for the values promulgated by the world’s great faiths. There is nothing in such values that should incline us toward irrational thinking or fanaticism. All of us, especially our younger generation, can be conscious that it is possible for individuals to be imbued with sincere spirituality while actively labouring for the material progress of their nation.

   Our nation is blessed by an abundance of youth. Some amongst us are in education; some are beginning careers or starting families; some, though older, remember what it was like to pass through those stages of life. Reform of the education system will go a long way towards ensuring that the potential of the younger generation to contribute to the life of society is realized; however, by itself, that is not sufficient. Conditions must be nurtured so that opportunities for meaningful employment multiply, talent is harnessed, and possibilities to progress are accessed on the basis of merit, not privilege. Disenchantment will grow if, because of persistent corruption, inequality, and neglect, the efforts youth make to improve the conditions of families, communities, and neighbourhoods are thwarted at every turn. The high aspirations of the young represent a trust that society as a whole—indeed, the state itself—cannot afford, either economically or morally, to ignore.

   This is not to say that youth are in need of special privileges. Much of the dissatisfaction that younger adults have expressed in recent months comes from an acute awareness that they lack equality of opportunity, not preferential treatment. From the conditions faced by the youth and by so many others in our society it is clear that pre-eminent among the principles that should propel the renewal we seek is justice. Its far-reaching implications are at the core of most of the issues on which we must, as a people, agree. And it is from the interplay of the two vital principles of justice and the oneness of humanity that an important truth emerges: each individual comes into the world as a trust of the whole, and the collective resources of the human race should therefore be expended for the benefit of all, not just a fraction. Neglect of this ideal has a particularly destabilizing influence on society, as extremes of wealth and poverty exacerbate existing social tensions and provoke unrest. Measures to alleviate poverty cannot ignore the existence of extreme wealth, for where there are inordinate riches accumulated by the few, the many will not escape impoverishment.

   Considered only in the abstract, perhaps few will dispute the essential merit of the principles discussed here. Yet, their implementation would have profound political, economic, social, and personal implications, which render them more challenging than they may appear at first. But regardless of the principles to be adopted, their capacity to imprint themselves on our emerging society will depend in large measure on the degree to which Egyptians have embraced them. For to the extent that all can be enabled to participate in the consultative processes that affect us—so that we tread the path towards becoming protagonists of our own material and spiritual development—will we avoid the risk of our society falling into the pattern of any of the existing models that see no advantage in empowering the people.

   The challenge before us, then, is to initiate a process of consultation about the principles that are to inform the reshaping of our society. This is a painstaking task. To fashion from divergent conceptions a coherent set of principles with the creative power to unify our population will be no small accomplishment. However, we can be confident that every sincere effort invested for this purpose will be richly rewarded by the release, from our own selves, of a fresh measure of those constructive energies on which our future depends. In such a broadly based national conversation—engaging people at all levels, in villages and in cities, in neighbourhoods and in the home, extending to the grassroots of society and drawing in every concerned citizen—it will be vital that the process not move too quickly to the pragmatic and the expedient, and not be reduced to the deals and decisions involved in the distribution of power among a new elite who would presume to become the arbiters of our future.

   The ongoing and wide-scale involvement of the population in such a consultative process will go a long way towards persuading the citizenry that policy-makers have the creation of a just society at heart. Given the opportunity to participate in such a process, we will be confirmed in our newly awakened consciousness that we have ownership of our own future and come to realize the collective power we already possess to transform ourselves.

The Bahá’ís of Egypt

Story in BWNS
Download entire letter (English) in PDF here....
Download entire letter (Arabic) in PDF here....

Constructive Contributions of the Baha'is of Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 2 Apr 2011 15:49:00 -0400

The Baha'is of Egypt, in their quest to serve their country and to constructively contribute to its betterment and its promising future, have just released a message to their fellow citizens. The message, written in Arabic, can be viewed at the attached site by an Egyptian Baha'i, and is also posted below:

