Egypt

A Christian girl in Egypt writes, “We are treated very badly…. We are imprisoned in our own home because Muslim clerics called for the murder of my father.” The constitution of Egypt promises freedom of belief but gives no provision for freedom of practice. Under this double standard the country escapes international censure but still disbands churches and harasses believers. Christian converts are refused identification documents, their marriages are not legally recognized, and there have been cases where birth certificates have been refused. One man has been fighting for two years to get a national I.D. card that registers him as a Christian. Without identification he cannot find employment.

Additionally, Muslim converts often face intense persecution from their own families. A young woman who chose to follow Christ was treated with insults and death threats, both from her family and the police. Finally, she decided to leave the country. At the airport, she discovered she had been banned from leaving. Police arrested her, tortured her, and sexually assaulted her. They even starved her children to pressure her to return to Islam. When the case finally went to court, the judge told her, “If I had a knife now, I would kill you.” Police normally decline to prosecute Muslim attackers and will not defend Christians.

Young Christian girls increasingly are kidnapped by Muslim men, raped, “married” to their attackers, and forced to convert to Islam. A local pastor reports, “Such abuse remains covered in a cloak of silence and tacit acceptance, even though it is against the constitutional affirmation of civil rights.”