Woman Sentenced Over Religion

[sandy]

A Christian woman in Egypt has been sentenced to three years in jail because her father briefly converted to Islam 45 years ago, which legally makes her a Muslim even though her official papers said she was Christian...

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2225906,00.html

:(

[anne022196]

ohhh!!! this news make me shock:eek:..
that was 45 years ago and i guess nothing wrong with that..
its the choice of her father and its not her fault

[Feisty Kitty]

This just goes to show how the freedom of religion is so imperative.

[anne022196]

but this is so unfair...
so sad..:(

[Feisty Kitty]

What else is new in the Middle East? They don't know fair from their elbow!

[Son of Simon]

Wow- it sucks PERIOD to have to put any sort of religious affiliation on government identification. The issue isn't so much that she's Muslim (because she isn't...in case we're just looking to blame them) it's that she was born into a Theocracy (that's right kids- Church and State, all wrapped up together) that can dictate that religion must be identified and even regulated by the government (Christians can't marry Muslims, as the article points out).

I know it's easy to sit back here in the United States and judge how "backwards" this practice sounds- but just remember it's the very fact that this country guarantees you the right to follow ANY religion, or none at all (not just the predominant religion of American settlers), that gives people the right to keep their faith (or in this case, their right to change their faith) separated from what the Federal Government can regulate.

We can rest on our laurels here and say " Oooh- evil backwards religious nations" and forget that the reason English colonists settled here in the first place was so that they could in fact practice whatever religion they desired. Had they not made it so clear then maybe we wouldn't have been fortunate enough to be born in a religiously-liberal country. The price of your freedom to worship God includes the price of letting others worship Buddha, Allah, Jehovah, Osiris, nobody, or anybody- and hence for all to be free we can't have special treatment for any.

And yet some of us want to move towards a one-religion nation or government?

I guess that's okay, as long as you just happen to pick the right one, but then we're no better than Egypt, or any other Theocracy. I'd fight for your freedom of worship, knowing you wouldn't fight for my choice not to follow yours.



-SoS