Lawyer fears his client may die in desert prison.
Bahaa el-Din Ahmed Hussein El-Akkad was told by Egypt's secret police that he will remain in prison unless he agrees to be an informer, betraying other Egyptian Muslim converts.
El-Akkad's conversion to Christianity has incited extreme controversy in Egypt. The 57-year-old former sheikh previously authored a 500-page book, Islam: the Religion, and was a member of a fundamentalist Islamic group that encouraged non-Muslims to convert to Islam, although the group opposed violence. He was also a mosque leader in Al-Haram, near Giza
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Five years ago, El-Akkad said he began to seek a personal God, praying that somehow, he could know God. In January 2005, someone explained the Christian faith to him, and that's when he began an intensive study of the Bible. Within weeks, his prayer was answered and El-Akkad became a Christian.
His decision caused outrage and, as soon as word of his conversion reached the Egyptian State Security Investigation (SSI), he was arrested in Cairo in April 2005. The police interrogated him many times, but never told him why he was under arrest. El-Akkad was not informed of the charges against him. His Cairo attorney, Athanasius William, said El-Akkad remains in prison, "only because he has chosen a different belief, to be a Christian." He said government officials told him that El-Akkad had been detained under emergency law because he was suspected of "committing blasphemy against Islam."
El-Akkad said from his prison cell that he was arrested for "insulting Islam," when he became a Christian. El-Akkad's written testimony has infuriated Muslims in Egypt. "This is a proof to all Muslims that the person who studies the two religions from an objective and serious perspective will choose the Christian approach," wrote El-Akkad.
Later, El-Akkad was accused of a misdemeanor -- insulting a heavenly religion -- and a Cairo court ordered his release, but the SSI authorities took him into custody instead. In September, he was sent to Wadi el-Natroun, a distressing desert prison where cells measure three by six feet and inmates suffer from extreme heat, filth, and attacks from insects. His attorney fears his client will die in these terrible conditions. Please pray for Bro. Bahaa.
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Brother Bahaa E-Din Ahmed Hussein El-Akkad, 57, suffers appalling conditions jailed in prison alongside terrorists. |
