Egyptian Society Challenges Growing Irreligious Minority

Ahmed El-Sebaie

Sara Abdel Aziz

Roqayah Tbeileh

They walk amongst us, lips shut tight and minds locked on the idea of preserving their secret from the preying judgments of society.  When they do speak out, they only receive verbal lashings and social marginalization leaving them frustrated yet ultimately incapable of denying a big part of who they are. Irreligious people constitute a hidden minority in Egypt.

A country often portrayed as a Sunni Muslim majority and a Coptic Orthodox Christian minority. But, Egypt has other different minority groups that not many people are aware of.

There are minorities of Catholic and Protestant Christians, Shiite Muslims, Jews, Baha’is and others, in addition to a growing minority of irreligious people.

Irreligious people claim that their numbers have been on the rise ever since the Jan. 25 Revolution. Yet, they are one of the most aggrieved minorities in Egypt.

“I think the worst thing about Egyptian society is that, it’s not that they approve or not, it’s that they do not realize we exist,” said a 19- year-old atheist student who requested to remain anonymous.

“People stop thinking of me as anything but an atheist,” he added cynically, explaining that the irreligious status also often becomes a label for the person.

Karim El Sharkawy, 22, is an Egyptian communication engenering graduate, who defines himself as a mixture of a Secular Freethinker and an Agnostic. “I believe we will never get enough evidence to confirm the existence of God,” he said.

“By free thinking I can confirm to myself the lack of proof for existing religions and the manipulation they lead, on the other hand, I wish everyone would live freely the way that suits them,” Sharkawy added.

“The society never approves my beliefs, they wouldn’t even give me space to do what I want, let alone to let me expose them”, said Sharkawy expalining society’s rejection. He added that most of the families of irriligous people don’t know about thier beliefs.

Sharkawy argues that even the holy books shed light on the significance of free will, but the Egyptian society does not put that into consideration.

He also said that the situation of irreligious people in Egypt violates the Universal declaration of human rights.

Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

“I’m a Theist, meaning that I believe in some form of higher power or being that created the world however I refuse to acknowledge religion,” said an AUC student who requested to remain anonymous.

Due to the fact that most Egyptians are somewhat religious, some atheists feel like it’s a challenge when it comes to dealing with the society.

He explained that his situation is much better on campus than outside. “With friends here on campus there is no problem, I am very open about this, not having any religion, whereas outside, I tend to pretend more or the other, and I don’t state my personal belief,” he said.

Egypt has a relatively high illiteracy rate, and the Egyptian society is considered to be conservative. Several members of minority groups are being oppressed and marginalized, and in extreme cases that were recorded in the past few years, physical violence and elimination were used in a number of sectarian crimes targeting members of different minority groups throughout the country. Atheists were no exception.

In a famous incident that took place last year, an Egyptian atheist blogger, Alber Saber’s home was sieged by an angry crowd, accusing him of atheism and heresy. This happened after Saber posted critical material on the internet that was deemed offensive to Islam and Prophet Muhammad.

According to Amnesty International, the angry crowd attempted to break into Saber’s apartment calling for his death, and threatened to set his house on fire. Out of fear, his mother called the police, who arrested him and confiscated his computer.

Amnesty International also states that a police officer ordered other detainees to attack Saber. “The detainees beat Alber Saber Ayad and cut him with a razor blade along his neck. He was then taken to another room where he was again beaten by 20 prisoners and forced to remain standing throughout the night.”

In another incident, a high profile Egyptian cartoonist, Mohammed Andeel, started receiving plenty of hate comments and people started to unfollow him on Facebook, after he came out as Agnostic on the internet last month. Many of his angry fans said that Andeel is now apostate and he is not worthy of their love, and others tried to change his mind and convince him to get back to Islam.

Officially, only Muslims, Christians, and Jews are recognized by the Egyptian state. However, several activists have been arguing that the second article of the Egyptian constitution, which classifies Egyptians into only those three monotheistic religions, has to be changed.

Jason Bloom, a former comparative religion professor at AUC, believes that the official status of the three monotheistic religions gives the idea that only Muslims, Christians, and Jews “are real Egyptians or good citizens whereas others, whether they be atheists or members of other religions are somehow not quite fully Egyptian or somehow not fully good citizens.”

Jamal Barakat, Director of the Office of Complaints at the National Council for Human Rights, said that activists have been working for a long time towards eliminating religious affiliation identification in the national identification cards.

He added that Human Rights Lawyers won individual cases to replace the religious affiliation slots on national identification cards with a dash.

When asked about whether or not irreligious people have the right to be recognized by the state, Professor Saad El-Din El-Hilaly, who teaches comparative Islamic Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University and a representative of Al-Azhar in the committee modifying the Egyptian constitution, seemed to have a different opinion, as he thinks that people who do not follow any of the three monotheistic religions should not gain official recognition.

Hilaly argues that officially recognizing atheists has to be based on the majority’s opinion, and the majority of the Egyptians believe that atheists don’t have the right to be recognized, and opposing the public opinion will lead secession.

Hilaly further explained that the reason that only those who belong to the monotheistic religions have official status is that they have a precept and solid reference to get back to, which is the holy book that they respect. Atheists, on the otherhand, don’t have a uniform set of laws to abide by, and this is the problem, he added.

From another religious prespective, Pastor Moheb Milad, the youth pastor at Kasr Al Dobara Evangelical Church siad that tbe increase in numbers of atheists and agnostics is due to wrongful religious practices.

Despite their confidence about their lack of faith, irreligious people are still unable to publicly voice their beliefs out loud. Irreligion is unfolding in not only the wealthy circles of Egypt but also amongst the lower socio-economic classes keeping their beliefs to themselves out of ubiquitous fear and perpetual discrimination amongst all strata of society.