Open Doors asks us to pray.
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.
I will to convert in christian plz. say about me what i do