CAIRO: Prominent Egyptian Coptic Lawyer and President of the Egyptian Federation for Human Rights Naguib Gobrail submitted the first bill for freedom of religion and the prevention of manipulation of religions to the Ministry of Justice. The proposal is divided into 12 Articles, which the lawyer said would contribute to resolving the crisis of the conversion of religions and reduce sectarian tensions. Gobrial stressed that the Draft Law confirms that “there are many people who embrace religions other than their religion of origin, whether Islamic or Christian, regardless of whether this involves a genuine desire for a definite new religion, or is it to the whim of the same person or for interests or aspire to reach a certain post, or to get rid of problem or in often there is a genuine desire to adopt the new religion, and the absence of a legal system that guarantees freedom of religion in Egypt and the absence of a law regulating freedom of religion led to these problems and more prosecutions by Security, as some were banned from traveling and some others were put in jail, and led to tensions among religions followers and sectarian violence and distortion of the image of Egypt before the international community, and puts the state in very critical positions and always at the forefront of countries violating religious freedoms.” He listed 12 articles constituting the draft law; the first Article states the freedom of belief or belief “as the right and desire of each person to embrace or believe as he wants of the religion or doctrine, enshrined in the constitution or issued by the Egyptian or the final judicial rulings,” while the second Article states that “freedom of belief is a desire of the person in a religion or doctrine”; Article three states that some issues deviate from the concept of Freedom of Belief, “especially if anyone who uses conversion as a whim or to benefit financially or morally, or to escape from a position or get away with a crime, or was for the purpose of stirring controversy or extortion, or any other purpose outside the scope of the conviction and conviction on the full faith of the new chosen religion.” Article Four of the proposed draft law states calls for the Minister of Justice to issue a decree to form a committee of seven members, two from Al-Azhar and two other members of the Coptic Church and two from Civil Society Organizations, headed by a counselor, and the committee would be responsible “for examining the situation of those who desire to convert from a religion to another, and whether this change based on full and genuine conviction and in case someone desires to convert to Judaism, then a Jewish Person must become a member of the committee, and the maximum period to discuss the petition is three months.” Article 5 asserts the right of the person to resort to the Court of Urgent Matters, in case “his petition to convert was rejected by the committee,” and the sixth Article states the right of those “who get endorsement of the committee to convert to issue new Identity Cards and all papers to change their religion item, and not to be subject to any security interventions.” Article seven recommends taking into account the general feeling and preserve public order and morals through prohibiting those who converted from appearing in any media outlet, if the purpose was abuse or attempting to undermine or distort the religion. The 8th Article states that the conversion of religion or belief only affects those who embraced the new religion, and “does not apply its effect whatsoever on any of the members of his family or his family such as father, mother or wife or children.” Article 9 states that if the Committee discovers that anyone who converted, did that for personal interests and not for the full convictions, “the committee refers this person to a criminal court that has the right to impose a fine from 5 to 10 thousand pounds.” The 10th article calls for amending the Penal Code by adding a new a new article “providing for the crime of tampering with religions that apply thereto the penalties provided for by Article 9 and adding a precise description for this article.” Article 11 states repealing every law contrary to this proposed draft law, and finally Article 12 states that this law shall be published in the official gazette after affixing the seal of the State and staffed by an Act of the State in the month following the date of publication. For Egyptians, the move from the often firebrand Coptic lawyer is being seen as a wise move, especially by Coptic Christians in the country who believe that for Egypt to move away from sectarianism, a new draft law must be established that guarantees religious freedom. “We have for too long been struggling with what it means to be Christians, Muslim or whatever, so a draft proposal of this kind, if done with a sense of equality and trust, will certainly go a long way in ending our disputes,” said George Idris, a Coptic pharmacist who todl Bikya Masr that he has seen a number of people convert without going to change their papers. “I see a lot of people on a daily basis and some have converted, to Christianity and to Islam. Who really cares what they do, it should be their own personal decision without the government getting involved,” he added. BM
