The role played by Muslim women in the abduction and forced
Islamization of Christian females in Egypt is on the rise, with
continuously changing methods of deception. Victims are mostly minor
Christian girls, however, one of the most recent abductions was a
Coptic Christian family.
In the morning of June 29, 2010, 37-years old Coptic mother Nagwa
Sargios, left her home in the 10th Ramadan district of Greater Cairo,
together with her daughter Marina (17 years) and twin sons Mario and
Michael (9 years), to visit her mother in hospital, where she was
duefor a heart operation.
"My sister and her children never arrived as promised, and their
mobile phones were switched off. Next day we contacted her land line,
and my sister's husband said that he thought his family was with us
all the time", said Adel Sargios, her brother.
The Sargios family did their own investigations, and after talking
with neighbors, they were certain, that his sister's Muslim neighbor
and her two daughters Marwa and Asma, all wear Niqabs, (the
head-to-toe Muslim veil) were behind Nagwa and her children's
disappearance, with the motive of converting them to Islam. "They
must have deceived and lured her and her family away" as the brother
puts it.
The information he collected about the Muslim neighbor who is
divorced, is that she is a charlatan earning her living by claiming
to practise sorcery, which Muslim women believe in its power and have
recourse to it.
The police refused to issue a report as 'abduction' as they considered
the Christian family to be only "missing".
After the incident, the Muslim neighbor and her two daughters have abandoned
their flat, empty of all furnishings and belongings.
The Sargios family did their own investigations again, successfully
tracing the whereabouts of the Niqab-clad family. The information was
relayed to the state security officer who insisted on visiting them
alone. However, when he returned to the police station he told the
family that the Muslim woman is innocent, and that they should look
somewhere else. "This way the investigation would deal with it as a
"missing" persons case and we have to look further for another
culprit," said Adel Sargios .
Top attorney Dr. Naguib Gobrail, president of the Egyptian Union of
Human Rights Organization (EUHRO), who got involved in the case
through the Sargios family, contacted state security in the presence
of the family. "The officer assured me that Nagwa and her children are
with state security, and that she did not convert to Islam," he said.
The officer also told Gobrail that the family could go and collect
their daughter and her children the next day.
When the family went to state security, with an activist from Euhro,
the officer denied having said anything of this sort to Dr. Gobrail,
and denied knowing the whereabouts of the missing family.
According to Dr. Gobrail there have been attempts to convert Nagwa
Sargios to Islam "by her veiled neighbor, but she rejected these
attempt and stuck to her Christian religion," reported Copts United.
"To our surprise, we learnt from our sources that the abduction of my
sister and her family was being planned for since two years," the
brother said.
Adel Sargios accused the state security of delaying and lying about
everything for three weeks. "I am certain that the officer is an
accomplice, he is giving time to the abductors to move Nagwa and her
family somewhere far," he commented.
Coptic Activist Medhat Kelada, believes that the Islamization of Copts
is a business which represents a permanent source of livelihood for
state security officials,
"Especially with the flow of funds from the rich and extremist
Wahhabis who try to Islamize the Egyptian Copts with the help of some
of the security service officers", he said.
While looking for his sister and the Niqab-clad woman in the area,
"We found tens of Coptic girls abducted from 10th Ramadan district,
and they even came back to live there after converting to Islam and
getting married to Muslims. Their defenseless Coptic families, who
feel humiliated and infuriated, are threatened by state security not
to open their mouth," Adel said.
The abduction and forced Islamization of Coptic girls, which has
started nearly 30 years ago, is a lucrative business for Muslims,
whether they are the brokers, abductors or state security officials,
who do their best to protect those involved in the crime. Price of a
Coptic girl vary according to her looks and her family's social
status. (http://www.aina.org/news/20090718111414.htm)
Magdy Khalil, political analyst and researcher in Coptic affairs
believes that abduction of Coptic girls is an organized crime, carried
out through an organized and pre-planned process by associations and
organizations inside Egypt with domestic and Arab funding.
Adel said that his older brother Ashraf has been intimidated by
state security and he himself has received numerous threats on his
mobile phone not to pursue the matter further or talk about the
incident in chat rooms on the internet. " I will never give up,
whatever they do. My family has already lost four of its members , it
does not matter if they also lose a fifth."
On July 19, 2010, the Coptic family filed a report with the police
officially accusing the Muslim neighbor of abducting Nagwa and her
three children.
By Mary Abdelmassih
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