Some of you must have heard of a tape circulated by Muslims alleging the conversion of a Coptic Cardinal to Islam. The tape is not new, but lately (December 97) has been put in the Internet and so we asked some Coptic Christians to prepare a rebuttal. Anyone who knows a little bit about the Coptic Church would recognize the fraud of this testimony but many Muslims do not know much about Christianity at all, and obvioulsy those who took the effort to put it on the net thought it to be genuine.

The rebuttal worked. The story has been removed from the Muslim web site. The link below is now to a copy of this text for documentation sake, since it is bound to appear again, and since the text is still spread in printed form in pamphlets.

This is in regards to the alleged testimony of a Cardinal converting to Islam, but it is prepared from one of the printed versions that circulate with this story. (Please FIRST read the testimony to understand the harsh reaction below.)

It should be very obvious to any person, regardless of his religion, that this is a rather a poor fabrication. The following points are of interest:

1. This article is a typical Islamic exercise in vulgarity and mental anomaly. During the past few years, similar articles circulated in Egypt claiming the conversion to Islam of some unknown Coptic priests in Upper Egypt.

2. The fabricator failed in masking his identity. Most likely the writer is a Muslim from Mombassa/Kenya where many bats are unable to resist the emerging shining light of the Coptic orthodoxy and are hiding in their dark corners issuing poor quality circulars embracing ignorance and intolerance.

3. According to Coptic authorities; there was never a Coptic Cardinal by the name Abu Ishaq. The title "Cardinal" does not even exist in the Coptic Orthodox Church. It is very obvious, the fabricator's English is an African English whose minority Christian surrounding is predominantly Catholic. As the Coptic Church does not recognize the infallibility of the Pope (circular page 6, 3rd paragraph of part III of the circular) nor appoints Cardinals or senior Cardinals to its ranks, not to mention such absurd names; Abu Ishaq. Also, Coptic Church does not have confession box (circular page 5; 11th paragraph). The only given body without sin is that of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

4. The so-called Abu Ishaq attended Faculty of Theology of Cairo University. This is ridiculous, as the Faculty of Theology of Cairo University never existed. Furthermore, the Islamic government of Egypt will never allow Christian studies in a state-run universities. To our knowledge none of the Coptic clergy earned a degree in theology from a Lebanese college as the Coptic Church has its own theological institute in Cairo by the name "The College of Clergy (Kolleit al-Eklericyya)".

5. Why should the Pope of Alexandria appoint the so-called Abu Ishaq, a mentally unstable person (circular page 5, 6th paragraph) who verbally abused the Pope on several occasions as a Cardinal for West Africa?

6. It never came to our attention that a Coptic Cardinal by the name Abu Ishaq chased a boy in public bus and continued the chase in Cairo streets to snatch from the boy Quoranic books! As a matter of fact Quoranic books are available at every street corner in Egypt and it does not take a chase in public transportation and street of Cairo to acquire one.

7. With all due respect; it seems the so-called Cardinal Abu Ishaq is rather a deaf character who does not listen to the daily Quoranic preaching in the government owned news media and has to chase a lad in public transportation and Cairo streets to snatch a one-cent (2 Egyptian piasters) book to introduce him to the mercy of Islam. What a miracle! Is Cardinal Abu Ishaq too deaf to hear and an illiterate to read the news of Coptic genocide and holocaust where members of hundreds of Coptic families were massacred in various Egyptian cities by members of Islamic groups to recognize the teachings of the merciful Islam to join the herd of wolves? In this context; the ministry of interior never paid in full for a Coptic victim of Islamic violence in Upper Egypt, nor did they provide sufficient protecion to them. According to news paper published in Egypt; various Egyptian governments of Mr. Sadat and Mr. Mubarak were in continuous political dialogue with heads of Islamic group of terror while members of these groups were harvesting the lives of innocent Copts, kidnapping Coptic girls, burning their properties, etc.

8. The government owned media and news paper will never miss the chance of the claimed "attached chambers of imprisonment and torture to Church buildings" to add to its arsenal in its daily attack on the Coptic Church. Second, how could 97 days of imprisonment and torture go unnoticed to the Egyptian authorities?

9. According to the last paragraph of page 6 of the circular; a senior Cardinal was comforting Abu Ishaq while being tortured in imprisonment! What a grace! We never realized Allah's mercy has extensively engulfed the Coptic Church where the senior Cardinal (a never existing post in Coptic Church) adopted Islam as well.

10. How could Cardinal Abu Ishaq of West Africa miss a simple historical fact pertaining to the name of the Pope of Alexandria who witnessed the Arab aggression and occupation of Egypt. The name of the Pope was not Marcus. Pity, the ignorant fabricator was so confused as Marcus was the name of the Apostle who evangelized Egypt, 600 years before the Arab invasion of Egypt.

In the final analysis: it is a waste of breath to give this article any further consideration.

Adding some further thoughts contributed from other Christians, some Copts and some from other Churches, after reading the internet version. I am not sure both are completely identical, I only have seen the internet version: