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Egyptian Shiites feel heat at home with sect's regional resurgence

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Monday, November 13, 2006

Agence France Presse

Jailan Zayan

CAIRO: Iran's rising regional influence has emboldened Egyptian Shiites to demand more rights, but has also left them vulnerable under a government that questions their loyalty and treats all religious groups with suspicion. The post-Saddam Hussein rise of Iraq's Shiites, the popularity of Lebanon's Hizbullah movement and Iran's growing influence have all contributed to a spectacular regional Shiite revival and left many Sunni-ruled Arab countries feeling insecure.

"After Hizbullah's victory in the war, the regime started to turn its attention to Shiites [in Egypt]," said Ahmad Rasim al-Nafis, an Egyptian Shiite and professor of medicine at Mansoura University, referring to the recent Israeli war on Lebanon.

"There have been smear campaigns about us in the state press and in mosques, and our loyalty has been questioned," he told AFP from his home in the conservative northern city of Mansoura.

There are no reliable figures for Egypt's Shiite population. According to a US State Department report on religious freedom published in 2006, they account for less than one percent of the country's 73 million inhabitants.

At least 124 Egyptian Shiites have been arrested since 1988 in a series of crackdowns, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

"Egyptian security is always scared of religious groups, whatever their sectarian color," said Makram Mohammad Ahmad, editor-in-chief of the weekly current affairs magazine Al-Mossawar. "It is not that Shiites pose a particular threat in Egypt, or that Egypt is scared that this group would convert the rest," he said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=76837

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