This is an insoluble problem because the girls’ father, Wasim Kamal al-Din Nasir, is a Bahai—a religion that is not recognized by the Civil Affairs Bureau. This means it refuses to issue him a national identity card unless he professes one of the three recognized revealed religions. In turn, he cannot obtain an electronic birth certificate for his daughters. He exhausted himself running around various education departments and still could find no official who could solve the problem and prevent his children’s future from being lost. He found no official who would accept the simple solution he himself proposed: to accept the two girls based on their paper birth certificate until a recent ruling issued by the Administrative Court is implemented allowing citizens who do not belong to one of the recognized religions in Egypt to place a dash (—) in the religion slot of their personal documents.

Last week I received a letter from Wasim Kamal al-Din, the children’s father, saying that the efforts of Ambassador Mukhlis Qutb, the secretary-general of the National Human Rights Council, and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, run by Hossam Bahgat, as well as press coverage of the issue had prompted Minister of Education Dr. Youssri al-Gamal to send two members of his staff and the director of primary education in New Cairo to the school; after negotiations it was decided to reenroll Nur in the school and enroll Hana in kindergarten, on the condition that they attend one of the religion classes offered by the two major recognized religions on a pass/fail basis. Their father agreed and must submit the electronic birth certificate by mid-December. But…

Although Dr. Youssri al-Gamal deserves thanks for intervening to save the future of two innocent girls who had committed no wrong, the problem still stands—not only because the possibility of suspension is looming in a few weeks, but because the problem is not limited to them. It touches many other Egyptian Bahais and causes them numerous problems just because the administrative authorities insist on not granting them official documents mentioning their religion. Instead they are given the choice of picking one of the three recognized religions for the religion slot on these documents or remaining without any personal documentation at all, after the authorities have revoked any official personal documents that recognized this religion in the past.

The main error of government agencies is that they are dealing with the Bahai issue as a religious issue; their decisions and views are based on statements, fatwas, and the opinions of the Sheikh of al-Azhar or the Islamic Research Academy regarding Islam’s view of the Bahai. But this issue—particularly as it pertains to the state—is a civil and constitutional issue, not a religious one.

Adherents of all religions deny the truth of other religions: Jews do not recognize the truth of Christianity or Islam and some Jewish sects do not recognize others; Christians do not recognize the truth of Judaism as practiced by Jews or Islam, and some Christian sects do not recognize others; Muslims recognize Christianity and Judaism but believe that their adherents have perverted the holy books given to them, and there are Muslims who deny the Islamic-ness of other Muslim sects.

If everyone has the right to adhere to his own religion or sect and believe what he wants, the state does not have the right to show favoritism to a certain group of its citizens based on their religious faith. This is tantamount to confiscating others’ right to believe what they want, and it institutionalizes discrimination and persecution.

The basis of the nation-state is that it brings together individuals of different colors, races, religions, and political schools of thought living together in a specific territory who agree to protect the right of everyone to believe what he wants and hold to the religion that he wants; everyone is guaranteed equal rights and duties. This has been enshrined in constitutions and governments have been elected to enforce it. Such a government does not have the right to deny any citizen rights simply because he holds a different creed, no matter what the government’s opinion. Religious beliefs will be brought to account on Judgment Day before the Lord.

This is the issue—or the farce, and our inability to understand it led us to deny the most basic rights of citizenship to two children—the right to a birth certificate—simply because they hold to a religion we don’t.

Source: Al-Misri al-Yawm

August 30, 2008

By: Salah Eissa