Christian girl, Rania, disappears in alleged kidnapping

In January 2017, Egyptian journalists, attorneys and activists have reported jihadist crimes against Copts. I highlight the following two, which victimize Christian women, girls and families in the Coptic communities of Egypt who are specifically targeted in these acts of violence.

The disappearance of a minor girl from her Christian family usually turns out to be an incident of kidnapping and forced conversion to Islam. One week into this year, a 17 year-old girl, Rania Eed Fawzy, was found missing from her family home in the village of Al Kiati in the Al Minea province of Upper Egypt. Family members of the missing girl filed a complaint with the local police that a Muslim male named Rabee Radi Naghi had taken their daughter against her will.

Their family attorney contacted the Egyptian Attorney General, Nabil Ahmed Sadek, in Cairo with a

request to remove Rania from hiding and deliver her to one of the Christian Orthodox homeless youth

shelters. Attorney General Sadek refused the request, and the local district Attorney’s office refuses to

disclose the hidden location of the girl. (Normally in such cases the local authorities know where the

kidnap victim is kept.) Instead, the family attorney received a glib answer from the prosecutor, “the girl

embraced Islam, what do you want?”

It is important to note that a child in Egypt is considered a minor until age 21. Until of age, conversion

from one religion to another is illegal. However, in such kidnapping cases the authorities always settle

the issue by accepting the minor Christian girl’s “conversion” to Islam; however, never the other way

around. In conversion from Islam to Christianity complaints police go above and beyond their role to

retrieve the girl and warn her of death from apostasy.

Inherent in such kidnapping cases is the tradition that authorities (mosque, local law enforcement, Al-

Ahzar Institute and the courts) cooperate together to develop and support the religious and financial life

of a Muslim youth. First, the mosque teachings of Quranic verses and doctrinal jihad encourage the

luring of non-Muslim girls. The mosque offers their boys a price list assigning Christian girls a monetary

value according to family wealth. The boy is propelled into operation (kidnapping) which is then backed

up by local police and the attorney general’s office. Coptic Christian families know that the prospect is

never good for receiving their daughter back home again. In the majority of cases, the daughter is lost

forever to the Muslim community.

Pressure and cleverness, not to mention persistence, must be applied to the situation in order for any

hope of her return. The family attorney’s request to have Rania returned to a shelter was to avoid further

inflaming the situation by public humiliation (insult) of the Muslim community if the kidnapped girl were

returned to her rightful home.

 Such cases suit the purposes of ideological jihad. By removing a non-Muslim young woman of child-

bearing age from the Christian community adding her to the Muslim girl population to bear Muslim

children serves to increase the Muslim population while decreasing Christian numbers.

Twenty-seven year old Samira Shokry Kamel, wife and mother of three daughters, is still missing after

she left her residence in the village of Saft Elaban (Al Minea) on November 18, 2016 to withdraw money

from the bank for holiday gifts. Samira’s family stated that 11 days later on November 29 an attorney

from Nasser city (Cairo) initiated a lawsuit on Samira’s behalf indicating that she embraced Islam and

changed her name to Iman. In addition, she demanded a divorce from her husband, custody of her daughters and possession of their partment.

Her attorney said that Imam Mustafa Abed El Gani, a professor at Al Azhar University, engaged his services. Relatives met with her attorney who would not allow them to meet with Samira, but only with the professor who introduced Samira to him. The Imam claimed that Samira embraced Islam, but he also refused the family request to meet with her. Clearly, Samira was eingheld hostage.

The professor described meeting Samira for the first time when she came with two men, one, an Imam from a village (Samalut) near her home and the other the professor refused to identify.

The Imam from Samalut is behind every girl disappearing from that village. The local detective chief stated to the family that the Samalut Imam’s activity in kidnapping and forced conversions is well known to them. However, the head detective categorically refuses to take any action against his criminal activity.

The family went to the office of Al-Ahzar Authority to check for the deposited certificate verification of her conversion to Islam which would be on file after a kidnapping. None was produced. A meeting followed with Samira’s attorney who suggested that Samira could be returned to her family for a ransom.

At this point, the family decided to verify Samira’s attorney’s Power of Attorney registration at the

documentation office. There was none, nor was there an existing court number related to Samira’s lawsuit.

Finally, the local police of Samira’s town informed family members of a dead woman’s unidentified body found in the canal north of Cairo. They were asked to come to Cairo to identify the body. As of yet we do not know the outcome.

Voice of the Copts

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