On Friday 20 June rioting erupted in Nazla as Muslim villagers went on a looting and destruction rampage against Copts’ homes, businesses, and cars following news that Dimiana—known as Dalia Mohamed since she converted—together with her 10-month baby Seif al-Islam, had run away from her husband a day earlier while on a visit to Cairo.

The rioting started on Friday afternoon when Muslims roaring Islamic slogans began to attack Copts’ houses and shops. Although local security officials had anticipated the rioting and called for extra forces from the neighbouring village to stop any attack, they could neither prevent the attack nor stop it once it started. They finally resorted to the use of tear gas to disband the rioters, and were able to control the main streets but not the side streets.

Even the village church and the priest’s home were attacked. The rampage lasted until the early hours of dawn of the following day. Security officials imposed a day-long curfew and attempted to hold a reconciliation meeting after they had found Dimiana and returned her to her husband. But the Copts refused to reconcile without the payment of indemnity for their lost and damaged property.

The mob of 4000 Muslims shouted “Kill the infidels” as they ran amok. Only 15 rioters were arrested, 11 of whom were quickly released by prosecutors.

It is common knowledge that Dimiana had fled a husband she did not wish to live with. She stayed away for some two days then, hearing of the riots in her village and the great harm inflicted upon the Copts, and that her uncles had been questioned by the police, she handed herself in on Friday evening.

Dimiana unexpectedly went missing from her home two years ago.  Her family was later informed that she had become a Muslim and been married to a Muslim and that they could have no further contact with her.

h/t: International Christian Concern

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Egyptian law does not recognise conversions from Islam and does not permit a Muslim woman to marry a Christian.  No legal impediments apply, however, when the man is Muslim and the woman Christian.  Go figure.

Approximately 3 years ago, Bolis Rezek-Allah, a pharmacist met the Muslim convert Enas Yehya Abdel Aziz, loving relationship was established and the couple wanted to get married.
. . .
As the couple met the obstacle of inability to marry legally in Egypt, the only option they had was to change names and religion on ID to assume a Christian name with the help of an employee of the Civil Registry Office Sheriff Metwali.

The couple got married in church; the priest not aware that Enas name and religion on ID was changed from the original, conducted their ceremony and they became married.

The couple later attempted to fly from Egypt but they were caught by police, imprisoned and tortured . . .

Last year, Bolis Rezek-Allah was offered a deal: The charge against him would be dropped if he renounced his “illegal” marriage.  The prosecution of his wife for falsifying an official document and blaspheming Islam, however, would still proceed.

Earlier this month, Bolis, Enas, and the witness at their wedding were each sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment.

h/t: International Christian Concern

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Today the administrative court that has been hearing often-heated arguments in the case issued its conclusion: It refused to make a decision, in effect rejecting Mr Hegazy’s petition.  The reasons given seem bizarre.

[T]he Court of Administrative Justice in Cairo said that Hegazy, the country’s first former Muslim to sue Egypt over the issue, had not followed proper legal procedures. In addition, the court said, he could not convert "to an older religion."

"Monotheistic religions were sent by God in chronological order… As a result, it is unusual to go from the latest religion to the one that preceded it," the court added in a published statement. "The person who has such an attitude is straying from the right path and threatening the principles, values and precepts of Islam and of Egyptian traditions," the judgment said.

However, the same court today granted a favourable ruling to members of another minority religion.

Yet, the same court ruled that Egyptians from the Bahai minority could leave their religion blank on official documents, in effect restoring their access to jobs, schools and medical and financial services.
. . .
It was not immediately clear why the court did not give Hegazy the option to leave his religion blank on official documents.

The government has not said whether that ruling will be appealed to a higher court.

Earlier, Hegazy spoke about his reasons for converting from Islam to Christianity.

Hegazy converted to Christianity and took on the Christian name Beshoi, after a classmate left a book with quotations from the Bible on his desk. "I began to read the book and was consumed by the love of Jesus," he explained last year in interviews at a secret location. "The major issue for me was love. Islam wasn't promoting love as Christianity did."

