Hundratals koptiska flickor har kidnappats,
tvångskonverterats till islam och gifts bort
med islamister sedan den s k egyptiska revol-
utionen 2011.
Men fallet med den 14-åriga Sarah har blivit
själva symbolen för det islamistiska
förtrycket och fått både koptiska kyrkan och
mänskliga rättigheterorganisationer
att reagera på allvar.
Det ovanliga är att man känner till gärnings-
männens identiteter och vet att flickan hålls
fången i Libyen.
Man har också bevis för att det numera
Muslimska Brödraskapskontrollerade
Inrikesministeriet var inblandade i
kidnappningen och beskyddar
gärningsmännen.
**
"On Sunday, September 30 Sarah Ishaq Abdelmalek,
born on August 1, 1998 in the town of el-Dabaa, 130
kilometers from Mersa Matrouh, was on her way to
school with her cousin Miriam, when they stopped at
a bookshop. Miriam went ahead of Sarah to school,
leaving Sarah behind. Sarah never made it to school
and no one has seen her since then. Her father was
hesitant at first to contact the authorities for fear of
harm to his family and his other children by the Salafi
Muslims, who have a large presence and influence in
Mersa Matrouh and Alexandria. He finally filed a report
with the police on October 20, accusing 27 year old
bookshop keeper and Salafist Mahmoud Abu Zied
Abdel Gawwad, a married man and father of children,
of abducting Sarah and marrying her against her will
**
"Sarah was smuggled across the borders to Libya with
the help of the Interior Ministry," said Ebram Louis,
founder of the Coptic non-governmental organization
Association of Victims of Abduction and Enforced Dis-
appearance (AVAED), which handles cases of abducted
Coptic minors. Louis blamed the interior ministry for all
the disappearances of Coptic minors, saying the ministry
colludes with the Muslims.
The recently elected Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros
II said the kidnapping and forced conversion of Sarah
is a "disgrace for the whole of Egypt."
During a meeting with a delegation of the Journalists
Syndicate Council at Anba Bishoy Monastery in Wadi
Natrunon on November 12, he said "Can any family
accept the kidnapping of their daughter and her
forced conversion?"
***
