He Left Islam For Christianity. Now He’s Being Tortured In A Prison In Cairo.

The issue of religious freedom has become one of the most pressing global challenges of our time. While in Western countries debates often revolve around ensuring that Muslims can freely practice their faith, in many parts of the Islamic world, Christians continue to face harsh restrictions, discrimination, and even persecution. This striking contrast raises fundamental questions about reciprocity, human dignity, and the future of coexistence between different faiths.

Few stories illustrate this brutal reality more vividly than that of Said Mansour Rezk Abdelrazek — known as Saeed Abu Mustafa, a 30-year-old man, who has been arrested, endured torture, isolation, and persecution. During his detention, he was allegedly suspended with his arms tied to a wall in a crucified position for hours each day, a deliberate mockery of the very faith he embraced. He has been beaten, humiliated, and forced to undergo procedures to burn away a small Christian tattoo. They stripped him of his wife and child. Saeed now sits in a prison cell, together with Islamic terrorists, accused of crimes as absurd as “membership in a banned group” and “contempt of the Islamic religion.” In truth, his only crime is that, in 2018, he converted to Christianity.

In the Roman Empire, Christians were thrown to lions, crucified on wooden beams, and burned alive in public squares. Their crime was simple: they refused to worship Caesar and chose to follow Christ instead. Twenty centuries later, the forms have changed but the substance has not. What the Roman Empire once accomplished with crosses and amphitheaters, Egypt — a nation that receives billions of dollars in aid from the United States — now accomplishes with courtrooms, prisons, and a bureaucracy steeped in Sharia law.

A Journey From Curiosity To Crucifixion

Saeed’s path to Christ began with a hunger for knowledge. As a teenager, he immersed himself in comparative religion, asking the questions Islam dared not answer. By 2018, his search ended with baptism into the Russian Orthodox Church. But his conversion would prove costly. His family harassed him. His neighbors denounced him. But above all, Egypt’s National Security marked him as a threat.

Desperate, Saeed fled to Russia in 2019, where he sought asylum. For a time, he breathed free air. But when provoked by Muslims on social media, he responded and lashed out. Russia responded not with tolerance but with jail. Eleven months later, they deported him — despite a UNHCR refugee certificate that should have guaranteed his protection.

Back in Egypt, his persecutors were waiting for him. They detained him, tortured him again, and warned, “If you want to be a Christian, so be it. But you must remain silent.” Silence, however, would prove impossible for this man.

The Arrest That Sealed His Fate

In July of 2025, Saeed did the unthinkable. He attempted to exercise his constitutional right to file a lawsuit to update his official identity card to reflect his Christian faith. In Egypt, religion is stamped on every official document: your driver’s license, your job application, even membership to a sports club. It is not merely paperwork; it is a mark of identity and, for converts, a mark of danger.

That step was enough to seal his fate. On July 15, 2025, plainclothes National Security agents stormed his apartment in Cairo’s Matariya district and arrested him. Days later, he appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution, charged with membership in a banned group, disturbing public order and peace, and contempt of the Islamic religion.

It is difficult to overstate the absurdity of these accusations. When asked how he could be accused of joining a banned group, Saeed responded simply: “How can I be? I am Christian.”

A Legal Farce, A Human Tragedy

Saeed’s hearings were conducted over video conference. His lawyer was not allowed to see him. He could not review the charges or the investigation files. Even basic rights guaranteed by Egypt’s own constitution were stripped away.

His lawyer, Saeed Fayez, stated:

“I am immensely worried for Saeed’s safety, because he is locked away in Institute Number 6, where Islamic extremist terrorists are held. He is in danger. Recently, Osama — an Islamist terrorist who desecrated Christian faith — posted a video showing Saeed being beaten. This is torture.”

Meanwhile, Saeed’s fiancé, Sophie, is heartbroken:

“This should not be happening in 2025. His treatment is not human. Egyptian interpretation of terrorism is very different from the rest of the world. When Egypt says he has joined a banned group, what do they mean? Are Christians a banned group? Why cannot these people convert and enjoy their freedom like everybody else? It is a matter of freedom.”

The Pattern Of Persecution

Saeed’s story is part of a long line of shattered lives. He is not the first, nor will he be the last.

In 2007, Mohammed Hegazy openly demanded recognition of his conversion. For that, he was arrested, tortured. He first stated that he had abandoned Christianity to return to Islam, but once released from prison, he revealed he had remained a Christian all along, explaining that his supposed conversion had been extracted from him under torture.

Decades earlier, Maher El-Gowhary had tried the same. Judges even admitted his case was valid, but they ruled conversion a “threat to public order.” He has lived ever since as a fugitive in his own land.

More recently, the stranglehold on religious expression continues. In early 2025, Abdulbaqi Said Abdo — a Christian convert detained since 2021 for speaking about his faith and aiding fellow converts online — was released after years behind bars on blasphemy charges. His fellow detainee, Nour Gerges, was also freed, yet both men still face pending accusations. Abdo spent months in solitary confinement, suffered deteriorating health, and even declared a partial hunger strike in protest.

Others have suffered in quieter ways, their names whispered in churches and exile communities. A young woman named Naglaa had her head shaved by her brother and her Bible burned before her eyes. Amir Ibrahim, a professor, was fired and charged for daring to declare himself Christian. A teenager called Andrew has changed homes seven times in six months to escape his family’s wrath. Mirna, a mother, lost custody of her daughter the moment she embraced the Cross. Karim Abu El-Kheir, at 19, was jailed for writing on Facebook: “Christ is my salvation.”

These are not isolated incidents.

Egypt’s constitution, however, contains a fatal contradiction. Article 2 enshrines Islamic Sharia as the source of law. Article 46, on the other hand, promises freedom of belief. And whenever they collide, Sharia wins.

That is why Saeed is in prison. That is why converts live as “ghosts,” hiding in basements, carrying fake names, unable to marry, work, or claim their children. Egypt’s notion of religious freedom appears paradoxical: one may hold personal beliefs, provided they never stray from Islam.

Why The West Must Act

Every year, America sends billions of dollars in aid to Egypt. Washington calls Cairo a “partner” and a “moderate.” But what moderation is this? A nation that jails a man for following Christ is no partner in freedom.

This is not simply a matter of cultural difference — it is a matter of right and wrong. If America believes in liberty, it must advocate for the release of Saeed and others like him. It must place conditions on aid when it comes to genuine freedom of religion. It must remind Egypt that partnership with the United States comes with moral obligations.

Saeed’s crucifixion may not be on Golgotha, but it is no less real. And it demands a response. If America still believes in the dignity of the human soul, then it must raise its voice. Because the true test of freedom is not how we protect the majority — it is how we defend the lone man in a cell, whose only crime was to whisper the name of Jesus.

In the early centuries of Christianity, martyrs faced lions with hymns on their lips. Today, in Cairo, they face prison walls and torture cells. But the hymn remains the same: Christ is Lord.

* * *

Paolo Gambi is an Italian multimedia artist, poet, and contributor to “Il Giornale,” Italy’s primary conservative newspaper. He is the founder of Poetry Renaissance, one of the main networks of poetry in Italy, present in various countries. He has published more than thirty books.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.