Citizenship and Personal Beliefs

My citizenship and the protection of my civil rights should not be conditional upon my belief in a monotheistic God or seven or a continuum of prophets or none at all. I do not understand the correlation between religious beliefs and citizenship that plagues most of the Arab world, and in this one particular instance, Egypt. A columnist for a state-run Egyptian newspaper states on a talk show program that a Baha’i leader should be killed and surprise surprise, he doesn’t lose his job. Why? Because he is the mouthpiece of a government that persecutes its citizens for their religious beliefs. Is it too much to ask for a government that protects its citizens? For a government that provides its citizens with basic civil rights? Am I being naïve?

Our societies are rife with bigotry – I myself have friends and family who are bigots at times. But their bigotry should not be condoned by my government, nor should their ignorance be tolerated when it infringes on the civil rights of other citizens. That ignoramus so-called writer should be fired immediately and the police that stood by while a group of similarly ignorant idiots attacked the houses of Baha’is, sent for proper training as to their roles and duties as enforcers of the law.