A recent al-Azhar fatwa or religious edict has caused great controversy on the Cairo scene. The fatwa calls for tough penalties against people who convert to Islam for non-religious reasons then revert to their original religions, even though it does not specify the penalty. It terms the act of walking away from Islam ridda, an act of desertion of Islam, punishable by death according to sharia or Islamic jurisprudence. Al-Azhar declared claims that ridda infringes on freedom of belief invalid since, it said, Islam forces no one to become a Muslim in the first place.
Conversions to Islam frequently occur in search of some personal benefit such as the desire to marry a Muslim woman, divorce a Christian wife, escape court sentences, or attain some social or commercial advantage.
Between a man and his God
The fatwa came in response to an enquiry by the State Council—Egypt’s highest administrative court—which is looking into 148 cases of Christians who converted to Islam then reverted to Christianity and are now demanding legal status as Christians. Back in 2004, 32 ‘re-converts’ won back their original identities through court rulings.
Some in Egypt fear the recent fatwa would mark the beginning of a real conflict between the civil state and the religious one which fundamentalists call for.
For his part intellectual Tareq Heggi rejects the idea that Islam stipulates any punishment for abandoning it. “In Egypt there is the Constitution and the civil law, and these should be the only source political and legal authorities’ refer to for any rulings.”
“I personally believe that religion is a private matter between a person and his God, and strongly advocate the removal of any mention of religion in all official documents,” Mr Heggi said. As for fatwas, he said, the more the fatwas the greater the conflict within the community. “This country needs a cultural climate that respects and supports human rights, especially freedom of belief, he stressed. Modern concepts of citizenship must be upheld instead of outdated cultural norms.”
Writer and Islamic scholar Abdallah al-Tahawi believes we need to redefine some of the concepts attributed to Islamic thought so as to accommodate modern concepts of citizenship rights. “It is our role, he said, to come up with interpretations of ridda that would deal with the variables of modern times”.
Who decides?
But who decides, head of the NGO Egyptians against Religious Discrimination Mounir Megahed asks, whether or not a specific act of conversion is for personal benefit? “This is something the only judge of is God,” he remarked. Mr Megahed believes that Egypt should enact a personal status law that would render the adoption of a different religion for the sake of marriage or divorce ineffectual. But the problem, he says, is that neither Muslims nor Christians accept a unified personal status law; each desires a law which conforms with their specific faith. Moreover the issue of ridda is itself controversial in Islam, he adds.
Regrettably, professor of international law Awad Shafiq says, Egypt has no constitutional guarantees to uphold freedom of thought or belief. Freedom of belief, he said, is subject to Islamic sharia, and international human rights measures are frequently rejected by sharia-abiding legislators who regard them as conflicting with Egyptian ‘constants’.
Lawyer and rights activist Naguib Gabraïl says the fatwa might influence the judgement in the cases of the Christians who converted to Islam then reverted to Christianity. The verdict should be out on 9 February. But Mr Gabraïl points out that this fatwa, like other fatwas, is not binding. The Supreme Administrative court does not honour them, the Administrative Court does.