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Welcome to the KIDNAPPED CHRISTIAN GIRLS website.
Here, you will learn about past atrocities and be updated about the newest ones--as they occur.
We THANK YOU for your patience as we RECONSTRUCT our website, as it was lost in its entirety.
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LAST UPDATE: 9 April 2008
(Go to "Breaking News" section above.)
Pakistani 11-Year-Old KIDNAPPED!
Faisalabad (AsiaNews) – Two Christian girls, little more than children, were kidnapped from their families recently, forcibly converted to Islam and then married off to strangers. Both of the kidnaps took place in Faisalabad, the third largest city in Pakistan, and both were completely ignored by the police. The phenomenon is not a new one however, underlined numerous human rights activist, but it is dangerously on the increase.
On August 5 Muhammad Adnan, a Muslim from Zulfiqar colony Faisalabad and his sister kidnapped Zunaira, an eleven years old Christian girl from her home in Warispura. After the kidnap, they forced her to convert to Islam and marry her kidnaper Muhammad.
The small girl’s mother, Abida, told AsiaNews: “When I was roaming in streets in search of my daughter two Muslim men of the area told me that they saw Adnan and his sister taking my daughter”. Abida decided to go to the kidnapper’s house, from which however she is thrown out. Returning home, she was contacted by two men who revealed the kidnappers identity and offer to act as negotiators for her daughters release in exchange for money.
Despite being desperately poor, Abida gives them 12 thousand Rupees (200 Euro): “I didn’t want to inform the police, because my daughter was engaged and I didn’t want my relatives to know. Unfortunately I found out too late that those men who said they would help me only want money: I have sold all I have, but it wasn’t enough and now I am alone”. Abida then turned to the police, but they refused help. The fact that the marriage is invalid given the age of the bride, “is not a matter for the police” said the officers.
In the second case Shumaila Tabussum, (16), was kidnapped from her home on August 16 by a Muslim man Mazher and some other unknown people. They told Shumaila that her father had been seriously injured in an accident and offered to accompany her to the hospital where he had been taken. The girl, without waiting for her mother, got into Mazher’s car: on the way she met two uncles at shouted the news of her father’s accident to them. These made their way to the hospital but found no-one.
Salamat Masih, 37, Shumaila’s father, immediately reported the abduction to the police. He told AsiaNews that he is “very worried because cases such as these are on the increase: Christian girls abducted, forcibly converted and subjected to becoming the wives of complete strangers”.
Khalil Tahir, chairman of a free legal aid organization “Adal Trust” and a well known Christian lawyer confirms this: “the growing number of attacks against Christians is worrying. We try to aid the victim’s families and at the same time help those who are subjected to this violence legally and practically, but the government must intervene with force if this is to be stopped”.
EGYPTIAN STUDENT TELLS OF FORCED CONVERSIONS TO ISLAM
Muslim students in Egypt are reportedly kidnapping Christian students in an effort to convert them to Islam. Details of a string of houses where young Christians are kept against their will and forced to study the Koran were revealed to Voice of the Martyrs by a Coptic Christian who recently escaped from one of the homes.
Identified by the ministry only as Mary, the young woman was befriended by two Muslim students while at university. One day they took Mary to a home for Christian girls who convert to Islam where she found herself locked in when she tried to leave. Team members used threats and intimidation to force her to renounce her faith.
After six weeks she won the trust of her captors, chanting from the Koran and saying Muslim prayers. After her "conversion," she was given a key to the home and escaped at night two weeks later. She found her way to a Christian leader who helped reunite her with her family. Mary said there are "many houses in Egypt just like this one which are used to carry out this plan of converting Christians."
Christian Girls Kidnapped In Egypt And Forced To Convert To Islam
Reports of kidnappings and the forced conversion of Christian girls to Islam are common among Egypt's Coptic community. Only three months ago, Theresa Ghattas Kamal, missing since 6 January and feared kidnapped by a Muslim man, was found living with a Muslim family. Wearing the full veil, she told her brother that she had 'found the right path' - Islam. Please pray for these girls and remember the ones who go unnoticed.
