Coptic family refused custody of teenage runaway.

Shafik Saleh Shafik
January 13 (Compass) -- The Egyptian Christian director of a home for troubled Coptic girls goes on trial January 16 on criminal charges before Cairo’s Abbassiya Criminal Court No. 15.

Shafik Saleh Shafik, 57, is accused of allegedly holding a 16-year-old Coptic girl against her will and without her parents’ permission, and also of trying to rape her.

But according to Shafik, who holds both Egyptian and American citizenship, the “clearly false” case against him is an attempt to close down his recovery ministry among Coptic girls who are being enticed to leave their Christian families and convert to Islam.

“The state security police wrote on their report about me that I am a ‘very dangerous man,’ because I am preaching Christianity,” Shafik told Compass.

Troubled Teen Causes Trouble

The case began four months ago when one of 27 girls living in his “safe-house” residence in Cairo’s El-Salam district escaped from the facility the morning after her family placed her there. Shouting wildly at a nearby coffeehouse, the girl demanded police protection from Shafik and other Christians who she claimed had beaten and mistreated her.

It was a parish priest who had brought Magda Refaat Gayed to Shafik on September 5, saying that the police had returned the girl to her Coptic family after she had run away with a Muslim boy.

The youngest in a lower middle class family of 10 children, Magda had been reported missing and feared kidnapped. But two weeks later, she was found living with an Islamic group who were teaching her Muslim rituals, promising that the boy who eloped with her would marry her after she converted to Islam. Her traditional Coptic cross tattoo on her wrist had already been surgically removed.

At the request of Magda’s male relatives, who were at a loss how to handle her after the police brought her back, Shafik agreed to accept her in his safe-house. But the following morning, Magda escaped from a bedroom window and went to a nearby coffeehouse, where she began screaming, “Christians have beaten and raped me!” She named Shafik as her attacker, displaying chains she said he had used to confine her.

Police Encourage Mob

After police were summoned to the coffeehouse, they ordered a young mob of bystanders to find Shafik and bring him to the police station. Police then took Magda off with them.

Shafik said he watched from an upper floor of the safe-house as some 25 to 30 young men surrounded the building, armed with chains and knives. Although they were determined to fight with him and capture the girls housed there, Shafik managed to transfer his wards to a safe place before he reported to the El-Salam police station.

Answered Prayer in Prison

Lawyer Naguib Gabriel and Shafik
For the next 48 hours, Shafik was detained and interrogated without any access to his lawyer. His guards also refused for two days to allow his heart medicine to be given to him.

Shafik said he was jailed in a cell with about 50 hardened criminals. “I never saw human beings like that before in my life,” he said. “Some had razors in their mouths to use in fighting, and they were chain smoking, with only a tiny window in the cell door for ventilation. The floor was wet with urine, and my hands were chained. I was sweating, so my clothing was soaked, and I became very dehydrated.”

The Coptic Orthodox layman said he finally started praying: “Lord, I have always been asking to carry Your cross. But I find it very heavy. I am very weak. I can’t carry it by myself.”

Five minutes later, Shafik said, a guard came and opened the cell door, called his name, removed his wrist chains, and put him in a cell by himself, with the door open. Shortly afterwards, the officer brought him his medicine and some food to eat.

Charges Ignore Evidence

When Shafik was finally brought to court on September 8, four charges were filed against him: trying to rape the girl, holding her in his house against her will, beating her with a stick and belt, and assuming her custody without parental permission.

“The Gayed family came to the police station and verified that they had put their daughter in my custody,” Shafik said, “but the police refused to accept their statement.” The police forensic report confirmed, however, that the girl had not been violated.

Three weeks later, Shafik learned while planning a trip to Lebanon that by order of the state prosecutor, he had been blacklisted from leaving the country until the court case against him was resolved.

“This is not a case involving national security; it’s a criminal case,” objected Shafik’s lawyer, Naguib Gabriel. “It is not normal procedure to blacklist him because of this trial, which could take as along as two years,” Gabriel said.

Girl Sent to Islamic Center

The attorney was even more disturbed, however, when he read the transcript of the court proceedings on September 8. In direct violation of Egyptian law which forbids a minor girl from changing her religion without her family’s permission, the prosecutor ordered the police to take Magda to the Islamic center at Al-Azhar to declare herself a Muslim.

“This is totally illegal,” Gabriel declared. “So it is very strange. It is not the job of the police to play the role of a Muslim evangelist!”

Now 17, Magda has been placed by the police in an undisclosed facility operated by an Islamic group. The Egyptian authorities have refused to return her to her father’s custody.

The September incident has forced Shafik to close down his El-Salam facilities and transfer his safe-house ministry to a smaller residence, where currently only 13 girls are housed.

SIDEBAR: Safe-House Rescues Victimized Coptic Girls

Although privately funded, Shafik Saleh Shafik’s safe-house ministry in Cairo operates in close cooperation with parish priests and leaders among Egypt’s Coptic clergy. Shafik and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1973, but when heart trouble forced him to retire from his Texas appliance business four years ago, he returned to Egypt to minister among poor and disadvantaged children.

“My wife and I started a rural project in upper Egypt,” he said, “but then we began to understand all the problems facing our church families with their young girls who are being pressured to change their religion.”

So Shafik bought two large residences in Cairo for use primarily as shelters for Coptic Christian girls. “Most of these are hard cases of teenage girls who have been convinced by a Muslim boy to leave home to marry him and become a Muslim,” Shafik said.

“This creates big problems for the church, and everyone gets hurt along with the girl herself -- the girl’s family, her priest and church, and the Christian community at large,” Shafik said. The majority are from very poor homes, many barely schooled. “They know almost nothing about their faith when they are brought to me,” he admitted.

But after six months or more of Christian training and instruction, Shafik said the girls are visibly transformed. “The girl’s personality becomes completely changed, from vulgar speech to talking like an angel!”

To date more than 100 girls have been sheltered and restored through Shafik’s safe-house ministry. Daily personal counseling, along with teaching them how to pray and experience God’s love personally, is coupled with group therapy sessions. Most stay from six months to a year or more before they return to their families, enroll in higher studies, get married or even prepare to work in the church.

Any comments?

There is a lot of hidden animosity between Muslims and Copts, and these events can easily be misinterepted by some people who don't understand all the details and facts.

One thing is for sure, is that the Egyptain Government is just as brutal with Muslims and sometimes even worse than its treatment of Coptics.

Please see my thread about Religious Rights in Egypt!!