EGYPT: Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light detained without trial since March 2025
Advocacy of Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) at the International Round Table on FoRB (IRF) in Washington DC/ US Senate
By Hans Noot, Associate director of Human Rights Without Frontiers
HRWF (02.05.2026) – In March 2025, Egyptian security forces commenced a coordinated campaign against individuals solely for the peaceful expression of their faith. The catalyst was reportedly the display of a small banner promoting a religious television channel affiliated with this minority group — an act of expression that under international human rights law is protected as part of freedom of belief and expression. Within a matter of days, at least 14 adherents were arrested in locations across the country, including Cairo, Giza, and the 10th of Ramadan City.
These individuals were not charged with violence, incitement, or harm to others; they were targeted simply because they belong to a religious community whose beliefs differ from the state-sanctioned interpretation of Islam. Following their arrests, several were held in undisclosed locations for extended periods of enforced disappearance, a practice that itself constitutes a grave human rights violation under international law. Families were denied information about their loved ones’ whereabouts, and in at least one case, a detainee was forcibly deported to Syria — despite his status as a recognised asylum seeker and the well-documented risks he faces if returned.
Independent human rights monitoring and reporting by Amnesty International and other organisations indicate that at least three of those detained — Hussein Mohammed Al-Tenawi, Omar Mahmoud Abdel Maguid, and Hazem Saied Abdel Moatamed — have been subjected to ill-treatment and torture while in custody, including beatings and electric shocks. Reports describe harsh detention conditions, inadequate food and medical care, and deliberate isolation designed to prevent detainees from sharing their beliefs with others.
Moreover, authorities have reportedly enlisted state-aligned religious scholars to visit detainees with the aim of coercing them to renounce their beliefs in exchange for release. None have acquiesced. Such actions raise serious concerns about the use of religious pressure and coercion by a state body — practices incompatible with the right to freedom of conscience.
What is particularly alarming about this situation is not simply the mistreatment of individuals but the broader legal and social context in which it occurs. Egypt’s constitutional framework designates Islam as the state religion, with religious interpretation subject to stringent control by official institutions. This has produced a legal environment in which religious minorities outside the sanctioned framework — even when peaceful — face legal ambiguity, social marginalisation, and state discrimination.
From the perspective of international human rights norms, these actions contravene obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a party, including the rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, expression, and protection from arbitrary detention and torture.
As we gather here in the United States’ capital, at this Roundtable on freedom of religion or belief, the plight of these Ahmadi believers in Egypt underscores a broader pattern: when states equate religious conformity with national security or social order, the consequences for diversity, human dignity, and rule of law are devastating.
HRWF urges all present to elevate this situation in diplomatic engagements, to call for the immediate release of those detained solely for peaceful religious exercise, and to support independent monitoring of their treatment. Sustained international attention can be a crucial safeguard for conscience rights where these rights are most under threat.
A poster for the campaign to free the AROPL members detained in Egypt.
