Two children to be tried for insulting Islam; family imprisoned for reconverting
By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
According to a story by Morning Star News, attorney Karam Gabriel said anti-Christian hostilities in the restive country are getting worse as the two boys are to be tried in a court in Beni Suef. That's the same city where a mother and her seven children were convicted last month for reconverting to Christianity - for showing "contempt to Islamic religion and insulting the Koran."
Morning Star News said the accusation against Nabil Naji Rizq and Mina Atallah (identified in some press reports as Mina Nadi Faraj) of insulting the Koran made headlines throughout the country after a man saw them playing in garbage that he claimed included pages from the Koran.
The children were 10 and 9 years old respectively at the time of their arrest in late Sept. 2012.
Accusing them of tearing pages of Islam's holy book - a later version of the story had them allegedly urinating on it - he filed a report that led to the arrest of the two children. They were released in early October.
Morning Star News said angry protestors from Beni Suef reportedly intimidated Christian residents of the nearby village of Ezbat Marco at that time and prevented them from going to work.
"They are just small children, and they don't really understand what all the fuss is about - they can't even tell the difference between the Koran, the Bible or any other holy book," Gabriel said.
Clearly outraged at recent cases of hostility toward Coptic Christians in the post-Hosni Mubarak era, Morning Star News reported Gabriel said that since Mohamed Morsi came to power last June, the Christian community is in dire need of protection. Tensions are such that, for the moment, there is no information on the exact date of the two boys' trial, as authorities fear it will increase hostilities in the city.
Beni Suef became a greater flash point last month after a criminal court sentenced Nadia Muhammad Ali and her seven children to 15 years for re-converting to Christianity after having converted to Islam.
Leaving Islam is punishable by death in the traditional view of sharia that most Muslim scholars uphold, and sharia is cited as a source of law in Egypt's new constitution approved in a December referendum.
Morning Star News reported that usuf Zaki, head of the Coptic Alliance in Egypt, said that he was deeply alarmed by the Beni Suef court's verdict.
"We were sure, especially after the revolution that, our court will respect the right of every human being to choose his or her religion, but apparently the court is relying on the Islamic sharia, and therefore Nadia was sentenced to 15 years in prison," he said.
Morning Star News reported that Ali had married a Muslim, Muhammad Abdel-Wahhab Mustafa, 23 years ago in Sharqiya Province. Her family claims that he pressured her to convert to Islam. Several years after her husband died, Ali in 2004 decided to convert back to Christianity. Her seven children, born as Muslims, reportedly supported her decision and joined her in converting.
Conversion by Muslims is prohibited under Egyptian law, however, and so changing the religion designation on their national ID cards was practically impossible. The prosecution claims that Ali had forged birth certificates in order to receive new IDs for her and her children with the help of a few officials in the Ministry of Interior.
Morning Star News said the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry al-Yom reported on Jan. 13 she re-converted in order to obtain an inheritance left by her father, which stipulated she would receive it only if she converted back to Christianity.
After the sentencing on Jan. 14, Ali and her children were imprisoned, along with two clerical employees of the Ministry of Interior who reportedly helped the family change their identity and residence documentation.
While cases such as that of Ali and her children have drawn international attention, many others remain largely hidden local affairs, Gabriel said.
Morning Star News said Coptic Christians would like to see more pressure put on the Egyptian government to protect religious minorities, and they expect more concrete steps from the United States, he said.
"We just like to be equal citizens in our own country," Morning Star News reported Gabriel said. "Copts and Muslims need to be equal; it's a simple as that."
Copts would also like to see more international monitoring of elections, as many outrageous violations take place far away from Cairo, he said.
"In some Coptic regions, the ways are blocked on the election day so that the voters would not be able to reach the polling stations," Gabriel said. "Also, the kidnaping of our girls and forced conversion to Islam - all of these crimes must not remain unpunished."
Morning Star News said since the fall of Mubarak in the Jan. 25-Feb. 11, 2011 revolution, Coptic Christians have been subjected to attacks in Qana and Minya (Upper Egypt), Alexandria, Helwan, Dahshour, during a demonstration at the Maspero building in central Cairo and Rafah, among others.
Tens of thousands of Coptic Christians are said to have left Egypt since the revolution, and religious rights advocates say lack of protection as well as pressing economic conditions are a growing threat to the existence of the largest Christian community in the Middle East.
For more information go to http://morningstarnews.org
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