BBC World Service on the Baha'is of Egypt

On Sunday, 18 March, BBC World Service [no longer available] aired its broadcast regarding the Baha'is of Egypt in its half hour program named Heart & Soul. One can listen to the program using Real Player at this link [no longer available].

The following is an introduction to the program, published on the BBC website:

"There are about seven million Bahais living in more than two hundred countries around the world. The faith first arrived in Egypt in the 1860s, and was recognised as a religion. But now the Bahais are struggling to assert their rights as Egyptian citizens. As the small community of Bahais prepare to celebrate their New Year this week, Eva Dadrian finds out about their religion, and why they are facing daily discrimination.

When the Egyptian government introduced new computerised Identity Cards, it forced its citizens to choose from only 3 religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam. To get ID cards, followers of Bahai are now having to lie about their religion. Heart and Soul finds out how they are trying to fight to gain recognition for their Bahai faith."

Comment: it is important to stress that the statements made by those individuals opposing the Baha'is later in the program, reflect expressions that were simply their own personal opinions and interpretations. They had no theological foundation or supporting scholarly proofs to their claims--they were only personal judgments. For example, when they stated that the "Baha'i Faith is not a religion," one must realize that it is not up to these individuals to make that dogmatic determination or judgment, and wrap it to the audience in the guise of a known--taken for granted--fact.

Near the end of the program and voiced from the courtroom, an argument was made by an Islamist fundamentalist who attempted to make a case that, since the Supreme Court had ruled against the Baha'is then it was fait accompli, and he implied it as a final judgment on the Baha'i case. Again, the facts before us demonstrate that the court had not addressed the case before it, i.e. the civil right of the Egyptian Baha'is to be issued ID cards, but rather attempted to rule on the legitimacy and the divine origin of the Baha'i Faith. This was neither under its jurisdiction nor what the court was asked to decide on in the appeal before it. Instead of hearing the merits of the current case, the court had simply repeated--verbatim and without even minor editing--previous statements made, decades earlier in older court rulings, on unrelated cases brought before the Egyptian courts regarding the struggle of the Egyptian Baha'i community in its quest for equal treatment and justice.