CAIRO - Hundreds of Muslim worshippers and activists from the social networking website Facebook protested Sunday night outside Amr Ibn el-Aas Mosque in Old Cairo, calling for the release of Camilia Shehata, the wife of a priest who has allegedly converted to Islam and then disappeared around a month ago.
Protesters, who gathered after the Taraweeh (optional night prayers), held banners calling on President Hosni Mubarak and his wife to intervene to save Shehata from allegedly being killed.
Shehata is said to have converted to Islam, with some believing that she has been cloistered away by Coptic Church authorities in one of Egypt's many Christian monasteries.
"All those who were prayingwere about to join the protest, but security forces were very harsh in dispersing them," Elwi Ahmed, who was praying in the mosque, told The Egyptian Gazette Online. "There were scores of people, but the police were very strict."
In the protest, which marked Lailat el-Qadr (the night when the Holy Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Mohamed during the holy month of Ramadan), the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, the Minister of Interior, the National Council for Women and the National Council of Human Rights were all urgedto step in to "save the life of our Muslim sister".
Last month a number of protests took place to condemn the disappearance of Shehata, including a vigil in front of Abbassiya's Al-Nour Mosque in Cairo, where scores of Muslims called upon officials to "bring Shehata back".
According to a Coptic Church source, Coptic Pope Shenouda III has said he would "not bow to pressure" to turn the woman over.