أبريل 2011

رسالة مفتوحة إلى كلّ المصريّين

إخوتنا وأخواتنا في الوطن،

لا شكّ أنّ أحداث الأشهر القليلة الماضية في مصر قد منحتنا، نحن المواطنين البهائيين، فرصةً لم نعهدها من قبل في أن نخاطب مباشرة إخوتنا وأخواتنا في الوطن. ومع قلّة عددنا، كان لنا حظّ الانتماء إلى هذا الوطن العزيز الذي دأبنا أن نعيش فيه منذ أكثر من قرنٍ من الزمان طبقاً لمبادئ ديننا وقِيَمه، باذلين جهدنا في خدمة بلدنا كمواطنين مخلصين. إنّها فرصة طالما تمنّيناها وفي أعماقنا شكر دفين لذلك العدد الغفير من أصحاب العقول المنصفة والنفوس المتعاطفة التي آزرتنا في جهودنا خلال السنوات القليلة الماضية في سبيل أن نحظى بقسط من المساواة أمام القانون. ففي هذا المنعطف الدقيق من تاريخ أمتنا، تغمرنا البهجة ونحن نرى أن باستطاعتنا أن نقدم إسهاماً متواضعاً في الحوار الدائر الآن فيما يخصّ مستقبل بلادنا، فنشارككم بشيء من وجهات نظرنا من منطلق خبرتنا كمواطنين مصريين وما لدى مجتمعاتنا البهائية في العالم من تجارب، طبقاً لما يستدعيه المضي قُدُماً نحو الازدهار الدائم مادياً وروحياً.

مهما كان الدافع المباشر وراء هذا التغيير السريع الذي حدث، فإن نتائجه قد دلّلت على أُمنيتنا الجماعيّة، نحن شعب مصر كله، في أن نمارس قدراً أكبر من الحرية في التحكم بمصيرنا. إن ممارسة مثل هذه الحرية لم تكن مألوفة لنا لأننا حُرمنا في السابق من التمتع بهذا القدر منها. لقد علّمنا تاريخنا المشترك؛ كمصريين وعرب وأفارقة، بأن العالم زاخر بالقوى ذات المصالح الذاتية التي بامكانها أن تمنعنا من تقرير مصيرنا أو تدعونا إلى التخلي عن هذه المسؤولية طواعية. ثم إنّ الاستعمار والتّزمّت الديني والحُكْم التسلطي والاستبداد السافر، لعب كلٌّ دوره في الماضي، أمّا اليوم فلا تزال القوة "الألطف" للنظام الاستهلاكي وما يتبنّاه من انحطاط أخلاقي، لقادرة بالمثل على إعاقة تقدمنا بذريعة جعلنا أكثر تمتُّعًا بالحرية المنشودة.

وكوننا كشعب واحد، اخترنا الانخراط بفعالية ونشاط في تحديد مسار أمتنا، فهو مؤشر شعبي عام بأن مجتمعنا المصري قد بلغ مرحلة جديدة في مسيرة تطوّره. فالبذرة المغروسة تنبت تدريجيًا وعضويًا وتتحول في مراحل نشوئها وتزيد قوتها حتى تبلغ حالة تعتبر فيها "ناضجة". وكذا المجتمعات الإنسانية تشترك معها في هذه السمة المميزة. ففي وقت من الأوقات تنمو مشاعر السخط وعدم الرضا عند شعب من الشعوب نتيجة منعه من المشاركة الكاملة في العمليات التي تقود مسار بلاده، وتصبح الرغبة طاغية لدى المواطنين في أن تتنازل السلطة عن مزيد من المسؤولية لهم في ادارة شؤون بلادهم. في هذا السياق، نرى أن الأحداث التي شهدتها مصر يمكن اعتبارها، في واقع الأمر تجاوباً لقوى تدفع بالجنس البشري قاطبة نحو نضوج أكبر وتكافل أعظم. وواحد من الأدلة الواضحة على أنّ البشرية سائرة في هذا الاتجاه هو أن أوجهًا من السلوك الإنساني الذي كان في الماضي القريب مقبولاً وتسبَّبَ في بعث روح النزاع والفساد والتمييز، نراه اليوم بعيوننا، وبشكل متزايد، يتناقض والقيم التي تسود في مجتمع العدل والإنصاف الذي ننشده. وعليه، أصبح الناس في كل مكان أكثر جرأة في رفض المواقف والأنظمة التي حالت دون تقدمهم نحو النضج.

إن التقدم نحو حالة أعظم من النضج هي الآن ظاهرة عمّت العالم بأسره، ومع ذلك فإن هذا لا يعني أن كل أمم الأرض وشعوبها تتقدم على هذا الدرب بسرعة متماثلة. فعند مرحلة معينة قد تتلاقى الظروف والأحوال القائمة آنذاك في لحظة تاريخية هامة حيث يمكن لمجتمع ما أن يعدّل من مساره بشكل أساسي. في أوقات كهذه يكون التعبير عن المشيئة الجماعية ذا أثر حاسم ومستدام بالنسبة لمستقبل البلاد. وقد بلغت مصر الآن مثل هذه اللحظة بالذات، وهي لحظة لا يمكن أن تدوم إلى الأبد.

