Bahá’í World/Volume 32/Bahá’ís in Egypt, Current Situation

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[Page 221]

CURRENT SITUATION

Oral statement of the Bahá’í International Community to the 60th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, held in Geneva from 15 March to 23 April 2004.

Regrettably, the Bahá’í International Community must, once again, come before this Commission because members of the Bahá’í community in Egypt are suffering from violations of their human rights, in particular their right to freedom of religion or belief.

At the outset, it is important to recall that the Bahá’í community coexisted peacefully with other religious communities in Egypt for nearly a hundred years. From 1868 to 1960, the community enjoyed all basic rights and freedoms, which did not generate any conflict with the Constitution or with Public Order.

All Bahá’ís believe that one of the essential purposes of religion—emanating as it does from one God—is to promote concord and harmony. It is common knowledge that Bahá’ís do not become involved in partisan politics and that obedience to their government is a tenet of their faith. It is also well-known that Bahá’ís revere the position of the Prophet Muhammad, uphold the Holy Qur’an as an authoritative repository of God’s word, and have the utmost respect for the religion of Islam. Bahá’ís affirm the truth of the Islamic message, together with that of the other Divine Revelations, as our Faith proclaims the continuous and progressive nature of Divine Revelation. [Page 222]It was therefore of grave concern to us when Egyptian newspapers published a fatwa issued by the Islamic Research Academy of the Azhar in December 2003, falsely denouncing the Bahá’ís not only as heretics but also as active enemies fighting Islam. This is a new accusation, never before explicitly used by this institution in its attacks on the community.

The media and widely publicized court decisions in Egypt have often denounced the Bahá’ís as apostates, with some journalists adding that they deserve to be killed. And the government has not acted to stop those who incite hatred and violence in this way. In his reports, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief has detailed these facts.

The international community needs to consider how to address such situations, when those who benefit from the right to freedom of expression overstep its bounds-in public statements that incite the public to violate other human rights, such as the right to practice one's religion, or the rights of citizenship regardless of religious affiliation.

It is a matter of record that many abuses stem from Presidential Decree No. 263 of 1960, which dissolved the Bahá’í community's religious institutions and banned its religious activities. Restrictively interpreted, the decree is still used to justify investigations, arrests, searches, and the destruction of Bahá’í literature. Under constant police surveillance, the members of the community are denied their rights to legal marriage, pensions, and inheritance, and cannot obtain documents required for official purposes. Inequality before the law has made them second-class citizens.

As we have said before, we would prefer to resolve these problems directly with the Egyptian government. Unfortunately, however, the authorities are not taking steps to rectify the situation. They have ignored the observations made by the UN Human Rights Committee on official discrimination against Bahá’ís and the denial of their basic religious rights and freedoms.

Egyptian Bahá’ís have always remained loyal, law-abiding, and tolerant, despite the false accusations and defamation campaigns that have targeted them for over 40 years. Their only request is that the government remove all the official restrictions against them. [Page 223]We therefore ask the international community for support in calling upon the government of Egypt to resolve this difficult situation.