CAIRO: While the Ministry of Interior has yet to confirm or deny crackdowns on people seen eating, drinking or smoking before sunset during Ramadan, the rumors have human rights organizations and pundits up in arms. Some press reports claimed that police arrested 155 people in Aswan for not fasting. Although the ministry did not issue an official statement on the matter, one of its officials indirectly confirmed the news. "They should learn to have some measure of decency. In the past, Egyptians used to be decent. I hope they return to it, Deputy Minister of Interior for the media Hamdy Abdel Karim, was quoted in Al-Shorouk newspaper as saying. He also confirmed the legality of arresting non-fasters. Ten human rights organizations released a joint statement criticizing Abdel Karim's statements, and calling on the prosecutor general's office to release a statement saying the arrests are unconstitutional, have no legal basis and are a violation of human rights. The statement cites Article 45 of the constitution which says, "The law shall protect the inviolability of the private life of citizens. "We were never able to confirm these arrests but we are responding to the statements made by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Interior, said Hossam Bahgat, chairman of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, one of the organizations that released the statement. "We reject his statements and we reemphasize that there is absolutely no legal basis to justify such an unlawful interference with the citizens' personal rights, he explained. Fasting in Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, where Muslims observing the holy month are required to refrain from eating and drinking from dawn until dusk. However, more and more Muslims are breaking the age-old taboo of eating, drinking and smoking in public during the day in Ramadan. According to Saeed Sadek, sociology and political science professor at the American University in Cairo, Muslims not fasting during Ramadan is not a recent trend, and has existed for a long time. "What is really happening is that in the past people who weren't practicing religion were [discreet] about it and didn't show it. However, today people are outspoken about their beliefs and that they are not taking religion seriously, Sadek said. There is a hidden agenda behind the government's ambiguous attitude towards the rumors of the arrests, he added. "They did not officially admit it and at the same time there is a counter-campaign denying it, nothing in the constitution validates those arrests, so why do it? "For distraction, he said. He explained that the government wants to give the public the impression that they are more extreme than the Muslim Brotherhood to appease the fundamentalists, especially, Saeed continued, after the criticism it received for awarding Egyptian secular thinker Sayyed Al-Qimni the State Award of Merit in Social Sciences. "So it's basically a whitewash for the government, he added. He explained that the ministry official's statements confirming the arrests is the government's way of confusing public opinion, "which is disrespectful to the Egyptian people. On the other hand, Diaa Rashwan, expert on Islamic studies at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, suggested that the crackdowns might be launched by an executive police officer in Aswan, who is exploiting his authority. "We have to think, why Aswan? Does the government only exist in Aswan? If this is the policy of a government, it would've been implemented throughout the country, more importantly in the capital Cairo and the major governorates, he explained.
