Coptic Christian Sherif Wagih Fahmi was arrested in Egypt on Oct. 5, 2026 for his Facebook posts. (Screenshot from Coptic Solidarity video)

LONDON (Morning Star News) – Authorities in Egypt arrested a Coptic Christian this month for Facebook posts criticizing forced Islamic education of non-Muslims, while six young Copts detained over a TikTok video have been ordered released.

Egyptian Security officers arrested Sherif Wagih Fahmi, a 41-year-old Coptic engineer, from his home in Alexandria on Oct. 5 and have been holding him incommunicado over his Facebook posts, according to Coptic Solidarity. Officers from the National Security Agency arrived at Fahmi’s home in military vehicles early in the afternoon, raided his house and took him into custody, the rights group stated.

Fahmi was detained for his Facebook posts in recent weeks condemning educational policies that numerous human rights advocates say marginalize or even vilify the Christian minority, according to Coptic Solidarity and other organizations.

It was not clear exactly where Fahmi was being held. He has been charged with “contempt of Islam” but has not yet been given a case number to appear in court, according to Coptic Solidarity.

Fahmi’s disappearance comes as part of a long-standing and concerted effort by the Egyptian government to intimidate active Christians and those who challenge state denials of anti-Christian persecution on social media. On Wednesday (Oct. 21), the trial of another Christian detainee, Said Mansour Rezk Abdelrazek, was adjourned until Nov. 3 to allow the prosecution and defense to prepare their arguments. Defense attorneys will present their arguments on Nov. 3, according to Coptic Solidarity.

Abdelrazek, 30, a convert from Islam, is charged with contempt for Islam, inciting public disorder, disseminating false information and joining a banned terrorist organization, which carries the possibility of the death penalty. Multiple human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say Abdelrazek has been falsely charged as punishment for his conversion and attempts to change the religion designation on his national identification card.

Like Fahmi, Abdelrazek had an active presence on social media. In his most recent arrest, he has been held in custody since July 15, 2025.

In another incident this month involving internet speech, six Coptic males, one of them 17, were detained after they posted a video on TikTok of them reenacting a famous scene from a movie of a group of Muslim men attempting to pray.

The six Copts, all from Taha Al-Aamida village in Samalout, Minya Governate, began receiving online threats and were arrested Oct. 6 after villagers reported the video to police. Following an initial interrogation, a judge extended the detention of the six Copts. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights confirmed Monday (Oct. 26) that the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered they be released without bail while they await any future court proceedings, which have now essentially been placed on hold.

Several human rights groups have condemned the arrest as an unnecessary double standard being enforced to harass the Coptic minority. The movie scene has been acted out over the internet by Egyptian fans, most of them Muslim, thousands of times with no known prior incident.

The scene comes from “Khalawis” (“Ready Or Not”), a 2018 family comedy about the mistaken arrest of a 5-year-old boy. In the scene, a group of Muslim prisoners attempt to pray, only to realize they don’t know how to do so properly. The film was approved by state censors and appears on regular rotation in Egypt on satellite television.

The government accused the youths of mocking Islamic prayer and charged them with blasphemy, contempt of religion, and utilizing religion to spread extremist ideas. Prior to being charged, the youths deleted the video and apologized. The local Coptic diocese hosted a traditional reconciliation meeting to reduce village tensions without success.

At the same time, another Christian is appealing a five-year prison sentence with hard labor after being found guilty on Jan. 3 of “Contempt of Religion” and “misuse of social media.” Augustinos Samaan, a 37-year-old Coptic Christian researcher with a doctorate in Comparative Religion, hosted a YouTube channel as part of an online ministry explaining Christian theology. In his videos, he discussed the differences between Christianity and Islam and tried to rebut anti-Christian sentiment while seeking to minimize sectarian conflict.

What exactly brought Samaan to the attention of Egyptian authorities is unknown, but his site had more than 100,000 subscribers. He was arrested Oct. 1, 2025 in an early morning raid on his home by security forces. Legal observers say the charges against Samaan were frivolous, and that his trial, conducted in secret without counsel, was improper if not illegal.

A formal appeal, Samaan’s last, is scheduled for Nov. 15 before the Egyptian Court of Cassation.

Religious instruction is compulsory for school-age children in Egypt. In theory, Christian children are allowed to opt out of Islamic classes, but this rule is often ignored, and Christian children are commonly forced to undergo Islamic education. In Arabic language and even social studies classes, Christians receive instruction with the Quran as the primary text, and students are made to memorize and even interpret quranic verses.

Some Egyptian textbooks have passages that insult Christians or conflict with the religious beliefs of non-Muslim students, according to a report issued by the Tahrir Institute.

“The education program is devoid of any lesson, text, or mention of other faiths or religions, with a total omission of Egyptian Christian or Jewish historical figures, or major non-Muslim religious holidays,” Ishak Ibrahim, a noted human rights researcher, states in the report. “The same goes for Coptic history, despite the fact that the Coptic Church played a prominent role locally or abroad in facing the Roman and Byzantine empires at the time.”

Egypt has a long history of holding converts from Islam indefinitely in hopes they will eventually collapse under the pressure of endless imprisonment and then publicly recant their profession of faith in Christ. The case of Mohammed Hegazy was a notable example. The Egyptian government held Hegazy, a convert who gained national notoriety for trying to change the religion listed on his ID, for more than two and a half years without charge until he finally broke and on July 30, 2016 recanted his conversion on Youtube.

He has since revealed that his statement was made under duress and that he never abandoned his faith in Christ.

The Egyptian government also held Abdul-Baqi Saeed Abdo, a Yemeni convert from Islam, for more than two years in pretrial detention in an attempt to shatter his belief in Christ. Abdo, who has suffered severely for his faith, had an active internet presence discussing persecution of Christians in the Muslim world.

Abdo was never charged but, under intense international pressure, he was eventually released and deported. Another convert from Islam with an active internet presence, Nour Girgis, was arrested at the same time as Abdo and was released as well.

Egypt ranked 42nd on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List of the countries
where it is most difficult to be a Christian. 

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