Abduction and Forced Islamization of Christian Coptic Girls Continues in Egypt

ICC Note

‘It is strange that the State agencies abide by silence and protect the criminals who kidnap the girls, and that they put pressure on us so that we do not even call for the State to play its role in protecting its citizens,”

By Mary Abdelmassih

08/11/2009 Egypt (AINA)-The systematic abduction and forced Islamization of Coptic minor girls in Egypt is a frequent, dangerous and a rapidly escalating phenomenon, The problem was brought to light by the Coptic Pope Shenouda III as far back as December 17th, 1976, when he protested during a conference held in Alexandria that “there is pressure being practiced to convert Coptic girls to embrace Islam and marry them under terror to Muslim husbands” and demanded that the abducted girls be brought back to their families.

These frequent abduction cases are reported by Coptic human rights advocacies but rarely by the main stream media, and when, they are mostly portrayed as ‘an elopement of a loving teen couple.’

Another recent victim of abduction is 15-year old Marian Bishay, who went out on July 15, 2009 to get dinner for her mother and young brothers from a local restaurant, 50 meters away from where she lives in Omrania, Giza , but failed to return home. The local police succumbed to pressure and issued a missing person report after initially refusing.

The Bishay family, whose father works in Kuwait , reported the matter to Free Copts advocacy in Cairo , asking for support. According to activist Osama Eid “the police just shrugged their shoulders and said there is nothing we can do, you search — which we actually did.”

Being unsuccessful in filing another report with the police, father Amir Bishay filed a complaint with the Attorney-General against three of the owners of the “Momen” restaurant in Omrania. He accused them of abducting his minor daughter.

According to Free Copts, the Bishay family intend to protest through a sit-in at the Coptic Dioceses of Giza, objecting to the failure and neglect of state security with regards to Marian’s case. “Especially because at the same time a Muslim girl was abducted by a registered criminal and was returned within three days, while the fate of Marian is still unknown,” says Eid.

The family has received conflicting reports of Marian’s whereabouts; some reports said she was raped and forced to convert to Islam, while others said that she was kept in Alexandria against her will.

‘It is strange that the State agencies abide by silence and protect the criminals who kidnap the girls, and that they put pressure on us so that we do not even call for the State to play its role in protecting its citizens,” said Dr. Waheed Ala, “We have noticed that when the kidnapped girl is a Muslim, the security agencies get active and work hard and arrest the kidnappers who then face trials and get imprisoned, but this does not happen when the kidnapped girl is a Coptic Christian. This is especially true because in the majority of cases, the State Security is the one who masterminds the kidnapping plans.”

In another case of abduction of a Christian Coptic girl, Mamdouh Nakhlah, attorney and President of “Al Kalema” human rights organization said that his Center, had received a plea for help from the brother of minor Reda Botros Samaan who disappeared on July 22, 2009 on her way to sit for her exams, in Dayrout, Assuit. Nakhla had to complain to the Minister of Interior on July 24 as the police refused to issued a report.