Mohammed Hegazy
Encyclopedia
Mohammed Hegazy is the first Egyptian Muslim convert
Convert
The convert or try, in American football known as "point after", and Canadian football "Point after touchdown", is a one-scrimmage down played immediately after a touchdown during which the scoring team is allowed to attempt to score an extra one point by kicking the ball through the uprights , or...
to Christianity to seek official recognition of his conversion from the Egyptian Government.
Biography
Hegazy grew up in Port SaidPort Said
Port Said is a city that lies in north east Egypt extending about 30 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal, with an approximate population of 603,787...
on the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. He converted to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
from Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
in 1998 and took the name Beshoy after an Egyptian monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
.
His wife, Um Hashim Kamel, also converted from Islam to Christianity several years ago, taking the name Christine. They both have a daughter, Miriam who was born while in hiding.
He reports that he converted after starting "readings and comparative studies in religions," and finding that he was, "not consistent with Islamic teachings."
According to Hegazy, "the major issue for me was love. Islam wasn't promoting love as Christianity did."
Although Christianity is not illegal in Egypt, conversion to another religion from Islam
Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
is punishable by death under a widespread interpretation of Islamic law
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
, though killings are rare and the state has never ordered or carried out an execution.
Theoretically, Egyptian law must be derived from Islamic law, according to a ruling several decades ago. Converts are often harassed by police, who use laws against, "insulting religion" or "disturbing public order" to justify legal action against them. Hegazy reports that after his conversion was discovered, he was detained for three days and tortured by police. In 2001, he published a book of poems critical of security services and was held for three months for sedition, disturbing public order, and insulting the president and was eventually released without charge.
In 2007, Hegazy sued the Egyptian court to change his religion from "Islam" to "Christianity" on his national ID card. He said he wants to do this so that his child can be openly raised Christian, be given a Christian birth certificate, and to be married in a church. He also stated that he wants to set a precedent for other converts.
His first lawyer, Mamdouh Nakhlah filed the case, but then quit after Hegazy's conversion caused a major uproar. Nakhlah told the AP
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
that he initially accepted the case because of an editorial last month by one of Egypt's highest Islamic clerics, the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, who wrote against the killing of apostates, saying there is no worldly retribution for Muslims who abandon their religion.
Gomaa's comments were sharply criticized by Muslim conservatives, who felt that he was opening the door for Muslims to leave their faith. Sheikh Gad al-Ibrahim told Al-Quds al-Arabi that "The Egyptian government should find Mohammed Hegazy and apply shari'a, giving him three days to reconvert and then killing him if he refuses". Sheikh Youssef al-Badri and Souad Saleh, a professor at Egypt's al-Azhar university where Egypt's top Islamic scholars work, agreed with Al-Ibrahim, openly challenging statements by Egypt's second highest religious authority last month that 'apostasy from Islam' should not be punished in this world. Gomaa later clarified his controversial statement by saying that only 'apostates' who "actively engaged in the subversion of society" should be punished.
However, with sharia enshrined as the basis of Egypt's legal code in Article 2 of the constitution
Constitution of Egypt
The Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt was the fundamental law of Egypt. It was adopted on September 11, 1971 through a public referendum. It was later amended in 1980, 2005 and 2007. It was proclaimed to update the democratic representative system in assertion of the rule of law,...
, many Muslims see no distinction between apostasy and subversion. His second lawyer Ramsis Raouf Al-Naggar, has also refused to take up the case, as he had previously announced. Al-Naggar is pessimistic that the suit could be won because of all the conflict surrounding it. He said that Mr Hegazy had not given them the necessary church documents that could be used in court as evidence of his conversion to Christianity. Hegazy recently told reporters that he had found a new solicitor but declined to reveal the name for security reasons.
Hegazy raised a storm of controversy when pictures of him posing for journalists with a poster of the Virgin Mary were published in the newspapers.
Fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
s have been issued by Muslim clerics calling for Hegazy's death. Under the same fatwa, Hegazy's daughter Miriam will be killed at the age of 10 if she does not choose Islam. Hegazy and his wife have decided to remain in Egypt and go ahead with the case, in spite of the various fatwas issued against him and his family.
He has received death threats by telephone. He and his wife have been ostracized by their families and are currently in hiding. Christine's family have sworn to kill her because she married a non Muslim against the family's wishes.
Hegazy's family is just as angry with him. In a 2008 interview to a local Egyptian newspaper, Hegazy's father said, "I am going to try to talk to my son and convince him to return to Islam. If he refuses, I am going to kill him with my own hands."
