{"id":1261,"date":"2010-09-15T02:25:46","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T02:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=1261"},"modified":"2013-03-07T02:26:44","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T02:26:44","slug":"the-strange-and-tragic-case-of-nagla-imam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-strange-and-tragic-case-of-nagla-imam\/","title":{"rendered":"The Strange–and Tragic–Case of Nagla Imam"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n

PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n

Uncovering the truth is always a convoluted affair when it comes to the Middle East. Consider the case of the Egyptian\u00a0Nagla Iman<\/a>. Is she a Muslim woman who advocates the sexual harassment of Jewish women, or a Christian woman, who advocates human rights \u2014 especially for fellow women of all faiths?<\/p>\n

The story begins last June 24, when I was a guest on\u00a0I Was a Prisoner<\/em>, which airs weekly on the Arabic satellite station\u00a0Tarek TV<\/a>\u00a0(“Way TV”). Named after its host, Nabil Bissada, who was imprisoned and tortured in Egypt for facilitating the way for Muslims to convert to Christianity,\u00a0I Was a Prisoner<\/em>explores the lack of human rights in Muslim countries.<\/p>\n

Prior to the show, I was told a well-known Egyptian lawyer was scheduled to call in and discuss how the Egyptian government was harassing her for converting. Nagla called in and expressed her situation as follows:<\/p>\n

After being a prominent lawyer for years, she was fired for converting to Christianity; nor would the government,\u00a0as usual<\/a>, allow her formally to change her religion from Muslim to Christian on her I.D. card. As a result, she tried to organize a public demonstration against the government, with other Muslim converts to Christianity. The demonstration was quickly dispersed by the police, the demonstrators beaten and threatened; and the Muslim mob got in on the action. The young daughter of one Christian convert who broke her arm was denied medical attention.<\/p>\n

After the show, I decided to google Nagla Imam’s name, and it was then that I discovered the strange remarks attributed to her. The contradiction was stunning: I contacted Nabil, who said he would investigate the matter.<\/p>\n

On 7 July 2010, Nabil contacted me by phone on the Nagla case. According to him, here are where things stand:<\/p>\n

He called and asked Nagla about the sexual harassment remark; she became livid and frustrated, saying she never said such a thing, and that that video was intentionally doctored by her Islamist opponents who run the Saudi-sponsored station\u00a0Al Arabiya<\/em>\u00a0to slander her name. (Nabil added that, due to her human rights work \u2014 years back, she tried to pass a law banning polygamy in Egypt to the point that Al Azhar proclaimed her an infidel \u2014 Islamists have been trying to undermine her for years.)<\/p>\n

As for her personal situation, approximately two weeks ago, state security arrested and took Nagla to a government building in Cairo. There, a top official twisted the crucifix she was wearing, tightening the chain around her neck, while saying “the cross will be the death of you.” The official then proceeded to beat her \u2014 giving her a black eye, a bruised body, and broken teeth. Before releasing her, he said, “Stay in your house, till you are carried out to your grave,” adding that, if she does not return to Islam, “people” will be dispatched to “take care of her.”<\/p>\n

Nabil concluded by saying that Nagla and her two young children are trapped indoors \u2014 their entire Muslim family having turned their backs on them \u2014 and besieged by the mob, which bangs on the doors and windows and has cut off (no doubt, thanks to the government) all electricity to the house, leaving Nagla and her children in the dark (see\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0for a video where a battered Nagla sings a psalm with her children).<\/p>\n

Finally, a top Muslim cleric, Salim Abdul Galil, appeared on an Al Azhar affiliated station proclaiming Nagla an “infidel,” adding she must either return to Islam or spend the remainder of her life indoors.<\/p>\n

It should be observed that such a verdict accords perfectly not only with Islamic law in general, which is Egypt’s “primal source of legislation<\/a>,” but the Hanafi school in particular, which is dominant in Egypt: rather than kill apostate women outright, the “lenient” Hanafis recommend that women be beaten (the government official took care of that) and then imprisoned in their homes (the Muslim cleric has seen to that) until they see the “error of their ways” and return to Islam.<\/p>\n

