Religion in Egypt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Life in Egypt
Communications
Culture
Demographics
Economy
Education
Holidays
Human rights
Languages
People
Politics
Religion
Transportation
edit box

Religion in Egypt permeates many aspects of social life and is endorsed by law. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, with Muslims comprising 90% of the population, while most of the remaining 10% are Christians, with a small, but nonetheless historically significant, non-immigrant Bahá'í population, and an even smaller community of Jews—the non-Muslim, non-Coptic communities range in size from several thousand to hundreds of thousands. Worship of the original Egyptian gods has all but disappeared.

In a 16 December 2006 judgment of the Supreme Administative Council of Egypt, a clear demarcation between "recognized religions"—Islam, Christianity and Judaism—and all other religious beliefs has been made—thus effectively delegitimatizing and forbidding practice of all but these aformentioned religions.^[1] To reflect this specific judgment of the Government of Egypt, the following religions and belief systems have been broken into these two respective groups.

Contents 1 Recognized Religions 1.1 Islam 1.2 Christianity 1.3 Judaism 2 Unrecognized (Banned) Beliefs/Religions 2.1 Atheism and Agnosticism 2.2 Bahá'í Faith 3 References

[edit] Recognized Religions

[edit] Islam

Main article: Islam in Egypt

Islam is the state religion in Egypt. The Muslim population is largely Sunni, a significant percentage of which is involved with a number of Sufi orders. There are also a small number of Shi'ites. The country's various social groups and classes apply Islam differently in their daily lives. The literate theologians of Al-Azhar University generally reject the popular version of Islam practiced by religious preachers and peasants in the countryside, which is Sufi-influenced in nature. Sufism flourished in Egypt since Islam was first adopted in Egypt. Most upper- and middle-class Muslims believed either that religious expression was a private matter for each individual or that Islam should play a more dominant role in public life. Islamic religious revival movements, whose appeal cuts across class lines, have been present in most cities and in many villages.

[edit] Christianity

Main article: Christianity in Egypt

The Christians are mainly Coptic Orthodox, though a minority belongs to the Coptic Catholic Church. Other Christian groups include Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox, whose adherents are mainly descendants of Italian, Greek, Syrian and Armenian immigrants.

An Evangelical Protestant church, first established in the middle of the 19th century, has grown to a community of about 17 Protestant denominations. There also are followers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which was granted legal status in the 1960s.

[edit] Judaism

Main article: History of the Jews in Egypt

Egypt's Jewish community flourished before the 1950s, but is now very small.

[edit] Unrecognized (Banned) Beliefs/Religions

[edit] Atheism and Agnosticism

There are Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic, but their numbers are largely unknown as openly advocating such positions risks legal sanction. In 2000, an openly atheist Egyptian writer, who called for the establishment of a local association for atheists, was tried on charges of insulting Islam and its prophet in four of his books.^[2]

[edit] Bahá'í Faith

Main articles: Persecution of Baha'is#Egypt and Egyptian identification card controversy

The number of Bahá'ís is estimated at between several hundred and a few thousand. They have been traditionally marginalized as a religious community in Egypt, and recently found themselves in court battling for basic human rights in Egyptian society after being denied to mark their religion on official identification cards. On 6 April 2006, however, "a landmark ruling by the Administrative Court recognis[ed] the right of Egyptian Baha'is to have their religion acknowledged on official documents."^[3] On 3 May 2006 in Khaleej Times it was reported that "[t]he Egyptian government will appeal against a court ruling in favour of the rights of the country’s small Baha’i minority..." ^[4]

Notable quotations from ministers in the Egyptian government taken from the article, include:

Religious Endowments Minister Mahmoud Hamdi Zakzouk told parliament the government would base its appeal on the opinion of the :country’s leading Muslim cleric, the Sheikh of al-Azhar, that Baha’ism [sic] is not a “revealed religion” recognised by Muslims.

One member of parliament, Gamal Akl of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, said the Baha’is were infidels who should be killed on the grounds that they had changed their religion.

“The problem with the Baha’is is they are moved by Israeli fingers. We wish the Ministry of the Interior would not yield to the cheap blackmail of this deviant group,” added another Muslim Brotherhood member, Mustafa Awadallah.

“there is an interest in them being known rather than unknown so that they do not succeed in infiltrating the ranks of society and :spreading their extremist and deviant ideology.”

According to Reuter's Alertnet, the judgement of 6 April was suspended on 15 May.^[5]

"Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court decided on 15 May to suspend the implementation of an earlier lower court ruling that allowed Bahais to have their religion recognised on official documents."

On December 16, 2006, only after one hearing, the Supreme Administrative Council of Egypt ruled against the Bahá'ís, stating that the government may not recognize the Bahá'í Faith in official identification numbers.^[1] The ruling leaves Bahá'ís unable to obtain the necessary government documents to have rights in their country; they cannot obtain ID cards, birth certificates, death certificates, marriage or divorce certificates, passports; they also cannot be employed, educated, treated in hospitals or vote among other things.^[1]

[edit] References