By Roger Elliott
In the latest court hearing on a Muslim-born Egyptian's struggle to officially convert to Christianity, opposing lawyers advocate that he be found guilty of "apostasy" or leaving Islam and sentenced to death.
More than 20 Islamic lawyers attended the hearing on Sunday, February 22 in Maher Ahmad El-Mo'otahssem Bellah El-Gohary's trial to obtain identification papers with Christianity listed as his religious affiliation. Two lawyers led the case: Ahmed Dia El-Din and Abdel Al-Migid El-Anani. "[El-Din] started by saying that the Quran was on a higher stage than the Bible," explained one of El-Gohary's lawyers, Said Fayez, Compass. "[El-Din said] that people can move up the religious hierarchy but not down, so people cannot move away from Islam as this religion ranks highest. "
Memos submitted by opposing lawyers claimed that cases like El-Gohary's are part of an American Zionist attack on Islam in Egypt, that Christianity is an inferior religion to Islam, and that Copts protect and defend converts from Islam and put themselves in danger. "We received 150 pages from them that were about religion," said Fayez. "We are not able to talk about religion, we only talk about the law."
El-Gohary beaten
El-Gohary was not present at the hearing, as it would have been at extreme personal risk to show up. He had planned to obtain papers authorizing lawyer Nabil Ghobreyal to act as his deputy in the courtroom, but staff at the civil registry swore him off and beat him, lawyers said.
Judge Hamdy Yasin had to postpone the case until March 28 because El-Gohary did not get the necessary power of attorney papers. "I am now unable to do anything else," El-Gohary, who has been in hiding, told Compass. "I have to come [to the hearing] despite the risk. I believe that God will protect me. It's a very difficult decision, but I have to come."
Copts and Christian converts face such systemic prejudice daily in the fight for their rights, he said. "Our rights in Egypt as Christians or converts are inferior to the rights of animals," El-Gohary said. "We are deprived of social and civil rights, deprived of our heritage and left to be killed by fundamentalists. No one bothers to investigate the cases or care about us."
56-year-old El-Gohary has been attacked in the street, spat on and beaten during his fight to win the right to officially convert. He said he and his 14-year-old daughter continue to receive death threats via text messages and phone calls. But he has also received text messages of encouragement from other Muslim-born converts who are too scared to follow his lead, he said. "Every day I get calls from people who converted secretly," El-Gohary said. "They ask me every day what is happening because it affects their future."
The danger he and his daughter are in has led El-Gohary to suggest that he will most likely leave Egypt, but not until the trial is over. "He wouldn't leave without going through this trial, he doesn't want to leave the country until it's over," said lawyer Ghobreyal. "Because it [conversion] is his right; after that he will do whatever he wants."
El-Gohary said he feels a responsibility to bear witness to God and Jesus. "I have to do what I do for the sake of God and for the sake of the converts, for the glory of God," he said.
He decided to legally change his religious affiliation as he was concerned about the impact his "unofficial Christianity" would have on his family. He said he was particularly worried about his daughter, Dina Maher Ahmad Mo'otahssem. Although she was raised as a Christian, when she turns 16, she will receive an identification card declaring her religion as Muslim unless her father wins his appeal. At school, she has been denied the right to attend the Christian classes offered to Egypt's Christian minorities and has been forced to attend Muslim classes. Religion is a compulsory part of the Egyptian curriculum.
Encouragement on the horizon
Despite setbacks, delays and the harsh tone of the courtroom, El-Gohary and his lawyers have remained optimistic, not only about his own case, but also about the country as a whole. "There are encouraging signs on the horizon that there will be a time in the future when we will achieve equal rights," said Fayez. "People have started asking for their rights and demanding to have religious freedom. This is a good sign."
Mohammed Hegazy, the first Muslim-born Christian convert to attempt to have his religion officially registered, also lives in hiding after receiving death threats. Despite a constitution that grants freedom of religion, there has never been a case of legal conversion from Islam to another faith. Hegazy, who filed his case on August 2, 2007, was denied the right to officially convert on January 29, 2008 in a court ruling that declared it was against Islamic law for a Muslim to leave Islam.
The judge based his decision on Article II of the Egyptian Constitution, which upholds Islamic law, or sharia law, as the source of Egyptian law. The judge said that according to Sharia, Islam is the final and most complete religion and therefore Muslims already practice full religious freedom and cannot return to an older faith (Christianity or Judaism).
Source: Compass Direct News
