Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

The report was nearly a laugh but it was really a cry considering its content of disfigured notions about the actual incidents that one could not help but remember some cartoon characters.

Released in 16 pages or 10,340 words about Egypt, the paper is leveling a bundle of accusations against Egypt that it practices individual and group discrimination, formally and informally, against non-Muslims.

Religions in Egypt are as follows: 6-8 million Christians, 8-10% of the total population, less than 1% Shiites, or 750,000 out of the 86 million Egyptians, 2,000 Bahā'īs, 500-1,000 Jehovah's Witnesses followers and 125 Jews, according to the report that cited no sources for these surveys.

The report also employed exaggeration and minimization techniques, characteristic of dark comedies, like the story of two persons who converted from Islam to Christianity as well as harassments against the Bahā'īs.

The downplaying technique was flagrantly clear in the on the issue of obtaining permits for remarriage for Christians in Egypt, which is suffered by hundreds of Christians in Egypt.

The report also committed three mortals sins, the first of which was that it criticized the principles of the Islamic sharī'ah (law) pertaining to personal status, like prohibiting the marriage of a Muslim woman to a non-Muslim man, as well as other rules on inheritance, custody of children, divorce and khula' (the right of women in Islam to divorce their husbands).

The second sin was that it was in contempt of the sentences and decisions of Egyptian justice regarding personal status issues in which one of its parties is non-Muslim. The report cites those cases as if they are evidence that there were forms of violation of religious freedoms of non-Muslims.

The third one was that the report justified all crimes of forgery in official documents committed by some persons involved in cases that had to do with changing their religious beliefs or some Bahā'īs or people who do not respect official procedures.

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