Posted on 06/23/2005 8:45:52 AM PDT by Antioch
An Egyptian Christian was released from mental hospital following international pressure over his five-month forcible commitment to the mental hospital, and being charged from apostasy from Islam, Compass Direct has informed.
Gasir Mohammed Mahmoud was released on 9th June 2005 from the El-Khanka Hospital for Mental and Neurological Health in Cairo, Egypt.
Mahmoud was adopted and raised by a Muslim couple who were shocked last December after finding out that he had converted to Christianity two year before. Afterwards, his father appealed to local Muslim sheikhs prompting them to issue a death sentence against his son for apostasy.
However, his mother appealed to local state security police to protect her son from being killed, which resulted in Mahmoud's subjection to seemingly endless rounds of interrogation and a series of arrests.
Initially following his arrest, Mahmoud expressed that he was questioned "in a decent way" in the presence of state security officer Mohammed Amar. However, when he was transferred to a different official, who was accompanied by two Muslim sheikhs, they tried to convinced him to re-convert to Islam again.
After eight days, eating only the food that other fellow-imprisoned people shared with him, he was sent to Suez Security Directorate. After four days he was released.
His first footsteps led to an evangelical church where he asked for another copy of the Bible, since his was destroyed: "But they were afraid," Mahmoud said, "and refused to give me a Bible."
When he returned home, a messenger was already waiting for him telling him to meet Mohammed Amar again. During the next set of interrogations, when asked why he went to church; Mahmoud said he could not stop himself from going there.
"So he started to torture me, to pull off the nails of my toes," Mahmoud said. "Now I’m still not able to wear shoes because of the pain."
This torture continued for a further 18 days, and included stripping him naked and dousing him with ice-cold water over and over.
After 15 days in detention at the Suez police station, he faced charges from his father that he was beaten by his son. The charges were found to be completely false, and the district attorney ordered his release.
After 4 days, police officials took Mahmoud by police car to Cairo's Abbasseya Hospital. However, this institution refused to take him, and so they returned to Suez.
On 10th January, police took him to El-Khanka Hospital where he was accepted and a medical committee to investigate his case was formed.
But his suffering was to continue as "they put me (Mahmoud) in a room without any clothes," Mahmoud recalled. "They filled the room with water, to prevent me from sleeping." During his confinement, he was beaten at times and prescribed heavy medicaments to take two times a day.
Dr. Nevine, Mahmoud's supervising physician told him he would be never able to leave unless he re-converts.
However, after international concern and intervention the hospital authorities decided to release him.
The doctor who discharged him contacted his mother to come and collect him from the hospital. However, he was not able to come back home, as his mother warned him he would face problems from his father and further state security police intervention.
She reserved a hotel room for him after his release, however, he found a different place to stay through Christian friends in the city.
Lord bless and keep Your child.
Gosh, thanks mom and dad!
Ah, isn't it lovely to bask in the sunshine of Muslim tolerance. One thing I will make clear though. There is a difference between the native Coptic Christians and small evangelical groups that have gone into Muslim countries to witness. The Copts don't evangelize and are persecuted and Evangelical Christians evangelize (how agressively, I don't know) and are persecuted.....so it really doesn't make a difference...a dhimmi is a dhimmi dhummy.
Part of me wants to criticize Evangelicals for their actions.....knowing the situation that exists in these places, what were you expecting? Hearts and flowers? I guess I don't have being martyred or persecuted on my agenda. All being said, it doesn't change the situation regarding tolerence in Islamic countries.
Religion of Peace ping
Don't Christians that convert to a non-Christian religion get condemned to an eternity of hell after they die? What's worse...getting killed here on earth, or an eternity of suffering?
Anyöne who converts from Islam to Christianity in an Islamic country is crazy.
The Holy Bible of Jesus Christ commands, "Thou shalt not kill." Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers." He commanded, "Turn the other cheek" and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Christian New Testament tells us to "Pray for those who spitefully use you." The Old Testament warns us: Do not seek revenge. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord." Jesus himself was betrayed, imprisoned, unjustly accused, tortured, and crucified on a cross. Yet, he implored "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." His grieving disciples said not a word about seeking revenge.Then, each and every one of them died a martyr, having committed no crimes nor ever engaging in even one act of rebellion against those who oppressed them. The Koran, the Islamic scriptures, assures the Moslem that if he kills a Christian and dies as a martyr, he'll go directly to Heaven to be with Allah. Islam says, in essence-"Revenge! Kill for Allah, do him a service!"
Quran tells Muslims to kill the disbelievers wherever they find them (Q. 2:191), to murder them and treat them harshly (Q. 9:123), slay them (Q. 9:5), fight with them, (Q. 8: 65 ) even if they are Christians and Jews, humiliate them and impose on them a penalty tax (Q. 9: 29).
So, in essence, the Egyptian religious authorities happily tore out the fingernails and injected drugs into this Christian convert beleiving that God promises:
"They are to cohabit with demure virgins...as beauteous as corals and rubies...full-breasted maidens for playmates...in the gardens of delight.... They're to lie face to face on jewelled couches, and be serviced by immortal youths...young boys, their personal property, as comely as virgin pearls....[The Koran 55:56; 55:58; 78:33; 56:12; 52:16-17, 24; 56:35-38; 52:20]
One more reason to....
Yes, Vatican country.
Where you worship statues instead of rocks.
"Thou shalt not make unto thee an idol, to worship it...."
During a plague of serpents sent to punish the Israelites during the exodus, God told Moses to "make [a statue of] a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live" (Num. 21:8–9).
One had to look at the bronze statue of the serpent to be healed, which shows that statues could be used ritually, not merely as religious decorations.
Catholics use statues, paintings, and other artistic devices to recall the person or thing depicted. Just as it helps to remember one’s mother by looking at her photograph, so it helps to recall the example of the saints by looking at images of them. Catholics also used stained glass, stations of the cross and statues as teaching tools, which were especially useful for the instruction of the illiterate. Many Protestants have pictures of Jesus and other Bible pictures in Sunday school for teaching children. Catholics also use statues to commemorate certain people and events, much as Protestant churches have three-dimensional nativity scenes at Christmas.
If one measured Protestants by the same rule, then by using these "graven" images, they would be practicing the "idolatry" of which they accuse Catholics. But there’s no idolatry going on in these situations. God forbids the worship of images as gods, but he doesn’t ban the making of images. If he had, religious movies, videos, photographs, paintings, and all similar things would be banned. But, as the case of the bronze serpent shows, God does not even forbid the ritual use of religious images.
It is when people begin to adore a statue as a god that the Lord becomes angry. Thus when people did start to worship the bronze serpent as a snake-god (whom they named "Nehushtan"), the righteous king Hezekiah had it destroyed (2 Kgs. 18:4).
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