Name: Ingy Nagy Edwar
Age: 19
Disappeared: 27 Sept 2003
Ingy (top, right) disappeared the day after her 19th birthday. She was reportedly being held against her will by a Muslim couple, near Cairo, but police showed her family an alleged signed declaration of conversion to Islam.
At a hearing on the girl's case, Ingy appeared in court dressed in an Islamic veil.
Her family believe she was being given drugs affecting her moods, and her brother said she had spoken of suicidal thoughts.
Name: Marianna Rezk Shafik Attallah
Age: 20
Disappeared: 30 May 2005
Marianna (bottom, left) left work to pick up a patient's blood sample but has not been seen since.
The owner of the business next door told her fiancé that a Muslim employee of his had kidnapped the young woman.
Rumours spread that she had converted to Islam, but her fiancé dismissed the claims, saying it was her close relationship with God that brought him to a deeper understanding of his own Christian faith.
Name: Heba Nabil Narouz Ghali
Age: 21
Disappeared: 28 September 2005
Heba (bottom, right) was last seen leaving work at a hypermarket in a suburb of Cairo. Staff said she had left as usual on the bus but later claimed she had resigned.
Five days later the family received a letter stating that Heba had eloped with a Muslim man but when they contacted the man, he denied any knowledge of her whereabouts.
The next day, a police source told Nabil Ghali that his daughter had converted to Islam.
On 13 November, he acquired a copy of Heba's conversion certificate, dated 28 September.
Name: Theresa Ghattas Kamal
Age: 19
Disappeared:3 January 2006
Three weeks after she went missing, Theresa (top, left) called her family, saying she was imprisoned in a Cairo apartment facing pressure to convert to Islam.
Theresa's brother eventually found her living with a Muslim family. He was allowed to visit on 23 March when he sat with her for 90 minutes.
She spoke only once to say, "I have converted to Islam. I have found the right path."
Theresa's family insist that she was kidnapped, but some Christian girls romanced by young Muslim men voluntarily leave their families and convert to Islam to escape poverty and unhappy family situations.
Christians persecuted in Islamic nations
Abuse, forced conversion, torture – even in 'moderate' Muslim countriesAmid the current unrest in Saudi Arabia in the wake of America's war on Islamic terrorists, Middle East Newsline is reporting arrests and even torture of Christians in the "moderate" Saudi kingdom.
"Christian sources in the kingdom said at least 15 Christians from Africa have been arrested in Jedda over the last few months for conducting non-Islamic services in private homes. Three of them are said to have been tortured in prison," said the defense news service.
It was the first confirmed report of physical torture of Christians detained for worship in the kingdom, according to the report.
"Saudi Arabia does not allow the worship of any other religion other than Islam. Jews are not allowed in the kingdom and Christians are warned that they risk arrest if they participate in private prayer gatherings," said the report.
Persecution of Christians rampant
Indeed, according to the November issue of Whistleblower magazine, titled "JIHAD: The radical Islamic threat to America," the current report from Saudi Arabia is part of a widespread pattern of persecution of Christians throughout the Islamic-controlled nations of the Middle East, northern Africa and elsewhere.
In his Whistleblower article, "Islam: from toleration to terror," Paul Marshall, one of the world's leading authorities on religious persecution, states: "The Saudi restriction on the expression of any religion besides Islam means, quite simply, that Christian worship is banned. It is illegal to wear a cross or to utter a Christian prayer. Christians cannot even worship privately in their own homes."
Because they operate under the Islamic Shari’a law, adds Marshall, "the Saudi government pressured the allies in Operation Desert Storm about religious observances. They demanded that Christian and Jewish soldiers not be allowed to wear any symbols of their faith when they were in service in Saudi Arabia. This was mandated, even though the troops were there to defend Saudis from invasion by Iraq."
Religious repression in Saudi Arabia has only increased since the Gulf War, says Marshall.
