The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) has issued a report on Egypt's developments in terms of religious freedoms in the last quarter of last year. The report has monitored the continuing situation of tension and sectarian violence nationwide based on incidents in Cairo, Alexandria, Qalioubia, Sharqia, Kafr El-Sheikh, Menya and Luxor. Menya governorate got the lion's share of sectarian violence, the report says, describing it as the worst in the last quarter of 2008. Menya witnessed several sectarian incidents resulting in the death of a Christian and the injury of four others including a Muslim, in addition to the burning and destruction of a number of houses and properties.
The report points to sectarian clashes last November in Ain Shams, Sharqia and Alexandria due to rumors that the Christians would launch "service buildings" to carry out their religious rites.
The report reviews the crises and problems resulting from the restrictions on the right to change religion, pointing to two harsh sentences against two Muslim women who tried to get false documents to be able to convert to Christianity. Cairo Airport Investigation arrested a woman and her husband last December in a similar situation while they were trying to leave the country.
The report says that the Emergency Law is still used to violate the citizen's main rights. In this regard, he mentions a decision to detain Reda Abdel Rahman for converting to the Koranists and the continued detention of Christian blogger Hani Nazir with no charge or trial under the pretext that he published anti-Islam articles on his blog.
The report, though, also reviews the positive developments that have occurred in the same period. For instance, it points to a court ruling enabling a Baha'i youth to return to Alexandria University after the latter had insisted on dismissing him for failing to extract an identification card. Yet, he had a birth certificate proving that he had converted to Baha'i Faith in 1987. In addition, there has been another court ruling enabling a Christian to change his official papers to return to Christianity after being Muslim for nearly 30 years. In Fayoum, the governor has decided to disburse financial compensation for the Christians affected by the sectarian attacks that took place in June 2008 in the village of Al-Nazla, the report also says.
