Maher El Gohary is a broken and defeated man who has grown tired of life on the run. After a four-year battle to have the Egyptian state recognise his Christian faith, he is seriously contemplating reverting to Islam.
“I am seen as an outcast and have lost everything: my family, my home, my dignity and my inheritance,” he laments.
Maher El-Gohary and daughter Dina in hiding during 2010 (Photo: Compass)
For Maher and his daughter Dina, life has become “practically intolerable”. A former Muslim who converted to Christianity 30 years ago, Maher publicly announced their change of faith in 2008 when he filed a lawsuit against the Mubarak government hoping to gain the right to change the religious status on his national identification card from Islam to Christianity. He was only the second citizen to attempt to get the state to recognise his changed faith.
The change would have allowed Dina to receive a Christian religious education. But public declaration of faith-change from Islam — apostasy — is taboo in conservative Muslim-majority Egypt and Maher and Dina (who was 14 at the time) were forced to go into hiding after receiving death threats from extremists.
To this day, Maher has not won the right to officially convert. He and Dina have faced violence, humiliation and hostility for his effort. In Alexandria on Friday, Maher told Index:
We’ve been spat at, cursed and assaulted on the street many times and have been snubbed by all our relatives, neighbours and friends
In a 2009 hearing of his case, opposing lawyers urged the judge to convict him of apostasy and sentence him to death. They argued that Islam was “the highest ranking religion so followers of the faith could not convert to a lesser or inferior religion”. One lawyer claimed that cases like Maher’s were part of a Zionist conspiracy against Islam, warning that Copts (Egypt’s Christians) who protect and defend converts from Islam were doing so “at their own risk”. Maher got little support from within the Coptic community who fear retaliation. In order to get a baptismal certificate —required for official proof of conversion — Maher had to travel to Cyprus.
When I first met Maher and Dina in Abu Kir (a village on the Mediterranean Coast of Egypt) in 2010, they were living as fugitives. They’d spent the previous two years moving into a different apartment at least once a month to throw extremists and police off their trail. Then their goal was to flee the country to settle in “a more tolerant society” where they would be allowed to practise their religion freely and without fear.
Maher felt he had no choice but to seek political asylum abroad. It wasn’t an easy decision but he feared for their safety. “A man threw acid at Dina and she miraculously escaped physical harm. We also faced systemic prejudice on a daily basis and spent several days in detention after being arrested in Port Saeed,” Maher recalled.
Maher’s two brothers, who both worked for Egypt’s notorious State Security Service, also made sure he remained unemployed by threatening and intimidating anyone who hired him. In 2009, Maher and Dina attempted to leave Egypt for China, but Egyptian authorities prevented them from travelling. An hour before their scheduled departure, airport security officers confiscated their passports and notified the pair that they were “barred from travelling on orders from a higher authority”.
When Egypt’s January 2011 uprising broke out, Maher and Dina joined the protesters in Tahrir Square, hoping that the revolt would usher in greater freedoms and justice for all Egyptians.
Dina and I had long suffered state persecution for our beliefs. It was only natural that we would be among those revolting against the brutal regime.
Maher’s eyes swelled with tears as he spoke of the hope and promise the revolution had brought. Their hopes have been dashed.
Less than two weeks after Mubarak was toppled, Maher and Dina boarded a Damascus-bound plane and left Egypt. They chose to go to Syria as Egyptians require no visa to enter the country. After spending two-and-a-half years in hiding, they were finally free and wept with joy as the plane took off. “The revolution was nothing short of a miracle,” said Maher, adding, “for us in particular, it was a blessing.”
He and Dina were soon to discover that life as refugees in a foreign land was no easier than their lives as fugitives. With the help of United Nations, after two months in Syria, they were granted political asylum in Sweden. But unable to speak the language and unaccustomed to the cold, Maher and his daughter felt as alienated as they had felt in Egypt — albeit without the fear. They began to feel terribly homesick.
“Orthodox clerics we encountered were neither hospitable nor accommodating,” Maher lamented. “Their antagonism added to our feelings of estrangement.” After failing to adapt to the new environment, Maher and Dina took the bold decision to return to Egypt to face an uncertain fate.
