CAIRO, EGYPT (ANS) — Dina el-Gowhary, a 15-year-old Egyptian girl who converted from Islam to Christianity, has sent a plea to President Barack Obama, complaining of mistreatment by the Egyptian Government and asking for his mediation.

This has been revealed in a story by Mary Abdelmassih and posted on the Assyrian International News Agency website — www.aina.org.

“Mr. President Obama,” Dina wrote, “we are a minority in Egypt. We are treated very badly. You said that the Muslim minority in America are treated very well, so why are we not treated here likewise? We are imprisoned in our own home because Muslim clerics called for the murder of my father, and now the Government has set for us a new prison; we are imprisoned in our own country.”

Abdelmassih stated that the handwritten Arabic letter, posted on Coptic websites, also says “I am 15 years old but I still have hope that my message will reach President Obama.”

She went on to write, “The el-Gowhary family was barred from leaving Egypt on September 17, 2009 without any legal reason. They were told, however, that the order came from a higher authority.

“Dina is the daughter of 57-year-old Maher el-Gowhary, also known by his Christian name Peter Athanasius, who embraced Christianity secretly 35 years ago. In August, 2008 he filed the second ever lawsuit of a Muslim-born Egyptian against the Egyptian Government to officially alter his identification documents to reflect his new Christian identity. He lost the case in June 2009.

“According to the Court ruling, the religious conversion of a Muslim is against Islamic Sharia law and poses a threat to the ‘Public Order’ in Egypt.”

Abdelmassih went on to say he appealed the ruling and that Maher and Dina have been “living in hiding” ever since he filed his lawsuit because Muslim clerics have called him an apostate and several Fatwas (religious edicts), for ‘spilling his blood’ have been issued. He frequently changes where he lives to evade being killed, and friends supply him with food.”

Maher el-Gowhary (Peter Athanasius) said, “We cannot sleep, eat or go out in the street,” adding that he believes that the authorities are putting pressure on them (he and Dina) to re-convert back to Islam, but, he declared, “this will never happen, even if we have to live on the streets. We love our Lord Jesus, and we have left Islam for good.”

The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), in conjunction with Copts United, presented el-Gowhary’s case to the UN Human Rights Council in its 12th session in September 2009.

Mary Abdelmassih wrote that Maher has lashed out at the Egyptian Government, asking for his Egyptian nationality to be taken away if it is the reason why the Government is adamant on depriving him of his basic rights as an Egyptian citizen.

She said that he told Copts United “if the Egyptian nationality is the cause of my imprisonment within my home and being unable to move, then I do not want it.”

He added that it would be more honorable for him to hold the nationality of any other country rather than the Egyptian one. “Where I live together with my daughter suffering imprisonment within the walls of my apartment and without any freedom,” Maher stated.
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By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries