What is Happening in Egypt?

Egypt's new Parliament (photo: Ahmed ElMasry, el-Masry el-Youm)  

As the state of chaos lingers on, with leaderless anarchy, violence and radicalism spreading, the Baha'i community of Egypt continues to struggle in its ongoing quest to be integrated in its society, and to be justly treated by the emerging elected Parliament, which is dominated by members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist Islamist Parties.

Recently, in a televised telephone interview, a leader of the extremist Salafist movement, said the Baha'is in Egypt should not have any citizenship rights and he called for trying them for "grand treason," an absurd call that has been traditionally repeated by the extremist enemies of the Baha'is in Egypt in the past without any cause or justification.

As to the continued question of ID cards, "single" Baha'is have been able to obtain identification documents, but married, divorced or widowed Baha'is are still unable to obtain such documents because they must prove their marriage status in order to obtain an ID card, and Baha'i marriage certificates/ceremonies are not recognized in Egypt by the authorities.

True, Egypt has gone through a revolution, but its outcome, so far, is not what the young and the innocent who began this noble struggle had hoped for. Now, it is left to time, and to the resilient Egyptians to determine what they would want their country to turn into....