CAIRO, Egypt— Citing a long list of chilling testimonials, human rights groups Monday called on the U.S.-backed Egyptian government to stop discriminating against converts from Islam and members of some religious minorities who want their faiths reflected on their national identity cards.
Christian converts and members of minority religions suffer daily discrimination in Egypt, which restricts their access to work, education, travel and healthcare, a rights report said on Monday.
Rights groups criticise Egypt for forcing minority believers to mis-state their religion on official papers.
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Human Rights Watch joined an Egyptian group in calling on Egypt's government to provide more than three religious choices on identity documents.
CAIRO — Despite a highly marketed effort at modernisation, Egypt’s ruling party is still centred on one man and draws much of its loyalty from its function as a patronage machine, analysts say.
An Egyptian Coptic church appears behind a mosque in Cairo, 2000. A rights report said that christian converts and members of minority religions suffer daily discrimination in Egypt, which restricts their access to work, education, travel and healthcare.
A land-mine explosion in northern Egypt killed a 6-year-old boy and critically injured two others on Monday, a security source said. Abu Zeid Salama, 6, was killed outright and two other boys, aged 5 and 2, were hospitalized by the blast from a mine they were playing with in a scrap-metal yard in the town of Al-Arish.
Human rights groups said that Egypt routinely denies converts from Islam and members of unrecognised minority faiths such as Baha'is the right to list their true religious affiliation on key identity documents.
CAIRO (AP)--Egypt must change its policy of not allowing converts from Islam and members of the Bahai faith to register their religion in official documents, two human rights groups said Monday.