Background:
The interview with Mukhtār Nūh, a lawyer and a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, revolves around questions related to religious freedom in Egypt including possible application of Islamic Sharīʿa, the rights of Christian minorities, and the possible response to conversion from Islam to any other religion.
Side A:
Nūh responds to the matter of religion freedom within the scope of Islam by saying that this issue is being highlighted by the American government and media, which is alleged to be controlled and mainly influenced by the Zionist Lobby, due to its interests in the time being not for the purpose of actually ensuring its application. The US government is using this issue for a political advantage and to impose some pressure on the Egyptian government as it is trying to work on problems that concern its people as the relations with Sudan etc.
He divides the religious freedom in Egypt into two categories: Religious practices and politics from a religious perspective. The first category which includes praying, fasting, and wearing certain costumes is completely allowed and accepted by the government. Christians, a minority in Egypt, are given a room for their practices, and they build and already have many churches, for example in a place called al-Zaytūn (a suburb in Cairo) there are about eight or nine churches. They are considered to be even more respected than minorities in a country like France that banned a girl from wearing a veil at school. The second category doesn't present a problem within the Christian faith as it is built on worship only, unlike Islam which teaches that religion and politics cannot be separated. In Islam there are some groups as the Muslim Brotherhood that try to dominate politics and apply religion in a political regime. Nūh mentions that some clashes might occur between the government and the Islamic groups that want to apply Sharīʿa. He clarifies this point by saying that if Sharīʿa was ever applied, it will not be done in the same way it was done centuries ago as fiqh changes every now and then.
Nūh stresses that US which is being influenced by the Zionist Lobby and therefore raises these issues to affect Egyptian decisions.
When asked about conversion incidents that might occur while applying Sharīʿa, he said that it is a hypothetical question. Conversions leaving Islam happen only on rare occasions and it is actually not the government's concern. The government might only interfere in cases that affect the stability of the country as the women who converted to Christianity and made it public in an effort to influence others. Otherwise the state doesn't interfere nor impose sanctions on those who don't practice their religion. At the end, he stresses that all conversions efforts are to create a sectarian strife in Egypt.
