Paying a terrible price

He's in his mid fifties, a native son of Egypt, and still he has to ceaselessly move about from one location to the next, accompanied by his teenage daughter. If he stays put, he risks being recognized by someone, risks being incarcerated. For what? For being a Christian.

Maher al-Gohary's chief problem is that in Egypt, as in countless other Muslim countries, freedom of religion is a smokescreen set up to appease concerned human rights groups in the West. Egyptian religious tradition dictates that if born a Muslim, you're a Muslim for life. Changing your religion is considered an act of high treason to your faith, your country, your tradition and - not least - to your family. And, accordingly, every proselyte who succeeds in doing the unthinkable, is met with harsh, unscrupulous counter-measures. Surrendering to Christ is regarded as equal to surrendering your right to live.

IN EGYPT NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO CHANGE THEIR RELIGION (EXCEPT CHRISTIANS)

Maher al-Gohary became a Christian 36 years ago. He wasn't bribed or coerced into accepting his new faith. He quite voluntarily studied the Bible, loaned to him by his room-mate at the Police Adademy, and concluded that the words of Christ carried far more weight than the dictums of the Quran. So, consequently, he prayed the Lord's prayer convinced that Jesus was Lord, and found a radical reorientation in his life. Upon breaking the news of his conversion, he found his father was far from pleased, and was forced to listen to taped recitals of the holy book of Islam. But the prescribed medicine was without any effect.

Two times his wives have left him because they couldn't cope with the oppression brought on by Maher's enemies. Once thugs killed off his entire herd of cows at his small desert farm in the Wadi Natroun. Once someone even tried to poison Maher's drinking water. And he knows that members of his family would rejoice if, at any time in the future, they woul'd be able to lay their hands on Maher, cutting his life short with a knife, a gun, or simply by turning him over to the police. In Egypt, that's definitively no laughing matter, as the police more times than not will require substantial bribes to release even suspects that are known to be innocent.

WHY DON'T THEY JUST SURRENDER?

Why doesn't he just give in and embrace his old faith? That step could guarantee a safe, relatively care-free existence for himself and his distraught daughter. Because having surrendered to the Truth in the first place, you simply cannot that easily deny someone you know to be both Lord and Saviour of the world. Egyptians like Maher willingly risk their lives convinced that losing them now would spell no great disaster, as relief and healing waits after death's door.

50,000 Christians die each year as martyrs around the world. Maher may very well be the next victim of unqualified, blind religious bigotry in the land of Egypt.