Editor’s Note

Following years of legal battles and calls for state recognition, two Bahais issued their first national ID in which the religious affiliation field was left blank, instead of falsely listing Islam, Christianity or Judism as their religion.

Sixteen-year-old twins Nancy and Emad Hindy issued their ID cards after a legal battle which ended last March with Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court upholding, definitively, the right of Egyptian Bahais to obtain personal identification documents without stating their religious affiliation.

The Administrative Court in January 2008 had allowed Bahais to leave the religious affiliation field on birth certificates and identity cards blank.

The Hindys’ case was brought forward by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

“Nancy and Emad issuing ID cards which implementation of the new ID policy is a welcomed [yet] a long overdue step which we have been working on since the court ruling in March,” said chairman of EIPR, Hossam Bahgat.

Read full article here:  Daily News Egypt

Read a similar story at:  Baha\’i World News Service

Editor’s Note

1.  April 29, 2009: “The Egyptian Parliament is Discussing a Bill to Declare All Baha’is Criminals”: The Joint Commission on Defense, National Security, Arab Affairs and Religious Endowments has demanded that the Egyptian Parliament expedite the issuance of a new law criminalizing Baha’ism…The head of the commission, Dr. ‘Umar Hashim, declares that Baha’is pose a greater threat to national security than extremists and terrorists because they are a product of Zionism…He adds that recent events in the village of Suhaj [in which the homes of several Baha'is were burned] has sounded the alarm…Representative Mr. Safwat ‘Abd al-Karim accuses Baha’is of giving money to unemployed youth to entice them to join their group…Mr. ‘Askar, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, emphasizes the absence of any authority in “this wayward and misguided group” and accuses Baha’is of corrupting Islam and distorting the Holy Qur’an. [Source: Moheet News and Masrawy News]

2.  28 April 2009: “They Permit the Two Sisters to Marry One Another and Allow a Woman to Marry Her Nephews…Baha’ism is in the Service of Zionism”: Nabuls TV [based in the West Bank] reveals that a secret memo drafted by the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Mosque [and perhaps the highest religious authority among Sunni Muslims], Muhammad Sayyid Tuntawi, maintains that the Baha’i Faith is a sect bent on serving the interests of Zionism and western imperialism in the Islamic world through promoting moral decay and strife among Arabs and Muslims, in particular in the Middle East…The report states that Baha’ism commands its followers to destroy every single holy place including Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and the shrines of the Prophets and Muslim saints…It also forces Baha’is to pay a 19% tax to Baha’u'llah or his successor, permits two sisters to marry one another, declares prostitution and unlimited temporary marriages to be lawful, and allows a woman to marry her nephews. [Source: NablusTV]

Media report on the looting of Egyptian Baha’i homes at http://www.bahai-egypt.org/2009/04/graphic-details-on-burning-of-bahai.html

Find out more about the Egyptian crisis at http://www.bahai-egypt.org/

Editor’s Note

Egyptian court removes barriers to ID documents for Baha’is (BWNS)

GENEVA (16 March 2009) – A court in Egypt today removed any grounds for preventing Baha’is from receiving proper official identity documents, clearing the way for an end to years of deprivation for Egyptian Baha’is – and opening the door to a new level of respect for religious privacy in Egypt.

The Supreme Administrative Court dismissed an appeal by two Muslim lawyers that sought to prevent implementation of a lower court ruling last year that said Baha’is can leave blank the religious classification field on official documents, including all-important identity cards and birth certificates.

“We are pleased that the court has finally put this matter to rest, removing any possible excuse that would prevent the government from issuing official documents to Egyptian Baha’is,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

“Our expectation now is that the government will move swiftly to bring this ruling into practice and, at long last, grant Baha’is the essential right that all citizens have of possessing proper documents.”

Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), said the ruling actually goes far beyond the issue of rights for Egyptian Baha’is.

“This is the first time that the Supreme Administrative Court has found that any Egyptian has the right to keep their religious convictions private, even if the state does not recognize their belief system,” said Mr. Bahgat, whose organization handled legal representation for Baha’is in court.

“The final ruling is a major victory for all Egyptians fighting for a state where all citizens enjoy equal rights regardless of their religion or belief,” he said.

Mr. Bahgat said that because the Supreme Administrative Court is the highest court on such matters, there can be no further appeal to this case – and that, therefore, there should be no delay in the government’s implementation of the new policy.

“The government policy that justified mistreatment of Egyptian Baha’is has now been firmly and finally struck down,” he said.

For nearly five years, since the government began introducing a computerized identity card system that locked out all religious classifications except Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, Baha’is have been unable to get documents essential to day-to-day life. Among other things, they have been blocked from obtaining education, financial services, and even health care in government hospitals.

In April 2006, a lower administrative court upheld the right of Baha’is to be explicitly identified on official documents. But in December that year, the Supreme Administrative Court reversed that decision.

In a compromise, Baha’is proposed using a dash or the word “other” on documents, instead of being forced to list themselves as Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, and, on 29 January 2008, a lower court again ruled in their favor. But then two Muslim lawyers, who oppose anything that might be seen as even tacit recognition of the Baha’i Faith, filed an appeal.

In response, government officials took a “go slow” attitude on implementing the lower court ruling, saying they wanted to wait until all legal issues were cleared up.

The ruling today came in the case of 14-year-old twins Imad and Nancy Rauf Hindi who have been deprived of birth certificates and were unable to legally attend school in Egypt.

In recent weeks, several other cases involving Baha’is have been likewise resolved in their favor. But the Rauf Hindi twins’ case was the final case to be settled.#

[Source: Baha'i World News Service at http://news.bahai.org/story/703]