عند هذا المنعطف الدقيق، نجد أنفسنا إذاً أمام سؤال هام وخطير: ماذا نسعى إلى تحقيقه في هذه الفرصة التي سنحت وحصلنا عليها؟ ثم ما هي الخيارات المطروحة أمامنا؟ فهناك العديد من نماذج العيش المشترك معروضة أمامنا تدافع عنها وتناصرها جماعات من الناس مختلفة ولها اهتماماتها الخاصة. فالسؤال هنا: هل لنا أن نتّجه نحو إقامة مجتمع فرداني ومجزأ، حيث يشعر الكل فيه بأنهم أحرار في السعي في سبيل مصالحهم حتى ولو كان ذلك على حساب الصالح العام؟ هل سوف تستهوينا المغريات المادية الدنيوية وعنصرها الجاذب المؤثر والمتمثلة في النظام الاستهلاكي؟ هل سوف نختار نظامًا يتغذى على العصبية الدينية؟ وهل نحن على استعداد للسماح بقيام نخبة تحكمنا متناسية طموحاتنا الجماعية، لا بل وتسعى الى استغلال رغبتنا في التغيير واستبدالها بشيء آخر؟ أم هل سنسمح لمسيرة التغيير بأن تفقد زخمها وقوة اندفاعها فتتلاشى في خضم النزاعات الفئوية الصاخبة وتنهار تحت وطأة الجمود الإداري للمؤسسات القائمة وفقدانها القوة على المضي والاستمرار؟ وبالنظر إلى المنطقة العربية - وإلى خارجها في الواقع – من المنصف القول إنّ العالم، توّاق إلى العثور على نموذج ناجح بالاجماع لمجتمع جديرٌ محاكاته. ولذا لعله يكون من الأجدر بنا، في حال أثبت البحث عدم وجود نموذج قائم مُرْضٍ، أن نفكر في رسم نهج لمسار مختلف ونبرهن للشعوب بأن من الممكن فعلاً اعتماد نهج تقدمي حقيقي لتنظيم المجتمع. إنّ مكانة مصر الرفيعة في المنظومة الدولية - بما لها من تراث فكري، وتاريخ عريق وموقع جغرافي - يعني كل هذا بأن مصر إذا ما أقدمت على اختيار نموذج متنور لبناء مجتمعها، فلسوف تؤثر على مسار النمو والتطور الإنساني في المنطقة كلّها بل وعلى العالم بأسره.

في أحيان كثيرة، يسفر التغيير الذي يتأتى عن الاحتجاج الشعبي عن خيبةٍ لبعض الآمال. والسبب في هذا ليس لأنّ الحركة التي ولّدت ذلك العامل الفاعل في التغيير والتحول تفتقر إلى الوحدة والاتحاد، بل في الحقيقة فإنّ أبرز خصائص هذا العامل الفاعل في ضمان نجاحه يتمثّل في قدرته على خلق الوحدة والاتحاد بين أناس تباينت مشاربهم واختلفت مصالحهم. أما خيبة الأمل هذه فتكون بالأحرى نتيجة إدراك أن اتحاد الناس في دفاعهم عن قضية مشتركة ضد أي وضع راهن أسهل بكثير من اتفاقهم على ما يجب أن يأخذ مكانه. لهذا السبب بات من الضروري جدًا أن نسعى جهدنا لتحقيق اجماع واسع في الرأي حول المبادئ والسياسات العاملة على ايجاد أنموذج جديد لمجتمعنا. وحالما يتم التوصل إلى مثل هذا الاتفاق يصبح من المرجح جدًا أن السياسات التي ستتبع ستجتذب وتفوز بتأييد أفراد الشعب الذين تؤثر هذه السياسات على مجرى شؤونهم.

