Personal diary of John Barnabas (aka Barney) Leith
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More on the story I posted yesterday about the Ministerial decree that allows Egyptian citizens who are neither Muslims, Christians nor Jews, to put a dash in the religion space on official documents. This brings relief to the Egyptian Baha’is who have been struggling for years to obtain the ID cards they are legally required [...]
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Today (14 April) the Egyptian law gazette published a Ministerial decree announcing that from tomorrow anyone who doesn’t belong to one of Egypt’s three official religions (Islam, Judaism, Christianity) can obtain official documents, such as birth certificates or ID cards, with a dash in the space for religion.
This is a triumph for the civil rights [...]
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A mob has attacked the Baha’is in the southern Egyptian village of Showraniah, burned their homes and expelled them from the village.
Things appeared to be improving for the Baha’is in Egypt following the decision by the Supreme Administrative Court that will allow Baha’is to obtain ID cards without having to lie about their religious affiliation.
Incitement [...]
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Great news! According to Bilo’s Baha’i Faith in Egypt and Iran blog:
…the Baha’is of Egypt have just received a remarkable gift from their judicial establishment. The appeal–brought by Islamist lawyers in their attempt to reverse the 29 January 2008 ruling that permitted the Baha’is of Egypt to obtain ID cards and birth certificates with dashes [...]
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photo credit: pyjama
In Greek mythology the Sphinx is supposed to have asked travellers who wished to enter the Greek city of Thebes to solve a riddle before they were allowed to enter the city. The Sphinx killed travellers who failed to answer the riddle correctly.
The riddle facing the Egyptian Baha’is
The riddle facing the Baha’is [...]
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I was happy to read on Bilo’s blog, Bahá’í Faith in Egypt and Iran, that the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Masry Al-Youm, had interviewed representatives of the US Bahá’í Office of External Affairs about the Bahá’í Faith and about the situation of the Bahá’ís in Egypt.
Bilo explains:
The paper reports that it interviewed Ms. Kit Bigelow and Mr. [...]
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Bilo’s blog, Baha’i Faith in Egypt and Iran, reports that Bahá’í children in Egypt are being turned away from school, even though Egypt’s administrative court recognized the right of Bahá’ís to have ID cards back in January.
According to this story in Daily News Egypt:
Adel Ramadan, a lawyer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) [...]
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Egyptian thinker and commentator, Dr Tarek Heggy, visited the UK’s National Baha’i Centre in London, this afternoon, at the suggestion of some Egyptian Baha’is who are based in the UK.
Dr Heggy, a Muslim, is absolutely delightful, and a number of us enjoyed a wide-ranging conversation with him. He is very taken with the Baha’i [...]
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Today’s edition of The Economist has a story about what may be a modest increase in religious freedom in Egypt.
Last year Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti, who is the government’s highest religious adviser, declared that nowhere in Islam’s sacred texts did it say that apostasy need be punished in the present rather than by God [...]
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Baha’is around the world will be thrilled to learn that the Court of Administrative Justice in Cairo has today handed down a decision that will allow Egypt’s Baha’is to leave the religious affiliation field on their ID cards blank.
It may seem a small thing, but the two cases decided today will make it possible for [...]
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