Cairo, Egypt - An Egyptian lawyer said on Tuesday he was withdrawing an unprecedented petition requesting that the Egyptian authorities recognise the conversion of one of his clients from Islam to Christianity.
Lawyer Mamdouh Nakhla told a news conference he was pulling out of the case of convert Mohamed Hegazy because he did not want to offend Muslims or enflame public opinion.
He did not say why he had changed his mind since Monday night, when he told reporters the case was going ahead.
Hegazy, a journalist and political activist, said in the petition filed to an administrative court on Saturday that he converted to Christianity four years ago.
He said he went to register his change of religion with the Interior Ministry but the officials rejected his request.
Some Egyptian newspapers have given the case front page treatment, carrying hostile comments about Hegazy's motives and his political history.
Hegazy has given one television interview but he has not been answering telephone calls and Nakhla said that after receiving threats he was spending the night in different places.
The lawyer said his decision to withdraw was also based on Hegazy's failure to provide important documents, such as his request that the authorities register his change of religion.
"If you add the state of alert in Egyptian society, and to protect the feelings of our Muslim brothers, and to protect our national unity ... we decided to abandon this case," he said.
"We ask all Egyptians, Muslims and Christians, to close this file and refrain from talking about this sensitive area. Not speaking about this is much better than blowing up such subjects, which could set society on fire," he added.
Hegazy could pursue the case through another lawyer.
Nakhla said on Monday that some Egyptian Muslims have converted to Christianity quietly over the years but he did not know of a case of anyone seeking official recognition.
Some clerics say the penalty for renouncing Islam is death but the modern Egyptian state has never recognised apostasy as a crime and the state-appointed chief mufti or exponent of Islamic law said last month apostasy was not punishable in this world.
The Egyptian courts are dealing simultaneously with an attempt by a large group of former Christians to change back from Islam to Christianity and by Baha'is who want to leave blank the religion entry on their identity papers.