Our Guest Majed El Shafie

SID: Hello, Sid Roth here, with Majed El Shafie. What happens when an Egyptian Muslim finds out that Jesus is Messiah? The religious police put him in interrogation and try to kill him, his family disowns him, other Muslims want to kill him, it is not an easy thing. Majed, you come from a family of attorneys, a Supreme Court justice and you were studying law yourself. How in the world did you make this jump from being a Muslim? You probably had a terrific future assured with this whole legal family and everything. How did you even begin to think about Jesus and the Bible?

MAJED: In the start after I finished my high school back in Egypt and I started to study law in Alexandria to become a lawyer. In the first year of Alexandria school I discovered that there is between 6 to 7,000 Christian Egyptians that are in jail. 6,000 to 7,000 that are in jail for no reason. Just because they are Christians, there is no other reason. There is something in Egyptian law, its called el heti al euni law, it’s a law that you can’t build churches, you can build bars, discos, but not churches.

SID: But they have churches in Egypt.

MAJED: Old ones not new ones. And actually by this law you cannot rebuild or build the old ones, so basically what’s happened is that you leave the old ones until it collapses on itself. So all of this showed me that there is something wrong, that there is persecution.

SID: So you worried about this problem, how did you then make the leap to believing in Jesus?

MAJED: I started to ask why is there persecution. From my knowledge, when there is persecution that means that the enemy is trying to hide something. Why would you persecute some people?

SID: You have a real legal mind.

MAJED: Yeah, exactly. I went to my best friend, my best friend is Tamir, Tamir is Christian and I was Muslim. I asked him, Tamir why is there persecution happening to the Christians and Tamir said, listen, if I answer you my answer can affect our friendship together. But, I will give you a book. This book will give you an answer for every question you have. The first time that I opened this book about justice and love and forgiveness, more than about law, it was called the Holy Bible. The first time I opened the Holy Bible it John chapter 8, and in John 8 they brought a lady who had committed adultery, threw her in front of Lord and told him to judge her according to the law of Moses. He started to write in the sand with his finger and they repeated the question again. The Lord looked at them and said, he without sin cast the first stone. The only one who can cast the first stone was the Lord himself Jesus because he is the only one without sin. But he didn’t. they left and he looked at the lady and told her go and sin no more, I forgive you. This was my first time to see true forgiveness. True forgiveness. I started to read the Koran, I started to read the Bible and I started to compare the both of them and after almost a year I went to my friend Tamir and I told him, Tamir I know now what is Christianity. Christianity is not about religion, Christianity is not about going to church every Sunday, hallelujah, bless the lord and see you next Sunday. Christianity is about a relationship with God. I accept the Lord, and I want to receive Jesus.

SID: But, you have to count the cost. How could you do that? Your heritage, your family, your career.

MAJED: None of that will equal anything, if you know your soul will end up in hell.

SID: Okay, you started an organization to help the Christians in prison and the rights for Christians. How large did the organization become in Egypt.

MAJED: Well we started with seven members, and after that in two years we end up with 24,000.

SID: 24,000! Okay then he writes a book about what he believes, then he gets arrested. Tell us what happened when you got arrested.

MAJED: August 15, 1998. 1:30 in the morning I hear a knock at my door. I went and opened the door and the officer asked for a name, a gentleman’s name. I told him nobody’s here by this name. Two minutes later, five officers, five soldiers, they came, they break through the door and took me by the side. They put me in a police station, the only police station behind the Egyptian parliament. They told me I know who you are, I know about the book you wrote, the organization you built. One thing I didn’t know was the group. I didn’t know who it was to be a group. I told them I don’t know which group, I don’t know which organization, and if you know everything about me why are you asking me. They told me if you want to play tough, we can play tough together. I told them tough is my middle name you have no idea. They took me the next day to Abuzabel jail. Abuzabel jail is known in the Middle East as hell on earth. Abuzabel jail, let me just tell you a few information about the persecution system in the Middle East. As the people listening to us right now, they have no knowledge about what’s happening. And first, they change your name in the official papers. If your family or any human right organization asks about your name, you do not exist.

SID: Really?

MAJED: Um, the official papers. The officers that are always torturing you, they are always wearing masks, you cannot see their faces. They always call each other by numbers, not names. Every day, it was different, the level of torture. So day number one, this level of torture, if you didn’t speak, they take you to higher level. I stayed there seven days, for me, like 700 years.

SID: Hold that thought. They end up crucifying him, I’m not kidding. Don’t go away. We’ll be right back.