Middle East Focus-Arabia Deserta: Growing Egyptian Intolerance: Baha’is on the Run

Arabia Deserta

Growing Egyptian Intolerance: Baha’is on the Run

“Baha’is cause new disruptions in Upper Egypt. A security official said the police hav arrested more than 50 people who had demonstrated against resettling families suspected of being Baha'is in their district. All Baha’is had escaped the village of (meetabutibbin) in April after their neighbors set fire to four of their houses. Rumors have been spreading that the escaped Baha’is would be resettled.......”
(Nice neighbors; almost like it probably was in Jim Crow South).

Egypt seems to be having problems with its minorities. Christian Copts, descendants of the country’s pre-Islamic people, have been more vocal about discrimination (almost certainly because there is more discrimination against them as Salafi ideas spread). People are being accused of spreading the Shi’a sect and tried in court. Now the Baha'is, who are barely visible in Egypt are being openly persecuted.

Egypt used to be a tolerant society where various religions and races co-existed. This has been the case since the end of the Pharoanic era about 25 centuries ago. Lately it is increasingly becoming just another intolerant Arab state. It is moving slowly toward the Saudi model, where only one sect of one religion is tolerated.

(Baha’is are also persecuted in Iran, the birthplace of their faith).
Cheers and Ramadan Kareem
mhg
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