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This judgment was passed as a result of the inquiry addressed in writing, on January 24, 1939, by the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Justice, enclosing a copy of the compilation of Baha'i laws related to matters of personal status published by the Egyptian Baha'i National Spiritual Assembly, and asking for a pronouncement by the Mufti regarding the petition addressed by that Assembly to the Egyptian Government for the allocation of four plots to serve as cemeteries for the Baha'i communities of Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said and Isma'iliyyih. "We are," wrote the Mufti in his reply of March 11, 1939, to the communication addressed to him by the Ministry of Justice, "in receipt of your letter ... dated February 21, 1939, with its enclosures ... inquiring whether or not it would be lawful to bury the Baha'i dead in Muslim cemeteries. We hereby declare that this Community is not to be regarded as Muslim, as shown by the beliefs which it professes. The perusal of what they term `The Baha'i Laws affecting Matters of Personal Status,' accompanying the papers, is deemed sufficient evidence. Whoever among its members had formerly been a Muslim has, by virtue of his belief in the pretensions of this community, renounced Islam, and is regarded as beyond its pale, and is subject to the laws governing apostasy as established in the right Faith of Islam. This community not being Muslim, it would be unlawful to bury its dead in Muslim cemeteries, be they originally Muslims or otherwise..."
(368:1)
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