# Deriding Revealed Religions?: Baha'is in Egypt *Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.* --- > 30 Religious Affairs ISIM NEWSLETTER 10/02 > > Deriding Revealed > M id dl e E a s t > J OH AN N A P I N K > > When on 10 May 1925, the appellate sharic a court of > Biba annulled the marriages of three Upper Egyptian > Baha'is to their Muslim wives, declaring that the Ba- > ha'i faith was not part of Islam and therefore Muslims > Religions? > Baha'is in Egypt > embracing it were to be considered apostates, this > verdict was, paradoxically, hailed by the internation- > al Baha'i community as 'the first Charter of the eman- > cipation of the Cause of Baha'u'llah from the fetters > of Islamic orthodoxy'.1 The National Spiritual Assem- > bly (NSA) of the Baha'is of Egypt and the Sudan, one > of the first NSAs to be founded worldwide, felt in- > spired by the verdict that finally made the Egyptian marriages annulled on grounds of apostasy. any concrete action that violated the law in deriding or mocking one of the revealed > public aware of the existence of an active Baha'i com- In 1952, the State Council, the highest ad- question, but rather on the defendants' ad- religions […] or harming national unity or > munity in their country. It was clear to everyone now ministrative court, issued a judgment herence to the Baha'i faith. In the case of social peace'. Art. 98 allows prison sen- > that the Baha'i faith could no longer be regarded as against a Baha'i government employee Tanta, many of the accused finally chose to tences of up to five years, which exceeds the > an Islamic reform movement, as had been the case whose employer had refused to pay him the profess Islam; most of them still being limits set by Law No. 263/1960. > before World War I, when Abd'ul'baha's visits to marriage and family allowances to which he pupils or students, they feared that repeat- Since Farag Fuda was shot in 1992, no- > Alexandria had caused a first wave of interest in the was entitled. The court held that the plain- ed postponements of the final verdict body in Egypt – including the local human > new religion. tiff was an apostate and that therefore his would make them miss important exams. rights organizations – has taken to publicly > marriage was null and void. It considered The Supreme Court passed its decision in defending the Egyptian Baha'is' right to > The Baha'i community of Egypt began to the question of freedom of belief, which 1975. It declared Law No. 263/1960 consti- freely practise their religion. With Law No. > flourish in the 1920s. Their publishing was guaranteed in the Egyptian Constitu- tutional. The court held that the law in ques- 263/1960 still in force, added to a penal > house, Matba cat as-Sacada, distributed Ba- tion, but came to the conclusion that the tion did not trespass on the right of freedom code allowing arbitrary arrests of persons > ha'i religious writings throughout the Arab legislator had not meant the principle of of belief as it did not prevent anyone from adhering to a heterodox faith, it is not likely > world. In the 1930s, Egyptian Baha'is pre- freedom of belief to protect apostates or being a Baha'i, i.e. internally believing in the that the Egyptian Baha'is will, in the coming > sented their faith in various independent members of any faith other than the re- principles of the Baha'i faith. As for the right years, experience a change for the better. > liberal secular newspapers and managed to vealed religions accepted by Islam. The to confess and practise one's religion, the > have their NSA registered at the mixed court furthermore declared the supremacy court maintained that the legislator had > court2 of Cairo, though their attempts to ob- of the sharica over secular laws. granted this right only to the three revealed > tain any form of official recognition by na- Things definitely took a turn for the worse religions recognized by Islam. The court also > tional political or juridical institutions were for the Egyptian Baha'is shortly afterwards. declared that Law No. 263/1960 was not a > in vain. In 1939, two Baha'i cemeteries were The first reason for this was the foundation case of religious discrimination, as the state > opened in Cairo and Ismailiyya. In the 1940s, of the state of Israel in 1947 and the fact that was only obliged to treat equally those citi- > the NSA inaugurated their own building, fi- the international centre of the Baha'i com- zens having a comparable status, e.g. Chris- > nanced by donations, in Abbassiyya, a quar- munity was situated in Haifa. From the be- tians should be treated equal to other Chris- > ter of Cairo. More and more new members ginning of the 1950s onward, accusations tians, etc. This is an extremely restrictive in- > joined the faith, sometimes after having were raised by journalists as well as Muslim terpretation of the Constitution which basi- > gotten hold of one of the Baha'i publica- theologians that the Baha'i faith was in real- cally strips the relevant articles of any mean- > tions which were disseminated in great ity not a religion, but a disguised instrument ing. > numbers through bookshops and libraries, of Zionism in order to corrupt and weaken > sometimes after having read about the new the Arab and Muslim world by perverting Increasing publicity > religion in the liberal press, sometimes after God's revelation and by promoting pacifism The Supreme Court's verdict opened the > having attended a public lecture on the and internationalism. This conspiracy theo- way for more arrests. The next one followed > faith. The converts came from all the major ry spread rapidly and by the 1960s