International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, October 28, 2003

About two dozen Christians have been arrested by Egyptian police over the last week, the UK-based Barnabas Fund has reported. Many of them, according to the group, were Muslims who recently converted to Christianity.

The Barnabas Fund, which highlights the suffering of persecuted Christian minorities throughout the Islamic and two-thirds world, said the crackdown began last Tuesday on October 21 when so-called Christian ‘activists’ were arrested in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. It is unclear whether they were seized while gathering for a clandestine worship service.

The group said the first of those arrested were two converts from Islam as part of a police investigation that began in Cairo and expanded to Alexandria.

"Local Christians fear the arrests will continue and many other converts from Islam, who have been living quietly as Christians may now be arrested in the next few days," the Fund said in a statement reported by regional security analysts MENL.