Stephen Johnson

Stephen Johnson

Blog Post: Egypt detains Shia Muslims, crackdown on group continues

On February 5, 2012 the Egyptian newspaper, Bikya Masr, posted an article based on the recent arrest of two Shiite Muslims in Egypt. Both of the men were visiting the country to participate in the International Conference on Islamic Awakening and Young People when they were arrested in the Cairo International Airport for carrying “Shia books”. However, this is not the only incident in which the Shiite Muslim minority in Egypt has been targeted. There have been numerous accounts of Shiite Muslims, including one Australian man, being taken into custody for charges such as blasphemy and insulting tenets of religions. About one month before this article was published, the Hussein Mosque, built hundreds of years ago and important for Shiite pilgrimage, was closed by Egyptian officials. They feared that the majority Sunni Muslims found in Egypt would become enraged by Ashura celebrations, in which, Shiite Muslims mourn the death of Husayn ibn Ali.

To add insult to injury, Egypt’s Minister of Religious Endowments, Mahmoud Hamdy Zaqzouq stated that all mosque and religious institution can be monitored by the Ministry of Religious Endowments and from that, claims that there are no Shiite religious institutions in the country of Egypt. An Egyptian Shiite Muslim responds to this claim by saying, “We live under these conditions every day and most of the time I keep my mouth shut, but for our government to insist that we don’t exist is insulting and wrong.” This leads to the question, how can the government make such claims? Zaqzouq suggested that there were no Shia Mosque in Eqypt, yet as mentioned earlier, the Hussein Mosque, one of the most important Shiite mosque found in Egypt, was closed by Egyptian officials. This lack of acknowledgement for the Shiite community in Egypt by the government only adds to tension between these two groups.

One of the main questions that arises from this article is why does this turmoil exist between the Shiite population and the rest of Egypt? As briefly mentioned before, Egypt’s Islamic population is primarily Sunni. Conflict between these two groups can be traced back to their initial separation due to different beliefs on who should succeed the Prophet Muhammed. Sunni Muslims believe that Abu Bakr should have been the first Imam, while Shiite Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammed’s cousin, Ali, should have been the first Imam. As a result, throughout the history of Islam, these two groups have had an unstable and at times a violent relationship.

This behavior by the Egyptian government may be explained by its overall instability. One of the advertisements on the Bikya Masr website refers to the one year anniversary for the revolution against President Mubarak’s Regime. This has been the first time in over 20 years in which Mubarak was not the primary political figure in Egypt. Even when he was president, there were allegations that he was politically corrupt. Therefore, for the past 20 to 30 years Egypt’s government has either been unstable due to lack of leadership or led by political leaders that were viewed as corrupt. As a result, unjust acts such as the persecution of Shiite Muslims can occur with very little questioning.

This article shows the effects of Islamic law and culture on various aspects of a primarily Islamic nation. It also raises concern for the consequences of a religion becoming such a major part of a particular society and government. I believe the author of this article, Joseph Mayton, attempts to exploit some areas of concern that pertain to the Egyptian society and the resulting prejudice toward Shiite Muslims.