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  3. Twenty-seven years ago, Egypt revised its secular constitution to enshrine Muslim sharia as "the principal source of legislation

Twenty-seven years ago, Egypt revised its secular constitution to enshrine Muslim sharia as "the principal source of legislation

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问题     Twenty-seven years ago, Egypt revised its secular constitution to enshrine Muslim sharia as "the principal source of legislation". To most citizens, most of the time, that seeming contradiction-between secularism and religion-has not made much difference. Nine in ten Egyptians are Sunni Muslims and expect Islam to govern such things as marriage, divorce and inheritance. Nearly all the rest profess Christianity or Judaism, faiths recognised and protected in Islam. But to the small minority who embrace other faiths, or who have tried to leave Islam, it has, until lately, made an increasingly troubling difference.  
    Members of Egypt’s 2,000-strong Bahai community, for instance, have found they cannot state their religion on the national identity cards that all Egyptians are obliged to produce to secure such things as driver’s licenses, bank accounts, social insurance and state schooling. Hundreds of Coptic Christians who have converted to Islam, often to escape the Orthodox sect’s ban on divorce, find they cannot revert to their original faith. In some cases, children raised as Christians have discovered that, because a divorced parent converted to Islam, they too have become officially Muslim, and cannot claim otherwise.  
    Such restrictions on religious freedom are not directly a product of sharia, say human- rights campaigners, but rather of rigid interpretations of Islamic law by over-zealous officials. In their strict view, Bahai belief cannot be recognised as a legitimate faith, since it arose in the 19th century, long after Islam staked its claim to be the final revelation in a chain of prophecies beginning with Adam. Likewise, they brand any attempt to leave Islam, whatever the circumstances, as a form of apostasy, punishable by death.  
    But such views have lately been challenged. Last year Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti, who is the government’s highest religious adviser, declared that nowhere in Islam’s sacred texts did it say that apostasy need be punished in the present rather than by God in the afterlife. In the past month, Egyptian courts have issued two rulings that, while restricted in scope, should ease some bothersome strictures.  
    Bahais may now leave the space for religion on their identity cards blank. Twelve former Christians won a lawsuit and may now return to their original faith, on condition that their identity documents note their previous adherence to Islam.  
    Small steps, perhaps, but they point the way towards freedom of choice and citizenship based on equal rights rather than membership of a privileged religion.
What is the main purpose of this text?
选项 A、To introduce the status quo of religious freedom in Egypt.
B、To ask for help in alleviating the restricted religious freedom in Egypt.
C、To force the government into action of some changes.
D、To promote the idea that freedom of choice and citizenship shall be based on equal rights rather than membership of a privileged religion.
答案D
解析 全文的目的需要看一下最后一段，“这些公民权利应该是平等的而不能依据一个人的宗教身份而有什么特权”，然后再看选项。A项说是介绍埃及的宗教自由现状，文中有很大一部分着墨于此，但这只是手段，并非目的。B项说呼吁埃及拓宽宗教自由，这在文中并未看到。C项说迫使政府采取措施改善现状，一篇文章并不能产生迫使的作用，况且还是外国人写的文章。D项意思与最后一段的意思比较符合，是通过文章宣传平等的概念，借宗教自由之名呼吁平等的公民权利。   
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