Nadia
Mohamed Ali was raised a Christian but converted to Islam 23 years ago
when she married Mohamed Abdel-Wahhab Mustafa. Following his death, she
planned to convert back to her original faith, along with the rest of
her family. But a criminal court in Beni Suef, in central Egypt,
sentenced them to jail for 15 years last week, according to reports.
Seven other people, who were involved in the case, were also
sentenced to five years in jail. Human rights advocates have now warned
the sentence is a sign of things to come in Egypt under the Islamist
government. The conversion came to light after the family attempted to
get new identity cards in 2004, when one of her children was arrested
two years later and confessed the documents had been changed illegally
when police noticed he had changed his name and became suspicious.
Nadia, her children and the clerks who processed the identity cards were
subsequently arrested and charged.
Christians in the country have said they face difficulties if they
have converted to Islam and wish to switch back, leading some to forge
the documents, which could land them in jail. Samuel Tadros, a research
fellow at Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, has said
while similar conversions had been common, the new Sharia-based
constitution in Egypt was “a real disaster” for religious freedom.
He said: “The cases will increase in the future. It will be much harder for people to return to Christianity.”
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