JERUSALEM, December 3, 2018 (Morning Star News) – A wan effort to do away with the religious designation on ID cards in Egypt reflects the enormity of the discrimination Christians face in a country regarded as a leader of Middle Eastern Islam, rights advocates said.
ID cards are required for almost every aspect of public life in Egypt, and a Christian designation can cause problems for the approximately 10 percent of the population at police stops, checkpoints, hospitals and workplaces. Christianity, Islam and Judaism are the only three religion options on the ID cards.
“Whenever there is a situation that requires showing your ID … you would be categorized right away,” Sherif Azer, head of policy for the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, told Morning Star News.
A bill calling for the elimination of the religious designation on ID cards quickly died in committee on Nov. 14, Azer said. Committee members in the constitutional and legislative committee as well as the religion affairs committee determined that the bill did not meet the requirements for law – an apparent smokescreen, Azer said, for the real reasons for the rejection.
As in previous efforts to end the designation, Azer said, the main reason the bill died was that doing away with the religious designation could allow a Christian man to marry a Muslim woman. That is illegal in Egypt, as…
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