Coptic Boy Kidnapped at Knifepoint, Abductors Open Fire on Church

Jihad Watch

Just as Islamic terrorists feed off of Christian minorities by kidnapping and ransoming them in lawless regions—like “liberated” Iraq and on-its-way to being “liberated” Syria—last Sunday, four armed and masked men kidnapped a 12-year-old Coptic Christian boy, Abanoub Ashraf, as he was walking to his church in “Arab-Spring-liberated” Egypt. Right before he reached the St. Paul Church in Shubra al-Khayma district, the men put a knife to his throat, dragged him to their car, opened fire on the church, and then sped away. The kidnappers later called the family asking for five million Egyptian pounds in ransom—almost the equivalent to one million U.S. dollars, likely an impossible amount to raise.

During a live interview with Wael Ibrashi concerning this incident, Coptic Bishop Marcus said that, while the immediate motive behind the kidnapping is money, the other purpose is to frighten Christian families from sending their children to church. Otherwise, why kidnap him from right in front of the church door? (Considering that some Egyptian clerics consider attending church as worse than attending bars and brothels, the kidnappers likely deem this the “altruistic” side of their greed and hate.) The kidnappers also covered their faces only right before they pounced on the boy, displaying their confidence that there would be no repercussions.

When Ibrashi asked the bishop “previously [during Mubarak’s era] there always used to be guards; who removed the guard from the church?” a dejected sounding Bishop Marcus responded, “I don’t know; ask security not us.” Similarly, according to the 12-year-old’s distraught family, while the local security agency has portrayed itself as doing all it can to discover the boy—that, is, on Egyptian media—“it has not contacted us, nor asked us about anything whatsoever.”