إنه دافع طبيعي مُغْرٍ، ونحن نفكر كيف يمكن لأمتنا أن تُكمل مسيرتها، أن نبادر فورًا إلى استنباط الحلول العملية لمعالجة المظالم المُسلّم بها والمشكلات الاجتماعية المتعارف عليها. لكن، حتى ولو برزت أفكار جديرة بالاهتمام فإنّها لن تمثل في حدّ ذاتها رؤية ذات أثر فاعل في تحديد كيف نريد لبلدنا أن ينمو ويزدهر. فالميزة الرئيسة للمبدأ هي أنه إذا فاز بالدعم والتأييد فإنه يساعد على اتخاذ المواقف الايجابية، وبعث الفعالية المؤثرة والعزيمة القوية والطموح الناشط. فيسهّل ذلك في اكتشاف الخطوات العملية وطرق تنفيذها. ولكن يجدر بالمشتركين في أي نقاش حول المبادئ، أن يكونوا على استعداد لتخطّي مستوى الفكر التجريدي. ففي مرحلة صياغة الأفكار حولها قد يكون من السهل نسبيًا أن يتم الاتفاق على عدد من المبادئ التوجيهية، ولكنها لن تكون أكثر من شعارات جوفاء إذا لم نُخضِعها لفحص دقيق نستطلع فيه عواقبها المتشعبة وآثارها المختلفة. وينبغي لأيّة محاولة للتوصل إلى إجماع في الرأي أن تساعد على إجراء استطلاع فاحص للآثار الخاصة والأبعاد العميقة المترتبة على اعتماد أي مبدأ من هذه المبادئ بالنسبة لمقدّرات وطننا العزيز. وبهذه الروح اذًا يمكن لنا أن نعرض عليكم بكل تواضع ومحبة المبادئ التابع ذكرها.

تبرز في أي مجتمع ناضج ميزة واحدة فوق كل الميزات الاخرى ألا وهي الاعتراف بوحدة الجنس البشري. فكم كان من حسن الطالع إذًا أنّ أكثر الذكريات رسوخًا في الذهن عن الأشهر القليلة الماضية ليست عن انقسامات دينية أو صراعات عرقية، وإنما عن خلافات نحّيت جانبًا من أجل قضيتنا المشتركة. فقدرتنا الفطرية، كشعب واحد، على الإدراك والإقرار بأننا كلنا في الحقيقة ننتمي إلى أسرة إنسانية واحدة خدمتنا جيدًا وأفادتنا. ومع ذلك فإن إقامة وتطوير المؤسسات والدوائر والبُنى الهيكليّة الاجتماعية التي تعزز مبدأ وحدة الجنس البشري تشكّل تحديًا كبيرًا بكل معنى الكلمة. إن هذا المبدأ القائل بوحدة العالم الإنساني البعيد كلّ البعد عن كونه تعبيرًا مبهمًا عن أملٍ زائفٍ، هو الذي يحدد طبيعة تلك العلاقات التي يجب أن تربط بين كل الدول والأمم وتشدها كأعضاء أسرة إنسانية واحدة. ويكمن أصل هذا المبدأ في الإقرار بأننا خلقنا جميعًا من عنصر واحد وبيد خالق واحد هو الله عزّ وجلّ. ولذا فإن ادّعاء فرد واحد أو قبيلة أو أمّة بالتعالي والتفوق على الغير ادّعاء باطل ليس له ما يبرره. فقبول مثل هذا المبدأ يستدعي تغييرًا شاملاً في بنية المجتمع المعاصر وتغييرًا ذا نتائج واسعة الأثر بعيدة المدى لكل وجه من أوجه حياتنا الجماعية. ويدعو هذا المبدأ، علاوة على ما يخلقه من آثار ونتائج اجتماعية، إلى إعادة النظر بدقة متفحصة في كل مواقفنا مع الآخرين وقيمنا وعلاقتنا معهم. فالهدف في نهاية الأمر هو إحياء الضمير الإنساني وتغييره. ولن يُستثنى أي واحدٍ منّا فيتفادى الانصياع لهذه المطالب الصارمة.

إن النتائج المترتبة عن هذه الحقيقة الجوهرية - أي مبدأ وحدة العالم الإنساني- عميقة لدرجة أن مبادئ أخرى حيوية وضرورية لتطور مصر المستقبلي يمكن أن تستمدّ منها. ومن الأمثلة ذات الأهمية الأولى على ذلك هي مسألة المساواة بين الرجال والنساء. فهل هناك من أمر يعيق تقدم بلادنا العزيزة أكثر من الاستثناء المستمر للمرأة واستبعادها من المشاركة الكاملة في شؤون بلادنا. إن إصلاح الخلل في هذا التوازن سيقود بحدّ ذاته إلى إدخال اصلاحات وتحسينات في كل مجال من مجالات الحياة المصرية الدينية والثقافية والاجتماعية والاقتصادية والسياسية. فالإنسانية، مثلها مثل الطائر الذي لا يستطيع التحليق إذا كان أحد جناحيه أضعف من الآخر، فستظل قدرتها على السمو الى أعالي الاهداف المبتغاة معاقة جدًا ما دامت المرأة محرومة من الفرص المتاحة للرجل. فعندما تكون الامتيازات ذاتها متاحة ً للجنسين فإنهما سيرتقيان ويعود النفع على الجميع. ولكن مبدأ المساواة بين الجنسين يجلب معه، بالإضافة إلى الحقوق المدنية، سلوكًا يجب أن يطال البيت ومكان العمل وكل حيّزٍ اجتماعي ومجال سياسي وحتى العلاقات الدولية في نهاية المطاف.