Postscript<\/em>: Last we heard, Nagla and her children have completely disappeared, bringing back the government official’s threat to mind \u2014 that “people” could be sent to “take care of her.” To learn more about the Nagla Imam story, contact Way TV: (661) 233-8787.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a92010 Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media Uncovering the truth is always a convoluted affair when it comes to the Middle East. Consider the case of the Egyptian\u00a0Nagla Iman. Is she a Muslim woman who advocates the sexual harassment of Jewish women, or a Christian woman, who advocates human rights \u2014 especially for fellow women of all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[227,515],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-kl","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6122,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-to-egyptian-christians-dont-protest-the-brotherhood\/","url_meta":{"origin":1261,"position":0},"title":"Obama to Egyptian Christians: Don’t Protest the Brotherhood","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPage Magazine As Egyptians of all factions prepare to demonstrate\u00a0\u00a0in mass against the Muslim Brotherhood and President\u00a0Morsi\u2019s\u00a0rule on June 30, the latter has been trying to reduce their numbers, which some predict will be in the millions and eclipse the\u00a0Tahrir\u00a0protests that earlier ousted Mubarak.\u00a0\u00a0Accordingly, among other influential\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Muslim Brotherhood"","block_context":{"text":"Muslim Brotherhood","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/muslim-brotherhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6138,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/libyan-intelligence-muslim-brotherhood-morsi-involved-in-u-s-consulate-attack\/","url_meta":{"origin":1261,"position":1},"title":"Libyan Intelligence: Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi Involved in U.S. Consulate Attack","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim RaymondIbrahim.com According to a Libyan intelligence document, the Muslim Brotherhood, including Egyptian President Morsi, were involved in the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, where several Americans, including U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, were killed. On Wednesday, June 26, several Arabic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Muslim Brotherhood"","block_context":{"text":"Muslim Brotherhood","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/muslim-brotherhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3848,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-the-egyptian-revolution-can-be-the-best-or-worst-thing-to-happen\/","url_meta":{"origin":1261,"position":2},"title":"Why the Egyptian Revolution Can Be the Best or Worst Thing to Happen","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim NRO's\u00a0The Corner It is clear that the media and its host of analysts are split in two camps on the Egyptian revolution: one that sees it as a wonderful expression of \"people-power\" that, left alone, will naturally culminate into some sort of pluralistic democracy, and another that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1290,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/lessons-on-the-long-road-to-hijab\/","url_meta":{"origin":1261,"position":3},"title":"Lessons on the Long Road to Hijab","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Jihad Watch A\u00a0caricature, which first appeared on CagleCartoons.com, has been making the rounds on the Arabic blogosphere, and points to how democratic elections are serving to Islamize Egypt: average women enter the ballot box \u2014 \"overseen\" by the Muslim Brotherhood \u2014 only to emerge thoroughly veiled, thoroughly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1987,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/running-for-their-lives\/","url_meta":{"origin":1261,"position":4},"title":"Running for Their Lives","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Jihad Watch Historically, non-Muslims whose lands were seized by the jihad had three choices: conversion, dhimmitude, or death. Today, however, they have a fourth option largely unavailable to their forbears: quit their lands of origin \u2014 emigrate \u2014 the latest testimony to the nature of Islam. A\u00a0recent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/religion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1545,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/unprecedented-egyptian-government-suppresses-christian-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":1261,"position":5},"title":"Unprecedented: Egyptian Government Suppresses Christian Doctrine","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media It is not enough that the Egyptian government\u00a0facilitates persecution of the Copts, Egypt's indigenous Christian minority. Now the government is interfering directly with the church's autonomy concerning doctrine. According to the\u00a0Assyrian International News Agency: The head of the Coptic Church in Egypt has rejected a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1262,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261\/revisions\/1262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}