While the West frequently focuses on Shari’a law for its brutal punishments, including amputations, "its legal procedures can be equally terrifying," notes Marshall. "The Saudi judicial system provides little chance of a reasonable defense against accusations, since defendants have no right to be represented by lawyers. Torture is widespread. Confessions obtained under torture can be accepted by courts as evidence -- sometimes the sole evidence -- for a conviction."
While scarce Western press attention has focused on the horrendous persecution – including forced conversion to Islam, slavery, torture and crucifixion -- meted out to the Christians and animists in southern Sudan by the radical Islamic regime in the northern capital of Khartoum, even less Western media focus is drawn by the persecution of Christians in so-called "moderate" Mideast nations like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Egypt -- kidnapping, rape, forced conversion
In November's Whistleblower magazine, Marshall, author of "Their Blood Cries Out," documents a number of examples of Christian persecution and forced conversion in modern Islamic nations. Here is one:
- Mary, a young Egyptian girl, displays her fragile wrist, which is encircled by an ugly bracelet of scarred flesh. Her disfigurement bears mute witness to the brutal abduction, rape and nine-month captivity she endured at the hands of Islamic kidnappers. As part of their program to transform Mary into a Muslim, her captors poured sulfuric acid on her wrist to remove the tattooed cross she wore as a statement of her faith.
Mary grew up among Egypt's 6 million Coptic Christians, a minority community that faces increasing mistreatment from Islamic zealots. At 18 years of age, she was visiting a friend's home when she was kidnapped by a group of radicals from the "Gamat Islamiya."
After they raped her, Mary's captors moved her from one suburban hideout to another. Along with sexual abuse, she was required to fast, pray, and memorize portions of the Qur'an.
At first, Mary tried to refuse to wear the traditional Islamic veil. "They warned me that if I removed it they would throw acid on my face," she later told reporters. Eventually, unable to resist her captors' demands, she signed official papers of conversion to Islam.
While Mary was held hostage, her father went to the Cairo police. They told him to forget Mary – she was in the safe hands of Islam. In fact, the distraught man was forced to sign a pledge that he would cease his search for his daughter. Along with other family members, he was warned that if any of them interfered with Mary and she was harmed, they would be held responsible.
Fortunately, Mary escaped. She was given assistance by a clandestine group called "Servants of the Cross," who sheltered her. Although conversion to Christianity from Islam is considered apostasy in Egypt, and Shari'a law calls for a death sentence, the Servants aided her as she reconverted to Christianity. In Egyptian society, rape victims are often held responsible for their plight, and are sometimes killed. With this in mind, the organization also helped Mary find a Christian husband.
Servants of the Cross took Mary to a tattooist, who reapplied the cross to her wrist, just above the disfiguring scar. One of the organization's representatives explained, "I supervise between 30 and 35 reconversions every month. In all Egypt there are between 7,000 and 10,000 cases of forced conversion to Islam. It is our duty to save them."
"These circumstances exist not simply despite Islam," notes Marshall. "Unfortunately, they are expressions of a particular and increasingly powerful form of militant Islam."
Marshall's in-depth piece in Whistleblower focuses on the plight of Christians in five Islamic countries -- Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is urging the Bush administration not to ignore flagrant human-rights abuses in the interests of holding together its coalition with Saudi Arabia and other "moderate" countries. According to Middle East Newsline, the commission wrote a letter to Bush demanding that, "in forging alliances against terrorism, the United States not compromise its commitment to human rights including religious freedom and democracy. We oppose such policy trade-offs."
Amid the current unrest in Saudi Arabia in the wake of America's war on Islamic terrorists, Middle East Newsline is reporting arrests and even torture of Christians in the "moderate" Saudi kingdom.
"Christian sources in the kingdom said at least 15 Christians from Africa have been arrested in Jedda over the last few months for conducting non-Islamic services in private homes. Three of them are said to have been tortured in prison," said the defense news service.
It was the first confirmed report of physical torture of Christians detained for worship in the kingdom, according to the report.
"Saudi Arabia does not allow the worship of any other religion other than Islam. Jews are not allowed in the kingdom and Christians are warned that they risk arrest if they participate in private prayer gatherings," said the report.
