The outcry in the Middle East over an Egyptian court ruling against a Bahá’í couple has drawn the attention of several media outlets in Canada, including two Arab-language newspapers.
In a decision delivered this past December, the Egyptian Supreme Administrative Court upheld a government policy that prohibits citizens from identifying themselves as members of any religion other than the three officially recognized ones (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity) on government-issued identity cards. The policy makes it impossible for Bahá’ís and other religious minorities in Egypt to obtain identity cards without falsifying their religion. The identity cards are required for access to most essential services, including education, financial services, and medical care.
Two Canadian Arab-language newspapers included coverage of the case in its pages. The Montreal-based weeklies El-Masri and El Ressala printed articles highlighting the denial of citizenship rights to the Bahá’ís in their 19 and 21 December 2006 editions, respectively. Another Montreal-based newspaper, the Persian-language Payvand, ran its own article about the case.
English-language media outlets have taken an interest in the story as well. Shortly after the verdict was delivered, CBC Radio Canada International interviewed Gerald Filson, Director of External Affairs for the Bahá’í Community of Canada, about what the decision means for the Bahá’ís in Egypt and about the deteriorating state of human rights in the region.
“Persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran continues, unfortunately,” says Filson. “And now the Bahá’í community in Egypt, whose rights have also been suppressed for many years, is facing even more severe problems.”
Other media outlets that have covered the case include Stratford, Ontario’s Beacon Herald; Prince Albert, Saskatchewan’s Daily Herald; and Tolerance.ca, a Montreal-based webzine on human rights.
Internationally, the case has been covered by over 400 news agencies and has generated intense debate in the Middle East about the Egyptian government’s human rights responsibilities.
The Universal House of Justice, the highest governing body of the Bahá’í world community, addressed a letter to the Bahá’ís in Egypt in December, putting the court ruling in a broad moral context.
Referring to the organizations and “persons of goodwill” who have joined the Bahá’ís of Egypt in their quest for justice, the Universal House of Justice stated, “To the extent that the fight for justice contributes to the establishment of a single global standard of human rights, the organizations in Egypt so engaged are working towards achieving the unification of their nation’s peoples. They are thus committing themselves in large measure to the vital task of reconciling the tensions that bedevil their society and delay the attainment of its unity.”
Click here to read the Universal House of Justice’s letter to the Bahá’ís of Egypt (requires PDF reader).
Click here to listen to the interview on CBC radio. (Select “Listen to the second part of the program,” and then cue the audio feed to 27:40.)
Click here to read the summary of the case that was published on the Bahá’í World News Service.