News

Why Egypt’s Christian Families Are Paying Ransoms

Kidnappings of Christians are surging. Some see signs of hope. Meanwhile, they’re collecting funds.

Thomas Hartwell / AP

In 2011, Nadia Makram, 13, was walking home from church near her working-class Cairo neighborhood when she vanished.

Her mother, Martha, went to the police, who refused to file a report. Soon after, Martha received a call demanding $15,000. She went back to the police, who registered a complaint but noted only Nadia's disappearance.

When the police did nothing, Martha gathered money from family and friends and traveled to a village 65 miles south.

80+
Christians kidnapped for ransom in Minya (an Upper Egypt province with a high percentage of Copts) since the 2011 revolution.

17
Kidnappings in Minya in August and September 2013 alone.

The Christian Science Monitor

Martha met Nadia's 48-year-old kidnapper in the home of the local mayor. After she handed over the money, the men showed her what they called a "marriage certificate." Nadia, they said, had converted to Islam and married her abductor. Martha left empty-handed—an increasingly common story among Coptic Christians. Abductions have increased sharply in the past few months.

Nadia's case is being followed by the Association for Victims of Abductions and Enforced Disappearances (AVAED), which has documented 500 similar cases since the 2011 revolution. Hers appears to be a straight kidnapping, but AVAED says these are only a small proportion of disappearances. Sixty percent of them begin with a love relationship built on false pretenses.

"The girls are told, 'What will your family do to you if you go back to them? Convert to Islam so we can be together,' " said Ebram Louis, founder of AVAED. Kept against their will, Louis says, some of the girls are later found in brothels.

But some kidnappings turn out to be runaway stories instead. If a young Copt has found a Muslim lover, her shamed family may invent a tale of kidnapping by Muslim extremists.

Still, no matter the reason for the disappearance of a minor, says Cairo pastor Rifaat Fikry, "The state must investigate with complete neutrality."

But some feel police response is professionally lacking, due to sympathy with or fear of fanatic Muslims. "We file an official police report, though it is often ignored," said Louis. "They say, 'There are a million girls missing. Why should we go after yours?'"

One Islamist indicated that certain groups do target Copts. According to the Middle East Christian News, Mostafa Kamal Issa, governor of Minya, admitted the presence of a gang that kidnapped Copts for ransom. He claimed they were too well armed to be stopped.

Since the state is perceived as doing nothing, Christians often just pay the ransom.

Coptic bishop Kyrillos of Nag Hammadi, 300 miles south of Cairo, recently held a press conference to complain of 34 kidnapping cases in his diocese since the revolution. Of these, 11 were returned after ransom payments, which totaled $435,000.

Hany Hanna's family pooled its money for a ransom to free his kidnapped uncle, but the abductors killed his uncle before the family could pay. "Within a system that does nothing to prevent kidnapping, I say yes, to purchase back his humanity, it is worth it," said Hanna, a professor at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo. "Paying the ransom can communicate that I am rewarding the criminal for what he has done. But God has paid our ransom, and he is not rewarding sinners—he is taking upon himself the consequences of restoring the relationship."

Still, the relationship between Coptic families suffering kidnappings and the state remains fractured. When Martha went back to the police with the order from the public prosecutor to retrieve Nadia, she was detained and interrogated for six hours. Her trip was fruitless, and local Islamists harassed her. She now resides outside Cairo, driven from her home, she said.

In July, the Egyptian cabinet established the Ministry of Transitional Justice, appointing lawyer, judge, and human rights advocate Mohamed Amin al-Mahdi at its head. Some wonder if the ministry is only for appearances. But given consistent failures to achieve justice through the police or the judiciary, some Coptic Christians sense a new opportunity to address past wrongs.

"The Ministry of Transitional Justice is the ministry of hope," said Hany Gaziri, a veteran Coptic activist who met with al-Mahdi to discuss the kidnappings and other issues. "If I know my daughter has been taken, I can go the Ministry of Transitional Justice and prove my case, and he will order the Ministry of the Interior to return her. If we can arrest even one or two, I think these kidnappings will come to an end."

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries

What 'House of Cards' Gets Right About Staying in Politics

Reply All

Wilson's Bookmarks

New & Noteworthy Books

Who Owns the Pastor's Sermon?

Excerpt

The Right Way to Give Someone a Blessing

Testimony

Christ Called Me Off the Minaret

The Foreign Policy Mission of American Evangelicals

Review

Tim Keller on Enduring Suffering Without Losing Hope

The Dark-Tinted, Truth-Filled Reading List We Owe Our Kids

Hummus and the Holy Spirit

News

Gleanings: January/February 2014

Why We're Losing the War on Poverty

Editorial

The Problem with the Fetal Pain Abortion Bans

News

Will the Supreme Court Pop Abortion Clinic Bubbles?

Shelter From the Storm

When God Wears a Costume

Three Views: Is the $17 Trillion Federal Debt Immoral?

Our Position on Missionaries

News

What Happens When Schools Cut Denominational Ties

News

Jesus Is More All Right with Jews

Review

Where Heaven and Nature Sing

News

Should Christians Read Through the Entire Bible in One Year?

The 2014 Christianity Today Book Awards

View issue

Our Latest

Public Theology Project

The Star of Bethlehem Is a Zodiac Killer

How Christmas upends everything that draws our culture to astrology.

News

As Malibu Burns, Pepperdine Withstands the Fire

University president praises the community’s “calm resilience” as students and staff shelter in place in fireproof buildings.

The Russell Moore Show

My Favorite Books of 2024

Ashley Hales, CT’s editorial director for print, and Russell discuss this year’s reads.

News

The Door Is Now Open to Churches in Nepal

Seventeen years after the former Hindu kingdom became a secular state, Christians have a pathway to legal recognition.

Why Christians Oppose Euthanasia

The immorality of killing the old and ill has never been in question for Christians. Nor is our duty to care for those the world devalues.

The Holy Family and Mine

Nativity scenes show us the loving parents we all need—and remind me that my own parents estranged me over my faith.

China’s Churches Go Deep Rather than Wide at Christmas

In place of large evangelism outreaches, churches try to be more intentional in the face of religious restrictions and theological changes.

Wire Story

Study: Evangelical Churches Aren’t Particularly Political

Even if members are politically active and many leaders are often outspoken about issues and candidates they support, most congregations make great efforts to keep politics out of the church when they gather.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube