News and Commentary

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

Saeed Abu Mustafa now sits in a prison cell accused of “membership in a banned group.”

Paolo Gambi
He Left Islam For Christianity. Now He’s Being Tortured In A Prison In Cairo.
Residential buildings in Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. Photographer: Islam Safwat/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Photo of Saeed Abu Mustafa (Saeed Abu Mustafa).

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.

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