Egypt to recognise Copt converts

[N.O.R.F]

Egypt to recognise Copt converts

 

that 12 Christians who converted to Islam and then reverted to Christianity can have their faith officially recognised.

The decision overturns a lower court ruling by a lower court, which said the state need not recognise conversions from Islam because of a religious ban.

 

This is a case that has tested Egypt's tolerance of conversions from Islam.

 

A lawyer for the 12 Coptic Christians described the case as a victory for human rights and freedom of religion.

 

He says it could open the door for hundreds of other Copts who want to revert to their original faith from Islam.

 

Limited application

 

It appears, though, that the court's decision will have a limited application.

 

Reports say the judge decided that the Copts should not be considered apostates for converting from Islam, because they had been born Christian.

 

This suggests that Egyptians born Muslim will still be unable to convert to other faiths and have those conversions recognised on their identity cards. Many Muslims believe that converting from Islam is wrong, and some believe it is punishable by death.

 

Last year, an Egyptian convert to Christianity was forced to go into hiding when he received death threats after trying to have his conversion officially recognised.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7237152.stm

[Jacaylbaro]

Egyp diin badanaa ,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[N.O.R.F]

^^Ever been to a place where you dont know if the Arab talking to you is a Muslim or Christian?

[Jacaylbaro]

I've an Egyptian colleague here who kept saying Alxamdulillah and Salamu Calaykum when he first came here ,, until one day he told me he is Christian ,,

[N.O.R.F]

^^You should see the way they are with each other. Arab Muslims and Christians is bariidinayya with salaan :confused:

[Jacaylbaro]

looool ,, haven't seen them talking to each other but the way he communicates with us is really good. One would think he is a good muslim with all those MASHA'ALLAH, ALHAMDULILLAH, ETC ,,

[Fabregas]

One of my old Palestinian Christian friends used to say Salamucalaykum all the time. One day he dropped, " i hate jews" in class. Thank god the macalimad wasn't Jewish!

[Geel_jire]

I always thought arab and muslim are synonymous

untill I met lebanese, I know more non-muslim labanese than muslim.

 

and there is this really nice labanese girl that is my colleague she always Asalaamu alaikum , Mashalaah. A few days ago, she told me she is not muslim but 'durzi' (i'm not sure about the spelling, at least that is how it sounds) . never heard it before.

 

she says it is a combination of Islam,Christianity,Jewish combined.

 

Northner you are in the region, have you heard about that religion ?

[N.O.R.F]

I think its the druze? Cant say i've met any but there plenty of Lebanese here.

[Ibtisam]

I was shocked when I met Syrian Jews in my travels. Apparently they are small community in Syria. I know many Christian Arabs, there is this strange closeness that you feel towards them simple because they happen to speak Arabic and one would assume they understand Muslims better than other non-Muslims. Although in a repressive countries they may hate Muslims more than other non Muslims who are not exposed to us.

 

Geel Jire, I met a Turkish girl who was Druze, I asked her to give me a low down of it,... very random, bit like taking the convenient things out of each religion.

[NGONGE]

^^ Why were you shocked? Jews lived in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Morocco and a few other Arab countries for centuries. Many left when the state of Israel was established and many more were kicked out of their homes as a result of the establishment of that state.

 

They too would say Alhamduliallah, Masha Allah and Salaam. These are Arabic greetings not just Islamic.

 

Ps

A tricky case for Egypt! I wonder what Al Azhar's position on the issue is!