'NO ONE LEAVES ISLAM,' JUDGE RULES

Testing The Faith

'No one leaves Islam,' judge rules

Egyptian court bans convert to Christianity from changing

ID card

WORLD NET DAILY

WorldNetDaily.com

Friday, February 1, 2008

No one ever leaves Islam, according to a judge in Egypt who

has cited Islamic religious law in rejecting a request from

a Muslim convert to Christianity to be allowed to change

his religious affiliation on his national identification

card.

In a decision that forecasts more and more decisions being

based on Shari'a, Islam's religious law, Judge Muhammad

Husseini has concluded it violates the law for a Muslim to

leave Islam.

According to a report from Compass Direct News,

http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://www.compassdirect.org

the judge found that the convert, Muhammad Hegazy, "can

believe whatever he wants in his heart, but on paper he

can't convert."

[Caption] Egypt

The report said Husseini cited Article II of the Egyptian

constitution, making Islamic religious law the "source" of

Egyptian secular law, as the basis for his conclusion.

Since Islam is the "final" and "most complete" religion,

Muslims already have full freedom of religion and are not

allowed to return to the "less complete" Christianity or

Judaism, the ruling said.

It's a new peak in the rise of Islam in Egypt, which The

Middle East Review of International Affairs

http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2006/issue3/jv10no3a7.html

said began with Anwar Sadat's tenure in power.

"He then initiated what one could, in hindsight, term 'the

Great Islamic Transformation' of Egypt. The first step was

to stipulate in the Second Article of his new Constitution,

promulgated in 1971 (long before Khomeini embarked on his

Islamic revolutionary campaign), that the Principles of

Islamic Shari'a were 'a main source' of legislation. In May

1981, the 'a' was replaced with 'the,' making Shari'a the

term of reference for the entire constitution, meaning all

other articles were to be interpreted in that light," the

organization said.

"The curricula of public schools, established by the

Ministry of Education, ignore the Coptic era in Egypt's

history. Courses glorifying Islam (the 'Only True

Religion') and its history, while vilifying the crusaders

(i.e. Christians) and the Jews, are imposed on all

students," the group said.

"In the case of a father of a Christian family converting

to Islam, his minor children are forced to follow suit: The

mother's custody rights -- a well established legal

principle -- are ignored in this case, as children,

according to typical court rulings, are supposed to follow

the 'better (or 'more noble') of the two religions,'" the

group said.

On the pro-freedom website called Sons of Apes and Pigs,

http://www.wnd.com/redir/r.asp?http://www.sonsofapesandpigs.org/2008/01/an-egyptian-court-declares-no.html

a commentary noted that the Egyptian court decision "went

on and issued a very explicit warning to Muhammad Hegazy,

his wife and their lawyer, that going against the tide

would provoke civil unrest and exacerbate emotions in the

Egyptian society."

"Freedom of religion doesn't mean getting in and out of

Islam to another religion, but only means that each person

is free to practice his own religious rites, and not

playing games with Islam or contradicting Shari'a law," the

website said the judge concluded.

The website, which said it took its name from Quranic

descriptions of Christians and Jews, said Westerners don't

realize the significance of having a national ID card

listing the carrier as Muslim.

"If you get caught going to a church while your religion on

your ID is Muslim, that could get you arrested, questioned

and tortured," the commentary said. "The latest victim was

a 27-year-old woman, Mrs. Sherreen, mother of two children

from Alexandria, Egypt. She died at the police station on

Jan. 3, 2008, after five hours of torture for refusing to

renounce her Christian faith and come back to Islam."

The website noted in Egypt, children of parents with Muslim

IDs automatically are Muslims, and they are required to

follow mandatory Islamic indoctrination classes, and

Muslims cannot marry non-Muslims.

It also said to apply for any job, an applicant must

provide the state-designated religious affiliation.

The website also noted according to multiple media reports,

Hegazy's father issued a statement that, "when I'll meet my

son, I will discuss with him the reasons and circumstances

that 'forced' him to leave Islam, and will offer him the

opportunity to come back to Islam, but in case he refuses,

I will kill him immediately."

Press reports say Hegazy's case was the first time someone

had sought to make a change from Islam in the religious

designation on an official national ID card.

Hegazy has reported he was studying various religions, and

found he was not consistent with Islam.

"The major issue for me was love. Islam wasn't promoting

love as Christianity did," he said.

As a result of his conversion he's reported being arrested

and tortured several times, but it's opened wide the eyes

of observers, the Apes and Pigs website said.

"Muhammad Hegazy's case dynamited the Islamic mountain of

lies, propaganda and false pride," the commentary said.

"Not only in Egypt, but all over the Arab world. Exposed to

the world [was] the deception of the Islamic governments,

Egypt in particular ... [of] 'no compulsion in religion.'"

According to the Compass Direct report, Gamal Eid, head of

the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, whose

lawyers have been representing the convert, said that he

was disappointed with the verdict.

"The judge didn't listen to our defense, and we didn't even

have a chance to talk before the court," Eid said.

Meanwhile, death threats have forced the couple, whose new

daughter is only a month old, into hiding.

Compass also reported that at least partly because of the

case, lawyers in Egypt now are trying to force the

government to outlaw conversion from Islam in secular law

as well as religious law.

WND previously has reported on a ruling from a U.S. federal

court that an Egyptian Christian who had fled his home

nation "most assuredly has a right not to be tortured."

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56589

The ruling allowed the Egyptian Christian to remain in the

United States.

The court pointedly concluded that "diplomatic assurances"

of his religious rights "by a country known to have engaged

in torture" weren't reassuring.

A report from the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights

concluded Coptic Christians in Egypt have been harassed,

tortured and killed by Muslims for 1,400 years.

"They have been subjected to all kinds of hate crimes

including, the abduction of young Coptic girls, the killing

of Coptic women and children and the destruction of their

places of worship," the report said.

The United States Commission on International Religious

Freedom, an agency created by Congress, also lists Egypt on

its watch list of countries, noting it had "a poor overall

human rights record."

In addition, Egyptian authorities have threatened two young

boys who were ordered to take training to be Muslims, but

refused, stating they are Christian.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56929

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