Nearly two years after the revolution, Egypt’s Christians fear things may be worse for them in the “new Egypt” than they were under the Mubarak regime. The Islamists’ rise to power — and a new constitution currently being written by an Islamist-dominated constituent panel — has fuelled Christians’ concerns that their safety may be compromised and their freedom restricted under Islamist rule.
Under Mubarak, Egypt’s constitution ostensibly provided for freedom of belief and the practice of religious rites. But the regime placed heavy restrictions on these rights. Christians (who make up an estimated 12 to 15 per cent of the population) and members of the Bahá’í Faith (not recognised by the state ) complained of discrimination, especially in government employment. Christians were unable to build or renovate churches without a presidential decree and, according to the 2011 US State Department’s International Report on Religious Freedoms, the government arrested, detained and harassed converts to Christianity, alleging they jeopardised communal harmony.
9 October 2011. A funeral for one of the 27 Coptic protesters killed in the Maspero massacre (Demotix)
Despite promises by Islamist President Mohamed Morsi for a new “inclusive Egypt” where all citizens enjoy equal rights, Egyptian Christians or Copts have suffered a wave of sectarian violence. This has included the torching of churches and a brutal military assault on Coptic protesters at Maspero in October 2011, resulting in the deaths of 27 civilians. This year threats from Islamic extremists that have caused mass evacuations from several Egyptian villages and towns (the latest being the North Sinai border town of Rafah in September). According to a report by the Egyptian Federation of Human Rights, 93,000 Copts fled Egypt fearing for their safety in the six months after March 2011. The new draft constitution does not bode well for religious freedom and minority beliefs.
The ultra-conservative Salafis are calling for the new constitution to make the “rulings of Sharia Law” the foundation of Egypt’s legislative framework. This stricter interpretation of Sharia Law will further alienate Egypt’s minority Christians, who have long suffered marginalisation and exclusion. Furthermore, the new draft only recognises “the three Abrahamic faiths”. Adherents to non-Abrahamic faiths, such as the estimated 2,000 followers of the Bahai’i faith, are not mentioned and therefore may be denied the right to practise or build places of worship. Moreover, anti-blasphemy laws stipulated in articles 38 and 40 of the draft prohibit “the defamation of messengers and prophets”, failing to specifically define what is meant by “defamation”.
This is the Egypt that Maher and Dina have returned to after spending nearly two years as refugees outside their country.
Traumatised and confused by the experiences of the last four years, father and daughter say they are resigning themselves to what may come. They realise that the tide of conservatism sweeping Egypt may result in an even more antagonistic environment for Christians, particularly for converts from Islam. Dina has already reconverted to Islam and Maher has lost his fighting spirit.
“I’m utterly exhausted and drained,” Maher said, his voice choked with emotion. “I have no more energy to fight.”
Shahira Amin is an Egyptian journalist and broadcaster
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A Christian man who was demoted after making posts opposing gay marriage on Facebook won in an employment case against his employers today. Adrian Smith, an employee of Manchester’s Trafford Housing Trust, lost his managerial position and received a 40 per cent pay cut after receiving a written warning from his employer reprimanding him for making a post saying that allowing same-sex weddings in churches were “an equality too far”. The court ruled that the demotion was a breach of contract, as Smith’s posts were made on a private page and outside of working hours. A legal technicality limited Smith’s damages to £100.
It’s been nearly two years since the mass uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, but Egypt’s film makers are still plagued by censorship they say is stifling their creativity. Religion and sex remain high on the censors’ list of “taboo issues” as a tide of conservatism sweeps the country under Islamist rule. The recent rejection by the censorship committee of film maker Amr Salama’s script for a film on sectarianism recently stirred a new wave of controversy, fuelling fears of further restrictions on free expression under new Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. Seeking to allay the concerns, Egypt’s newly appointed Minister of Culture Saber Arab has given the green light for Salama’s script, affirming that “no changes are needed”.
Egyptian Film maker Amr Salama
Salama’s new film features a Coptic Christian adolescent seeking acceptance from his classmates after being transferred to a public school. Belonging to a different social class, he initially finds it difficult to fit in and decides against revealing his faith for fear of further discrimination. The barriers of class and religion are finally overcome however, as the boy succeeds in winning over his classmates, earning their friendship and respect. It is a story about tolerance and identity, depicting a teenage boy’s struggle to gain approval and overcome social and religious differences.
