Friday 22 July 2016 | 04:25 AM
Christina Habib

The “Citizenship and Abolition of Discrimination” bill, submitted by Representative Alaa Abdel Moneim, in which it stipulates the abolition of the religion section from the national ID card, sparked widespread controversy. While the supporters of the project saw that the abolition of the “religion” section aims to deepen “citizenship,” opponents said, Such cancellation constitutes an attack on the Egyptian identity, and any draft law must be of benefit to society, which is absent in the submitted draft.
Hafez Abu Saada, a member of the National Council for Human Rights and head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, said that removing the religion section from the card has no "value" and does not aim to combat discrimination, and will not contribute to solving crises, on the contrary, it may complicate it.
Abu Saada emphasized that removing the religion field from the official documents is useless, as the basic principle in Islam is that everyone has the freedom to believe what he wants, and there is no coercion in religion, and the presence of the religion field in the national ID card came to regulate transactions between people, and that results. Organizing Islamic and Christian rituals and entering places of worship and holy places.
A member of the National Council for Human Rights added that the Egyptian people have the ability to distinguish others, and they do not need to look at the card, and that the abolition of the religion section may lead to problems upon marriage, especially for the legal marriage officers.
He pointed out that combating discrimination has other criteria, such as creating an anti-discrimination commission, raising awareness of the rights and duties of citizens, Muslims and Christians, towards each other and spreading the culture of acceptance of others, in addition to issuing a unified law for places of worship.
For his part, Walaa Jad al-Karim, a human rights activist and director of the Partners Foundation for Transparency, said that the goal of removing the religion section from the card is to prevent discrimination, but the discrimination crisis is not related to this matter, but rather is related to daily transactions, and then a law for equality and non-discrimination must be enacted. Without mentioning the deletion of the religion field, which will lead to major problems that may lead to more sectarianism.
Jad al-Karim pointed out that any law must be of benefit to society, which is absent in this law, as it does not prevent Christians from working in various jobs, and they are present in all state institutions, while the elimination of religion may feed into sectarianism. He added, "The draft law could cause confusion in Egypt's relationship with some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, which have places that non-Muslims will not enter, especially Makkah Al-Mukarramah."
For his part, a member of the General Council of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Father Salib Matta, said, “Citizenship is belonging to the homeland, and religion is a relationship between a servant and his Lord, so I welcome this law. . Matthew pointed out that every church knows its own children, and is not afraid that non-Christians will enter the crowd inside the church, stressing that the seven sacraments, such as baptism, chrism, confession, communion, and marriage, can only be obtained by Copts whom the church knows, but he stressed that the status of The draft law is in a rigid form, without changing the culture of society, it will not lead to real citizenship.
He added that Al-Azhar and the Church must have a role in deepening the feeling of citizenship by choosing sermons that deepen this feeling from the pulpits in mosques, as well as presenting content that encourages citizenship through the media and the Ministry of Culture and Education.