CAIRO, Egypt —Tucked away in Labib Iskandar's pocket is a neatly folded slip of paper with fraying edges that tells the story of a community fighting for recognition.

It's a receipt Iskandar got when he applied for the computer-based identification card Egypt had just then begun issuing — more than five years ago.

Iskandar is a Bahai, a member of a religious community that regards 19th-century Persian nobleman Baha'u'llah as a prophet — a challenge to the Muslim belief that Muhammad was the last prophet. Given the pivotal role of Islam in Egyptian life, the government will not issue an ID card to a Bahai, only to Muslims, Christians or Jews.

The issue broke into the news in April when a court ruled that members of Egypt's little-known Bahai community had the right to have their faith listed on official documents, sparking an outcry. The Interior Ministry quickly filed an appeal, and last month another court froze the case.

It's still a controversy. Some Muslim clerics openly declare the Bahai faith a heresy, and civil rights advocates complain that this heavy-handed approach threatens to set off clashes like those that erupted recently between Muslims and minority Christians in the northern city of Alexandria.

While the dispute directly affects only the country's Bahais — perhaps 2,000 of the 72 million Egyptians — it provides a glimpse into how a once cosmopolitan society has changed into a more religiously charged one.

"Before, everything was simpler and everyone knew I was a Bahai and had no problem with that," said Iskandar, a 59-year-old engineering professor. "There were no biases. Fanaticism started to surface only now."

The family whose suit led to the court ruling on the Bahai faith has refused to speak with reporters. But the Bahais' experience in Egypt can be seen through Iskandar and his family.

His birth certificate and original government ID card list him as a Bahai. His sons have similar birth certificates. But when his oldest son, Ragi, 24, applied for his ID card, officials would only agree to draw a line — to indicate a blank — in the religion section.

Later, when 19-year-old Hady applied for an ID, he was told he must identify himself as a follower of one of the three officially recognized religions and never got his papers, Iskandar said.

"We worry sick about them when they stay out late, especially the youngest son, since he has no ID, which could land him in trouble," Iskandar said. "Because they're young, they get upset and may say 'let's leave Egypt' " — an option the elder Iskandar rejects.

"I am an Egyptian. I was born in Egypt ... and I won't leave Egypt," he said.

The elder Iskandar was allowed to apply for the new computerized ID but never got one. His two sons' applications for the new documents were not even accepted. At the end of the year, Egypt will not recognize the old paper IDs, replacing them with the computerized ones.

Iskandar recalled attending Bahai activities until a 1960 presidential decree dissolved Bahai assemblies. Last October, he said, his sister died and the family couldn't obtain a death certificate because of her faith.

"They don't want to recognize the Bahai Faith. Fine, no problem. But as an Egyptian citizen, is it my right or not to have a birth certificate and an ID card?" he said. "Why do you want me to change my religion? Why do you want me to be a hypocrite? I refuse to lie."

Muslim scholar Abdel Moeti Bayoumi said the Bahais' demand for recognition on official documents would cement a sectarian system that could fracture the country.

"Believe in whatever you want to believe in, you and your children, as long as you do so at home behind closed doors," he said. "Do not undermine the public order."

Bayoumi is a member of the Al-Azhar Center of Islamic Research, a leading institution of Sunni Muslim learning. Like many Muslim scholars, he believes Bahaism is a splinter of Islam and not a religion in its own right. He said the Bahais' beliefs and practices — including considering Baha'u'llah a prophet — offend Muslims.

He contended that Bahais were lucky the Interior Ministry appealed the April verdict because otherwise extremists could have attacked them.

A statement from Al-Azhar urged Egypt "to firmly stand against this group which hurts the religion of God." It urged the government to outlaw the Bahai faith, and another statement from Al-Azhar's research center, playing on the region's anti-Israeli sentiments, argued that Bahaism "serves the interests of Zionism."

Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which has monitored the Bahais' case, said Egyptians' ignorance of the faith has fueled a "smear campaign."

"It is another manifestation of the narrow and heavy-handed approach with which the Interior Ministry tackles religious affairs. There are strong similarities between these events and the clashes in Alexandria in terms of lack of tolerance," he said, referring to clashes between Muslims and Christians that left two people dead and 40 wounded in April.