Arab’s nod of approval for the film came after Salama publicly criticised the restrictions imposed by censors in a televised interview on an independent satellite channel. The Head of the Censorship Committee, Sayed Khattab, meanwhile defended the committee’s decision to ban the film . In a live telephone call to the TV channel, he insisted it was “brutal to show a child being mistreated for his faith”. The committee had earlier cited “incitement to discrimination against Egypt’s minority Christian population” as a reason for the boycott. It had requested that Salama alter the script to focus on class rather than religious differences. The censors also claimed that the script was fiercely critical of Egypt’s educational system, portraying it in bad light. Under Egypt’s censorship laws, film makers are still required to get their screenplay approved before the shooting of the film, which then has to be viewed by censors who decide if it is fit for screening.
In a post on Twitter, Salama stated that he would not make the requested changes but would “keep the original script as is”. In an interview with a local daily, he said his lawyers had advised him against altering the script, saying it was his “legal right to express himself freely”. The real reason for the censors’ rejection of the script, he alleged, was the film’s acknowledgement of discrimination against Copts in Egypt. “The fact is discrimination still exists,” Salama noted. “It is not a figment of my imagination.”
Egypt’s Christians (who make up an estimated 12 to 15 per cent of the population) often complained of discrimination under President Mubarak. They needed a presidential decree to build or repair churches and said they were not appointed to senior positions in state institutions. Their situation, however, has further deteriorated following the rise of Islamists to power. In the transitional post-Mubarak period, churches have been torched by extremists and many Christian families have left the country to settle abroad, fearing their freedom and their lives were at risk.
In his inaugural speech shortly after his appointment, Egypt’s first democratically-elected President, Mohamed Morsi — who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood — had promised to be a leader for all Egyptians. He had also vowed to appoint a Christian Vice President. Bowing under pressure from the ultra-conservative Salafists, he has instead appointed a Christian Presidential aide — a position that some Christians have said is “largely symbolic and designed to fill a quota of Christians on the President’s advisory team.”
Coptic Christian women wait in line to vote in the first presidential election after Mubarak’s fall
The forced evacuation of Copts from their homes in Dahshur, a village on the outskirts of Giza, and more recently from the North Sinai border town of Rafah (after Christians received threats from extremists ) has fuelled Christians’ fears they were being targeted for their faith in the “new” Egypt. More recently, two Coptic children — aged 9 and 10 — in the Southern Egyptian region of Beni Sweif were jailed for blasphemy but were released days later after the charges against them were dropped. Meanwhile, Alber Saber, a Computer Science graduate and a Copt-turned-atheist remains behind bars pending an investigation after being accused of allegedly posting the anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims” on a Facebook page he administers. His trial for contempt of religion has been postponed to October 17.
Egyptian filmmakers and others working in the film industry are meanwhile becoming increasingly worried that their freedom of expression may be curtailed under Islamist rule. Many are speaking out against censorship. “Egypt’s censorship laws remain unchanged,” lamented cinematographer Kamal Abdel Aziz, who heads the National Cinema Center. “Censors should watch films only to determine whether they fall into an unrestricted age category or a restricted one,” he told Index, adding that he looks forward to the day when all censorship is abolished.
The tight censorship isn’t the only concern. A verbal attack on Egyptian actress Elham Shaheen by an ultra-conservative Salafist Sheikh has fuelled fears that Islamists were using methods of intimidation similar to those used in the nineties to force bellydancers and artistes to quit the profession. The Sheikh criticised Shaheen on his show on the conservative TV channel El Hafez, saying she was “cursed and would never go to Heaven”. The insult triggered an outcry from artists and liberals who, considering an attack on art and culture, expressed solidarity with Shaheen in both the traditional media and on social media networks. Shaheen has filed a lawsuit against the Sheikh.
Salama too is threatening to file a lawsuit if the Minister of Culture rescinds on his promise to lift the ban off his film. He said he was “waiting to see if Islamists really encourage freedom of expression as they claim.”
Journalist Shahira Amin resigned from her post as deputy head of state-run Nile TV in February 2011. Read why she resigned from the “propaganda machine” here.
