• 06:58
  • Wednesday ,17 June 2020
العربية

Disappearance of Copts

Dr. Naguib Gibraeel

Article Of The Day

00:06

Wednesday ,17 June 2020

Disappearance of Copts

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.

This was the case till the disaster of Wafaa Constantine, who was wife of a Coptic priest and some people claimed she was converted into Islam. Police had the woman, but they didn t hand her over to the Church, and Pope Shenouda decided to stay at the monastery for fasting and praying till the problem is solved. Yet, Dr. Mustafa Al-Faqi brought Wafaa Constantine to the papal residence, and here, Muslims and Christians came to a solution that Wafaa should spend one week at a consecration house before she finally decide what her religion is. Few days later, she went to the police station to declare she was born Christian and will die Christian.
 
The case was closed, but Habib al-Adly, the powerful minister of interiors didn t like what happened and canceled the counseling and guidance sessions as a punishment and revenge for the Christians since these sessions used to reassure families about their disappeared children in case they want to convert into Islam.  We tried hard to restore such sessions, but in vain though we received several promises. What I want to say is that solving this issue needs direct intervention from Pope Tawadros and President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi in order to solve many problems with and stop the suffering of several Coptic families.