When his wife became pregnant last year he decided to make the change official. "Otherwise my child will automatically be registered as a Muslim," he said in published remarks. However, his application was rejected.

Hegazy says he will appeal the non-decision to Egypt’s supreme court.

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An Islamic fundamentalist lawyer opposing Mr Hegazy’s cause threatened him with death.  What’s worse, the judge issued no reprimand: He didn’t even object.  It’s a good thing Hegazy wasn’t in court at the time.

[T]he judge went so far as to express his loathing off the accused because he had converted. There was no verdict but the judge vowed that he would never let Mr Higazy be registered as a Christian. He defended his decision by saying that Islam is the principal religion in Egypt. No mention was made of the freedom of religion established in the constitution which is a fundamental right of all citizens.

Hegazy, who has been hiding for months, is the first Egyptian convert from Islam to Christianity to make a concerted effort to have his identity card changed to reflect his new religion.

His lawyer Ramsis el-Naggar has it right: “There is no freedom of religion in Egypt unless you’re a Muslim”.

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New Year's Day of 2008 witnessed the start of the recent attacks where Samir Louly, a former detainee who is also a member of the "Islamic Groups" accompanied by his son Abdullah fired rounds bullets in the air from their machine guns continuously for 2 hours at the monastery. When the police officer arrived, no charges were laid. Later, Louly was publicly boasting that he will use his weapons any time he wants and that nobody can stop him.

A week later, Louly and his son gathered a group of 20 armed Muslim men and attacked the monastery again firing directly at it to terrorize the monks living in it, who in turn informed the police immediately, instead of investigating the incident and arresting the terrorists, who are known to them, the police arrested 2 of the monastery monks and held them for investigation for 2 days.

In the latter assault, eight hermitages were destroyed and Bibles and crosses burned.

After initially ignoring the monks’ complaints, Egyptian authorities have now agreed to investigate.

Mentioned in several ancient church documents, the monastery dates from the 4th-century Christian monastic movement and is believed to be one of the oldest monasteries in the world.

A website devoted to the monastery is located here.  The text is entirely in Arabic, but a multitude of photos is posted at this page, whence the photo at the top of this post.

h/t: International Christian Concern

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The material in question was a book entitled The Persecuted that the association compiled from Egyptian newspaper reports and court cases which involve perceived persecution of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority.

Initially, they were also accused of converting a Muslim, named as Mohamed Ahmed Hegazy, to Christianity, but this charge was later dropped owing to lack of evidence.

Mr Hegazy has been severely harassed and threatened with death by Muslim clerics.  He has now gone into hiding.

Although Mr Faltas and Mr Ezzat were acquitted, it is unclear whether they have yet been released from custody.

h/t: International Christian Concern

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My friends, you may believe you have discovered a very different truth from that of the majority in the Anglican Communion. It is not just about sexuality, but about your views of Christ, the Gospel and the authority of the Bible. Please forgive me when I relay that some say you are a different church, others even think that you are a different religion.

I understand that it is difficult for you in your context to accept the standard teaching of the Anglican Communion.  This is why you refused to accept Lambeth Conference Resolution 1.10.  You also ignored all the warnings of the Primates in 2003, 2004, and 2005.  Your response to the Windsor Report is seen by the Primates as not clear.  You cannot say you value being member of the Anglican Communion while you ignore the interdependence of the member churches.
. . .
My friends, if you really believe that the truth revealed to you is different from that shown to the rest of the Communion, then you need to uphold that claim with boldness even at the risk of losing unity. If you think it is right and necessary to ordain and consecrate practicing homosexuals and that you should bless same sex partnerships or even  marriages, you should be true to what you believe is right and accept the consequences.

However, if you appreciate being members of the global Anglican family, then you have to walk along side the members of your family.  Those who say that it is important to stay together around the table, to listen to each other and to continue our dialogue over the difficult issues that are facing us are wise.  We whole heartedly agree with this, but staying around one table requires that you should not take actions that are contrary to the standard position (Lambeth 1:10) of the rest of the Communion.

Read the whole thing.

