CAIRO: Egyptian Shia Muslims are not permitted to commemorate Ashura or build special Shia mosques, Shia activist Mohamed El-Derini, told Daily News Egypt on the eve of the religious festival. "Practicing our religious rituals has become a luxury we cannot afford, El-Derini said. "But maybe some groups are left to conduct celebrations to attract media attention and promote the image of the regime as being tolerant. Ashura is the tenth day of the hijri (Islamic) month of Muharram. On that day, Shia Muslims in the region mourn the martyrdom of Al Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) and a key holy figure for Shia, who was killed in the battle of Karbala in 680 AD. For decades, the Egyptian regime has undermined the Shia's sense of belonging, fearing that allowing them a wider margin of freedom would lead to the spread of Shiism in the Sunni-dominated country. El-Derini said the estimated number of Shia in Egypt is about 600,000. State security suspects that the Shia receive financial aid from Iran. "We have nothing to do with Iran and many Shia I know live under very poor conditions, El-Derini argued. "We have been even antagonized by other Shia groups in the region for having our own stance. The Shia Egyptians have recurrently called for their right to restore Al-Azhar mosque, now the center of the highest religious Sunni authority in Egypt, built under the Fatimids in 972 AD by the Shia followers of Fatma Al-Zahraa, the granddaughter of Prophet Mohamed. "It is no longer the Fatimist Al-Azhar, which used to be a center for renaissance in the Muslim World, but has become the center of the extremist Wahabi doctrine, El-Derini said. El-Derini also claims that "the Azhar's Wahabis called last week for forming a front against Shiism in Egypt, which contradicts their earlier fatwa accrediting the Shia Jaafari doctrine. Last October, El-Derini was held in custody for 15 days over charges of "spreading false rumors and inciting propaganda that could promote terror among people, disturb public security and the rule of law and undermine the trust in security agencies through claiming that prisoners and detainees died as a result of torture in prisons. El-Derini, who is considering leaving Egypt, had spent 15 months in prison from 2004-2005 for belonging to an "illegal organization, and has published "Hell's Capital about his experience in jail. "Egypt's state security courts continue to prosecute and imprison those accused of espousing 'unorthodox' Islamic religious [beliefs], according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom 2007 report, which described the religious freedom conditions in Egypt as "poor . Head of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Hossam Bahgat told Daily News Egypt that the Egyptian constitution generally protects the freedom of religious rights. "While the Shia sect is not recognized by Egyptian law, there is no law prohibiting adherence to Shia beliefs.
