Another tragic story surrounding a Christian household has just surfaced from Egypt.
Four years ago, a Coptic priest heard cries emanating from inside his empty church. He located its source, only to discover a newborn baby boy, apparently abandoned by a mother who bore him out of wedlock. The priest entrusted the newborn babe to a childless, pious, couple from his congregation. Considering that they had been praying to God for 29-years to give them a child, they joyously embraced the boy as their own and baptized and named him Shenouda, a popular Coptic name, including of the current pope’s predecessor.
For the next four years everything went well. The boy—known among the congregation as “Baby Shenouda”—was the pride and joy of his adoptive parents’ lives. Seeing him as a miracle-child, a “gift from God,” they spared no care or expense on his upbringing. Despite his young age, they even managed to teach him the alphabet as well as several biblical verses that he memorized in connection with every letter.
Then the Egyptian state learned about this otherwise happy development. Because Egyptian law does not allow for adoption, the 4-year-old child was seized from his loving parents’ arms—to cries of “mamma, papa!”—and sent to an orphanage.
The police, the ministry of social affairs, and the family-status court based their decision to seize the child on one thing: because the religious affiliation of Shenouda’s biological parents is unknown, he must be considered Muslim. This is based on Islamic teaching, whereby every human being is born as a sort of prototypical Muslim; they only “lose” their Islam when taught false things or religions (in this case, Christianity).
At the orphanage, the child was forcibly “returned” to Islam: he was issued a birth certificate—marked “Muslim” under religion—and given an acceptable Muslim name, Yusuf.
Above and beyond these coercive measures, it should be noted that Egyptian orphanages are notoriously terrible and overly crowded dungeons where individual children are “swallowed” up into the mass. There, they are at best neglected, and often have little to look forward to other than becoming “street kids” and possibly turning to a life of crime on release.
From the moment when the state seized the child until now, his adoptive parents have been in tears—or, to quote from a recent interview, “living in hell.” They have pled with the state to have the child returned. After sobbingly explaining in the interview how her heart “leapt with joy” when she first heard Shenouda say “mamma,” his mother even offered to work for free as a servant in the orphanage, just to be near him. The father said he would do “anything”—“shoot me with gunfire even, anything, just so long as I can have my child back!”
All such pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Nor have Egypt’s so-called “National Council for Human Rights” and “National Council for Motherhood and Childhood” bothered to offer any utterance on this matter.
A closer look at the intricacies behind the state’s decision helps shed light on its “rationale.” First, Egyptian family-status law is based on Islamic law. Family-status laws for Christians are based on Christian “laws,” but on condition that they do not counter sharia. In this case, adoption is lawful in Christianity, but it is not applicable since sharia does not allow for adoption (based on a well-known precedent of the Prophet Muhammad: in order to marry Zaynab, the wife of a young man he had adopted, the very concept and practice of adoption had to be nullified—otherwise Muhammad would have been marrying his daughter-in-law, which would have been illegal.)
In other words, the reason Shenouda and his family were targeted is because of their Christian faith. After all, while adoption is illegal in Egypt, it is possible for an orphan to be taken into “custody” by a family, where he/she gets care, though without carrying the family’s name or inheriting.
But in the present case, the child—whose background is unknown—was being raised as a Christian, and it is this that has caused the state to act, based on the Islamic teaching cited above. If every human is born a Muslim, obviously it becomes a great “crime” to offer up any orphaned child to a Christian, Jew, or any other non-Muslim parent. This is the primary argument being used by the state against Shenouda’s adoptive parents’ legal attempts to reclaim the boy.
Meanwhile, there is every indication that Shenouda was born to a Christian mother—or at least to a mother who thought Christians would best know how to raise her unwanted child. Otherwise, why abandon the babe in a church?
Yet, rather than let this 4-year-old boy be raised and given exclusive attention by a loving mother and father, the Egyptian state prefers to throw him into an overcrowded, underfed, and often times very abusive orphanage—anything, so long as he does not grow up Christian but rather Muslim, which is all that apparently matters to the state.
Dum Spiro Spero says
These people are incredibly cruel.
Poor child, poor parents. God help them.
And here we have this, something that has a certain similarity: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/09/06/teacher-jailed-row-use-pronouns-transgender-pupil/
Tershia says
It would seem that children have no value in the Muslim world, and neither in the West. God will be their avenger.
Molly Baldwin says
Truly disgusting. And we are to have “tolerance” for this religion! The deceptive act of Muhammad to nullify adoption to marry his adoptive son’s wife speaks volumes about this religion.
souzangmailcom says
Cruel Islam! Causing all this grief to gain one person to their muslim flock.
Don Gaetano says
Thanks Raymond. It is now continually surprising to me that the Copts are expecting to see any kind of just treatment from the authorities.
They have to escape my thinking, with the help of the West once we regain solid footing meaning, the US and our allies bring in strong, nationalist, conservative leaders, who understand “reality”, and craft policies accordingly.
Either the West becomes strong enough to aid those in Sharia countries or, those people will eventually perish, and us as well.
It is one among our looming existential threats that are glaringly obvious since the very, very, weak Biden Administration took office.
Sorry about this grim statement. Wake up West, all bad actors are rising and planning our demise.
I believe as Ms Tershia commented that God will avenge – most likely in the afterlife – and I don’t wish that vengeance on anyone.
I also want to make sure we are doing our part while here in the land of the living – to protect ourselves and give aid to all the oppressed as we have ability.
Thanks again Raymond
Joe Madden says
I was relieved in 2014 that Morisi was outed and el-Sisi took power. My understanding was he was benevolent to Coptic Christians since his wife is of the Coptic Faith. I also heard he was secretly a Coptic. I’m sorry to hear all of these atrocities committed against Egypt’s Christian citizens. I pray this innocent Angel is returned to his loving Adoptive Parents.
danknight says
Islam = Satan …
God bless everyone here …
Paul says
Logic is rare. How could everyone be born a “proto-typical” Muslim if Islam only moved out of the Arabian peninsula in the 7th century B.C.E.?
K. Proppe says
This is tragic. Sending prayers to our good Father on his behalf. May God have mercy on him.