Representatives of various Egyptian political movements have agreed to launch a campaign aimed at collecting one million signatures in support of the abolition of religious designations on national identification cards.
The idea was first proposed by renowned Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm in a recent letter to President Hosni Mubarak.
In his letter, Negm also urged the president to expedite a new law governing construction of churches and mosques in an effort to avert sectarian unrest and religious discrimination.
“We're now in the process of choosing the areas in which we'll launch the campaign,” said 6 April opposition movement coordinator Ahmed Maher.
National Association for Change (NAC) member George Isac, meanwhile, said that Negm’s idea had "come at the right time," in reference to the New Year's Eve bombing of a church in Alexandria. “We hope that all opposition movements sign on to the campaign," he added.
NAC coordinator Abdel Gelil Mostafa, for his part, expressed anxiety that the ruling regime might "attempt to thwart the initiative."
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
