Priest kidnapped because of baptizing Shia woman

On May 7, unknown persons kidnapped a Christian priest at gunpoint in the Bekaa, reportedly because he baptized a Shia woman who fled her home after converting to Christianity. The kidnappers released the priest after several hours. The priest reported that the kidnappers were searching for the woman’s location. Government officials denounced the kidnapping. The Archbishop of Baalbek-Deir al-Ahmar told the press the woman’s father, a Shia cleric, had physically and psychologically tortured her following her conversion to Christianity. Her father told local television that monks and priests “practiced witchcraft and sorcery” on his daughter to bring about her conversion, and accused Christian religious leaders of trying to convert other Shia children in Baalbek. On May 14 the woman was returned to Hizballah Shura Council member Sheikh Mohammad Yazbeck with Archbishop Atallah after her family pledged not to pressure her to convert back to Islam.