The file of the disappearance of Christian girls has been my main concern since the late nineties of the last century until the number of disappeared girls and women reached in the late Mubarak era to approximately 1490 cases. In my first media interview in 2004, I demanded the return of two kidnapped Christian girls from Dakahlia governorate. I presented several facts that led President Mubarak to interfere and the Interior minister ordered police to find the two disappeared girls , and so was done and the girls returned home after they were kidnapped.

I wonder why the Ministry of Interior insists on not returning the advising and counseling sessions, which will help get rid of such dilemma of families of the Coptic girls. They keep worrying about their daughters and never know if they are kidnapped or just decided to convert into Islam. The sessions are held in the presence of a Christen priest and a police man to advise and discuss the decision with the person who wants to convert. In many cases the person accepts the advise and changes his or her mind. This has changed after the story of Waffa Kostantine, wife of a Coptic priest. The extremist Muslims said she converted and became a Muslim sister, while the extremist Christians say she has never converted. Yes, she declared she will always be Christian and her story came to an end. However, the minster of interiors Habib Al-Adly, decided at that time to cancel the sessions. Ever since, the families never know if their daughters were forced by any means to convert since they suddenly disappear and suddenly appear in a video declaring their conversion. I was part of a team who filed a law suit to restore the advising and counseling sessions in 2005, but no court has issued a ruling ever since.

It doesn’t matter how much noise you make in media, but your effect over the years is what really counts. There are many people who have been serving Egypt over the years without making too much noise. Their belonging to Egypt makes them willing to give without expecting anything in return. For more than 40 years, John Maher has been preaching Egypt in Europe and speaking about Egypt with parliamentarians, presidents and important parties in the European Union in order to clarify the true image of Egypt with the attempts of the Brotherhood to destroy its image after the revolution of June 30. I spent days with him in similar meetings with European Parliamentarians where he worked hard from 8 am to 6 pm. After the terrorist attacks on St. Samuel monastery, he led a group of French tourists in Egypt and they were really impressed by the tour that was considered a great advertisement to Egypt. He also held an international conference as head of OFIDA organization in cooperation with the Egyptian Federation for Human Rights, which was attended by more than fifteen French parliamentarians and the former minister Patrick Karam. Two days ago, John Maher delivered a speech in the European Parliament on behalf of His Eminence the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar after Dr. Abdel-Moneim Fouad representative of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar was not able to attend the conference. He was the first Egyptian Coptic man to deliver a speech of His Eminence the Sheikh of Al-Azhar in front of an important forum of the European Parliament. I think it is the right time to honor him in Egypt at the highest level. Greetings to him for his great work and greetings to his French wife that supports him by heart.

A report published yesterday of the United Nations Commission on the death of former President Mohamed Morsi and the death of his son Abdullah claimed that Morsi s death was the result of medical negligence and brutal treatment in his prison. Report said he was only allowed to leave his cell for one hour and had to remain in custody for twenty-three hours. The report added that Morsi was prevented from exercising and from reading newspapersas well as watching television. The report also mentioned that his son Abdullah had been killed in Egyptian prisons. I want to clarify that these reports are based on data presented by suspicious Egyptian organizations and funded by Qatar or some terrorist organizations. I think that there are human rights activists in the National Council for Human Rights that defend rights of the terrorists to kill and preach extremism. The report of the UN committee is full of lies supported by suspicious human rights organizations. The Egyptian Union for Human Rights visited Tora Prison, a short time ago, and found the complaint of the Brotherhood leaders concerning the short period of exercise, bad televisions and the delay of news papers. There was no claims about medical negligence. The death of Mohamed Morsi in the courtroom showed that the death was a result of blood circulation has been witnessed by the lawyers of the former Brotherhood Freedom and Justice Party and there is no slight criminal or medical failure of the state in the case of death. As for the death of the son of Morsi Abdullah, I believe that the prosecution s investigations and the anatomical character confirm that the death as a result of something else completely should not go into it in order to preserve the sanctity of the dead.

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi did well at the youth conference yesterday when he decide to tell the Egyptian people about things that he was told not to mention. He decided to tell the truth to his people including those who elected him. He said that building presidential palaces is important for a modern powerful state. He was not talking to the elite, but to 92% of the Egyptians who voted for him. He spoke about untold numbers of the achievements of the Egyptian armed forces that will change Egypt and life of the Egyptians. He explained the great role of it that saved and built Egypt and prevented the Syrian, Iraqi and Libyan scenario in Egypt. He was open, frank and clear in answering the questions. He decided to face the rumors to kill them in our minds. He also invited the media to face them. Here, I thank our beloved organization the Egyptian Federation for Human Rights, for supporting the Egyptian army and its great achievements. In fact, the Egyptian armed forces is pride and protection for all Egyptians.