An 11-year-old girl with Down’s Syndrome was last week arrested in Pakistan, after an angry mob demanded that the girl be punished for allegedly desecrating the Qur’an — the Islamic holy book. The young girl is a resident of a Christian neighbourhood on the outskirts of Islamabad, from where over 600 citizens have now fled after calls for her arrest were accompanied by threats to burn Christian homes in the area. This isn’t the first blasphemy case we’ve seen come out of Pakistan — earlier this year, charges were brought against Facebook for hosting “blasphemous content”. In September 2011, a young Christian school girl was expelled for misspelling a word on an exam question tied to a poem revering the Prophet Muhammad.
Religious sensitivities have mostly been responsible for silence from Pakistani politicians on the controversial laws — slammed internationally for their usage against religious minorities in the country. Politicians speaking out against the laws have faced hardship, and even in some cases — death. In January this year, governor of the state of Punjab Salman Taseer was slain after criticising the law, and Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti was murdered last year after speaking out against the country’s blasphemy laws, under which 1,000 cases have been lodged against individuals for allegedly desecrating the Qur’an since 1998.
Of course, Pakistan is not alone in upholding vague blasphemy laws that make it easy to clamp down on free speech in the name of protecting religion. Here are some ridiculous blasphemy cases from around the world this year.
RUSSIA — PUSSY RIOT
Three members of feminist punk group Pussy Riot were this month sentenced to two years in prison after being charged with “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for a 40-second performance staged in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Church. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevic were arrested in March for their “punk prayer” — which invoked the Virgin Mary to cast out Russian President Vladimir Putin. The case has garnered international outrage, as local activists believe that the charges brought against the women are actually politically motivated.
TUNISIA — PERSEPOLIS
In post-revolution Tunisia, the General Director of a TV station that aired a film depicting God as an old bearded man, was prosecuted and fined for “violating sacred values”. Nabil Karoui’s station, Nessma TV, aired the animated film Persepolis, based on Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel by the same name.
And concerns about freedom of expression in Tunisia only seem to grow, as its ruling Islamist party moved to outlaw blasphemy in a bill filed on 1 August. If passed, “cursing, insulting, mocking, undermining, and desecrating” religious symbols from the three Abrahamic faiths (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity) could lead to two years in jail, as well as a hefty fine of 2000 TND (£794). While the ruling Ennadha Party claims to want to protect free speech, blasphemy is treated differently — in the name of protecting an “Arab Muslim identity”.
INDIA — SANAL EDAMARUKU
Indian skeptic Sanal Edamaruku, has built a career out of challenging religious superstitions and mystics. Edamaruku now faces blasphemy charges for “deliberately hurting religious feelings” after pointing out that the “miracle” of “holy water” dripping from a crucifix in a Mumbai-based Catholic church was actually the result of a leaky pipe rather than divine intervention. He potentially faces jail time, and is currently remaining outside of the country in order to avoid arrest.
EGYPT — NAGUIB SAWIRIS & ADEL IMAM
Earlier this year, beloved Egyptian comic Adel Imam was sentenced to three months in jail for “insulting Islam” in films he made in the early 1990s. A Cairo court eventually dropped the charges, which were brought against the comic by Islamist lawyer Asran Mansour, for allegedly ridiculing political and religious figures. Also this year, Islamists accused Coptic businessman Naguib Sawiris of “blasphemy and insulting Islam” after he posted a picture of a veiled Minnie and bearded Mickey Mouse on the social networking site Twitter. The charges were eventually dismissed. Both of these case sparked outrage and fears that a clampdown on free expression in the country might take place, as the newly elected President Mohamed Morsi is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
POLAND — POP STAR DODA Well-known Polish pop star Doda was fined at the start of the year for comments she made in a 2009 interview, where she said that she had difficulty believing in the Bible, as it “was written by someone drunk on wine and smoking some herbs”. Doda, who launched her career with a solo album entitled Diamond Bitch, was fined 5,000 zlotys by Polish authorities for her comments — deemed to be offensive in the deeply Roman Catholic country.
Sara Yasin is an Editorial Assistant at Index on Censorship. She tweets from @missyasin
