Abducted Egyptian Christian Girl Possibly Smuggled to Libya

H/T Mary A

AINA:

Posted GMT 2-2-2013 1:26:15          Bookmark and Share

(AINA) — Hundreds of Christian Egyptian girls having been abducted and forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men since the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. But the case of 14 year old Sarah has become symbolic, bringing to confrontation Muslims groups, whose members are implicated in the kidnappings, and the Coptic Church and human rights organizations.

On Sunday, September 30 Sarah Ishaq Abdelmalek, born on August 1, 1998 in the town of el-Dabaa, 130 kilometers from Mersa Matrouh, was on her way to school with her cousin Miriam, when they stopped at a bookshop. Miriam went ahead of Sarah to school, leaving Sarah behind. Sarah never made it to school and no one has seen her since then. Her father was hesitant at first to contact the authorities for fear of harm to his family and his other children by the Salafi Muslims, who have a large presence and influence in Mersa Matrouh and Alexandria. He finally filed a report with the police on October 20, accusing 27 year old bookshop keeper and Salafist Mahmoud Abu Zied Abdel Gawwad, a married man and father of children, of abducting Sarah and marrying her against her will (AINA 11-2-2012).

“Sarah was smuggled across the borders to Libya with the help of the Interior Ministry,” said Ebram Louis, founder of the Coptic non-governmental organization Association of Victims of Abduction and Enforced Disappearance (AVAED), which handles cases of abducted Coptic minors. Louis blamed the interior ministry for all the disappearances of Coptic minors, saying the ministry colludes with the Muslims.

The recently elected Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II said the kidnapping and forced conversion of Sarah is a “disgrace for the whole of Egypt.” During a meeting with a delegation of the Journalists Syndicate Council at Anba Bishoy Monastery in Wadi Natrunon on November 12, he said “Can any family accept the kidnapping of their daughter and her forced conversion?”

The Pope dismissed the term “emotional ties” for what is happening among young men and girls from different religions, cited as the apparent cause of conversions by the Salafists. In an interview with Al Ahram Daily he said it is “sentimental coercion of girls who have not reached adulthood.” The Pope said it is now common among Coptic families not to send their daughters to school because of fear kidnapping and forced conversion. Anba Pakhomios, the bishop of Mersa Matrouk, said Coptic families are increasingly choosing not to send their girls to public schools, making them study at home and only go to school during the examinations.

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Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

One Reply to “Abducted Egyptian Christian Girl Possibly Smuggled to Libya”

  1. Tunisia: little girls with Islamic veil, revolt in country

    (ANSAmed) – TUNIS, FEBRUARY 1 – A dozen little girls, the older not even eight years of age, wore the Islamic veil when they posed around a Kuwaiti preacher who is visiting Tunisia to preach conservative Islam. The photos led to vibrant protests across the country with even 70 lawmakers in the Constituent Assembly signing a motion to condemn what the Tunisian association for the rights of minors slammed as a ‘crime against children’. The little girls, the rights association said, were ‘used to convey an idea which is far removed from our culture and the noble precepts of Islam’ with a clear intention to indoctrinate the population.

    The preacher at the centre of the controversy, Kamil Al Awhadi, said he did not come to Tunisia to change its society or impose religious choices.

    Al Awadhi is known across the Middle East and North Africa thanks to his ability to use television to broadcast his ideas.

    He is also well known for issuing a fatwa against cartoon character Sponge Bob accused of ‘homosexuality’ and of ‘inducing children to pervert behaviour’.

    His visit, which kicked off a week ago, has caused a major controversy in Tunisia with secularists accusing Al Awadhi of trying to exert an influence on Tunisians with his radical sermons. Meanwhile the cleric is continuing his tour from Zarzis – where the controversial photos were taken – to Sousse and Sfax in a tour ‘surrounding’ the capital until Carthage where he spoke at a mosque. Meanwhile in the capital Tunis, the el Fath mosque considered a haven of the Salafite movement would be reportedly ready to receive him with open arms. Al Awadhi has been warmly welcomed in his tour – with people in Cite’ Kabaria acting like football fans – and seems to have reached his objective of broadening consensus in Tunisia around Wahhabism, a conservative form of Sunni Islam which is a minority in Tunisia but enjoys great financial wealth thanks to Gulf kingdoms. This strategy has political as well as religious implications as Tunisia still needs the help of allied countries like Kuwait and, even more, Kuwait. The help does not appear to be without its implications. (ANSAmed)

    http://ansamed.ansa.it/ansamed/en/news/nations/tunisia/2013/02/01/Tunisia-little-girls-Islamic-veil-revolt-country_8174420.html

    The video of al Awadhi kissing the hidjabed little girls :