Why does the Egyptian government want to know the religion of its citizens?

Bilo has posted an interesting piece on his estimable blog about a well thought out and well researched article yesterday in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Dostour Al-Youmy (The Daily Constitution) about the crisis of religious classification on Egyptian ID cards.

Ihab Abdel-Hamid, the article’s author demonstrates the absurdity of claims that including religious identity on ID cards is necessary for personal status laws (governing marriage, divorce and so on), by citing the examples of Sudan and France.

Sudan follows Sharia law, but does not include religion on its ID cards. And in France, a multi-religious state where religion does not appear on ID cards, Muslims apparently have no difficulty in identifying suitable marriage partners for their children.

It seems that neither the Egyptian constitution nor relevant personal status laws require the inclusion of a person’s religion on their ID card, so the insistence on this requirement must be motivated by a desire to restrict religious freedom.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Egypt, ID cards, religious freedom, human rights