Barnabas Aid - International Headquarters River Street, Pewsey, Wilthire. Phone: +44 1672 565030 Latitude: 51 deg 23 min 18 sec N Longitude: 1 deg 45 min 48 sec W .
Christian protestors tortured in Egypt a...

Email:

Christian protestors tortured in Egypt as opposition to Brotherhood mounts

To

Email address:
Separate multiple addresses with a comma (,). Maximum of 10

From

Your name:
Your email address:
Security test:
Please enter the numbers that appear here in the box below.
refresh captcha
CAPTCHA Image
Security code:

Details provided here will never be used in any other context

Christian protestors tortured in Egypt as opposition to Brotherhood mounts

Country/Region: Egypt, Middle East and North Africa

They accompanied me to one of the mosques in the area and I discovered the mosque was being used to imprison demonstrators and torture them.

Amir Ayad, a Christian protestor who was severely beaten

 

A mosque in Cairo has been occupied by radical Islamic militias and turned into a torture chamber for demonstrators against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood.

Opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood is mounting
Opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood is mounting
CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by Hany Fakhry

Officials at the Bilal ibn Rabah Mosque reported the takeover, which happened after Friday prayers on 22 March, to the police.

Demonstrators, including Christians and moderate Muslims, were then rounded up from the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters and taken to the mosque, where they were tortured for hours.

One of the victims, Amir Ayad, a Christian, said he was severely beaten before being left for dead at the side of the road. He suffered a fractured skull, a broken arm, bleeding in his right eye and pellet wounds.  

Mosque officials expressed regret for what happened, saying that they “had lost control over the mosque at the time.” Their statement also “denounced and condemned the violence and involving mosques in political conflicts”.

President Mohammed Morsi is becoming increasingly unpopular in Egypt, and there have been numerous demonstrations against his rule, which opponents have labelled autocratic. And as protests have intensified, so have efforts by the Muslim Brotherhood to clamp down on dissenters.

Christians, moderate Muslims and secular liberals are increasingly concerned about the Islamisation of the country.

Last month, hundreds of moderate imams staged a protest lasting for several days in front of the Ministry of Religious Affairs against the Muslim Brotherhood’s control of the country’s mosques. Dozens of imams have been replaced by Islamist preachers, while those who do not adhere to hard-line teachings are punished and marginalised.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has taken sole responsibility for the appointment of imams; previously it was shared with the country’s leading Islamic university, Al-Azhar. It also controls the allocation of funds to mosques, charitable Islamic organisations and groups involved in spreading Islam.

The moderate imams have accused the Muslim Brotherhood of politicising the mosques and using them for a propaganda campaign to bolster support for the government in the face of mounting opposition.

Help us: Share this article

Email:

Christian protestors tortured in Egypt as opposition to Brotherhood mounts

To

Email address:
Separate multiple addresses with a comma (,). Maximum of 10

From

Your name:
Your email address:
Security test:
Please enter the numbers that appear here in the box below.
refresh captcha
CAPTCHA Image
Security code:

Details provided here will never be used in any other context

christian, persecution, charity, church, persecuted, sookhdeo, Islam

Other articles

Follow Barnabas

or

receive news & appeal emails as they are published

From Twitter

From Twitter_icon

    Daily prayer

    Daily prayer_icon
    • In Saudi Arabia, it is illegal to practise a non-Islamic religion in public but supposedly permissible to do in private. Nevertheless, Christians are sometimes arrested for meeting to worship in a private home. Pray that the Lord will protect all Christian believers in Saudi Arabia, including the many expatriate workers from Asia and Africa, and especially the much smaller number of Saudi converts from Islam, whose lives are in real danger if their faith is discovered. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed 7 hours ago

    • The UN estimates that there have been roughly 1,500 Iraqi women and children from the Christian and Yazidi communities abducted by ISIS and then forced into sexual slavery. Pray for them and also for the hundreds of Christian, Yazidi and Turkmen women held in Badush Prison in Mosul, Iraq by ISIS militants. The women are reported to be raped daily unless they agree to convert to ISIS’s brand of Sunni Islam. Ask our Heavenly Father to have mercy on each one of these women and children and to deliver them from evil. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Mon, Dec 2014 00:00

    • Around 200,000 Iraqi Christians and other minorities have been displaced from their homes due to attacks by Islamic State militants. Pray for all these displaced people who have no permanent home this winter, and who have mostly lost everything they possessed. Pray that God will protect them from illness and cold. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Sun, Dec 2014 00:00

    • Iranian Pastor Behnam continues to serve a six-year prison sentence. He is in solitary confinement and suffers serious health problems. Pray for his congregation left leaderless and desolate. Pray that God will be his refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. (Psalm 46:1) Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Sat, Dec 2014 00:00

    • Remembering that the infant Lord Jesus Himself fled from threats of violence with His parents, pray for the Pakistanis from various persecuted minorities who had sought asylum in Sri Lanka but are now being deported back to Christmas concert at a school in Bethlehem that Barnabas Aid supports Pakistan. This is happening despite protests by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Those being deported include Christians, Ahmadiyyas and Shia Muslims, all of whom are vulnerable to persecution in Pakistan. For example, any Christian who has been accused under the “blasphemy law” is at extreme risk of being murdered even if they have been cleared of the charges. Pray for their protection. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Fri, Dec 2014 00:00

    © Barnabas Aid 1997 - 2014 All rights reserved.
    Barnabas Aid is a registered trade mark