This is not a joke, but a sectarian reality that dozens of Christian girls experience after one of their parents convert into Islam for any reason. Many times the father go to the Civil Status Authority and change the names of the children to Islamic names and their religion from Christianity to Islam, which is totally accepted though being against the law. Yet, in Egypt they believe that Islam is the best religion for the children. The child goes to school and is forced to attend classes of Islamic religion or fail in the exam! As an attorney, I have seen many cases suffer such scenario, including the case of Mario and Andrew whom former president Mubrak ordered that they don t take any exams of religion. The problem is much bigger than this for girls who find when they grew up that their names have changed from Christian to Islamic names along with their religion. She goes to the court and start a battle to restore her name, and when she succeeds, the name of the father remains Muslim and her identity remains lost and strange. I know that a number of senior officials don t accept such cases and they demand the Interior Minister to change that, but no response yet. I hope that equality and citizenship advocated by the President will be a good motivation to change that.

After judge Khalid Khafaji, Vice-Premier of the Council of State Commentary, issued a ruling to ban demolition or selling of churches, I need to express my happiness and gratitude to the honorable judge for several reasons: Such ruling proves the importance of worship houses and proves equality between Muslim and Christian houses of worship. It also annuls the claims of the extremists that churches are places of infidelity. Such ruling expresses policy of President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi of equality among the Egyptians. Such message should also reach the officials who support the extremists in Egypt and treat Christians differently.

The Coptic Orthodox Church and the world lost a great man yesterday whose books exceeded 100, among them many books to defend the Holy Bible. He is Father Morkos Aziz. The man filed many lawsuits against movies insulting Christian faiths, and declared his faith not fearing anyone. He also defended the church upon the elections of the General Congregation Council against all attempts to defame the Church.

The words of His Grace the great Imam Dr. Ahmed Tayeb Sheikh of Al-Azhar very precious during the speech he has delivered at the opening of the New Cathedral of the New Administrative Capital. He assured that there is nothing in Islamic Sharia that prevents building new churches and the majority of churches in Egypt were built under Muslim rulers. We thank him for what he said since he represents 1.5 billion Muslim people. However, we don t accept what he said that Islamic state is the guarantee for all churches. In fact, we live under a civil state and I wanted to hear from him that the Egyptian state is the guarantee and the protector for all churches and mosques. The state of citizenship can not restrain to a specific religion to protect the other religion. In that case, we are trying to return the Copts to be Dhimis under the protection of Islamic Caliphate. Such words give him the power of giving and preventing at the same time, which contradicts with the modern understanding of a civil state.

As I was a judge and a head of a court of personal status, I experienced thousands of Christian families seeking divorce because of several problems. However I can t give a number about how many of them even if some people may claim they are over 100,000 cases. The church promised to prepare a personal status law to solve many problems, especially as many women resorted to converting to Islam in order to get rid of their spouses.

Perhaps, as President al-Sisi said yesterday at a graduation ceremony for students of military colleges that the war on Egypt comes from inside. There are people who want to topple this country and those have launched 21 thousand rumors in three months. Such a number in a country that is working on economic reform and democracy as well as strong state institutions may have negative effect. We are well aware that the Muslim Brotherhood are the main beneficiary of that evil action since they seek destruction of Egypt.

Over the last week and immediately after the Easter holiday, six Christian girls disappeared and several stories about their disappearance started to be heard. If the girl is 18 years old, she immediately converts into Islam and if not, her disappearance continues till she is 18 year old. Meanwhile, her family suffers on daily basis not knowing if their daughter is dead or alive. At the end, they know that their daughter is converted into Islam and is married to a Muslim man. Indeed, the freedom of belief should not be negotiable, but the law should not serve the majority against the minority. First of all, we should answer the question: Is there freedom of faith for Christians in Egypt? I am surprised that Al-Azhar accepts the conversion of Christian boys or girls into Islam, which is a violation of the law, because the Civil Code does not allow the minors to decide on their own unless he or she reaches twenty-one years old. Moreover, the minors can decide on their own when they reach 18 with the permission of the guardian.

In this article I mention several points that reveal problems of the Coptic Christians in Egypt. Christians don’t have freedom to build churches. In Galaa village, Minya, the governor couldn’t rebuild an old church before he accepts 6 conditions of the Salafis. There is no Christian governor in 27 Egyptian governorates and there is no Christian director of security. This could be because of incompetence or the lack of or confidence in Christians. There is no Christian president of university in Egypt or Christian editor-in-chief of a national newspaper. Christians don’t preside over national banks and can’t work as obstetrics and gynaecology professor. Egyptian courts don’t accept Christian witnesses against Muslims. Holy Mass is not recorded in public TV on Sundays.