Egypt: Ministry of Education Recognizing the Baha'i Faith!

Two articles appeared on 2 December 2006 in Nahdet Misr Egyptian newspaper regarding the Baha'i Faith.

The first one entitled "A [Muslim] Brotherhood Representative Accuses the Minister of Education of Recognizing the Baha'i Faith," and subtitled "Secondary Education Final Examinations Contain Questions for the Baha'is."

The article states that "a representative from the Muslim Brotherhood Party in the Peoples Assembly [Parliament] has accused the Ministry of Education of committing an egregious violation of the constitution and the law by announcing its recognition of the Baha'i Faith as an official religion in Egypt."

Dr. Yousri el-Gamal

It continues, "the representative in his expedited request, demanded that Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif and Minister of Education Dr. Yousri el-Gamal, present immediate explanations to the Egyptian Parliament as to why the Ministry of Education has recognized the Baha'i Faith in violation of the laws and the constitution...." He is supporting his claim by indicating that "there are documents and proofs confirming that the Ministry of Education has approved the inclusion of specific examination questions authored exclusively for examining Baha'i students under a [new] subject entitled 'Morals' instead of the usual examination subjects of Islamic or Christian religions, in violation of the constitution and the law."

Dr. Ahmed Nazif

In order to support his claim, he referred to the case of a student named Sarah Maher from el-Menya who had completed her examination and was issued the questions on the new subject of "Morals."

He also indicated that there was an envelop containing ten papers released by the Ministry of Education specifically for that purpose, and that the student's father has confirmed that the examination papers originated centrally and for national use from Cairo. El-Menya case was reported on in a previous post linked here....

The second article reports on the Supreme Administrative Court session which was held on that same day and reported on in this previous post. It also concluded by stating that the legal team for the Baha'is affirmed that a judgement will be in their favour since the case is not about the recognition of the Baha'i Faith, but rather concerns the civil rights of Egyptian citizens who must obtain identification documents owed to them.