CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY REMAINS PROBLEMATIC IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 001427

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL/IRF (COFSKY)
NSC STAFF FOR WATERS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/15/2017
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIRF EG
SUBJECT: CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY REMAINS PROBLEMATIC IN
EGYPT

REF: 2006 CAIRO 4259

Classified by ECPO Minister Counselor William R. Stewart for
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

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Summary
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1. (C) Conversion to Christianity, or any faith other than
Islam, remains an intensely problematic issue in Egypt,
despite constitutional protection of the principle of freedom
of religion. An April 24 court decision against the right of
45 Muslim citizens (who were born Christians) to re-convert
to Christianity has underscored how Egypt's bureaucratic and
legal structures fail to provide full protection to freedom
of religion. The April 28 release of a Muslim-born convert
to Christianity, after two years imprisonment without charge,
is welcome news, but also serves as a reminder that choices
of personal faith in Egypt can sometimes incur the intense
scrutiny and interference of the security services. End
summary.

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April 24 Court Ruling on Conversion
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2. (SBU) The April 24 decision by Court of Administrative
Justice found that the Interior Ministry is not obligated to
recognize the return to Christianity by 45 citizens who had
converted to Islam, even if they were able to produce
evidence (such as a birth certificate) of their original
affiliation with Christianity. The April 24 decision stated
that allowing Christian-born Muslims to reconvert to
Christianity would violate the prohibition against apostasy
under Islamic law and would constitute a "manipulation of
Islam and Muslims." (Note: The same court had previously
ruled in at least 22 cases between 2004 and 2006 (under a
different judge, now retired) that the GOE should not
interfere or coerce citizens to adopt a certain faith or
religion against their wishes. End note.)


3. (SBU) Christian lawyer Naguib Gabriel has filed an
appeal against the April 24 decision. It is not clear how
long the appeals process will take. The apparent regression
represented by the April 24 decision is part of a larger
problem in Egypt in which various GOE regulations and
bureaucratic procedures, as well as deep rooted
discrimination and bias, work to undermine the explicit
protection of religious freedom in the Egyptian constitution
(article 46),which states that, "The State shall guarantee
the freedom of belief and freedom of practicing religious
rites." In addition to the problems faced by Muslims of
Christian origin who wish to re-convert to Christianity,
Muslim-born citizens, as well as Baha'is, face a range of
societal and institutional discrimination which have been
documented in the Department's International Religious
Freedom Report. (Note: By contrast, conversion from
Christianity to Islam for adult citizens is generally a
simple and routine process. There are no reliable estimates
of the number of citizens converting from Christianity to
Islam and vice-versa. Our various contacts offer estimates
ranging from dozens per year to several thousand. End note.)

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Release of Muslim-born Convert to Christianity
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4. (C) In a separate event, the GOE's April 28 release of
Bahaa Al-Accad, a Muslim-born convert to Christianity who had
spent two years in detention without charge or trial,
provided welcome relief to Accad, his family, and his
lawyers, but it does not appear to signal any substantive
change in GOE policy towards Muslim-born converts to
Christianity. (Note: The Department's 2006 Human Rights
Report and Religious Freedom Report have devoted coverage to
Accad's case. The only apparent cause of his detention was
his public affirmation of his conversion from Islam to
Christianity. In addition to prominent reference to Accad in
the Department's published human rights reports, emboffs have
also raised Accad's case on multiple occasions with
interlocutors in the MFA's human rights department. Reftel
also discussed Accad's case, and several other cases of
Muslim-born converts to Christianity. End note.)


5. (C) The GOE did not explain why it granted Accad his
freedom, after two years of detention. Hossam Bahgat,
director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights

CAIRO 00001427 002 OF 002


(EIPR),a leading Cairo-based human rights group which has
been quietly working on Accad's behalf, told poloff that he
believes the GOE may have acted now to forestall negative
attention to the case that might have been generated by a
pending hearing before the African Commission on Human and
People's Rights (ACHPR) in the Gambia. Exploiting an
opportunity presented by Egypt's AU membership, and its
subsequent signature of AU human rights conventions, Bahgat
and EIPR have been able to bring several human rights and
religious freedom cases against the GOE at the ACHPR. In the
2003-6 case of Metwalli Ibrahim Saleh, an Azhar scholar
detained by the GOE for his heterodox views on Islam, EIPR
filed a case with the ACHPR in 2005, calling upon the GOE to
respect the eight Egyptian judicial rulings that had ordered
Metwalli's release. In April 2006, several weeks before the
ACHPR was due to formally begin hearings in the Metwalli
case, the GOE released Metwalli. Similarly, in the Accad
case, the ACHPR had agreed to hear EIPR's complaint against
the GOE later this month. Bahgat opined that the GOE may
have chosen to release Accad in an effort to avoid risking a
formal rebuke by the ACHPR, and resultant bad publicity.


6. (C) In a brief May 14 meeting, Accad expressed his deep
gratitude for USG attention to his case, and expressed his
desire to leave Egypt, if possible. He also reported that he
remains concerned about his personal security. According to
Accad, he fears that unnamed extremist Muslims, possibly
acting on information provided by Egyptian security
officials, may seek to harm him.

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Comment
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7. (C) Despite Egypt's constitutional guarantee of freedom
of religion under article 46, and despite recent
constitutional amendments to articles one and five, which
made "citizenship" the basis for participation in political
life and which outlawed political parties or activities based
on religion, religious freedom, and particularly conversion
away from Islam, remain intensely problematic in Egypt. In
part, this is due to legal and bureaucratic contradictions.
A complicating factor is that article two of the constitution
states that Islamic law forms the basis for legislation.
When combined with both the long-standing and newly evolving
biases and tensions that characterize much of Egyptian
society, the result is a system that provides only inadequate
protections to religious freedom.
RICCIARDONE