This speech seems to me a forthright call to TEC bishops to be honest about their actions and the situation of their church within the Anglican Communion.  Canon Kendall Harmon issued a similar call two days ago so, clearly, this is a key point for many Anglicans and Episcopalians.

Despite this, there are reports that Abp Anis’s remarks upset many bishops and at least one attendee is said to have offered “a private apology”.  To whom the apology was made and in what context are unknown.

Now comes this depressing news:

[T]he Daily Telegraph has seen a draft document drawn up by a senior bishop who urges his colleagues to adopt a far less clear position that will be open to a wide range of interpretations, allowing liberal American bishops considerable leeway.

Get ready for more obfuscation.

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Security forces Wednesday arrested the Egyptian country director of the Middle East Christian Association (MECA) Adel Fawzi, 61, and the association's photographer Peter Ezzat, 35, their lawyer Naguib Guebrail said.

"They were arrested at home in Cairo and were still being held Thursday morning," said Guebrail. "We haven't been officially told why they were arrested but security sources told us they are accused of distributing religiously defamatory books that incited confrontation between Copts and Muslims," he said.

Computers, CDs, and documents were seized by security forces, the lawyer and judicial source said. The source said that the pair had been arrested for insulting Islam on the British-based United Copts Web site.

The United Copts website is indeed based in Britain and carries a report on the arrests but MECA, according to its website, is incorporated in Canada and has Ontario mailing addresses.

Reuters says that unnamed lawyers reported the allegedly offensive online material to the prosecutor general, who sicked the cops.

Egyptian authorities certainly have reasons to want MECA silenced.  This from United Copts of Great Britain:

The action of the security services appears to be related to the fact that MECA had filed law suit against members of the Egyptian government including the President, Prime Minister, Interior Minister and Minister of Social Services, seeking compensation for the Coptic victims of al-Kosheh Muslim riots in 2000 where 21 Christians were killed in cold blood and non of the perpetrators were convicted. The ruling is expected on September 6.

Furthermore, MECA says the two men had assembled evidence corroborating allegations that Egyptian police killed a Christian who had refused to pay extortion.

On August 7, 2007 Peter Ezzat and other members of the Canada based The Middle East Christian Association were investigating reports that a Coptic worker in the suburb of Cairo was thrown off his balcony by two members of the Egyptian police after he refused to cave in to their demands and pay them extortion money. It appeared that two policemen had stopped Nasser Sediq Gadallah on his way home from work and demanded money by force. He refused to pay and went and filed a report with the prosecutor's office charging them with extortion and brutality. Eyewitnesses reported that both members of the police visited Naser's home shortly after he filed his report and tried to force him to withdraw his complaints from the prosecutors' office. When he refused, they threw him off his balcony in the presence of his family and other eyewitnesses.

Police had apparently wanted to cover up the murder by calling it suicide. Peter Ezzat and Dr Fawzy Faltas were taken into custody less than 24 hours after their investigation.  Police broke into their residences in the early hours of yesterday morning, took the men away in handcuffs, ransacked their homes, and confiscated their computers.

Other members of the MECA in Egypt are now in hiding.

h/t: Transfigurations

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Though Egyptian law does not forbid conversion from Islam to Christianity, it provides no legal means to make the change. Converts to Christianity usually hide their identity to avoid torture and forced recantation at the hands of family members and security police.

Hegazy, whose wife Zeinab is four months pregnant, said that he wants his child to be born with Christian papers. The couple, who were forced to hold an Islamic wedding ceremony because of their legal status as Muslims, know that a Christian ID card will allow their child to take Christian religion classes in school, marry in a church and even openly attend services without fear of harassment.
. . .
Hegazy, a native of Port Said, is the first Muslim-by-birth to openly challenge the government’s restriction of conversion away from Islam.

Not only that, Mr Hegazy’s lawyer has been sued and threatened for taking the case.

Mamdouh Nakhla of the Kalema Center for Human Rights has taken Hegazy’s case, telling Compass from Cairo today that the lawsuit has caused him “big problems.”

