A Christian man was abducted, and tortured in an effort to convert him to Islam last week in Egypt.
Fayiz Fouad, a Coptic Christian man, was kidnapped as he was returning from a visit to the St. George Coptic Orthodox Monastery in Qena.
His vehicle was forcefully stopped in a Nag Hammadi village that he had to cross through, and he was taken hostage for three days.
During that time, Fouad was tortured in an “ugly manner,” according to rights activist Safwat Sim‘an: “The story isn’t merely about kidnapping; it has an ISIS component to it.” The man was tortured for refusing to say the Islamic shahada—that “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger”—and thus converting to Islam.”
His family could not reach the Copt except by way of an influential village elder and the subsequent payment of 50,000 Egyptian pounds, or $6225 USD.
According to Sim‘an, “The issue of kidnapped Copts continues in Nag Hammadi, despite that fact that Egyptian Security knows where these kidnappers are situated and their identities, and yet remains silent about their crimes.”