ولا يوجد مجال أجدر وأكثر عونًا في تحقيق المساواة بين الجنسين من التعليم الذي وجد أصلاً ليمكّن الرجال والنساء من كل الخلفيات الاجتماعية، من تحقيق كامل طاقاتهم وامكاناتهم الفطرية والمساهمة في رقي المجتمع وتقدّمه. وإذا كان لهذا الأمر أن يلقى النجاح، فلا بد من تقديم إعدادٍ وافٍ للفرد حتى يشارك في الحياة الاقتصادية للبلاد، ولكن لا بدّ للتعليم أيضًا أن يخلق بُعداً اخلاقياً متيناً. فينبغي على المدارس أن ترسّخ في أذهان الطلاب المسؤوليات المترتبة على كونهم مواطنين مصريين وتغرس في نفوسهم تلك المبادئ والقيم الداعية الى تحسين المجتمع ورعاية مصالح إخوانهم من بني البشر. ولا ينبغي السماح لأن يصبح التعليم وسيلة لبثّ الفرقة والكراهية تجاه الآخرين وغرسها في العقول البريئة. ويمكن بالأسلوب التربوي الصحيح أيضًا، أن يصبح التعليم أداة فاعلة لحماية أجيال المستقبل من آفة الفساد الخبيثة والتي ابتلينا بها وأصبحت واضحة المعالم في مصرنا اليوم. علاوة على ذلك فإن الحصول على التعليم الرسمي الأساسي يجب أن يكون في متناول الجميع بصورة شاملة دون أي تمييز قائم على الجنس أو العرق أو الإمكانات المادية. وستثبت التدابير التي سوف نتخذها للاستفادة من موارد بلادنا الحبيبة - تراثنا وزراعتنا وصناعتنا - بأنها تدابير عقيمة إذا نحن أهملنا أهم الموارد شأنًا، ألا وهي قدراتنا الروحية والفكرية التي أنعم بها علينا الله عزّ وجل. ولذا فإن وضع سلّم للأولويات في محاولة تحسين الوسائل التي نعلّم ونثقف بها أنفسنا لسوف يجني محصولاً وفيرًا في الأعوام القادمة.

ومن الأمور ذات العلاقة بموضوع التربية والتعليم مسألة التفاعل بين العلم والدين، المصدرين التوأمين للبصيرة التي يمكن للبشرية الاعتماد عليهما في سعيها لتحقيق التقدم والرقي. ويتمتع المجتمع المصري ككلّ بنعمةٍ تتمثّل بأنه لا يفترض التعارض والتناقض بين العلم والدين، وهو مفهوم غير مألوف في أمكنة أخرى بكل أسف. فنحن بالفعل نملك تاريخاً يبعث على الاعتزاز من حيث الاعتماد على روح العقلانية والبحث العلمي - مما تمخّض عن نتائج تدعو إلى الإعجاب في مجالات نخصّ بالذكر منها الزراعة والطب - كما حافظنا على تراث ديني متين واحترام للقيم التي جاءت بها وأعلنتها أديان العالم الكبرى. فلا يوجد في هذه القيم ما يدفعنا إلى التفكير المنافي للعقل والمنطق أو ما يقودنا إلى التزمت والتعصب. فكل واحد منا، لا سيما جيلنا الصاعد، يمكنه أن يعي أن بالإمكان تشرّب الأفراد بالروحانية الصادقة بينما يجدّون بنشاط في سبيل التقدم المادي لشعبهم.

