Baha'i Faith in Egypt

Egypt: Television Coverage of Verdict Allowing Baha'is ID Cards Posted: 01 Feb 2008 09:32 AM CST The following is some of the television news coverage on 29 January 2008 immediately after the announcement of the verdict by Cairo's Court of Administrative Justice which allowed the Baha'is to obtain birth certificates and ID cards without forcing them to enter one of the three recognized religions in Egypt (Islam, Christianity & Judaism).

With this verdict, as one can watch the judge explaining in the courtroom, the Baha'is cannot enter their religion either, but can leave that section of official documents vacant, enter a dash (-) or enter "other." Therefore Baha'is can obtain ID cards and other official documents without being forced to lie about their religious affiliation. Consequently, Baha'is in Egypt will be in a position to enjoy all their citizenship rights such as employment, health care and education.

Without ID cards, Egyptian citizens would face "civic death," thus the government has no options but to fulfill its obligations to its own citizens by allowing them to be identified.

The contemplated appeal by the Ministry of Interior would be entirely pointless and would not serve any purpose but to disrupt "public order" and to continue to isolate and disfranchise a group of law-abiding Egyptian citizens, to whom the Ministry has the obligation and the charge to protect. Before deciding on such ill-advised appeal, the Ministry of Interior must think first of what other options would it have to solve this complicated crisis.

First video: Cairo's Dream-2 Channel



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Second Video: Cairo's Al-Muhawar Channel