RLPB 398. Egypt: Bring Back Our Girls

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 398 | Wed 15 Mar 2017

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EGYPT: 'BRING BACK OUR GIRLS' 
by Elizabeth Kendal

Hanan Girgis (18)
World Watch Monitor

On the night of 26 January the Girgis brothers went out to irrigate crops. However, one brother, Rezeiky, remained at home to watch over his wife, elderly mother and sister Hanan (18) who was engaged to be married. At about 10:30pm a Muslim neighbour came to the house and told Rezeiky that a thief had been seen lurking around their livestock shed. Believing he had been duly warned, Rezeiky bedded down in the shed to protect the family's livestock and equipment while the women slept soundly in the house.

When the Girgis brothers returned home at around 3am they found the front door open and Hanan missing. Whilst one slipper was found by the door, her clothes, jewellery and Identity Card were still in her room. For two days the family searched for Hanan to no avail. Suspecting their Muslim neighbour had lured Rezeiky to the shed purposely so the women would be alone and Hanan could be abducted, the family accused Mohamed Ahmed Nubi Soliman (27), a criminal and cousin of the neighbour, of abducting their daughter. Although Soliman admitted to the police that he was indeed involved, he was not arrested.

The Civil Status Authority at Esna Police Station told the family that national security services had issued Hanan a new Identity Card. The family then headed off to the national security headquarters in Luxor, only to have officers there deny having any knowledge of Hanan's whereabouts. Frustrated and desperate, the family then staged a peaceful protest outside the security offices. The police responded violently, leaving the 23-year-old Girgis brother with a broken leg. The family's lawyer, Barsoum Wahba, has accused the police of 'complicity and apathy'. 

The worst thing about this horror story is that it is not unusual. Every year, hundreds of Coptic girls are either kidnapped or seduced by fundamentalist Muslims, before being violently raped, terrorised, forcibly converted and married off to Islamists. Essentially these girls are being trafficked into Islam and sexually enslaved. Because the organised Islamisation rings operate with the tacit consent and overt co-operation of Islamic clerics, law enforcement officers, local government officials and prosecutors, most of these girls never see their families again.

The situation has deteriorated markedly in recent years. Not only are the Muslim masses more radicalised, but during the years of 'Arab Spring' insecurity (from January 2011 through to the ouster of Morsi in July 2013) many thousands of Islamists -- including at least 500 members of the terrorist group Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya -- either escaped or were released from Egyptian prisons. Ebram Louis, the founder of the Egyptian Association of Victims of Abduction and Enforced Disappearances (AVAFD), commented in June 2014: 'Before the revolution five or six girls would disappear each month. Now the average is 15.' That is one girl every two days! Of some 550 disappearances AVAFD investigated between 2011 and 2014, only ten girls were recovered.

The only difference between what happens in Egypt (and Pakistan) at the hands of local Muslims, and in Iraq at the hands of ISIS, or in Nigeria at the hands of Boko Haram, is that in Egypt (as in Pakistan) the sexual enslavement is quietly unspectacular and occurs one girl at a time. To Islamists, Christian girls are legitimate booty and halal (permissible).  Meanwhile, the thousands of parents of these girls are weeping and lamenting, crying 'bring back our girls'. It is difficult to imagine a scenario more challenging to one's faith.

Two thousand years ago King Herod tried to thwart God's purpose, causing weeping and lamentation in Egypt (Matthew 2:16-18). Today, as Islam does likewise, know it will fail just as dismally. 'Among those who know me I mention Rahab [Egypt] ...' (from Psalm 87) and 'Blessed be Egypt my people ...' (from Isaiah 19:16-25). And so we pray...


PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO

* intervene in mercy and with power for the Girgis family and all Coptic and Christian families suffering the devastating effects of Islamic human trafficking and sex slavery. Please, dear Lord our Redeemer, bring back their girls.

* pour his Spirit into the hearts of all who are victims of, or threatened by, Islamic trafficking and sex slavery; although their faith be tested in the hottest of fires, may their eyes be fixed on Jesus and their entreaties directed to him. 'For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.' (1 Peter 3:12 ESV)

* put into the heart of Egypt's President al-Sisi a burning desire to crack down on this evil trade which brings nothing but suffering and disgrace to Egypt. 'On that night the king could not sleep ...' (from Esther 5:9 to 6:11 ESV)


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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COPTIC CHRISTIAN GIRLS ABDUCTED IN EGYPT

Every year, hundreds of Coptic Christian girls are kidnapped by fundamentalist Muslims and then violently raped, terrorised, forcibly converted and married to Islamists. From January 2011 to the ouster of President Morsi in July 2013 (the 'Arab Spring'), thousands of Islamists, including many hundreds of terrorists, either escaped or were released from prison. As a result, Egypt has seen a marked escalation in the number of Coptic girls being trafficked into Islam and sex slavery. It has risen from 5 a month before January 2011 to 15 a month by 2014 -- one girl every two days! Because the Islamisation rings operate with the support of Islamic clerics, local police, government officials and prosecutors, most of these girls never see their families again. Please pray for Egypt and its Church.

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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate. She serves as Director of Advocacy at Canberra-based Christian Faith and Freedom (CFF), and is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

She has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and, After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016).

