By The European Times | Created at 2026-09-15 07:15:17 | Updated at 2026-09-15 14:29:29
7 hours ago
By Aaron Rhodes
Religious persecution in Egypt is not improving, and could worsen if international partners downplay it in order to strengthen strategic cooperation. As Egypt’s largest trading partner, accounting for about one quarter of the country’s total trade, and as donor of billions of Euros, the European Union, in particular, has leverage to advocate for protecting Egypt’s vulnerable religious minorities.
Religious minorities suffer from state repression, discriminatory laws and administration, and violence by extremist groups. New for 2026, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) placed Egypt on the Special Watch List, finding conditions for religious freedom in the country “poor.”
Coptic Christians make up ten percent of Egypt’s population. But their churches, businesses and homes are frequently attacked, too often under the noses of local authorities, who fail to prosecute perpetrators. USCRIF found that 2,000 legalization requests for existing churches remain unsolved.
Blasphemy laws are used to target Coptic Christians and other religious minorities; Article 98(f) of the criminal code criminalizes insulting a “heavenly religion.”
The Ahmadiyya Muslim movement also faces an upsurge of persecution in Egypt, having been declared a “threat to Islam” by the Muslim Brotherhood. The movement’s TV channel was shut down by the government in its effort to champion Sunni orthodoxy. Members of another movement, the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, were arrested in 2025 for displaying a banner promoting a religious TV channel, and USCRIF found they were ill-treated in detention.
Problems of the small Egyptian Bahá’í community have become acute, especially given that the group is denied legal registration; Egyptian law recognizes only Islam, Christianity and Judaism as regards public religious life. As a result, Bahá’í houses of worship cannot be legally recognized. Marriage, civic identity and even the right to bury the dead are all highly problematic. A UN Special Rapporteur’s recent report specifically notes that fatwas issued by Al-Azhar, Egypt’s foremost religious authority, have blocked Bahá’ís from using public cemeteries and entrenched their marginalization in Egyptian society. According to Bahá’í authorities, “For more than six decades, they have been barred from acquiring new cemetery land and from using public cemeteries. As a result, they are forced to bury loved ones in an overcrowded historic Bahá’í cemetery in Cairo, where there is reportedly no longer enough space for conventional burials and bodies are buried upright.”
In 2006, Bahá’í leaders responded to an Egyptian Supreme Administrative Court decision that denied them identity documents. They appealed not only on behalf of their own rights, writing that what was at issue was the “application of the principles of equity, fairness, and honesty”and describes the exclusion of Bahá’ís as an “injustice.” Theyargued, in effect, that the Egyptian government’s own claim to administer justice imposes a moral obligation of fairness that precedes positive law. And thus, their argument was for religious freedom under universal moral or natural law.
One hundred and fifteen (115) members of the European Parliament and national parliaments across Europe signed a joint statement calling on Egypt to end religious discrimination and guarantee the rights of Bahá’ís and other religious minorities. The parliamentarians specifically echoed recent UN concerns over marriage registration, identity documents, burial rights, surveillance and harassment.
As Egypt seeks a free-trade agreement with the EU, President Sisi’s government has promoted a number of initiatives to demonstrate commitment to religious freedom and tolerance. While the EU assists Egypt, the EU also needs Egypt’s cooperation on a range of security issues. As these factors will find a balance, ensuring religious freedom and other fundamental human rights is another kind of problem — a moral one. Solving it would be in Egypt’s self-interest. It would bring Egypt closer to being a country governed according to objectively humane moral principles and standards that benefit the lives of all.
Aaron Rhodes was formerly Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights and also the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe. He is the author of The Debasement of Human Rights (Encounter Books, 2018) and Human Rights Without Illusions (Academica Books, 2015).