Persecution of Christians rampant
Indeed, according to the November issue of Whistleblower magazine, titled "JIHAD: The radical Islamic threat to America," the current report from Saudi Arabia is part of a widespread pattern of persecution of Christians throughout the Islamic-controlled nations of the Middle East, northern Africa and elsewhere.
In his Whistleblower article, "Islam: from toleration to terror," Paul Marshall, one of the world's leading authorities on religious persecution, states: "The Saudi restriction on the expression of any religion besides Islam means, quite simply, that Christian worship is banned. It is illegal to wear a cross or to utter a Christian prayer. Christians cannot even worship privately in their own homes."
Because they operate under the Islamic Shari’a law, adds Marshall, "the Saudi government pressured the allies in Operation Desert Storm about religious observances. They demanded that Christian and Jewish soldiers not be allowed to wear any symbols of their faith when they were in service in Saudi Arabia. This was mandated, even though the troops were there to defend Saudis from invasion by Iraq."
Religious repression in Saudi Arabia has only increased since the Gulf War, says Marshall.
While the West frequently focuses on Shari’a law for its brutal punishments, including amputations, "its legal procedures can be equally terrifying," notes Marshall. "The Saudi judicial system provides little chance of a reasonable defense against accusations, since defendants have no right to be represented by lawyers. Torture is widespread. Confessions obtained under torture can be accepted by courts as evidence -- sometimes the sole evidence -- for a conviction."
While scarce Western press attention has focused on the horrendous persecution – including forced conversion to Islam, slavery, torture and crucifixion -- meted out to the Christians and animists in southern Sudan by the radical Islamic regime in the northern capital of Khartoum, even less Western media focus is drawn by the persecution of Christians in so-called "moderate" Mideast nations like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Egypt -- kidnapping, rape, forced conversion
In November's Whistleblower magazine, Marshall, author of "Their Blood Cries Out," documents a number of examples of Christian persecution and forced conversion in modern Islamic nations. Here is one:
- Mary, a young Egyptian girl, displays her fragile wrist, which is encircled by an ugly bracelet of scarred flesh. Her disfigurement bears mute witness to the brutal abduction, rape and nine-month captivity she endured at the hands of Islamic kidnappers. As part of their program to transform Mary into a Muslim, her captors poured sulfuric acid on her wrist to remove the tattooed cross she wore as a statement of her faith.
Mary grew up among Egypt's 6 million Coptic Christians, a minority community that faces increasing mistreatment from Islamic zealots. At 18 years of age, she was visiting a friend's home when she was kidnapped by a group of radicals from the "Gamat Islamiya."
After they raped her, Mary's captors moved her from one suburban hideout to another. Along with sexual abuse, she was required to fast, pray, and memorize portions of the Qur'an.
At first, Mary tried to refuse to wear the traditional Islamic veil. "They warned me that if I removed it they would throw acid on my face," she later told reporters. Eventually, unable to resist her captors' demands, she signed official papers of conversion to Islam.
While Mary was held hostage, her father went to the Cairo police. They told him to forget Mary – she was in the safe hands of Islam. In fact, the distraught man was forced to sign a pledge that he would cease his search for his daughter. Along with other family members, he was warned that if any of them interfered with Mary and she was harmed, they would be held responsible.
Fortunately, Mary escaped. She was given assistance by a clandestine group called "Servants of the Cross," who sheltered her. Although conversion to Christianity from Islam is considered apostasy in Egypt, and Shari'a law calls for a death sentence, the Servants aided her as she reconverted to Christianity. In Egyptian society, rape victims are often held responsible for their plight, and are sometimes killed. With this in mind, the organization also helped Mary find a Christian husband.
Servants of the Cross took Mary to a tattooist, who reapplied the cross to her wrist, just above the disfiguring scar. One of the organization's representatives explained, "I supervise between 30 and 35 reconversions every month. In all Egypt there are between 7,000 and 10,000 cases of forced conversion to Islam. It is our duty to save them."
"These circumstances exist not simply despite Islam," notes Marshall. "Unfortunately, they are expressions of a particular and increasingly powerful form of militant Islam."
