Egypt Supreme Court Allows Return to Christianity

By Ethan Cole, Christian Post Reporter Monday, February 11, 2008

Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court ruled this past weekend that 12 Christian converts to Islam can "re-convert" back to Christianity.

The legal battle of the 12 Coptic Christians, which lasted over a year, concluded Saturday when Cairo's highest civil court upheld the right of religious minorities.

"Our request was fully granted," said Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a Cairo-based group that filed the case in association with Human Rights Watch, according to the New York Times. "The defendants are going to receive their ID cards, as Christians."

Saturday's court decision reversed a lower court ruling in April 2007 that forbade re-conversion.

While Egypt seems to be allowing former Christians to return to the faith, it has yet to allow Muslims to legally convert to Christianity. Leaving Islam is considered by many Muslims apostasy under Sharia (Islamic law) law, a sin punishable by death.

Last month, the same court ruled against allowing Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy, a Muslim convert to Christianity, to legally change his religion to Christianity on official papers. Hegazy was the first convert to Christianity to sue Egypt for rejecting his application to officially change his religion on his identification papers.

Both Hegazy and his wife are former Muslims and wanted to change their religion on documents so that their newborn baby can openly be raised as a Christian.

In Egypt, a child's official religion is determined by the father's official faith. Because Hegazy remains a Muslim legally, his daughter cannot attend Christian classes at school, be married in a church, or openly attend church services without being harassed.

Saturday's ruling was thus seen as "a big step for religious freedom in Egypt, but religious freedom will only be fully reached once Muslims can convert to Christianity," said Ramsis el-Naggar, a lawyer who worked on behalf of the 12 converts, according to the New York Times.

Egypt's population is composed of 90 percent Muslims and 10 percent Christians, mostly Coptic Christians. There are an estimated 10 million Copts, which are the Orthodox Christians of Egypt and the largest group of Christians in the Middle East.