Bondage in Egypt?

Egypt's active anti-Iraqi stance during the Gulf war reinforced the image of Egypt as a moderate state. This image is partly true. But basic human rights there are violated by the state and by militant Islam. We print some extracts of the testimony of a Coptic Christian leader given at a conference of Christian Solidarity International in London recently.
I have been interrogated several times at all levels by the state security, the police, the secret intelligence services, the attorney general 1972, the public prosecutor 1981, the supreme prosecutor for the state security 1989.
I was also arrested and imprisoned twice and finally forced into exile to this day.

First arrest

I was arrested in 1981 among some 24 priests, eight bishops and more than 100 lay Christians. I will not relate all the harsh treatment.
We were three per cell which was without any ventilation, its length was 180cm and breadth was 160cm, with a hole in the ground as a substitute for a toilet that gave out a most unbearable and disgusting odour, the only ventilation we had was from a gap that was between the iron door of the cell and its floor. We had no mattresses; we slept on the cold, bare ground. We were tightly packed.

Breathing air

In the absence of any ventilation, I used to lay on my stomach and be as close as I could to that gap between the iron door and the floor. Dusty as the air was, it was still better than gasping. As a result of my continued laying on that cold floor I was in agony with tormenting pain in my kidney. After four days of constant pleas for help, the response was a very frail paramedic, with very poor eyesight due to his diabetes, sent to see me.
He tore every muscle in my forearm looking for a vein for over half an hour attempting to inject me, despite that, I felt a sense of relief for two reasons: one, that the pain in my arm helped to divert my attention from that incredible kidney torment, secondly, the iron door was open for as long as it took the paramedic to find my vein; the door was left open least we take him as a hostage, as some Muslim fundamentalists tried to do without ever succeeding.
As long as that iron door was open, we had fresh air without the knowledge of the dungeon authorities. For that iron door was opened for only five minutes every 24 hours and this was done in systematic order one cell after another.

Food

Added to that, there was the filth that was called food, which none of us ever knew what it actually was. It was brought in a bucket, the same bucket that was used for cleaning the outside toilets and the cells. It would be brought and left in the corridor outside our cells for a long time until it was fully covered in swarms of flies that multiplied and came from the open sewage that was behind the walls of our cells.
I was personally released after everybody else after 318 days.

Accusations

The alleged accusations that I was charged with were:

i) leading a demonstration formed of 150 priests in the city of Khanqa near Cairo in 1972, following the burning down of the 12th church in the series of destruction and burning down of churches in 1971-1972.

ii) publishing books about Christian faith on the Trinity, the atonement and the infallibility of Scripture.

iii) Converting Muslims and baptising more than some 200 Muslims until the year 1981.

The second time I was arrested was in 1989, this time I was on my own and with some very serious accusations:

i) despising Islam and reneging it

ii) publishing books against Islam

iii) proselytising Muslims

iv) creating and arousing a sectarian dissension in Egypt.

The penalty for any one of these is death and, at best, life imprisonment with hard labour, let alone all of them together.
First, they closed down the revival meetings in which I preached daily, the attendance of which at every meeting was over 3,000. Then the police, aided by the state security, broke the front door of my apartment while we were in it and entered to search it after midnight; they searched my property and confiscated the books that I had written.
The Patriarch, desiring to protect me, decided to send me to serve the church in Australia, but while on board just a few minutes before departure, I was led away from the plane, arrested and was thrown in a most uninhabitable cell for four days, without food to eat or fluid to drink, destined for a death sentence. But suddenly, by a divine miracle and as a result of international pressures, I was released by a presidential decree issued by the President himself, on condition that I would be expelled and was never to return to Egypt. October 28 was my seventh anniversary in exile since 1989.
From this end, as an eye witness and a partaker in afflictions that are suffered by the Christians in Egypt, I would like to summarise their conditions for prayer that it may be resolved.

Christians in Egypt

1. The Christians in Egypt are not able to build any church, unless they secure a presidential decree and permission, contrary to the building of mosques or alcoholic bars which are not subjected to such strenuous complications. But what is worse than this, is that the Christians are unable to carry out any repairs, no matter how essential or how basic even that of a toilet, without a presidential decree.

2. Despite all the propaganda of the Egyptian government on paper that it protects all freedoms, I know the Muslims who have converted to Christ and those who want to are subjected to most barbaric treatment from the police and the state security. They are imprisoned, suspended and tortured gruesomely physically, morally and psychologically. They are subjected to electric shocks to part of their bodies barbarically and beaten most inhumanly by clubs and whips with serious consequences, and some of them have died under this sadistic treatment. I have lists of names of all those who have gone through this.

3. Restrictions on jobs: see if you can find any Christian in senior posts, such as governors and ministers in the government, foreign and interior education etc., for the State follows the Islamic Shari'ah which is practised secretly. It dictates that a non-Muslim will not rule over a Muslim.

4. The constant attacks and the vilification of Christianity through mass media in all its forms, and if a person like me would attempt to clarify things, his fate would be like mine - arrests, imprisonments, confiscation of what would be written, while those assailants are honoured by the State.

5. Education: prior to my ordination as a priest in 1959, I used to be a teacher at a government secondary school. Of course I was educated in the government school myself, and had graduated from the university with a specialisation in history and archaeology. I was astounded to find that at all levels the Coptic period in history was obliterated with no mention whatsoever. The teaching of the Qur'an is not only conducted during the Religious Education classes for the Muslims, but the government has made it a part of the curriculum for the Arabic language, thus imposing it on both the Muslims and Christians. Why do they not teach the Bible or at least part of it, such as the Sermon on the Mount?

6. The attacks on Christians, the destruction of their churches, properties and of their livelihoods by the Muslim fundamentalists and the inability of the security forces to protect them. I could list many. Most surprisingly in all these is that the security forces stand by, unable to protect the Christians or stop the attacks of the Muslims.

I hope this explanation will not be misunderstood as an insult to my country Egypt. But my incentive, love and desire for Egypt is that it would be a country of peace, security, freedom and love to all who inhabit it.
I covet the prayers of all, for the crushed and the grinded followers of Christ in that country and every country that suffers from the viciousness of Satan and all his aides, both satanic and human.

Father ZB

According to Egyptian government statistics, more than 90% of the 58 million people are Muslims, while less than 7% are Christians. How-ever, Egypt's Christian community claims the percentage of Christians is more like 15-20%. Christian churches have not been allowed to take a census and publish figures.
At the time of the Arab-Islamic invasion of 639-641 AD, Egypt was predominantly Christian. The vast majority of Christians in Egypt today adhere to the ancient Coptic Orthodox Church. 'Coptic' simply means 'Egyptian' in the pre-Arabic language of the country.
About 200,000 Egyptian citizens adhere to Roman Catholicism. Over 400,000 Egyptians are believed to be associated with Protestant congregations, though formal adult membership is much lower. Significant numbers of worshippers in Protestant churches are Coptic Orthodox who have not changed their church membership. The roots of Egypt's Protestant churches lie in 19th-century missionary activity, the strongest strand of which was Presbyterian.

A Coptic Christian leader gives an account of the persecution suffered by Christians in Egypt