لقد بارك الله أمّتنا بأعدادٍ غفيرةٍ من الشباب. فبعضنا لا يزال على مقاعد الدراسة، وبعض بدأ حياته المهنية أو العائلية، والبعض الآخر الذي ربما كان أكبر سنًا لا يزال يذكر ما كانت عليه الأمور عبر هذه المراحل من مراحل الحياة. إنّ إصلاح نظام التربية والتعليم سوف يؤدي الى قطع شوطٍ طويلٍ نحو ضمان تحقيق قدرات الجيل الصاعد في المساهمة في حياة المجتمع، غير أن هذا ليس كافيًا بحدّ ذاته، فلا بدّ من تعزيز الظروف بحيث تتضاعف فرص العمل بشكلٍ جاد ويتم تسخير المواهب، وتصبح امكانية التقدم على أساسٍ من الاستحقاق والجدارة لا التميّز والمحسوبية. وستتزايد مشاعر الإحباط وتتبدد الآمال اذا ما تمّ اعاقة جهود الشباب لتحسين ظروف العائلات والمجتمعات والأحياء بسبب استمرار آفة الفساد وعدم المساواة والاهمال. فطموحات الشباب السامية وتطلعاتهم العالية تمثّل ائتمانًا لا يملك المجتمع ككلّ - وحتى الدولة في الواقع - تجاهله اقتصادياً أو معنويًا.

هذا لا يعني القول بأن الشباب بحاجة إلى التمتع بامتيازات خاصة، فمعظم الاستياء الذي عبّر عنه الشباب الراشدون في الأسابيع الماضية نابع من وعي حاد بأنهم يفتقرون إلى تساوي الفرص وليس أفضلية المعاملة. ويتضح جليًا من الأحوال التي يواجهها الشباب والكثيرون من أفراد مجتمعنا أن من بين المبادئ البارزة التي يجب أن تدفع سعينا إلى التجدد الذي نبتغيه، هو مبدأ العدل. فالمضامين البالغة الأثر لتطبيق هذا المبدأ وتبعاتها بعيدة المدى إنما هي في صميم القضايا التي يتحتم علينا كأُمّةٍ أن نتفق عليها. فمن تفاعل المبدأين الحيويين للعدالة ووحدة العالم الانساني تبرز حقيقةٌ هامةٌ وهي أنّ: كل فردٍ يأتي إلى هذا العالم إنما هو أمانةٌ على الجميع، وأن الموارد الجماعية المشتركة للجنس البشري يجب أن تتوسع وتمتد ليستفيد منها الكل وليس مجرد فئة محدودة. فالتغاضي عن مثل هذا الهدف وإهماله له آثاره المؤدية بالضرورة إلى زعزعة المجتمع، حيث أن التناقض المفرط القائم بين الفقر والثراء سيؤدي الى استفحال التوترات الاجتماعية القائمة ويثير الاضطرابات. إن التدابير المتخذة لتخفيف وطأة الفقر لا يمكنها أن تتجاهل وجود الثراء المفرط، فحين تتكدس الثروات الهائلة عند قلة من الناس، لا مفرّ للكثرة الغالبة من معاناة الفقر والعوز.

لعلّ قلّة من الناس ستعارض الجدوى الأساسية للمبادئ التي جرى بحثها في هذه الرسالة. ومع ذلك، فإن تطبيقها سيكون له تبعات سياسية واقتصادية واجتماعية وشخصية عميقة تجعلها أكثر تحديًا مما قد تبدو في بداية الأمر. ولكن بغضّ النظر عن المبادئ التي سيتم تبنّيها، فإن قدرتها على ترك طابعها الخاص على مجتمعنا الناشئ سوف تعتمد إلى حدٍّ كبير على درجة تبنّينا نحن المصريين لها واعتمادها. فبقدر ما يتمّ تمكين الجميع من المشاركة في عملية التشاور التي تؤثر علينا حتّى نسلك الطريق لنصبح أسياد الموقف في تقرير مصير تطورنا الروحي والمادي فإننا سنتفادي مخاطر وقوع مجتمعنا في شَرَك أيّ نمطٍ من النماذج القائمة التي لا ترى أيّ جدوى من تمكين الناس وإطلاق طاقاتهم.

