Al-Qaida threat on Iraq Christians linked to Egypt

CAIRO (AFP) - The wives of two of the priests of Egyptian Copts, forbidden by the Church of divorce abusive husbands, highly sought another way by converting to Islam. Handed when police discovered their intentions, including the church and whereabouts unknown since.

The cause of an uproar at home and that extended to the border and turned deadly when the al-Qaeda in Iraq and the woman was taken as the reason behind the attack, the deadliest ever on Christians in Iraq - a siege that lasted five hours from the church in October that left 68 people dead.

The most glaring recent example of the schism between Christians and Muslims, which passes through the Middle East and periodically erupts into violence.

"In the midst of the current sectarian conflict, the timing is perfect for al Qaeda to show they are defending Islam, and to exploit the situation to mobilize the churches against the extremists," said Ammar Ali Hassan, an expert on Islamic movements.

Each Wafaa Constantine (53 years) and Camilla Shehata, 25, living in remote and rural towns that have the status of wives devoted and pious priests of the Coptic province. But behind this veneer, said a lawyer and an official church women trapped in abusive relationships.

I tried all of the request for a divorce through the channels of the Church, but hit a dead end because the Coptic Orthodox Church prohibits divorce. And decided to rebel, not only against their husbands, but against all religion.

They sought to convert to Islam, which is seen as a stigma in the community and out of the question for those who are married priests.

Although the Egyptian religious authorities say the woman had never succeeded in turning, and the controversy in both cases with the escalation of angry protests by Egyptian Christians, Muslims who were accused of abducting women and forcing them to convert.

This, in turn galvanized the Muslim hard and most importantly in Egypt, who protested and accused the church held them against their will and forced to return to Christianity.

Transformation of al Qaeda in Iraq before they become famous when women cited as the reason behind the siege of the Church of Baghdad. The group came with more threats against the Christian minority in Iraq, and create fear so that canceled most of the ceremonies Gala Christmas in the country.

Grown Coptic Christian minority in Egypt, estimated at about 10 percent from 80 million in the country, more religiously conservative over the past three decades as the country's Muslim majority.

And accused the Coptic Church has long been here with conspiring to Egypt "evangelize" - the Salafist movement in Egypt - extreme conservative Muslims. Although the Salafists in Egypt, renounced violence, their ideology is not only a shadow of a few groups like Al Qaeda. Both adhere to a strict interpretation of Islam which is supposed to be the purest form of Islam and said it was practiced by the Prophet Mohammed of Islam in the 7th century.

And identified dozens of sites Salafi groups and Facebook to spread the word about the two women.

Said Hossam Abu Boukhar, the founder of one of the sites, KamiliaShehata.com, Shehata is not the case of Egyptian question anymore, but "Islamic cause". And listed as other women in similar situations.

"It is a phenomenon. New Muslims, sisters in misery because they are subjected to torture and prison, and we do not know what is going on inside the churches," he said.

Protests in a week from August to November , Bearded men in white robes gathered outside the mosques in Egypt to condemn Pope Shenouda III, leader of the Coptic Christian in Egypt, as "an infidel." And vowed revenge.

In one demonstration, raising the flag similar to the Islamists of al Qaeda in Iraq - a black banner with the words: "There is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God." Two days later, al-Qaeda in Iraq attacked the church.

Constantine story goes back to December 2004, when she disappeared briefly led Christians angry protests and clashes with police for four days.

Agriculture engineer lived with her family in the Nile Delta town of Abu Elmatamir Giza, which lies 85 miles (135 kilometers) north of Cairo. Was married to a Coptic priest who lost his leg because of diabetes. Najib said Giberail, a prominent Coptic lawyer familiar with the case, her husband suffers from explosive mood. He died later in 2006.

For a period of two years, Constantine sought the help of the official church in the province of the Supreme her, Archbishop Bakhamyous. I told him that she had been assaulted, according to the Coptic clergy who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. He said the clergy Bakhamyous rejected a call for getting a divorce.

At one point, disappeared for a few days and reappeared after that, a shift in the police station in Cairo to declare she wanted to convert and the necessary protection.

Police said they had informed the Archbishop of Bakhamyous and insisted on meeting in the monastery of Constantine, and not in the police station. But the police refused.

It was thought at the time that a colleague might be trying to influence them to convert to Islam.

"Someone used the deterioration of her relationship with her husband and told her that Islam provides a solution," said Archbishop Mouses, a top aide to Pope Coptic.

When it disappeared, and hundreds of Christians and Muslims accused of kidnapping to force her to convert to Islam. A few days later, however, the Egyptian judicial authorities, which had emerged and said it was still a Christian.

Police said they were handed over to the church after Constantine came to the police for help.

Story began Shehata strikingly similar in appearance in July this year.

The mother of a boy 2 years old), she was working as a teacher in the city of Deir Mawas in Minya province, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) south of Cairo.

And news reports said Egypt also left her home and disappeared for a few days.

Rallied her husband, and father Simon Tadous, Christian protesters in Cairo, accused of abducting his wife and Muslims forced to convert to Islam.

Three days after her disappearance, the church announced that Shehata was staying at the home of a friend in Cairo to take a break, and it remained a Christian.

Under intense pressure from the Islamists, who accused the Church held her against her will, and it seems Shehata in September in a video posted on the Egyptian news network, Al-Youm, the seven or the seventh day, did not insist and converted to Islam.

"I am a Christian and I will die and Christianity," said a young woman standing in front of the image of Jesus in the video. But the doubts of many Muslims authenticity.

According to police, a Coptic lawyer Giberail Shehata handed over to the church.

The Islamists have accused police of cooperating with the Church prior to the delivery of two "Muslim women" to the authorities to restore a church.

Location and the presence of women is not currently known. But news reports say the Egyptian Constantine has lived the past six years in the monastery of Saint Bishoy in Wadi El-Natron an oasis in the desert south of Alexandria, while Shehata remains with the nuns in a church in Cairo.

Both have been in isolation from the outside world, their families and Coptic officials refuse to discuss their situation.