Forced conversions of Christian women and girls to Islam abound in Egypt, and so in a characteristic example of their habit of projection and deflection of responsibility onto their victims, Islamic supremacists fabricated a fish story about a Muslim woman being forced to convert to Christianity. “Egyptian Muslim Radicals Fabricated Story of Priest’s Wife Conversion,” by Mary Abdelmassih for AINA, September 17:
(AINA) — After the return of the missing priest’s wife to her family by State Security on July 23, Egyptian radicals sheikhs have spread rumors that she converted to Islam, exploiting the issue for an outright smear campaign against the Coptic Church and its Pope Shenouda III. The sheikhs paint an image of “Their suffering Muslim sister in a monastery where she is tortured for having chosen to convert to Islam.”
Camelia Shehata, wife of Father Tedaos Samaan, priest at St. Georges Church in Deir Mawas, Minya Governorate, disappeared on July 19, resulting in Coptic demonstrations against State Security for refusing to help her husband find her (AINA 7-23-2010). Father Tedaos accused a Muslim teacher working with her in the same school of being behind her abduction in order to force her conversion to Islam. After 5 days of Coptic sit-ins and the intervention of members of parliament, State Security found her and handed her back to her family.
According to the official version by State Security, Camilia had a row with her husband and left home, staying with one of her relatives in Cairo. The Church kept silent as usual, as per a tacit agreement with Security not to discuss abduction cases.
What re-ignited the “Camilia Affair” a few days later was a video on the Islamist website “Observatory of the Islamic Resistance to Christianizing” which gave a different story. Influential Salafi sheikh Abu Yehya, from Samalut, who is known for his paid activities in procuring Christians for conversion to Islam, said that Camilia fled her marital home and went to him to convert to Islam. He claimed that Camilia had proclaimed the shahada, or declaration of Muslim faith, 18 months earlier and has secretly studied the Koran. Allegedly he traveled with her to Cairo and went to Al-Azhar to register her conversion officially, however, they were delayed there until the police arrived and arrested them both.
The website showed Camilia clad in a veil but this was disputed by various Coptic organizations, who claim the photo was reworked in Photoshop, in a similar fashion to photos of Marilyn Monroe and Angelina Jolie, who are portrayed wearing veils, though they have never worn them.
This story was taken up by other Salafi radical sheikhs who appeared on Islamic TV channels, after adding to it that the church was imprisoning Camilia in one of the Coptic monasteries in Ain Shams (there are none there), where she was given mind altering drugs “until she became insane” according to Sheikh el-Howeiny.
The media joined in the smear campaign against the Church, accompanied by Muslim demonstrations outside mosques during Ramadan in Cairo and Alexandria against the Coptic Patriarch and Church and the infidel Christians, demanding that Camilia, as a Muslim, should be “freed from her captivity in the Coptic monasteries, to practice Islam” and calls for her appearance in public.
Previously Pope Shenouda had confirmed that Camilia never converted to Islam, and no one had the right to know where she is….