Originally published on The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy
By the end of the current decade, a full century will have passed since the Egyptian state began to reluctantly admit the existence of adherents of the Baha’i Faith in Egypt. Nonetheless, the fundamental rights of Baha’i Egyptians are still stuck at their very same starting point as they were a century ago.
It was an unlikely scene for some: speaking heavily accented Egyptian Arabic, the European author avidly attacked and dismantled Islamophobic discourse in Europe, while most comments from his Egyptian audience stressed the danger posed by the “Islamic ascendancy,” in its manifold meanings, for the future of Europe and the world, even “Islamic” countries themselves.
