Egyptian court sentences Christian family to 15 years for converting from Islam
The 15-year prison sentence given to a woman and her seven children by an Egyptian court for converting to Christianity is a sign of things to come, according to alarmed human rights advocates who say the nation's Islamist government is bad news for Christians in the North African country.
A criminal court in the central Egyptian city of Beni Suef meted out the shocking sentence last week, according to the Arabic-language Egyptian paper Al-Masry Al-Youm. Nadia Mohamed Ali, who was raised a Christian, converted to Islam when she married Mohamed Abdel-Wahhab Mustafa, a Muslim, 23 years ago. He later died, and his widow planned to convert her family back to Christianity in order to obtain an inheritance from her family. She sought the help of others in the registration office to process new identity cards between 2004 and 2006. When the conversion came to light under the new regime, Nadia, her...
I don't know why I didn't notice this earler...I was speaking as though she is a persecuted Christian. I see now that she seems to flip flop to whatever religion happens to benefit her at the moment. Well, regardless, I've still been praying for her and her children, who I am assuming are fairly young. I don't know why the childen would have received this prison term as well when she was the one processing the paperwork.
These are the kinds of prisons where daily rape is the norm. It's very hard to rejoice when you're regulaly attacked. At least they left Paul, a Roman citizen, alone. Not so for this lady who desperately needs our prayers. How she would not "convert" back to Islam under these conditions, at least for the sake of the children, is beyond me.
I doubt it. I think a mother and her children being sentenced to 15 years in an Egyptian prison will be doing a lot of praying, for sure. Paul rejoiced, but who us are like Paul? Being human, I think it's easy to say, but I think very few of us would be rejoicing at this very moment, knowing what we were facing. Whether that's right or wrong doesn't matter. I just think people tend to say an awful lot of things that roll off the tongue very easily until they are placed into the exact same situations. It's the old 3rd party, watching from the sidelines scenario...gee, I would have never done that. Gee, if this or that happened to me, I would welcome it, or whatever. Put into the moment, going from a sidelines spectator to a victim is a whole different ballgame and I always think it's interesting when people infer what they would do in a horrific, terrifying situation when they have no idea of the emotional, human toll that would be weighing down upon them.
Down with Sharia law! I read through the entire article to find the ages of the children but they were not reported. I would guess that they are fairly young. Just awful that this family will be seperated for 15 years for the sole crime of being Christian. I can't imagine that the prison system there is anything to look forward to either. This poor, poor family. I can't even begin to imagine the anguish that each one of them are experiencing while I am typing this.
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Dr. Steven J. Lawson | 10/11/2009
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