Bahá’ís of Canada Français

Egyptian-Canadian Bahá’ís tell their story

Since the Egyptian Supreme Administrative Court judgment on 16 December 2006, effectively denying Bahá’ís their identity cards (see story), several Canadian city dailies have published stories on the concerns of Egyptian-Canadian Bahá’ís.

The Toronto Star ran the most recent article , on March 31st, titled “Identity Crisis for Faithful,” and focused on the efforts of Samandary Hindawi, a Bahá’í from Mississauga, Ontario, to disseminate accurate information about the situation in Egypt through his Arabic-language blog. The London Free Press ran a personal-interest story on Nermeen Ridvan Sheppard on 19 March 2007, titled “Newcomer finds love, tolerance in Canada.” And the Edmonton Journal published the article “Baha’i revels in newfound freedom: Egyptian immigrant worries about the persecution of her community back home” on 10 March 2007.

Other newspapers in Prince Alberta, Saskatchewan, and in Stratford and Dunnville, Ontario, carried articles, while CTS television in southern Ontario aired an interview on the program “Faith Journal,” and CBC Radio International broadcast an interview to its international audience in December.

Especially interesting has been the positive response of Canadian Arab newspapers. El-Ressala and El Masri, two major Arab newspapers published in Montreal, ran accurate articles in December, and El-Ressala published a second article in March. “Egypt and the Arab World,” a Montreal radio program in Arabic, broadcast an interview on the situation in February, and the Montreal television program “From Egypt to Montreal” conducted its own interview. The Persian-language newspaper Payvand also published an article shortly after the December ruling of the Egypt court.

These articles and broadcasts follow on five substantial articles published last June and July in Montreal’s Le Devoir and The Gazette, the Edmonton Journal, the Lethbridge Herald, and the Regina Leader-Post.