Sid Roth welcomes Majed El Shafie

SID: Hi, its Sid with Majed El Shafie. Now Majed, you’ve said that they have arrested you because you’re living in Egypt, you are Muslim, you’re a law student, you start an organization for Egyptians that believe in Jesus, there’s all sorts of persecution going on. You write a book, they haul you in. They want the names of the other Christians associated with you, and you refuse to tell them. Did you know that the torture was going to be as bad as it was? Or did you not know this?

MAJED: Christians are like a bag of tea. You don’t’ know how strong they are until you throw them in hot water. So, I didn’t know, but I expected something like that.

SID: Okay, so each day they got progressively worse. Is it true that they told you what you were going to do the next day so you could think about it?

MAJED: Yeah, basically.

SID: It’s a mental thing, as well as physical.

MAJED: It’s a warfare of course. Day number one, they shave the hair off my head. They put my head under cold and hot water. When I say cold water, its frozen water. When I say hot water, there is smoke coming out of it. You had one minute there, then one minute there. After that they took me back to my cell. They said tell me the name of your friends. I told them, to be honest with you, I haven’t taken a shower in a long time, I enjoyed the cold and hot water.

SID: You’ve got chutzpah. That’s a Jewish word for nerve.

MAJED: And, I look handsome without hair. Seriously if you could see I could style a little bit. The more that you smile, the more that you show them no fear they loose their control. Day number two, they put me upside down. Half of my body was on the ground and the other half was hanging. They burned me by 3 cigarettes on my back, they whipped me by every way possible. And they day number two, the only thing I can really remember is was they taste and the smell of my blood. They took me back to my cell. They told me to tell them the name of my friends. I Told them no. They said, do you know what will be your punishment tomorrow if you don’t tell us, your torture tomorrow. I told them no. They told me we have three dogs and they attack you. The three dogs train to attack humans, to eat flesh. And they close the door, if you were in my place, what do you do.
SID: They put the dogs in the cell and lock the door with you in there.

MAJED: No, they were telling me the day before, day number two.

SID: No, I understand.

MAJED: And so they opened the door, day number three. If you were in my place, what would you do? I just prayed to the Lord, and I told Him Lord just take me. Basically, just kill me before tomorrow morning.

SID: That would have to be a horrible death, to have these attack dogs.

MAJED: And I was scared, because I was afraid of after having torture I could mention the names of my friends. I’m still flesh and blood. Day number three, they open my cell, my cell is dark. The corridor, the light in my corridor is red light. They open the door, you can see the shadow of the dogs getting closer and closer, you can hear their noise, their feet. And I went and I sat down in the corner, and I waited for pain and agony, and I covered my face with my own hand. And the dogs get closer and closer and closer, and then suddenly I couldn’t hear the noise, I couldn’t hear their voices. I took my hand away from my face to see what has happened. The three dogs sitting around me, none of them attacked. Soldiers and officers have to keep the dogs attacked.

SID: Of course.

MAJED: These dogs train to listen to their master, but there is no higher master then Jesus Christ. Long story short. They took the set of the three dogs and they said maybe the dogs are sick, bring me another set of three dogs. They bring another set of three dogs, and the other three dogs sit in the same position. But the middle one took a step forward and licked my face.

SID: Well what did the guards think about that?

MAJED: The guards didn’t know what happened. They took the three dogs and they closed the door. All of them were talking about a miracle, they didn’t know about this miracle but they were talking about this miracle and the three dogs left. On day number 4, officer number 27, a big huge man, a strong man, he came and opened the door and he said listen, I’m not afraid of you. I told him, I know that you are not afraid of me. I’m supposed to be afraid of you. You are the one who is torturing me. He told me, listen, I am going to make you a deal. I told him, I’m listening. He told me if you tell me the name of your friends I will release you, whatever you like I will give you. You want a big house I will give you a big house, if you want a brand new car I will give you a new car. You want beautiful ladies I will give you beautiful ladies. Whatever you want I will give you. I told him that I would like it. I will take the deal. But first I didn’t eat for 3 days, bring me food and we will talk together. He told me whatever you would like to eat. I told him shish-ka bob. Trust me shish-ka-bob is much better than McDonalds. So he went and brought the best shish-ka-bob and I set down and ate. He said now you tell me the guys that work with you. I told him listen, our group is a big huge group. I cannot give you all of their names. I cannot remember them. But, I will give you the name of our leader. You can catch him and he can give you tell you the rest of our groups. He said, I thought you were the leader. I said, no sir I am just a servant. He told me okay give me the name of your leader. I told him the name of our leader is Jesus Christ. If you can catch him, catch him.

SID: Oh my goodness. Now he didn’t react to well to that.

MAJED: No, he didn’t like that.

SID: What did he do?

MAJED: Well officer number 27 gave me two punishments. The first punishment was he slapped my face and he was a strong, big man. I hit the wall. Officer number 27 didn’t know that later on I would be on your show making fun about it. He did not know that. He thought that he broke my spirit but he was wrong. Later on they took me. My second punishment is the reason that I don’t sleep at night until now. I have nightmares. They took me to another dark room and they had a piece of wood in a cross shape and they took off my clothes and they crucified me for two days and nights.

SID: Not nailed, you were tied?

MAJED: No nails, they tied your hands, your neck, your waste, your arms, your feet and your legs. At the end of the 2 and a half days they brought an Egyptian knife and they made a cut on the back of my left shoulder and they put lemon and salt on the open wounds.

SID: How much can one human take?

MAJED: One human with God or one human without God? That is the question.

SID: I tell you what, hold that thought, we’ll be right back because they could not break him. What do you think about these attack dogs not attacking him? Sounds like Daniel in the lion’s den. We’ll be right back after this break.