On Saturday, June 13, a Cairo judge rejected an Egyptian convert's attempt to change the religious status on his ID card from Muslim to Christian. This is the second time a Muslim-born convert to Christianity has failed to exercise a constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion. For Maher El-Gohary, who has been assaulted on the street, received death threats and forced to live in hiding as a result of the trial that began 10 months ago, there was no comfort in Saturday's outcome. "I am disappointed by what has happened and shocked by the decision because I have gone to great lengths and gone through many hardships," he said.
El-Gohary is only the second Muslim-born convert in Egypt after Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy to request such a change of status. El-Gohary's case could be taken to the Supreme Court, his lawyer said. "It doesn't end here, it's only the beginning," said Nabil Ghobreyal. "I'm going to a higher court because I have ideas and I will fight all the way."
The Secretary General of the Danish European Mission, Reverend Henrik Ertner Rasmussen, says: "The cases of Maher El-Gohary and Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy's identity cards are not just cases of bureaucratic rules. Both men have shown almost superhuman courage by standing up and challenging the Egyptian legal system to demand what should be a natural human right: the choice of religion or belief. Unfortunately, the Egyptian legal system is steeped in Islamism, even though there are many righteous people within the system by Danish standards.
When I lived in Egypt, a bizarre case was decided by the courts in favor of the Islamists. A university professor was taken to court by Islamists claiming that he should be sentenced to divorce his wife. With his opinions on the possibility of reforming Islamic law, he had forfeited his right to call himself a Muslim, and since a non-Muslim man cannot be married to a Muslim woman, such a mixed marriage must be dissolved. This is how the court ruled, but it should be noted that the professor's wife absolutely would not divorce her husband, so the two had to go into exile.
Despite these blatantly unfair court decisions, the very fact that El-Gohary and Hegazy have been able to bring these cases is a victory of sorts. The cases have meant that the ability to choose one's own faith has become a public topic of debate, where before it was almost taboo. In the 90s, you had to look back over both shoulders before you even dared to mention the term "apostasy from Islam" or "change of religion". If you weren't careful, you ran the risk that the state security services would start monitoring you, because these concepts are considered such a threat to state security and the stability of the country that the security services have to keep an eye on people who express such ideas. Nothing has changed in this respect, and during the course of the two men's trials, death threats have been made against El-Gohary, Hegazy and their lawyers, and it is not only private individuals who are threatened, but also the state security service, which is known not to be soft on people who convert from Islam to Christianity. There are reports of many cases of torture of such converts in the custody of the security services.
Yet the number of converts from Islam to Christianity is growing in Egypt as in the rest of the Muslim world. Therefore, we at the Danish European Mission strongly encourage prayer for the Muslim world and especially for those Muslims who come to faith in Jesus as the crucified Lord and Savior.
Source: Compass Direct News
