U.S. Copts Association

Veiled except for eyes, young Christian woman says she converted to Islam.

March 31 (Compass Direct) - Following a three-month search, an Egyptian Christian has discovered his missing sister living with a Muslim family near her home town and professing faith in Islam.

Spurred by a brief telephone message from Theresa Ghattass Kamal saying that she was being held against her will and forced to convert to Islam, Sa’eed Ghattass Kamal last week tracked his sister’s suspected captors to the Bedouin desert area of El-Ga’ar, near his home in Wadi El-Natroun, 50 miles northwest of Cairo.

Mo’atazz Mohammad Sa’eed at first refused to let Kamal see his sister when the Christian arrived at his home on March 23. He later relented after Kamal insisted that he only wanted to make sure his sister was safe.

With only her eyes showing through her veil and flanked by Sa’eed, his two brothers and his father, Theresa Kamal sat with her brother for 90 minutes but only spoke once, Kamal said.

“I have converted to Islam. I have found the right path,” she reportedly told her brother in a trembling voice.

But according to Kamal and his lawyer, Athanasius William, the Christian woman’s conversion still has not been registered at Cairo’s Al-Azhar Islamic Center. Egyptian law requires that all conversions be registered at Al-Azhar and then validated with the security police, the State Security Investigation (SSI).
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By LARA SETRAKIAN
Whether diplomats and politicians find a solution that will spare the life of Abdel Rahman, an Afghan man who could possibly face the death penalty for his Christian faith, the perception of Islam in the West may have already taken a hard hit.

Rahman, 41, converted to Christianity 16 years ago. Under Islamic law, apostasy — the abandonment of Islam — is a crime that can carry a death sentence. There were unconfirmed reports today that the Afghan government may spare Rahman, but the controversy has already become an international crisis.
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By Gudrun Schultz

TORONTO, Ontario, March 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Canadian immigration frequently fails to recognize the claim of refugee status from Egyptian Coptic Christians, reported CTV news yesterday. In at least half the cases, claimants are sent back to Egypt to face increased persecution.

The 2005 Country Report on Human Rights from the U.S. State Department said Egypt is responsible for “numerous human rights abuses,” in particular against religious minorities. The report lists numerous cases of “religious discrimination” against Coptic Christians and says there is widespread “torture and abuse” in Egyptian prisons.

Christians who have made refugee claims in the west will almost certainly be imprisoned and possibly tortured if they are sent back to Egypt.

“Just being detained in a prison is probably intimidation enough,” said Paul Rowe, one of Canada’s top experts on Christians in the Middle East and political science professor at Trinity Western University.

“Anyone who is a dissident will also face a certain amount of torture or certainly degrading punishment of various different sorts,” he said.
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Insistence on Trial for Christian Convert Puts Islam in the Court of Public Opinion

By LARA SETRAKIAN - ABC News

Whether diplomats and politicians find a solution that will spare the life of Abdel Rahman, an Afghan man who could possibly face the death penalty for his Christian faith, the perception of Islam in the West may have already taken a hard hit.

Rahman, 41, converted to Christianity 16 years ago. Under Islamic law, apostasy — the abandonment of Islam — is a crime that can carry a death sentence. There were unconfirmed reports today that the Afghan government may spare Rahman, but the controversy has already become an international crisis.
Read the rest…