of protests for democracy and against the alleged forced conversion of two young Christian women to Islam.  The troubles began Sunday, February 27, when hundreds of angry Christians carrying crosses protested the conversion of medical graduates Marianne Makram Ayad and Teresa Ibrahim in the town of Fayoum, 90 kilometers (55 miles) from Cairo, church sources told media.

Reports said members of the Mar Girgis church in the town demanded the women return to their community on grounds that they had been "compelled" to change their religion,  apparently by Muslim kidnappers.

Arab media quoted the Egyptian Interior Ministry as saying it was still investigating whether the women were forced to abandon their Christian faith. "Serious attempts were made to give religious advise for the two Christian women in coordination with the Christian religious leaderships in Fayoum according to procedures followed in this regard," the Arabic news website ArabicNews.com quoted the ministry as saying.

ATTORNEY GENERAL

"The attorney general continued the track of these measures and to investigate the implications of their positions by their own will, while the measures to declare their Islam was not completed," the ministry added.

It was the second incident of its kind in three months in Egypt, where human rights watchers have expressed concern about outbreaks of violence and tension between the Muslim and Christian communities, which reportedly killed dozens of Coptic Christians in recent years.

In December, the decision of the wife of a Coptic Christian priest to embrace Islam triggered angry reactions from Christians, including a reported sit-in and clashes with police at Cairo’s main cathedral. After talks with local authorities, she apparently renounced her decision.

SENSITIVE SUBJECT

Conversion is a sensitive subject in Egypt. While Coptic Christians are free to convert to Islam, Muslims cannot convert to Christianity. Muslim men can marry Coptic women but Coptic men cannot marry Muslim women without converting.

In addition Christian human rights groups have expressed concern about what they see as growing pressure on Coptic women and girls to become Muslims, which often involves kidnapping and sexual abuse, BosNewsLife learned.

As part of a campaign by Muslim extremists against Christians, the U.S. Copts Association said last year it had received "troubling reports (that) indicate that supermarkets publicizing shopping contests are in fact singling out Coptic girls for conversion to Islam."

CONTROVERSIAL PAPERWORK

"Once alerted to the girls religion, store employees notify the young Christian woman that she has won a contest. To claim her prize, she is asked to proceed to the upper levels of the store where her reward awaits. Once upstairs, the girl is asked to sign documentation confirming receipt of her reward," the organization said.

"However, the paperwork is documentation for the conversion of an individual to Islam; and the young girl is unaware that her signature is in fact official confirmation of her conversion to Islam," it added.

Coptic women who resist are reportedly accused of theft and strip-searched. "There are several reports of the rape of these young Christian women. Despite their families desperate attempts to rescue their daughters, the girls are not returned to their families," the U.S. Copts Association said recently.

TORTURED CHRISTIANS
 
There is also concern about the situation of Christians in prisons across Egypt, some of whom are tortured, human rights watchers and church sources say. One of them, Hany Samir Tawfik, 28, has "become emotionally disturbed and lost vision in one eye from torture and lack of medical treatment," after nearly two years in prison, the Christian Compass Direct news agency quoted his widowed mother recently as saying.

He has been jailed without charges for allegedly refusing to spy on an evangelical pastor for the authorities, said Compass Direct. Christians were the majority in Egypt until several centuries after the Islamic conquest of the 7th century, but now make up just around six percent of the over 76-million strong population, according to estimates.

The Egyptian government has come under increasing international pressure to improve religious and political rights. Last week Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak proposed to amend the Arab nation’s constitution to allow direct, secret and multi-candidate elections for state president, but it was not yet clear how this would effect persecuted Christians and other religious minorities in this mainly Islamic nation.

OTHER CLASHES

Analysts have linked the call for change in Egypt to massive democracy protests elsewhere in the Middle East, including in Lebanon,  where tens of thousands of demonstrators eventually forced out Lebanon’s pro-Syrian prime minister and Cabinet Monday,  March 1,  two weeks after the assassination of a popular politician.
 
On Wednesday, March 2, there were no reports of new clashes with riot police in Cairo where pro democracy supporters demonstrated against the detention of an opposition figure, whose imprisonment has been condemned by the United States.

Ayman Nour, 40, the leader of the Al-Ghad Party, was detained in January on allegations of forging nearly 2,000 signatures to secure a license for his party in 2004, but he denies the accusation.

Egyptian media have suggested however that Ayman Nour may be freed shortly, at a time when Christian and secular human rights groups anxiously await the dawn of a new era in Egypt and elsewhere in the turbulent Middle East.  
(With Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife News Center, Reports from Egypt and BosNewsLife Research).

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