The Washington Times
Letter to the Editor
I have seen reports in the Egyptian media about an advertisement of the International Coptic Federation in your paper on kidnapping, rape and forced conversion of young Coptic Christian girls. I have now obtained a copy of this advertisement, and I can assure you nothing in this advertisement is true. I hope you’ll place my response in your paper.
I have been investigating over forty cases of ’kidnapped’ girls, over the past four years, including those reported by human rights activist Maurice Sadek in Cairo who is the main source of these reports, and whose reports, by the way, are not taken serious by important human rights organizations such as the US-based Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. In none of the cases reported to me was a girl physically forced to convert to Islam or raped in order to make her convert. I have investigated the case of Therese Shaker, the first name on the list in the advertisement. I can assure you there is not the slightest evidence that this girl was kidnapped.
I am willing to investigate with any American any case of his or her choice in which a kidnapping of a Christian girl is suspected. Finding a real kidnapping story is unlikely but you may discover a host of other problems. Therese came from a family which was internally sharply divided. She tried to run away, but since young girls cannot live on their own in Egypt, she tried to find other ways out. She first tried conversion to Islam, and when that proved impossible because of her age and interference of the church, she asked to be placed in a Christian home. This shows she tried to escape from a family situation where internal conflicts were a frequent pattern. Therese wasn’t able to escape and was, with three other family members, killed a few months later, according to witnesses by her brother, on November 30, 1997. That is tragic.
In all cases I investigated, conversions were directly related to social problems, and in virtually all cases there was the lack of a strong faith. But this has nothing to do with the use of physical force.
I am challenging anyone to come to Egypt and to investigate reported cases of kidnapping. Investigation means more then going to one office in Cairo--it means going out in the field. Go to the family’s home, meet relatives, neighbors, priests, etc. Such investigations are rarely ever done. I have been several times in Wasta where the Shaker family lived but they told me no one else went to Wasta to meet with different family members and people from Wasta. Isn’t that shocking?
I hope to see you soon in Egypt to check the kidnapping stories for yourself,
Sincerely Yours,
Drs. Cornelis Hulsman,
correspondent of the Dutch Christian daily ’Reformatorisch Dagblad’ in Cairo
e-mail: jourcoop@intouch.com
c.c. Foreign Press Association in Egypt
