Baha'i Faith in Egypt

Egypt: ID Cards Vs. Ancient Civilization! Posted: 22 Aug 2007 04:30 PM CDT This video clip, entitled "Egypt Tourism Ad" was just published by the Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights on YouTube. It depicts the dilemma of certain citizens of Egypt, such as Baha'is, who are denied their ID cards because of their religious affiliation. Egypt will only allow the entry of one of three religions on the mandated computerized ID card forms, namely: Muslim, Christian or Jewish. If anyone belongs to any other Faith than these three, then the person is denied the ID card. The application form also clearly states that the entry of any false statements will lead to imprisonment and heavy fines. A citizen of Egypt without ID card is considered non-existent and cannot have any rights in his or her own country. All essential services in Egypt mandates the use of ID cards. The lack of such documents in Egypt amounts to Civil Death. Also see Egyptian identification card controversy at Wikipedia. The Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights describes itself as follows: The Muslim network for Baha’i rights is developed by a group of Muslim interfaith activists who believe in tolerance, coexistence and freedom. We created this site to promote human rights, religious freedom and respect within the Arab and Muslim world. We strongly believe that such values should apply it to all people equally regardless of their faith, cultural differences, political stance or nationality. We are making this effort not only as believers of freedom, but also for the sake of a better and more productive society. In this network, there are a few things that readers should keep in mind: . The authors are Muslim interfaith activists who are deeply concerned with the treatment of Baha’is within the Middle East. . We don’t believe in the Baha’i faith, yet we respect those who do. There are minorities within our societies who are practicing Baha’is and for that, their rights are very rarely recognized, simply because of their religious differences. We do not approve of this. . We created this site to demand that the rights of Baha’i minorities is recognized by not only people, but by law. . We respectfully demand that all governments within the Arab and Muslim world allow Baha’i citizens to have equal opportunities in all fields and to practice their faith freely without facing any threats or discrimination whatsoever. . We would like to make the general public of the region be aware of Baha’i human rights abuses in order to take effective action against it. We can only successfully achieve the goals of this website if we move our citizens towards real action, no matter what our religious differences are. . We are all civilians in need of basic rights, and thus we should join forces regardless of our differences and unite in a celebration of our diversity. Join us in this worthy struggle and make our goals a greater possibility in the name of freedom.