Missing Christian Girls Leave Trail of Tears

Inter Press Service

When a young Christian girl goes missing in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria, her family will call on a certain Muslim sheikh in the nearby town of El-Ameriya.

The local Salafi leader, whose ultra-conservative views condone the marriage of girls as young as nine, has a history of abducting Coptic Christian girls and forcing them to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men, claim rights activists.

And so the sheikh and his associates are the natural starting point for any investigation into missing underage Christian girls. And, according to activists, that is usually where they find them.

“Whenever a young girl disappears in the area the trail leads to this sheikh,” says Mamdouh Nakhla, chairman of the Al Kalema Organisation for Human Rights.

In a recent case, a 13-year-old Coptic Christian girl from a village near Alexandria was allegedly kidnapped and held for over a week as her abductors tried to force her to renounce her religion.

According to her testimony, she was drugged unconscious while in a taxi on her way home from school. She woke up in a secluded house with two Salafi sheikhs and an elderly woman. Her abductors forced her to wear niqab, a full veil covering the body and face, and beat her when she refused to convert to Islam.

Girgis claims she was released nine days later when the sheikhs became nervous after her family organised large demonstrations for her return. The Salafis turned her over to police, who feared the girl’s testimony would spark sectarian clashes, and so tried to convince her to claim she had wilfully gone to a sheikh seeking to convert to Islam.

“The only thing unusual (about this case) was that the girl was returned,” says Nakhla. “In one case I investigated a kidnapped girl was allowed to call her parents, but in all others the girl was never heard from again.”

Christian rights watchdogs say abductions and forced conversions of young Egyptian Coptic girls have been going on for decades right under the noses of local authorities. But the frequency of the kidnappings has increased alarmingly since the uprising in 2011 that toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak and brought an Islamist-led government to power.

More than 500 Christian girls have been abducted in the last two years, according to the Association of Victims of Abduction and Forced Disappearance (AVAFD), which documents the disappearances. A growing number of cases involve girls between the ages of 13 and 17.

AVAFD head Abram Louis claims the abducted girls are taken to ‘safe’ houses, where they are manipulated or blackmailed into converting to Islam and forced to marry Muslim men, often to serve as second wives.

“If we inform the police where the kidnapped girl is being kept, they inform the Salafis, who then move her away to another home and then we lose all trace of her,” Louis said in a recent interview.

“Egypt has laws in place to protect girls under 18, but Salafis do not accept them,” says Amal Abdel Hadi, head of the New Woman Foundation. “To them, a girl is only a minor until she has her first period.”…

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Pakistan: Christian woman who was kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam is free after 10 years

By Marisol

“There is no compulsion in religion,” according to Qur’an 2:256, but in reality, Islamic law is rife with means of coercion directed at unbelievers, whom Qur’an 9:29 offers the options of conversion, subjugation, or war. For that matter, “compulsion” is ultimately in the eye of the person in power doing the compelling, and rationalizations abound to blur the lines between persuasion and compulsion: “it’s good for them.” “It’s for the best.” “They’ll thank us later when they realize we’re right.”

But, just to keep things looking good on paper, many forced converts are also forced to sign documents saying they converted of their own free will, or, as was the case in this report, brought to court to make a statement under duress.

Nadia Bibi got away. One other captive bride also recently got away. But Saba and Anila Masih, Farah Hatim, and untold others are still in captivity (and not only in Pakistan), with many cases of abducted Christian and Hindu girls and women going unreported.

Pakistan is a major recipient of U.S. assistance. We have leverage we are not using to insist Pakistan protect the rights of non-Muslims and to free those wrongfully imprisoned by various means on account of their faith.

“Christian Girl kidnapped and converted to Islam back home after 10 years,” from Agenzia Fides, January 24 (thanks to E.):

Lahore (Agenzia Fides) – Nadia Bibi, a Christian girl who was abducted and forced to marry a Muslim man, returned to her family, of Catholic faith, after 10 years. Nadia was only 15 when, in 2001, she was kidnapped in Mariamabad (in Punjab), a city with a Catholic majority: her case is not an isolated case, as confirmed by Catholic sources of Fides in Punjab, there are at least 700 cases a year of Christian girls kidnapped and forced to marry a Muslim. If one adds the cases of Hindu girls, the number rises to 1,800 cases per year,says a recent Report carried out by the NGO “Asian Human Rights Commission”.Nadia’s parents had turned to the police but, as often happens, they had been intimidated and threatened by the kidnappers, while the police refused to register a complaint…

More: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/01/pakistan-christian-woman-who-was-kidnapped-and-forcibly-converted-to-islam-is-free-after-10-years.html

Pakistan: Christian girls and women, some already married, abducted and forcibly converted to Islam

By Marisol

The marriages of captives are abrogated, by order of the Qur’an: “And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you” (4:24).

“There is no compulsion in religion,” according to Qur’an 2:256, but the nature of the “compulsion” is in the eye of the overlord/beholder. There is, in reality, plenty of coercion hardwired into Islamic law, even via Qur’an 9:29, which gives unbelievers the options of conversion, subjugation, or warfare. All options are intended to lead the way to conversion by making life so otherwise intolerable, humiliating, and terrifying as to wear down resistance. But hey, you know, no compulsion or anything. Just “an offer you can’t refuse.”

Often, just to keep things looking good on paper, these women and girls are made to sign under duress (if not while drugged) a document saying they converted of their own free will. Is there “no compulsion” in document signing?

“Choora,” variously spelled “Chura,” or “Choohra,” is a derogatory term. Literally, it means “sweeper,” referring to the menial jobs to which Christians are frequently relegated on account of their faith and the social barriers to their advancement.

Pakistan remains a major recipient of U.S. aid. We have leverage we are not using to help Pakistan’s second class citizens realize their full rights in society, and liberate the abducted and wrongfully imprisoned. “Girls being raped and tortured,” from The News, January 16 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

“I saw two of my daughters being raped in front of me,” an old lady from Essa Nagri told The News. “It is considered that Chooras have no integrity.” She says that around midnight, men from other areas start gathering in their neighbourhood. “They are usually drunk. They choose which home they will plunder.”

She adds that one night they stormed into her home and raped two of her girls, while she “was locked in another room hearing their cries for help”. “I am a widow without any financial prospects, but I did go to the MPA representing us. What good is he if he can’t do anything to protect us?” The fear to report these cases is such that at first, no one even admits that an incident of rape or torture has taken place.

Forcible conversions

Within the past three months, nine women have been abducted and forcibly converted to Islam. MPA Javed adds that the purpose is not to gain good deeds, but to sell them. A majority of the Christian girls converted are married, he says.

According to reports he received from different areas of the city, the abducted women are later sold to feudal lords in Sindh and Punjab. Citing a recent example, Javed says that in Essa Nagri, a 23-year-old married girl was forcibly remarried to a 60-year-old Muslim man, who was notorious for selling girls.

“Known to be pious, but had a side business of selling Christian girls”:

Javed said that the man was known to be pious, but had a side business of selling Christian girls…

More: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/01/pakistan-christian-girls-some-already-married-abducted-and-forcibly-converted.html