إنّ التحدي الماثل أمامنا إذًا هو في بدء عمليةٍ من الحوار والتشاور حول المبادئ التي سوف ترشدنا إلى إعادة بناء مجتمعنا وهي مهمة تحتاج إلى جهد ومثابرة. إنّ صياغة مجموعةٍ متجانسةٍ من المبادئ - من بين المفاهيم والتصورات المتباينة - لتنطوي على القوة الخلاّقة لتوحيد شعبنا لن تكون إنجازًا متواضعًا. وعلى كل حال، فإنّ بإمكاننا أن نكون واثقين بأنّ كلّ جهدٍ صادقٍ يُبذل لخدمة هذا الغرض سيُكافأ بسخاءٍ عن طريق إطلاق مقدارٍ جديد من تلك الطاقات البنّاءة النابعة من أنفسنا والتي يعتمد عليها مستقبلنا. وفي حوار وطني عريض القاعدة كهذا - يشترك فيه الناس على كلّ المستويات في القرى والمدن وفي الأحياء والبيت ليشمل جذور المجتمع ويجتذب كلّ مواطن مهتمّ - سيكون من الضرورة الحيوية القصوى ألاّ يتحول هذا الحوار سريعًا إلى نقاشٍ عن الجزئيات والمصالح الآنيّة، أو يُختصر هذا الحوار فيتحوّل إلى إبرام الصفقات وإصدار القرارت لتقاسم السُّلطة من قبل نخبةٍ جديدةٍ تدّعي بأنّها الحكم الفاصل في تقرير مصيرنا ومستقبلنا.

إنّ المشاركة المستمرة لجماهير الشعب - وعلى نطاقٍ واسعٍ - في عملية التشاور هذه ستُقنع، إلى حدٍّ بعيد، المواطنين بأنّ صنّاع السياسة مخلصون في خلق مجتمعٍ عادل. ونظرًا لأن الفرصة متاحةٌ للمشاركة في هذه العملية، فإنّه سيتأكد لنا في صحوة وعينا الجديد بأننا نملك زمام مصيرنا وأننا ندرك معنى القوى الجماعية التي أصبحت مُلكنا فعلاً لتغيير أنفسنا.

إخوتكم وأخواتكم البهائيون في مصر

The Question of Egypt's Constitution

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 22:14:00 -0400

Here is an important piece of news regarding the question of Egypt's Constitution, which has been the subject of controversy recently. Following the recent fall of Egypt's Government, its constitution ceased to be valid. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, however, had appointed a committee to amend the former constitution rather than allow it to fall with the fall of the regime and permit the writing of a new constitution when it is timely to do so. Since recent opinion polls have been predominantly against patching up a flawed constitution, the planned referendum on the proposed amendments is now in question. The semi-official daily newspaper al-Ahram has published the following article regarding this question:

Egypt Military considers postponing constitutional referendum, hold presidential elections first

In response to strong opposition, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is considering the postponement of the constitutional referendum, due 19 March, and opting for presidential elections first

Ahmed Eleiba , Sunday 13 Mar 2011

Well informed sources have confirmed that there is a strong trend within the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to hold back the constitutional amendment referendum planned for 19 March, after a number of prominent political voices positioned themselves to vote against the amendments. Commenting on this, a source from the Supreme Council said: “Our eyes are on the opinion of the street and the existing political forces in the interest of the country, and if this is the trend among the people, then there is no problem in delaying the referendum." He went on to add, however, "the Supreme Military Council wants to bring an end to its role in governance as soon as possible.”

A government source, who met with the military council to discuss parliamentary and presidency elections, told Ahram Online that “the council is now leaning, though as yet undecided, towards holding the presidential election first, before parliamentary elections, and that the president would take his oath of office before the head of the supreme constitutional court." The elected president, the source said, would then invite a Constituent Assembly to formulate a new Constitution, which in turn would be put to a referendum ahead of parliamentary elections. The source went on to point out that this position came out of a meeting between the military council and the prime minister.

In a poll conducted by the Egyptian cabinet's Information Support Center on Saturday, 59 per cent said they would reject the amendments. Commenting on this, the military source said that he expected more of these polls to resolve the issue finally in the next few days.

In a similar vein, Judge Hossam Mekawy, head of the South Cairo Court and one of the most prominent representatives of the Judicial Independence trend, told Ahram Online “the military council has one eye on the situation in the street and another on the opinion makers among the political and intellectual elite.”

Mekawy pointed out that a vote on the constitutional amendments introduced by a specially constituted committee would, in fact, prove faulty in legal terms. Such a referendum had no legal basis in the 1971 Constitution, which the military had suspended, but which would be revived in the event the amendments were approved by popular referendum, creating a legally anomalous situation. Furthermore, he pointed out, the amendments do not touch on the seeping presidential powers which the 1971 constitution grants the president, and there is no guarantee that a president elected in accordance with that constitution will want to relinquish such powers.

He continued, “there are more problems for the military council studying the process of holding a referendum and elections as the military council are not covered by any article in the 1971 Constitution. The term ‘suspension of the Constitution’ is a legal anomaly and the problem remains that the military council does not have the right to either call presidential or parliamentary elections or name a committee before the Constitution falls completely.”

