CAIRO: Ali is a 34-year-old Egyptian citizen. He sits at the window and watches as the country begins to awaken in the early morning hours; cars bustling through the streets as his fellow citizens find their way to work or the cafe for a morning tea or coffee. “This is my country, but I feel there is so much pressure on me to be someone I am not and to believe in things that are not my own,” he told Bikya Masr. The reason is simple: he is Shiite. In Egypt, a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, the minority Shia have been arrested and forced into silence. On Tuesday, Egyptian police arrested at least four Shia Muslims, including a visiting Australian citizen. They were charged with insulting and denying tenets of religion, judicial sources were reported saying. Security officials reported that the Shia men were part of a group of 24 that were rounded up last week in Cairo. According to the police, most have been released, but it is still unclear how many remain behind bars. “This is the struggle we face on a daily basis and have been forced to live in silence and fear of what the police would do if they found out we were Shia,” Ali continued. The Australian man's family alerted the Australian authorities after Safaa al-Awadi, 44, did not return to Perth when scheduled. The Australian Embassy told Bikya Masr that they could not comment on internal Egyptian security matters, but added they were “closely monitoring the situation.” Seven other Shiites have been in detention since mid-2009 and charged with “forming a group trying to spread Shi'ite ideology that harms the Islamic religion.” Last year, Egypt's Minister of Religious Endowments, Mahmoud Hamdy Zaqzouq, said in statements during a meeting with the Grand Mufti of Mount Lebanon, Sheikh Mohamed Ali Jouzo, that Egypt has “no mosques belonging to any religious or sectarian schools.” He added that there are no Shia Mosques in Egypt. The minister stressed that all mosques and religious institutions that number some 104,000 are subject to full supervision of the Ministry of Religious Endowments. Followers of Shia doctrine believe the Prophet Mohamed should have been succeeded by his cousin Ali rather than his companion Abu Bakr, who is considered the first Imam. Ali was the fourth in traditional Sunni belief. Making matters difficult in Egypt is that Sunnis believe any suggestion that Abu Bakr was not the rightful successor is akin to blasphemy. “We live under these conditions every day and most of the time I keep my mouth shut, but for our government to insist that we don't exist is insulting and wrong,” added Ali. BM