reached in 1985. About 50 Baha'is were arrested and > religions present in Egypt. Their educational general acceptance in Egyptian public opin- charged with violating Law No. 263/1960. > background was generally rather elevated, ion, with extremely few exceptions. The case received extreme amounts of pub- > many of them being academics. All these licity, virtually every Egyptian newspaper > developments made Shoghi Effendi, great- Nasserism and magazine covering the topic, often sev- > grandson of Baha'u'llah, express, in 1944, his The second reason for the increasingly eral times as the proceedings continued. > firm belief that 'the establishment of […] problematic situation of the Baha'i commu- The only voice that spoke in favour of the > [the Baha'i] faith on a basis of absolute nity in Egypt was Nasser's repressive policy Baha'is was that of Mustafa Amin, eminent > equality with its sister religions' in Egypt in the religious sector. His aim in dealing writer and journalist, who reminded the > was only a question of time.3 Between the with religious communities of all kinds was readers of his daily column in Al-Akhbar that > 1950s and the present day, however, Shoghi to either submit them to government con- freedom of religion was a basic human > Effendi's optimistic forecast has not been trol or eliminate them. The second option right. Most of the press chose to ignore this > fulfilled. was usually chosen for groups that were comment. However, newspapers with an Is- > suspected of having ties to Israel; not only lamist tendency, like An-Nur or Ash-Shacb, > Arrestation for vice and the Baha'is, but also Jehovah's Witnesses violently attacked Amin for his opinion. > debauchery suffered from this. In 1960, a presidential The defendants were released on bail > In January 2001, Egyptian newspapers re- decree (Law No. 263/1960) was issued by shortly after their arrest. In 1987, a court of > ported the arrest of 16 Baha'is from the area which the Baha'i centres were dissolved and first instance sentenced each of them, with > of Suhag in Upper Egypt. The accused had their properties – including their building in the exception of two who had chosen to re- > allegedly indulged in promiscuous sexual Abbassiyya and a valuable piece of land in nounce their faith, to a three-year prison > activities, which were, the press claimed, in Maadi, south of Cairo – were confiscated. term, which was the highest possible sen- > accordance with Baha'i religious rites. Cari- The law also made any attempt to continue tence. As the judgment contained blatant > catures depicted the Baha'is as obsessed the Baha'i centres' activities liable to punish- legal errors, the most prominent one being > with women and sexuality. In June 2001, ment. the fact that the court had made no effort to > eight of the accused were still in prison In several cases, Egyptian Baha'is were prove the individual guilt of the accused, > without having been officially charged. The charged with violating this law. In 1972, the the ruling was, without much public atten- > accusations do not seem to have been lifted Baha'i community of the delta city of Tanta tion, reversed by the appellate court in > since then. was at the centre of the attacks. This case 1988. > The high expectations the Egyptian Ba- gained a certain amount of publicity. The After that, the Egyptian Baha'is tried to re- > ha'is had held for the future of their faith in judgment, however, was delayed, one of the main as inconspicuous as possible. As their Notes > their home country have indeed been reasons lying in the fact that a number of faith dictates them to follow the laws of the 1. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By (Wilmette: Baha'i > crushed. After years of failed attempts to Baha'is had shortly before turned to the land, they have always accepted the ban on Publishing Trust, [1944] 1970), 366. > achieve legal recognition, they had initiat- newly founded Supreme Court, contesting their organization; the charges raised 2. The mixed courts had been founded in order to > ed, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, several the constitutionality of Law No. 263/1960, against them could never prove any activi- handle cases which concerned two or more states; > lawsuits through which they hoped to which was the basis of the charges against ties exceeding occasional private meetings. the staff was international. > reach, at least partially, their goal. Their the Baha'is of Tanta. The court decided to Still, as mentioned above, last year the Ba- 3. Shoghi Effendi ([1944] 1970), 367. > main concern was the validity of Baha'i mar- postpone its verdict until the Supreme ha'is of Suhag were arrested. The accusa- > riages. The problem was twofold: not only Court had issued its judgment. Interesting- tions in this case do not seem to be based Johanna Pink is a researcher in Islamic studies. > were marriage contracts that followed Ba- ly, all the defendants who publicly declared on Law No. 263/1960, but on Art. 98 of She recently finished her Ph.D. thesis on new religious > ha'i personal status law not accepted by the to be Muslims or renounced the Baha'i faith the penal code which rather vaguely bans communities in Egypt at the University of Bonn, > Egyptian state, but Baha'is with a Muslim were immediately released, which shows 'the distribution or support of extremist Germany. > background also ran the risk of having their that the charges were not really based on ideas with the intention of invoking strife, E-mail: mail@johanna-pink.de > > — *Deriding Revealed Religions?: Baha'is in Egypt (Used by permission of the curator)*