Interior ministry resists recognition of Bahai faith

The interior ministry filed an appeal at the Supreme Administrative Court on 7 May to revoke an April ruling by a lower administrative court recognising the right of Bahais to have their religion acknowledged on official documents, including national identity cards. “We presented an appeal to revoke the previous ruling on the basis that neither the Egyptian constitution nor Islamic law recognise Bahaism as a religion unto itself,” said one interior ministry official on condition of anonymity. At a 3 May parliamentary session, the earlier ruling – the result of a case filed by a Bahai couple – became the subject of controversy in which the usually conflicting National Democratic Party [the ruling party] and the banned-but-tolerated Muslim Brotherhood found a rare chance for cooperation. “The debate in parliament, spearheaded by Muslim Brotherhood MPs, resulted in a government pledge to appeal the April ruling,” explained Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. According to a press statement issued by the Cairo-based Arabic Human Rights Information Network (HRInfo), the appeal was filed following “exciting [heated] argumentations” in parliament over the legal status of Bahais. “Muslim brothers called on the government to [revoke the ruling] and criminalise Bahais,” the statement read. Muslim Brotherhood representatives, as well as the majority of pro-government MPs, based their call for an appeal on the fact that Sunni Islam does not officially recognise Bahaism, founded in Iran in the 19th century, as a religion. “We have no issue with people describing themselves as followers of beliefs not recognised by Islam,” said prominent Muslim Brotherhood member Abdel Moneim Abul Futouh, explaining that only Islam, Christianity and Judaism were recognised as religions per se. “However, what must be appealed is the ruling that allows followers of unrecognised faiths to describe themselves as followers of a religion in official documents when it’s not technically a religion.” This argument was seconded by the interior ministry, which suggested that followers of the Bahai faith simply draw a line through the section of their national ID cards where the bearer is meant to indicate his or her religion. “This is the procedure followed by adherents of faiths not recognised in this country,” said the interior ministry official. Activists levelled criticism at the government’s alliance with the Brotherhood on the issue. “The common approval of Muslim brothers and the government – despite all their disputes – amounts to hateful instigations against other citizens,” according to HRInfo, “for no other reason than their belonging to another religion.” The government/Brotherhood position, the statement added, “threatens not only Egyptian Bahais, but also all other citizens belonging to religions other than Islam, as well as secularists”. The landmark April ruling was initially welcomed by rights activists as constituting a positive step towards the advancement of personal rights. “We hope the Supreme Court will defend the position taken by the lower court [in April], as it did during a similar case in 1983,” said Bahgat. Meanwhile, activists have continued to press for speedy implementation of the April ruling, despite the pending appeal. “The first ruling must be immediately implemented, regardless,” Bahgat said, adding that the interior ministry’s lawsuit could take “some time” before being heard.