See www.ElizabethKendal.com

RLPB 290. Towards 2015: the world has changed.

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 290 | Wed 10 Dec 2014

TOWARDS 2015: THE WORLD HAS CHANGED
-- and the Church must rise to meet the challenge.
By Elizabeth Kendal

* DISPLACED & TRAUMATISED
As we head into 2015, hundreds of thousands of Christians are struggling to survive as refugees or IDPs (internally displaced peoples).

source

Driven from their historic homeland in Upper Mesopotamia, hundreds of thousands of Assyrian Christians are struggling in camps and shared accommodation across Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. Having lost everything, they are dependent on Christian aid groups and local churches for their day-to-day survival. Around 150,000 Assyrian IDPs are in Iraqi Kurdistan (and some in Baghdad) being sheltered in churches, schools, shopping centres and by local believers. Arriving with only the clothes on their backs, they too are dependent on the generosity of others. In Sudan, many thousands of Christians have been driven from their homes in South Kordofan state by the genocidal regime in Khartoum. Tens of thousands have fled to camps in South Sudan. Tens of thousands seek shelter in caves and trenches in the Nuba Mountains awaiting Khartoum's threatened Final Solution. The number of Christians displaced by Islamic militants in Nigeria, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo is quite enormous. Of course their needs are beyond the material, for these refugees and IDPs have been traumatised by war, with most having lost loved ones. Understandably, their faith is sorely tested.

As we head into 2015, will we commit to living simply and supporting a Christian aid group so our brothers and sisters might simply live? As we head into 2015, will we commit to pray for the displaced?

* CAPTIVE & ENSLAVED
As we head into 2015, people are slowly becoming aware that slavery is alive and flourishing in the 21st Century and growing at an alarming rate. The victims are commonly from poor and marginalised communities; many are persecuted Christians. Today thousands of Christians exist as bonded labourers in Pakistan and as trapped labourers in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf.

source

Today thousands of Christian suffer as sex slaves to Islamic jihadists in Northern Nigeria, Cameroon and 'Islamic State', and as chattel slaves of Sudanese and Gulf Arabs. Christians fleeing persecution in the Horn of Africa are snatched from camps and trafficked into the Sinai where they are tortured to extort ransom payments. Committed Christian abolitionists and anti-trafficking activists are getting busier, rescuing captives and redeeming slaves with full knowledge that nothing will change until the culture changes through spiritual transformation.

As we head into 2015, will we commit to supporting the spread of the Gospel, for the witness of the Word and the Spirit? As we head into 2015, will we commit to pray for the captives?

'IN RETURNING and in rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.' Isaiah 30:15 has long been a favourite verse for many. It is easy to see why -- it is a beautiful verse, almost poetic. Yes, it rolls off the tongue so easily. Yet one look at the context and the verse becomes much more challenging. God spoke these words to his people at a time when they faced invasion, conquest, destruction, displacement, massacre and captivity. As their powerful enemy bore down on them, the Lord's people looked everywhere for help -- except to the Lord. Meanwhile, they did everything in their strength (busy, busy, busy) -- except pray (Isaiah 22:8b-11). As the storm clouds loomed the Lord God said: 'In returning and in rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.' But they were 'unwilling', preferring to do things their way (v16). So the Lord waited (refrained from acting), for the promised salvation would only come by grace through faith, which is the Lord's paradigm. No wonder the passage concludes: 'blessed are those who wait for [trust in] him' (v18). [Isaiah 30:15-18]

As we head into 2015, will we commit to serious faith-building so we might reach out in faith to seek grace from the Lord?

'Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord ...' (from Exodus 14:10-14).

* THE WORLD HAS CHANGED
We have entered an age where mission and persecution must be seen as inseparable; where the needs of the Body are so enormous they simply must be shared globally; where faith-building is imperative for the purpose of survival; and where worship must have room for indignation, lament and the very serious business of intercessory prayer.

As we head into 2015, will we commit to this?


DEAR FATHER WE PRAY
that we might have an insight into your heart, which grieves over the suffering Body of Christ. May the Holy Spirit work in us, that we might weep with those who weep while serving the persecuted as comforters and advocates. May the Holy Spirit change us that we will give of our time, our funds, our energy and our possessions willingly for the benefit of believers in desperate need (Acts 2:42-47). Please Lord, fan our flickering faith into flame, that we might truly believe that Jesus Christ is 'able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us' (Ephesians 3:20).  May 2015 be a year of awakening, transformation and sanctification, for the sake of those who suffer for Christ, and for the glory of God. 
Amen.


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS 
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TOWARDS 2015

Heading into 2015, we need to accept that the world has changed. The number of Christians displaced by war, threatened by terrorism, destroyed by violent persecution, crushed by crippling discrimination and even held captive as slaves is growing at an alarming rate. We have entered an age where mission and persecution must be seen as inseparable; where the needs of the Body are so enormous they simply must be shared globally; where faith-building is imperative for the purpose of survival; and where worship must have room for indignation, lament and the very serious business of intercessory prayer. As we head into 2015, will we commit to this? Pray for the persecuted, and for the Lord to revive his Church. For salvation comes from the Lord, by grace through faith.

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Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today 
(Deror Books, Dec 2012).