EGYPT: A matter of conversion

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There’s a tricky line to walk in Egypt between religious tolerance and dogma, especially when it comes to Coptic Christians who make up 10% of the country’s 73 million people, a majority of whom are Muslims. Followers of the Coptic creed and Muslims sometimes clash, and passions can become particularly agitated when there’s a question of conversion.

Egypt’s highest civil court ruled over the weekend in a closely watched case that 12 Christians who converted to Islam would be allowed to go back to their original faith. The decision, overturning a lower court verdict, navigated through legalities and ecclesiastical tenets by finding that the men could renounce Islam because they were born Christians.

The ruling dodged a more sensitive issue: Can a person born a Muslim convert to Christianity without fear of penalty? Under some readings of Islamic law, a Muslim who converts is guilty of apostasy, which is punishable by death. Egyptian courts have never passed such a sentence, but a number of Muslims who have embraced other religions have gone into hiding or fled the country after threats from other Muslims.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo