Baha'i Faith in Egypt

Egypt's Court Ruling on Baha'i Rights: Full Verdict Unveils Possible Deception! Posted: 29 Jan 2008 11:45 PM CST According to today's edition of Al-Ahram semiofficial Egyptian newspaper and the government's mouthpiece, yesterday's court ruling allowing the two Baha'i litigants to obtain birth certificates and ID cards without religious classification did state the following: The Baha'i [Faith] is not a religion, and that divine religions are three [namely] Islam, Judaism and Christianity, and they are the only ones allowed in the religion section [of ID cards/birth certificates]. The court affirmed that only those Baha'is who were wrongly issued ID cards, birth certificates or official documents with "Baha'i" entered in the religion section, are allowed the issue of documents "without" [religion] or with a dash entered [in place of religion]. Any other Baha'is do not have the right to obtain documents "without" [religious classification in place of one of the specified religions] or with a dash [instead of religion]. If this is true, it appears that it would be the first public release of the supposed verdict. It implies that the case of the Baha'is of Egypt continues to face significant obstacles and is nowhere near resolution. Does it imply that all other Baha'is in Egypt who do not possess ID cards or birth certificates, in addition to those who hold old paper ID cards with no religion written in their documents, might need to sue the Ministry of Interior en mass in order to be allowed the same treatment as those involved in this verdict? On the other hand, it is hoped that this language could have been a mere misunderstanding of the verdict itself and that a correction of its meaning can be expeditiously confirmed.