Mark A. Gabriel
Gabriel's account of his life
In his first book, Against the Tides in the Middle East: The true story of Mustafa, former teacher of Islamic history (1997) Gabriel (writing as "Mustafa") tells of his birth on 30 December, 1957 to Muslim parents in the region of upper Egypt known as Al Saeed. His parents, wealthy owners of a clothing factory, and six brothers and one sister were all devout Muslims. Early fears by relatives that Mustafa would grow up a Christian because he had been breast fed by a Christian woman resulted in him being given a thorough Islamic education.
Mustafa grew up immersed in Islamic culture and was sent to Al Azhar school at the age of six. By the time he was twelve years old he had memorized the Qur'an completely.[1] After graduating from Al-Azhar University with a Master's degree for his thesis on The reign of the heir over the Islamic kingdom in the period of Ammaweya in 1990 he was subsequently offered a position as a lecturer at the university.[2] During his research, which involved travel to Eastern and Western countries, Mustafa had become more distant from Islam, finding its history, 'from its commencement to date, to be filled with violence and bloodshed without any worthwhile ideology or sense of decency. I asked myself "What religion would condone such destruction of human life?" Based on that, I began to see that the Muslim people and their leaders were perpetrators of violence."'[3] On hearing that Mustafa had "forsaken Islamic teachings" the authorities of Al Azhar expelled him from the University on 17 December, 1991 and asked for him to be released from the post of Imam in the mosque of Amas Ebn Malek in Giza city. The Egyptian secret police then seized Mustafa and placed him in a cell without food and water for three days, after which he was tortured and interrogated for four days before being transferred to Calipha prison in Cairo and released without charge a week later. Following these events Mustafa lost his faith and went to work as a sales director in his father's factory, but after a year of reflection on religious texts and discussions with a Christian woman, he "gave his heart to Jesus".[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_A._Gabriel
Topic: Famous Murtads