US State Department Slams Iran & Egypt for Violating Religious Freedom

US State Department Slams Iran & Egypt for Violating Religious Freedom

In its 2008 annual report on international religious freedom, released a few days ago, the United States Department of State was very critical of Iran and Egypt for their violations of religious freedom of minorities in their respective countries.

Iran carried the full brunt of this forceful report, mostly because of the extreme nature of its violations, particularly since the minorities involved represent a significant percentage of the country's population, as stated in the following quotation from the report:

Recent unofficial estimates from religious organizations claim that Baha'is, Jews, Christians, Sabean-Mandaeans, and Zoroastrians constitute two percent of the total population. The largest non-Muslim minority is the Baha'i religious group, which numbers 300,000 to 350,000. Unofficial estimates of the Jewish community's size vary from 25,000 to 30,000.

The report is quite comprehensive and accurately reflects the current desperate condition of the Baha'is as well as--to a lesser extent--other religious minorities in that country. Because of its highly urgent and alarming nature, readers are encouraged to read the full report linked here.

As to Egypt, the report was also detailed and comprehensive, accurately and clearly describing the case of the Baha'is of Egypt, their legal battles and their inability to obtain identification documents, even though court verdicts have ruled in their favor regarding this specific identity right.

The State Department's report elaborated on a very critical point related to the Baha'i Case in Egypt, that is the applicability of constitutional guarantees to the Baha'is. It reports, as quoted below, that, according to the Egyptian courts, Baha'is are not protected by these guarantees simply because they are not considered to be the followers of a recognized religion in Egypt:

A lower court ruling interpreted the Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom as inapplicable to Muslim citizens who wish to convert to another religion. This ruling is under appeal. Separate court rulings provided for 13 Christian born converts to Islam to obtain identity documents indicating their conversion back to Christianity and allowed some Baha'is to obtain civil documents. However, the courts included requirements effectively identifying the Christian converts and Baha'is as apostates, potentially exposing them, if implemented, to risk of significant discrimination by both governmental and societal agents. In addition, a lower court held that the Constitution's guarantee of freedom of religion does not apply to Baha'is.

This "spin" alone is quite ominous, and appears to represent a devious misrepresentation of the constitution aimed at legalizing discrimination against the Baha'is and other "non-recognized" religious minorities in Egypt. It must be emphasized, however, that this interpretation, or spin, does not make it right--it must be seen as only an interpretation rather than a legitimate or justifiable conclusion. It can be easily debated and refuted using the text of the Egyptian constitution itself.

Furthermore, Egypt is a co-signatory and a "Party" to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and is under the obligation to conform to its articles. Accordingly, in attempting to justify its treatment of the Baha'is, Egypt has violated several articles of this Covenant, among which is Article-2 of Part-III stating: "1. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."

Again, in order to appreciate the full impact and nature of the report, readers are encouraged to view it at this link to the State Department's website.