Posted on 11/25/2007 9:15:00 PM PST by Terriergal
An Egyptian Christian woman has been jailed for her father’s brief conversion to Islam over 40 years ago which made her legally a Muslim despite her official papers stating that she is a Christian, her lawyer said Thursday.
Sat, Nov. 24, 2007 Posted: 09:37:51 AM EST
An Egyptian Christian woman has been jailed for her father’s brief conversion to Islam over 40 years ago which made her legally a Muslim despite her official papers stating that she is a Christian, her lawyer said Thursday.
Shadia Nagui Ibrahim, 47, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in jail on the charge of fraud for stating she is a Christian on her marriage certificate, according to Agence France-Presse.
Under Egyptian law, a person’s official religion is based on the father’s religion.
Nagui Ibrahim’s father converted to Islam in 1962 after leaving home when she was two years old. Three years later he reconciled with her mother and returned home, re-converting back to Christianity. He had someone forge his document to say he was Christian.
In Egypt, it is extremely difficult to near impossible to officially change one’s religion from Islam. However, it is easy to officially change one’s religion to Islam.
The man who forged Ibrahim’s document was arrested in 1996 for creating dozens of false documents. In the process, the man confessed he made false papers for Ibrahim.
Authorities detained Ibrahim and informed Shadia that on paper her father and her are still Muslim.
Under Egyptian law it is illegal for a Muslim woman to marry a Christian man.
Although she was unaware of her father’s conversion, she was charged with “providing false information on official documents” for stating she was Christian on her 1982 marriage certificate, according to AFP.
Nagui Ibrahim was sentenced to three years in 2000 but her case was dropped. However, in August she was again detained and on Wednesday sentenced to three years after one brief court session, her lawyer said.
Her case follows another convert legal battle earlier this year which threw Egypt in an uproar. An Egyptian man who converted to Christianity from Islam, in an unprecedented act, sued Egypt for rejecting his application to officially change his religion on his identification papers.
Covert Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy was forced into hiding because Muslim extremists threatened to kill him for leaving Islam after his case made national headlines.
Egypt has no law banning conversion from Islam, but the country’s Muslims look upon apostasy very negatively with some even calling for punishment by death.
Egypt’s population of 80 million is about 90 percent Muslim and only about 10 percent Christian. Although the percentage of Christians in Egypt is small, it represents the largest Christian population in the Middle East.
Ethan Cole
Christian Post Reporter
**Rick Warren, Evangelicals, Invite Muslims to Love God Together**
I have been told time and time again that the majority of Muslims are tolerant and peace loving people. I guess that the Egyptian government is an exception of the rule and are acting against the will of its citizens.
I guess. (rolling eyes) But then the majority still have to keep paying their alms to support the mosques... which go to support the ‘missionaries’ — e.g. the sleeper cells here in the US!
“Now, why don’t they just get these Muslims to just “love God together” with us Christians??”
Amazing that Warren fell for the “don’t we just worship the same God cr@p”..he seemed like such a likeable, Christ loving pastor, but the devil doth deceive. :(
Will the UN start investigating these egregious breaches of human rights enshrined in Egyptian law?
We need to ban the importation of oil and then ban I-slam the next day. It would mess us up about as badly as we were messed up during WW-II for about a year. At the end of the year we’d be better off and all slammites would be back to living in tents and riding camels.
And Egypt is supposedly among the most moderate of Islamic states.
This is another for the “why am I not surprised?” file.
It is time for us to start looking at “international law” and do the same thing here!
If you convert to Islam then you get 3 years in the slammer.
Lets all share the International Law love together. /s
Drill ANWAR.
WTF???
This is about the stupidest Islamic law I’ve heard yet.
So she’s Christian, was born Christian, her father was Christian when she was born, was only Muslim for 3 years starting when she was 2, and is now Christian again and has been for 40 years, and the government says he’s Muslim. So she’s Muslim. Even though she’s never been Muslim. Not only that, but it’s illegal for this Christian woman to marry a Christian man. Because she’s Muslim. Even though she’s Christian.
I’m surprised these people have the mental capacity to breathe on their own.
Of course they’re moderate. They’re being very generous in only giving you 3 years in the slammer for not being Muslim.
And Dhimmi Carter gave these clowns billions of your tax dollars.
This just goes to show what their effed up culture is all about. Once Muslim, always Muslim. It goes for people as well as places.
They certainly are consistent.
The only people crazier than muslims are the westerners who pretend they are civilized and somewhat normal.
Rick Warren has been made silly and non-important by his success and wealth. Next.
There is a smart Islamic law?
Absolutely! The sooner the better.
“Egypt has no law banning conversion from Islam, but the country’s Muslims look upon apostasy very negatively with some even calling for punishment by death.”
Good thing we give Eygpt so much foriegn aid. Imagine how crazy they would be if we didn’t. </sarcasm
Too many churches are behind the curve on this one, still. They think he's wonderful, in spite of the false gospel he preaches (resulting in the above-mentioned fame and silliness!)
If we just give them money/dialogue with them/ have peace talks/ etc. etc. then they will see things our way. (barf!)
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