Shortly after, Hegazy released this statement in response to his father:
On August 8, 2007, Egyptian police detained two Christian human rights workers, Adel Fawzy Faltas and Peter Ezzat after their organisation was involved in several controversial human rights cases, including that of Mohammed Hegazy. They were subsequently held without charge and had their detention renewed on August 21. The two activists are members of the Middle East Christian Association (MICA). A Canadian non-governmental organisation that applied for legal recognition with the Egyptian government in June, 2007, MICA has been involved in several controversial human rights cases since 2007.
According to their lawyer, Peter Ramses al-Nagar, the main reason for Mr Faltas' and Mr Ezzat's detention is their work with Christian convert Mohammed Hegazy. He reported that the media have been saying that Faltas and Ezzat were arrested because they are the main reason Mr Hegazy became a Christian. Faltas had conducted a high-profile Internet interview with Mohammed Hegazy only days before his arrest, sparking claims in Egyptian media that he had led the Muslim to Christianity.
During a telephone interview with an Egyptian talk show, Fawzy said that Islamic scholars had accused his organisation of converting Mohammed Hegazy to Christianity. "The first question they asked was whether we converted Mr Hegazy," Mr Fawzy told reporters. "I told them, 'We don't convert anyone; we are a human rights organisation. But even if we had, there is no law against that.'"
In February, 2008, an Egyptian judge, Muhammad Husseini of a court in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
ruled in an unprecedented case that a Muslim who converted to Christianity cannot legally change his religious status, although he may believe what he wants in his heart. Judge Muhammad Husseini said that according to sharia,
Islam is the final and most complete religion and therefore Muslims already practice full freedom of religion and cannot convert to an older belief (Christianity or Judaism). Husseini also told the administrative court that "He (Hegazy) can believe whatever he wants in his heart, but on paper he can’t convert.”
Judge Husseini based his decision on Article II of the Egyptian constitution,
which makes sharia the source of Egyptian law. Hegazy has denounced the ruling as a violation of his basic rights. “What does the state have to do with the religion I embrace?” Hegazy questioned, according to the United States Copts Association following the ruling.
The convert’s defense team was also disappointed with the verdict. “The judge didn’t listen to our defense, and we didn’t even have a chance to talk before the court,” said Gamel Eid, head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) to U.S. Copts Association. An ANHRI representative said Hegazy still plans to appeal the ruling or possibly open a new case. Katarina also plans to file a petition for her right to change her religion to Christianity.
In Egypt, a child’s registered religion is based on the father’s official faith. Therefore, since Hegazy is officially Muslim, his daughter would not be able to enroll in Christian religious classes at school, wed in a church, or attend church services openly without harassment under Egyptian law.
However, in a different case in the same month, an Egyptian court ruled that 12 Coptic Christians who converted to Islam and then reverted to Christianity could have their faith officially recognised. This decision was reached on the grounds that the Copts should not be considered apostates for converting from Islam, because they had been born Christian. The decision overturned a lower court ruling which said the state need not recognise conversions from Islam because of a religious ban.
A lawyer for the 12 Coptic Christians described the case as a victory for human rights and freedom of religion. He said that it could open the door for hundreds of other Copts who want to revert to their original faith from Islam.
See also
- Human rights in EgyptHuman rights in EgyptThe state of human rights in Egypt remains poor due to repressive government policies and brutal government crackdowns.-Rights and liberties ratings:...
- Egyptian identification card controversyEgyptian identification card controversyThe Egyptian identification card controversy is a series of events, beginning in the 1990s, that created a de facto state of disenfranchisement for Egyptian Bahá'ís, atheists, agnostics, and other Egyptians who did not identify themselves as Muslim, Christian, or Jewish on government identity...
- Lina JoyLina JoyLina Joy is a Malay convert from Islam to Christianity. Born Azlina Jailani in 1964 in Malaysia to Muslim parents of Javanese descent, she converted at age 26. In 1998, she was baptized, and applied to have her conversion legally recognized by the Malaysian courts...
- Bahaa el-Din Ahmed Hussein el-AkkadBahaa el-Din Ahmed Hussein el-AkkadBahaa el-Din Ahmed Hussein el-Akkad is an Egyptian former Muslim sheikh. For more than 20 years, el-Akkad was a member of the fundamentalist Islamic group Da'wa el Tabligh, which actively proselytized non-Muslims but strictly opposed violence. He also led a mosque community in Al-Haram, in the...