[ELSHIEKH]

A Call to the

Political Leaders of Egypt


Montreal, Canada, 25 June 2003


1 – President Mohammad Hosny Moubarak, President of Egypt

2 – Dr. Atef Obeid, Prime Minister of Egypt

3 – Mr. Habib Al-Adly, Minister of Interior

4 – Mr. Maher Abdel-Wahed, Attorney General

5 - Mr. Farouk Seif El-Nasr, Minister of Justice

6 – Dr. Ahmad Fathy Seroor, Speaker of the People’s Assembly

7 – Dr. Mostafa Kamal Helmy, President of the Advice Assembly

8 – Dr. Mohammad Said Tantawy, Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque

9 – All National and International Human Rights Oranizationa


Phenomena of Kidnapping and Rapping
Of Coptic Christian Girls in Egypt


The crimes of kidnapping and rapping Coptic Christian girls in Egypt became a serious and ugly phenomena. Such crimes did not exist neither in the Liberal era (1805 – 1952), nor at the time of the late President Nasser. They surfaced at the time of the late President Sadat and increased tremendously at the present time of President Moubarak.


Kidnapping a village girl, mostly under age, forcing her to change her religion to Islam and marrying her by force, to a Muslim man, under treats and intimidations, are against every tradition and every religion. They threaten the safety of Coptic Christian families and their daughters.


Such crimes are committed in daylight under the sight, hearing and protection of the police and the National security forces. Such forces are supposed to protect the individuals and the families from any kind of crime, and not to protect the such criminals whose crimes are below the animal level.


Such crimes are increasing with an alarming rate since the Nineteen Seventies, up to this day. When the news of these crimes surface in the Egyptian and/or the foreign media, some Egyptian officials reject and ridicule them. We would be told; such incidents are sporadic and rare; a Christian girl was in love with a Muslim man; the girl converted to Islam by her own will, and definitely there is no persecution against the Christians in Egypt.


Evidence show that these crimes are planed to terrify Christian families living in Upper Egypt, destroy and force them to immigrate to the poorest districts in Cairo, such as the “Garbage Village”. Such a goal, is well planed and well executed since the time of the late President Sadat, the fruit of which are now collected at the present time of President Moubarak.


There crimes are stated in items 44 – 47, in the Egyptian Civil Law no. 131 of 1948. Such laws specify that the mature age of a girl is 21 years, while item 2 of the Civil Law no. 12, 1996, specify that the mature age of the boy is 18 years. Moreover, the Imam of Al-Azhar, Dr. Tantawy stated in a Fatwa that it is illegal to force a Christian girl under age to marry a Muslim man and she should not declare her conversion to Islam before reaching the age of 21. It is up to her guardian to represent her before such age.


In spite of all that, the Al-Azhar authorities accept the conversion to Islam of Christian girls who are under age. The Christian girl need only to recite the phrase “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet”, and she is converted to Islam. Such reciting is forced upon the Christian girl under threats. Immediately after that, the girl is threatened that if she changed her mind and abandon Islam she would be an apostate and be subject to death. If the girl escaped and went back to her Christian family, the family as well as the Coptic Priests involved in the problem, would be subject to insults, intimidation and threats even from the police force!