Marshall's in-depth piece in Whistleblower focuses on the plight of Christians in five Islamic countries -- Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is urging the Bush administration not to ignore flagrant human-rights abuses in the interests of holding together its coalition with Saudi Arabia and other "moderate" countries. According to Middle East Newsline, the commission wrote a letter to Bush demanding that, "in forging alliances against terrorism, the United States not compromise its commitment to human rights including religious freedom and democracy. We oppose such policy trade-offs."
Egypt: Christian Girl Escapes Muslim Kidnappers
An attempt at "kidnap conversion" in Egypt goes wonderfully awry: An Egyptian Christian teenager
escaped her Muslim kidnappers last week hours after they had drugged her on a public bus. While holding her captive, they threatened to rape her and convert her to Islam if her family did not leave their Nile Delta city of El-Mahala el-Kobra.
... At 10 p.m. last Tuesday (October 3), Laurence Wagih Emil, 15, escaped the ground-floor room where she was being held in Cairo's southern Helwan suburb while her captors were away breaking their Ramadan fast with an evening meal.
The girl asked Helwan area residents to help her contact her parents in El-Mahala el-Kobra, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Cairo. Earlier that day, El-Mahala el-Kobra Christian community had staged a demonstration, 1,000 strong, to demand Emil's immediate recovery.
... The girl's aunt and uncle, residents of Cairo, immediately drove to Helwan to locate her, but they were forced to wait at the SSI station while police met with Emil from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. on Wednesday (October 4).
According to Emil, the officers were friendly and offered her a sandwich and a soft drink. But 15 minutes later, she said, she was unable to move though fully conscious.
"You should say that you took the bus to Tahrir Square [located in central Cairo] and met a guy named Fady, who took you to sleep at his house with his mother," Emil said police told her. "Say that; otherwise you won't see your parents again."
... "If Laurence went to Cairo with a friend as police claim, how could this have threatened Egyptian State Security in any way, and why was Mr. Sa'ad detained for two days?" asked Watani writer Nader Shukry in an October 8 article.
Shukry reported that 12 Christian girls under the age of 21, the age of majority for most legal transactions other than conversion, have disappeared in 2006. The list includes 17-year-old Dina Amin, who disappeared from her family's home in El-Mahala el-Kobra on the same day as Laurence Emil.
The girl asked Helwan area residents to help her contact her parents in El-Mahala el-Kobra, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Cairo. Earlier that day, El-Mahala el-Kobra Christian community had staged a demonstration, 1,000 strong, to demand Emil's immediate recovery.
... The girl's aunt and uncle, residents of Cairo, immediately drove to Helwan to locate her, but they were forced to wait at the SSI station while police met with Emil from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. on Wednesday (October 4).
According to Emil, the officers were friendly and offered her a sandwich and a soft drink. But 15 minutes later, she said, she was unable to move though fully conscious.
"You should say that you took the bus to Tahrir Square [located in central Cairo] and met a guy named Fady, who took you to sleep at his house with his mother," Emil said police told her. "Say that; otherwise you won't see your parents again."
... "If Laurence went to Cairo with a friend as police claim, how could this have threatened Egyptian State Security in any way, and why was Mr. Sa'ad detained for two days?" asked Watani writer Nader Shukry in an October 8 article.
Shukry reported that 12 Christian girls under the age of 21, the age of majority for most legal transactions other than conversion, have disappeared in 2006. The list includes 17-year-old Dina Amin, who disappeared from her family's home in El-Mahala el-Kobra on the same day as Laurence Emil.
Read the rest of this incredible story of attempted "kidnap and rape conversion" and the death threats to her family. From the article we learn that to many Christians in Egypt, Laurence's case appears to be clear evidence of police complicity in the kidnapping of Christian girls. Apparently Coptic Christians make up at least 10 percent of the Egyptian population, and while it is illegal for Egypt's Muslims to convert to Christianity, "kidnap conversions" to Islam have long been the subject of protests by Christians in Egypt.
Hat tip - Dhimmi Watch
