Groups hail Egyptian religious rights move

CAIRO, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Human rights groups hailed a court ruling in Cairo allowing people to obtain Egyptian identification papers without a formal declaration of faith.

Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights praised a decision by the Cairo Court of Administrative Justice to allow members of the Baha'i faith in Egypt to obtain birth certificates and identity cards without a formal declaration of faith, Human Rights Watch said in a press statement Wednesday.

Egypt had held that Islam's Sharia law mandates a declaration of one of the three state-recognized religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism to obtain identification documents.

"This ruling remedies an official discriminatory policy based solely on religious belief," said the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Hossam Bahgat.

A November 2007 report by Human Rights Watch accused Egypt of selectively using Sharia doctrines to violate the international right to religious freedom.