Several Muslim clerics and lawyers headed up by Sheikh Youssef el-Badry have opened a case against the lawyer on charges of causing sectarian strife and baptizing Muslims.

A source close to Nakhla told Compass that Egypt’s security police, the State Security Investigation (SSI), called the lawyer to tell him to withdraw the case or he may be killed.

The charge of “causing sectarian strife” is rich.  Egyptian Muslims frequently attack Coptic Christians for no apparent reason, other than anti-Christian animus, with few or no legal repercussions.

An average of over a thousand Egyptian Christians convert to Islam every year with no legal problems.  Converting from Islam to Christianity (or, indeed, any other faith) is legally impossible because, under Egypt’s constitution, sharia is the foundation of the legal system.  Sharia is generally interpreted as outlawing “apostasy” from Islam.

Previous related posts:

• Egyptian Christians document scores of attacks
• Egyptian Muslims attack Christians over church plans
• Egyptian Christian girls kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam

UPDATE (8 Aug.): The lawyer has succumbed to intimidation and withdrawn from the case, saying he does not want to offend Muslims.  Mr Hegazy has been forced into hiding after being denounced in the Egyptian press.

A coalition of Coptic Christians is calling on governments of the world to intervene on behalf of the Coptic Christians of Egypt and demand that Egypt stop religious persecution and guarantee religious freedom and justice for all citizens.

For nearly four decades, the Coptic Christians in Egypt have been targeted by a wave of brutal attacks on their persons, churches, homes and businesses.
. . .
The researchers noted that many of these attacks took place on Fridays, after the Muslim prayer in mosques. As well, the vast majority of these attacks were not committed by organized terrorist groups, but by ordinary people from the neighborhood.

The most recent attack took place last weekend in Bahma, on the outskirts of Cairo.  Muslims torched over 25 Christian-owned shops and homes after word got out that Christians wanted to convert a house already used for prayer meetings into a church.

Egyptian authorities imposed an agreement on local Muslims and Christians that absolved the perpetrators of all liability and responsibility.

Under the terms of the settlement, Muslims were not bound to pay for damages nor assume any criminal responsibility. As well, the prayer house, which was the center of dispute, would be used only for Sunday school classes and a cross may not be displayed on the building.   

Only days after the Bahma violence, Egypt became a member of the infamous United Nations Human Rights Council.  That may seem ironic at first but, when one considers the HRC’s abysmal record, it’s entirely appropriate.

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The following information comes from a blog post written by an Egyptian Muslim, as translated by Global Voices Online.

Muslim Egyptians burned five shops which are the only means of livelihood for complete families. They also burned 25 homes which are the private property and shelter for their Coptic neighbours. The Muslims burned the shops and homes with Kerosene. They then hit their residents with sticks and pelted them with stones. According to the Masri El Youm newspaper, this is what happened in the village of Bahma and resulted in 11 Egyptian Coptics suffering from burns, fractured bones and bruises.
. . .
The reason for all this? A total of 300 Copts in the village wanted to transfer one of the homes, owned by a Coptic in the village, into a church. One of the villages, who is said to be an Imam (clergyman) of a mosque, distributed leaflets calling upon Muslims to defend their beautiful village.

Neither the Egyptian government nor the press paid much attention to the conflict.

Another Egyptian blogger points out that the disturbance started after Friday prayers at the village’s main mosque.  Is that a coincidence or what?

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Recently, a high-ranking Egyptian postal official decided New Testaments mailed into Egypt would be a destabilizing force in their country.
. . .
The mailing company which helped us deliver the New Testaments into Egypt has been extremely helpful. However, since we can no longer mail into Egypt using the same process, we are researching other methods of mailing into Egypt. When one is in place, we will open the Egypt operations for Bible mailing once again.

The government of Malaysia does not prohibit Bibles from entering the country, but it does specify which citizens are not supposed to read them.

Bibles in the Malay language must have a note on the cover saying they are “not for Muslims.” By law, Malay people are considered Muslims when they are born. Government leaders do not want them to change to another faith later.

No wonder Malaysian converts to Christianity feel the need to keep it secret.

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