Egypt Interior Ministry Obliged to Issue ID Cards for Baha'is Registering Them as Having No Religion - Almasry Alyoum Newspaper

By Shaimaa el-Karnashawi 30/1/2008

The Administrative Judicial Court yesterday obliged the Ministry of Interior to issue national ID cards and birth certificates for Baha'is, registering them as having no religion. The word 'None' or the mark (-) will be printed in the field allocated for indicating religion.

The Court said it does not recognize what it called 'Baha'i Ideology' in response to a lawsuit filed by an architect requesting birth certificates for his two children indicating their Baha'i religion, and another lawsuit filed by a student requesting the same on his national ID card.

The court said in its reasoning that only the three monotheistic religions recognized in Egypt are to be indicated, which excludes Baha'is. The court concluded that Baha'ism is not a faith, but rather an awful ideology that the court does not recognize. It added that any birth certificates or ID cards that had recognized this community before were issued by mistake.

The court ruled that official documents print the word 'None' or the mark (-) in the field allocated for indicating religion, thereby discriminating them from other communities, and protecting our monotheistic society from blending them in it through personal or social relationships, as recognizing a faith other than the three monotheistic religions threatens the security of society.

The ruling was issued by Justice Mohamed el-Husseini as President of the Court, and Ahmed el-Shazli, Abou Bakr Gomaa, Abdel Fattah Mustafa and Magdy el-Agroudi as members, with Sami Abdallah as secretary.

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