WATANI International
6 September 2009
Andrew and Mario Ramsis are 15-year-old Christian-born twins who rejected outright being officially considered Muslims against their will, an incident which strongly brought them into the sphere of attention of human rights activists in Egypt two years ago.
The twin’s father had converted to Islam and, in 2007, had their birth certificates changed to cite their religion as Muslim. According to Egyptian law, a Muslim parent possesses the right of passing his religion on to his children even if they were born into another religion. The twins discovered they were being considered Muslim by the State when, as they sat for their mandatory examination in religion, they found out they had to be examined in the Islamic, not their original Christian, religion. They refused to answer the exam questions, and handed in their answer sheets with only one sentence written: “I am Christian”. Their Christian mother Kamilia Lutfy, who had been divorced from their father, took their case to court, and the Education Minister issued an exceptional decision that the twins should be promoted to the higher class, even though they had officially failed their religion examinations, until the court passed a ruling in their case.
The twin’s case since then gained sufficient notoriety for human rights activists to demand that they should not be forced to adopt a religion against their will.
On 26 September the State Council, Egypt’s highest administrative court, will be hearing the twin’s case. Ms Lutfy is demanding that her boys be granted their legal right to freely choose which religion they wish to belong to. Egyptian law considers that, once children reach the age of 15, they are capable of choosing which religion to belong to if each of their parents belongs to a different religion. A ruling in favour of the twins would require the Egyptian Civil Register Authority to change the religion in their birth certificates, and hence in all legal documents, into their original Christian religion.
Ms Lutfy’s lawyers say that taking the twin’s case to court now that they are 15 years old is the last resort on the legal level for them to belong to the religion they choose to belong to.