Mekawy added that, in fact, "the military council overthrew the president, for there is no constitutional or legally binding text that says the president can hand over his powers to the military, which underlines that he was forced to do so.”

Egypt's Youth Display their Creative and Artistic Talent

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 7 Mar 2011 21:35:00 -0500

Egypt's youth show the world their creativity, free spirit, artistic talent and innovation through their Choir Project. The words in this presentation are very telling. Through their expressed idealism and their clearly stated vision of a secular Egyptian State, governed with a policy devoid of partisanship and religious orthodoxy, they indeed give us a glimpse into Egypt's future. They close their song with the now well-known chant: "Raise Your Head High...You are an Egyptian."

Burning of Baha'i Homes in an Egyptian Village Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:51:00 -0500

An Egyptian newspaper named Youm Sabeh [7] published an article yesterday reporting on the burning of two Baha'i homes in the Egyptian village of Shawraniyah, located in the southern province of Sohag. These homes, along with three others, were also previously attacked and burned in March 2009, forcing their occupants to flee their village in the middle of the night to save their children's lives. The 2009 incident was previously reported here and here in this blog.

This disturbing news outraged human rights organizations as well as many of those who have been defending the civil rights of the Baha'is, such as the Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights, whose webpage is posted here. Their post states the following:

The Egyptian paper Youm 7 reported yesterday that two homes of Baha’is were set on fire in Shuraniya village, in the Sohag governorate. The group of people responsible for the arson also stole property of the Baha’is.
The arson did not result in human casualties because the owners of the homes had fled Shuraniya and have been living in Cairo since their homes were previously torched in March 2009, fearing additional attacks. 40 Baha’i families from the village fled it following the attacks and are still unable to return to them. While several people were arrested after the previous arson attack, they were later released and no charges were brought against anyone. The March 2009 attack targeted five homes of Baha’is following anti-Baha’i incitement on Egyptian TV.

Clearly, even with the recent revolutionary events in Egypt, promoting an open society that is looking towards a future that will foster adherence to the standards of human rights, equality, tolerance and understanding, Egypt has a long way to go in order for it to achieve a pluralistic society. These hoped-for changes do not happen overnight, but they rather require hard work, determination, tenacity and persistence in order for the Egyptian society to learn how to provide peaceful and respectful environment for all its minorities. Mahatma Gandhi once said: "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." Egypt's hope is in its youth, those heroic figures that risked everything in order to be able to love and enjoy living in their own homeland. Let us all learn from Egypt's youth and let us be inspired by their vision and aspirations. It is unfortunate, however, that those who would benefit most from these words never get to read them, and if they do, they simply dismiss them out of hand because of their blind hatred that has no basis but for their pure ignorance.

One is left with the conclusion that such rumblings expose the deep-rooted intolerance that can only be attributed to disinformation that has been systemically infused by extremists for several decades. It is unfortunate that those who commit such criminal acts have been driven by blind ignorance, oblivious to reality. Baha'is have always been peaceful, loyal and law abiding citizens of Egypt. They have never harmed anyone, never robbed anyone, never killed anyone, never burned anyone's home, never discriminated against anyone, on the contrary, they have always served their fellow citizens with absolute dedication and devotion. To name a few of their services, they have contributed to the arts, sciences, health care, education and social welfare of their country. It is time for them to live safely and to enjoy their God-given rights and freedoms.

Article-2 of Egypt's Constitution is in Question!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:51:00 -0500

Egypt's Supreme Council of Armed Forces, in its Communique No. 5 following its interim assumption of the country's leadership, suspended the constitution and dissolved both houses of the parliament. Reportedly, it did not, however, suspend Article-2 of the Egyptian constitution which states: "Islam is the Religion of the State. Arabic is its official language, and the principal source of legislation is Islamic Jurisprudence [Sharia]." This article was amended years ago by former President Sadat in his attempt to appease particular segments of the society. [See Egypt's Constitution, under: PART ONE - THE STATE]

The bulk of the revolutionaries, including the Egyptian youth, have been angered by finding out that this Article was not also suspended. They insist that Article-2 contradicts the whole intent and purpose of the revolution. They want to ensure that the revolution does not get hijacked by religious extremism, and want to make certain that the main goal of the revolution remains unchanged, that is: "to provide for a civilian and secular State devoid of any extreme religious ideology, a State that provides equality and fairness to every Egyptian citizen without alienating any minorities or religious groups within the society." They intend to make their case clearly known this Friday.