EGYPTIAN CHRISTIAN WHO SURVIVED TORTURE HELPS PERSECUTED CHURCHAn Egyptian Christian brutally tortured for his faith by Egypt’s military police is now a political refugee living in Canada who has used his freedom to start an international organization for persecuted Christians. Maged El Shafie, a 27-year-old law student who fled his native land in 1999, endured horrific physical abuse after the police discovered he started an underground Christian organization that eventually grew to thousands of people. “I was physically tortured for seven days because I wouldn’t give the police the names of my Christian friends,” El Shafie said. When he was under house arrest, one of his guards said that a court had secretly sentenced him to death on charges of trying to change Egypt’s national religion. That night El Shafie fled the country. When he reached Israel, El Shafie changed his name to Mack Smith and immigrated to Toronto in February 2002. El Shafie started One Free World International, a human-rights organization for persecuted Christians that broadcasts “River of Love,” a weekly Arabic-language radio program. He said 425 Egyptian Muslims have come to the Lord through the program. One Free World is raising funds to buy farm machinery and other practical tools to send to persecuted Christians.From the news flow of Intercessors Network
