For nearly two years, El-Gohary and his teenage daughter have been living in hiding because he abandoned Islam and embraced Christianity. He has had to endure death threats, poverty and crushing boredom. El-Gohary, 57, and his daughter were forced into hiding shortly after August 2008, when he sued the national government to allow him to change the religion listed on his state-issued ID from Islam to Christianity. The next month, the State Council, a consultative body of Egypt’s Administrative Court, provided the court with a report stating that El-Gohary’s change of faith violated Islamic law. They instructed that he should be subject to the death penalty. As bad as things have been for El-Gohary and his daughter, their dedication seems rock-solid. They said they have never regretted their decisions to become Christians. Whatever happens, both El-Gohary and his daughter said they are prepared to live in hiding indefinitely. Full Story
Howida Ali a Sudanese woman who fled to Egypt after converting from Islam to Christianity is living in secluded isolation as her angry family members try to track her down. Howida Ali’s Muslim brother and her ex-husband began searching for her in Cairo earlier this year after a relative there reported her whereabouts to them. “I’m afraid of my brother finding us,” said the 38-year-old Ali, who has moved to another area. “Their aim is to take us back to Sudan, and there they will force us to return to the Islamic faith or sentence us to death according to Islamic law.” Ali said she divorced her husband, Esam El deen Ali, because of his drug addiction in 2001, before she converted to Christianity. She was living with her parents in Khartoum when she began seeing visions of Christ. She sought out a Christian friend from southern Sudan, who told her about Jesus Christ and prayed with her. Fearing that relatives might discover she was a Christian, in 2007 she escaped with her then-8-year-old son.
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Egyptian State Security arrested a Christian in the village of Deir Samalout, Samalout, Minia province, for praying “without a license.” He was held in prison for two days before being released on “compassionate grounds.” Maurice Salama Sharkawy, 37 years old, had invited Pastor Elia Shafik, to pray for his sick father, who had suffered a stroke. State Security broke into his house while the prayers were ongoing, handcuffed Maurice, put him into a police car and took him to a police station for interrogation. Youssef Sidhom, editor-in-chief of the Coptic Watani newspaper said. “They terrorize worshippers who dare conduct services outside a licensed church, treating them as law violators, despite the fact that the root problem lies in the authorities’ reluctance to permit the erection of new churches or restore existing ones.”
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On September 30, 2009, Myrna called her father and begged him to save her from her Muslim husband. Just ten months ago Myrna had been abducted by Osama Hefnawy, who forced her to convert to Islam and marry his son. According to Egyptian civil law, a woman under the age of 21 has to have approval of her father or another male member of her family if the father is deceased. In Myrna Gamal Hanna’s case, no such approval was given. Without looking back, Myrna’s father, an Egyptian Christian, drove into the city and rescued his daughter. Just days later, Egyptian state security forces began to arrest and assault groups of innocent Christians in an effort to find Myrna’s father. Once Myrna’s father found out that faithful believers were being imprisoned, he promptly turned himself into the police.
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