Christian Girls Groomed on Instagram by Islamic Networks: Egypt's New Trafficking Tactics Exposed

Assiut, Egypt — An 18-year-old middle-class Coptic Christian woman disappeared on June 1 after going to school, caught in what Coptic Solidarity describes as a sophisticated Islamist trafficking network using social media to groom and abduct Christian girls.

A network of Muslim girls at her school in Assiut Governate had targeted the student, identified only as Amany, for two years on WhatsApp and Instagram chat groups, trying to plant doubts about Christianity and distance her emotionally from her family. The Muslim girls were coached by men from the strict Salafi branch of Islam who sought to lure Christian students into Islamic captivity.

The grooming started when Amany was 16, but perpetrators waited until two months after she turned 18 to abduct her, as punishment for trafficking children is more severe than cases involving adult victims.

Amany's family found voice recordings and Instagram group chats showing a girl named Amira, described as a Muslim friend at school and part of the Islamization ring, had introduced Amany to a young Muslim man named Islam. Islam presented himself as a trusted friend who wanted to educate her about Islam to get heavenly credits, known as thawab.

Islam convinced Amany to meet Sheikh Nasser, who had expertise in changing the paperwork for converts and feeding, hosting and getting them work, even wives and husbands. He told her the sheikh would get a restraining order against her family from national security police, meaning all contact with family and friends would end and she would start a completely new life somewhere else.

Amany's family never heard from her again.

When police accompanied the family to Amany's school, an officer tried to intimidate her sister into saying Amany was in a romantic relationship to fabricate a story explaining her disappearance. Police pressuring relatives to falsely claim disappeared girls are involved in sexual affairs is a common pattern.

The officer went to the family's home searching for evidence of an affair. When one of the family's phones rang and they heard Amany's voice, the officer pushed everyone out of the room, finished the call without letting them hear the conversation, and deleted the number Amany called from.

Amany's uncle told Coptic Solidarity that her forced disappearance was meant to humiliate Coptic Christians. He said the plan was to humiliate the Coptic faith, not Amany personally, adding that female Syrian and Lebanese refugees in Egypt are not targeted as Coptic Christians are.

The means of converting Coptic Christian women and girls has shifted from abduction to deception, luring, or grooming, defined as methodically building a trusting relationship with a child or young adult to manipulate, coerce, or force them to engage in sexual activities.

Release International describes an epidemic of grooming, forced conversion and kidnapping, believed to be funded by religious leaders with cash from Saudi Arabia.

Their Egyptian partners are in direct contact with 2,500 families who daily face the problem of kidnapping.

Egyptians trace the rise of kidnapping back some 50 years, but the problem grew to epidemic proportions during Egypt's revolution when the Muslim Brotherhood came to power. Foreign money poured into Egypt from militants available to anyone who would kidnap Christians and force them to convert.

According to an Egyptian priest in the Minya Governorate, at least 15 girls go missing every year in his area alone. Police and security services seem complicit in these abductions, conversion to Islam, and forced marriages.

Coptic Solidarity stated that impunity for all involved with the various crimes is the primary obstacle to ending the targeting of Coptic women and minor girls for abduction, forced marriage and forced conversion.

THE CRUSADER'S OPINION

Two years of Instagram messages. WhatsApp groups coached by Salafi men. Muslim classmates befriending Christian girls to set them up for abduction. Amany was 16 when they started grooming her online. They waited until she turned 18 to avoid child trafficking charges. Criminal sophistication executed with complete impunity.

The police officer deleted Amany's phone number after hearing her voice. The school administrator refused to show attendance records. National security issues restraining orders against Christian families trying to rescue their daughters. Sheikh Nasser has expertise in changing paperwork for converts. Egypt's government actively facilitates forced conversions through forged documents, arranged marriages, and state power preventing families from recovering their daughters.

Amany's uncle spoke truth: her disappearance was meant to humiliate the Coptic faith. Syrian and Lebanese refugee girls face no such targeting. Only Coptic Christians. Systematic religious cleansing using sexual violence as a weapon.

Saudi money funds this. The Muslim Brotherhood perfected it. Salafi networks coordinate it. Egyptian police enable it. And 2,500 families live this nightmare while the world stays silent.

Fifteen girls disappear annually from one governorate alone. Multiply that across Egypt and hundreds of Christian girls are groomed on social media, abducted, forcibly converted, and married to their captors every year. Instagram and WhatsApp are weaponized tools destroying Christian communities while Silicon Valley profits.

Western governments give Egypt billions in aid. American tax dollars fund the regime enabling these abductions. Europe props up the government that deleted evidence connecting a mother to her kidnapped daughter.

Egypt's constitution guarantees religious freedom. Egypt's reality? State protected trafficking of Christian girls groomed online and disappeared forever.

TAKE ACTION

Pray for Amany and the 2,500 families facing kidnapping in Egypt. Pray for Coptic Christians living under constant threat.

Support organizations fighting this epidemic:

• Coptic Solidarity - Leading advocacy for Coptic Christians
• International Christian Concern - Supporting persecuted Christians worldwide
• Release International - Working with Egyptian partners to protect Christian communities

Contact your representatives and demand:

• Sanctions on Egyptian officials complicit in trafficking
• Conditional aid to Egypt tied to protecting religious minorities
• Pressure on tech companies to prevent platforms being used for grooming operations

Share this story. The world's silence enables this evil. Every share exposes the truth.