CAIRO, Egypt — A Muslim convert to Christianity filed a suit against Egypt’s interior ministry Aug. 2 for refusing to legally recognize his change of religion, sparking a reactionary lawsuit by Muslim clerics and death threats against his lawyer. Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy, 24, filed the suit against the government for rejecting his application to replace Islam with Christianity on his personal identification papers.
Though Egyptian law does not forbid conversion from Islam to Christianity, it provides no legal means to make the change. Converts to Christianity usually hide their identity to avoid torture and forced recantation at the hands of family members and security police. Hegazy is the first Muslim by birth to openly challenge the government’s restriction of conversion away from Islam.
Hegazy, whose wife is four-months pregnant, said that he wants his child to be born with Christian papers. The couple, who was forced to hold an Islamic wedding ceremony because of their legal status as Muslims, knows that a Christian identification card will allow the child to take Christian religion classes in school, marry in a church and even openly attend services without fear of harassment.
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