The case of Baha’is

It is understandable that thorny, controversial questions concerning liberties, rights, and equality should dominate public attention and result in heated debate. But that they should spill over into the educational system, however, is nothing short of playing with fire. It exposes our children to detrimental attitudes and trifles with the quality of product the educational institution delivers.
A case in point is that of Kholoud Hafez Abdou, a secondary school student whose application for the Thanawiya Amma (Secondary school certificate) examination was rejected because she cited her religion in the application form as Baha’i. Kholoud filled the application in accordance with her birth certificate in which she is cited as Baha’i, but had to sign a pledge to sit for the Islamic religion exam since the only electives in religious studies are Islam and Christianity.
The official in charge at the Education Ministry refused to approve Kholoud’s application, declined to assign her the student number which would allow her to sit for the exam, and removed her name from the student list. The school administration informed her father who consequently contacted the official in charge, only to hear him say: “If you are not Muslim there is nothing I will do for you; your daughter will not sit for the exam”.
What right has the official in question to reject Kholoud’s application? Kholoud filled the form in accordance with the data in her birth certificate. Was she required to falsify that information? And did the application include any warning against citing Baha’i as religion? The more serious question is that of the freedom of belief stipulated by the Constitution; how can a student be required to disown her faith? Is it not enough that she had to pledge to sit for the Islamic religion exam?
We are before ominous symptoms of an ailment that has widely spread in our society, with officials and employees disregarding the regulations of their institutions and neglecting their civil duties in favour of their personal beliefs. The self-evident question is that even if an employee dares act in such a dishonest way, how can the institution allow his behaviour to go unchecked? Shame on the Egyptian education system if Kholoud is deprived of sitting from the exam for nothing but being Baha’i. Our Education Ministry might as well be named the Ministry of Extremism.
The court recently issued a ruling which we strongly applauded allowing Baha’is to obtain ID cards in which the religion box is left blank instead of having to cite Islam, Christianity or Judaism as their religion. If the court did not deny the Baha’is their right to full citizenship, how can a government employee dare to do so? Instead of promoting creativity and free thought, our education system is promoting fanaticism.
The tragic instances are many. Fresh in mind is the case of the two Christian twins Andrew and Mario who were forced to sit for the Islamic religion exam on grounds that they had to be Muslim since their father had converted to Islam. The twins handed in their answer sheets blank, save for the phrase “I am Christian” and would have failed to be promoted to the higher class had it not been for a last-minute extraordinary resolution by the Education Minister to promote them. Another scandalous case was that of the Muslim teacher who was persecuted by her colleagues for refusing to wear hijab. Kholoud’s case will not be the last of its kind if so far as the educational system persists in championing extremism.

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