Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy, 25, attempted to change his religion on his identification papers, saying he wanted to raise his future child as a Christian. Egyptian identity cards must report the faith of the holder.
However the Court of Administrative Justice in Cairo said that Hegazy, the country’s first former Muslim to sue Egypt over the issue, had not followed proper legal procedures. In addition, the court said, he could not convert "to an older religion."
"Monotheistic religions were sent by God in chronological order… As a result, it is unusual to go from the latest religion to the one that preceded it," the court added in a published statement."The person who has such an attitude is straying from the right path and threatening the principles, values and precepts of Islam and of Egyptian traditions," the judgment said.
BAHAI MINORITY VICTORY
Yet, the same court ruled that Egyptians from the Bahai minority could leave their religion blank on official documents, in effect restoring their access to jobs, schools and medical and financial services.
The decision was made in a lawsuit involving Rauf Hindi, who was seeking legal birth certificates for his 14-year-old twins, Imad and Nancy. The second lawsuit was filed by Hussein Abdul Messih who was suspended by a university due to his inability to obtain a legal Identity Document. .
It was not immediately clear why the court did not give Hegazy the option to leave his religion blank on official documents.
Tuesday’s decision followed a more successful case for Christians in Egypt on January 13, when Egypt’s attorney general ordered the release of a Coptic woman jailed due to a mix-up over her religion, BosNewsLife monitored.
THREE YEARS PRISON
Shadia Nagui Ibrahim, 47, was sentenced to three years in prison after she listed her religion as Christian not knowing her father’s brief three-year term as a Muslim in 1962 made her official religion Islam.
Nagui Ibrahim left home when his daughter Shadia was two, converted to Islam but reconverted to Christianity and had his documents forged to change his religion back to its original. Children in Egypt automatically take their father’s religion and because her father’s documents were forged, Shadia’s official religion was Islam.
She was arrested for providing false information on official documents and sentenced to three years in prison on November 21, apparently after listing her religion as Christian on her marriage certificate in 1982.
"The attorney general felt that the judgment was made on the basis of erroneous information," French News Agency AFP quoted her lawyer Ramses El Naggar as saying. An estimated 90 percent of Egypt’s population of roughly 80 million people is Muslim. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos).
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Please send the details to me.
Thanks