CAIRO,
February 28, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In the
second such incident in less than three months, hundreds of angry
Christians demonstrated in Fayoum, 90 km southwest of Cairo, to
protest the reported conversion of two young women to Islam.
The
two women, medical graduates Marianne Makram Ayad and Teresa Ibrahim,
reportedly left their homes after converting to Islam, sparking the
angry protests, reported Reuters Monday, February 28.
Citing
police and church sources, it said both doctors went to the home of
relatives in Fayoum after spending Sunday, February 27, evening under
police protection.
It
was not clear whether they still considered themselves Christians.
In
the Mar Girgis church in Fayoum, hundreds of Christian men carrying
crosses demanded the women return to their community, on the grounds
that they had allegedly been compelled to convert.
A
security official said in a statement that Christian religious leaders
were giving the two young women advice.
“(Official)
measures proclaiming them Muslim have not been taken,” the official
told Reuters.
Christians
in Egypt, according to official statistics, amount to 3.5% of the 70
million population.
However,
Christian sources estimate the number at 10 millions or 15% of the
population.
“Coexistence”
“Copts
and Muslims in Egypt have developed a very unique co-existence along
some 14 centuries,” Milad Hanna, an Egyptian writer and expert on
Islamic-Christian relations, told the Doha-based Aljazeera news
channel Monday.
“Such
incidents are the result of globalization, the acts of Egyptian Copts
in the West and the media coverage these isolated incidents
receive,” said Hanna, himself a Copt.
He
proposed the setting up of what he termed “a national council for
citizenship”, to be in charge of solving such incidents.
This
is the second incident of its kind in three months in Egypt, where
there are sporadic outbreaks of violence and tension between Muslims
and Christians.
To
address Christian concerns, the Egyptian authorities often insist that
potential converts discuss their motives with priests before their
decision becomes irrevocable.
In
December, a priest's wife in northwest of Cairo embraced Islam,
triggering a sit-in and clashes with police at Cairo's main cathedral.
Following
violent protests, the Egyptian authorities returned the priest's wife
to Christian leaders who “gave her advice” in a secluded location.
The
problem was solved by declaring that the woman had abandoned her
conversion bid and returned to Christianity.
The
Egyptian authorities' handling of the case prompted criticisms from
intellectuals and independent newspapers who decried the delivery of
the woman, against her will, to Christian religious men to pressure
her into returning to a religion she had voluntarily abandoned.
They
further warned the incident represented a dangerous infringement of a
citizen's human rights and it could lead to the undermining of the
state's authority by sending wrong signals that “blackmail and
pressure” could replace the rule of law.
