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Egypt rules that only conversions to Islam are legal
Campaigners have expressed shock and regret after an Egyptian judge ruled that it is only legal to convert to Islam, but not to any other religion. The ruling came in the case of Mohammed Hegazy, who was suing the Egyptian Interior Ministry for the right to change his religion from Islam to Christianity on his official identification.But last week Judge Muhammad Husseini ruled that it was only lawful to convert to Islam, and not to another religion. Hegazys lawyers told Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) that the judge argued in his ruling that Islam is the final and most complete religion, therefore to convert to a religion that preceded Islam is to insult the great religion and it cannot be allowed. The judgment was based on Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution which establishes sharia law as the primary source of legislation. Under traditional Islamic jurisprudence, apostasy, or converting from Islam, is punishable by death. Although Egyptian law does not criminalise conversion, CSW says that in practice converts from Islam to another religion often face legal barriers and risk serious harassment, including torture at the hands of the security police. Hegazy and his lawyers are now waiting for the full transcript of the court ruling to be released before deciding whether they can appeal the decision. His wife, Zeinab, is also considering lodging her own legal challenge to change her religion to Christianity. Since lodging the case, Hegazy and his wife have had to go into hiding as a result of threats made against them. Their daughter was born on January 10, 2008, while they were in hiding. Hegazys first lawyer, Mamdouh Nakhla, resigned from the case reportedly under duress. His current lawyers previously lodged a request to restart the court proceedings because of incomplete evidence presented to the court. However, the judge ignored this request when he rejected the case. Posted by: ryuge 2008-02-04 |
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