Baha'i Faith in Egypt

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Amnesty International 2007 Report Cites Baha’i Case
2007-05-24 23:50:00
In its 2007 report released on 23 May, Amnesty International (AI) cited the discrimination against the Baha'is of Egypt and Iran in three components of its report. Under the section on “Middle East and North Africa” in the paragraph entitled "Discrimination," it stated: “In Iran, members of the Arab, Azerbaijani, Kurdish and Baluchi minorities were increasingly restive in the face of continuing discrimination and repression, while members of religious minorities - Baha'is, Nematollahi Sufis and Christians - were detained or harassed on account of their faith. Baha'is were also subject to discrimination in Egypt, where they were required to present themselves as members of other faiths in order to obtain official documents such as identity cards and birth certificates.”Under the section on “Egypt” in its introductory paragraphs entitled "Background" it reported the following: “In December, the Supreme Administrative Court overturned an earlier decision by an Administ...
More About: Report , Case , Amnesty International

The UN & Human Rights: "You Can't Blame the Institution...."
2007-05-23 04:03:00
Louise Fréchette, a former UN deputy secretary-general, says that the UN's members, rather than the world body, are creating the farcical situations."You can't blame the institution, you have to look at its international dynamics," says Fréchette, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation.The above statements were published in the Toronto Star on 18 May 2007 in an article discussing the recent election of Egypt, along with other nations, to the newly formed 14 seats, Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council, replacing the politically-charged UN Human Rights Commission.The article, quite eloquently, shows that instead of blaming the institution of the United Nations, such outcome merits a closer look at its membership and that: the Human Rights Council election "shows we don't have a strong international consensus on human rights."For the full story, please click here....
More About: Blame , The U

Egypt & Human Rights: Is the Fox Guarding the Henhouse?
2007-05-19 05:22:00
Yesterday, the General Assembly of the United Nations announced the election of 14 countries to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Among these nations Egypt was elected with 168 votes. According to the sixty-first General Assembly Plenary, 97th Meeting public information release: out of the 192 member nations of the General Assembly, a minimum of 97 votes are required for providing a "majority" vote necessary for election to the Council.As this blog has been illustrating since it was introduced approximately a year ago, Egypt has clearly shown its violation of the human and civil rights of its Baha'i religious minority by depriving this group of its citizens of their identity documents necessary for their essential needs of daily living, thus grossly violating their citizenship rights.Just a few days before that vote, 19 Egyptian Human Rights NGOs have written a letter to the United Nations protesting the inclusion of Egypt in the upcoming vote for the UN's Human Rights Coun...
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Exactly...That's What Freedom of Belief is All About!
2007-05-15 03:56:00
Brian Whitaker of the Guardian newspaper wrote a very interesting column on 18 December 2006 regarding the case of the Baha'is in Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court that was ruled on two days before.The article, entitled "Losing their religion: In Egypt, computerised ID cards are providing the latest source of discrimination against members of the Baha'i faith" described the history of the case very clearly and objectively, it spoke of the judgement itself and its consequences. He then quoted the words of an Egyptian blogger who described the scene at the court when the ruling was read. In order to read this accurate and vivid account, please click to see the column on this link....Whitaker concluded his column, under the section named "comment is free," by quoting Muhammad Abdel Hafez, a columnist on Egypt's al-Gomhouriya newspaper, who has also been fulminating against the Baha'is, wrote: "If Bahaism is officially recognised, worshippers of cows, the sun and fire will want ...
More About: Freedom , Belief

Bahá’ís in Egypt Pay Taxes—But Are Deprived of Civil Rights
2007-05-10 11:27:00
On 9 may 2007, Al-Ahaly Egypt ian newspaper published an interview with Dr. Basma Moussa, a professor at Cairo University’s Faculty of Dentistry and an Egyptian Baha’i.Instead of translating the article, the following are my conclusions based on the information provided in that interview:There must be separation between citizenship and belief—they cannot be interconnected. Each Egyptian citizen must be entitled to ALL citizenship rights. Presently, all Egyptian Bahá’ís are deprived of their citizenship rights simply because of their belief. They are denied government-issued ID cards which are a necessity in order to continue to live in Egypt as a human being. Nothing in normal daily living can be accomplished without these ID cards.Egyptian Bahá’ís have always served their country and fellow citizens with absolute loyalty and sincerity. As law-abiding citizens, they have always had contributed to their society in professions, sciences, commerce and fine arts. One of the...
More About: Rights , Civil Rights , Civil