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Priest embraced Islam, (5) Ex- Coptic Priest and Missionary (Egypt)-iv
Part four
This is the fifth priest in this series of "Priests Embraced Islam".
His name before Islam: Ibrahim Khalil Philobus
His name after Islam: Ibrahim Khalil Ahmed
He was born in 1919 in Alexandria, Egypt.
He was an Egyptian Coptic priest and missionary.
He studied theology and got a high degree from Princeton University.
He studied Islam to find gaps to attack it; instead he embraced Islam with his four children, one of them is now a brilliant professor in Sorbonne University, Paris France.
He leads and participated in many Debates about Islam and Christianity.
He wrote five books (in Arabic), they are:
Muhammad, peace be upon him in the Torah, the Gospel and the Quran
Forgiveness (Salvation) in Islam and Christianity
Israel the sedition of the generations in the Modern times
Israel the sedition of the generations in the Old times
The Orientalists and missionaries in the Arab world and Islamic countries
He translated three books of Ahmad Deedat from English to Arabic, they are:
Is crucifixion fiction or Real?
What the Bible says about Muhammad [peace be upon him]?
Who rolled back the stone?
[Ahmad Deedat is the best known for his numerous inter-religious public debates with evangelical Christians; he has many video tapes of such debates on the net].
Ibrahim Khalil Ahmed continues his real and interesting story and says:
"In 1955 I did complete my study and my material and living affairs became well established. I resigned from the company and set up a training office for importing stationery and school articles. It was a successful business from which I gained much more money than I needed. Thus I decided to declare my official conversion to Islam. On the 25th of December 1959, I sent a telegram to Dr. Thompson, head of the American Mission in Egypt informing him that I had embraced Islam. When I told my true story to Dr. Jamal he was completely astonished.
When I declared my conversion to Islam, new troubles began. Seven of my former colleagues in the mission had tried their best to persuade me to cancel my declaration, but I refused. They threatened to separate me from my wife and I said: She is free to do as she wishes. They threatened to kill me. But when they found me to be stubborn they left me alone and sent to me an old friend of mine who was also a colleague of mine in the mission. He wept very much in front of me. So I recited before him the following verses from the Quran:
"And when they listen to the revelation received by the Messenger, thou wilt see their eyes overflowing with tears, for they recognize the truth: They pray: 'Our Lord! We believe, write us down among the witnesses. What cause can we have not to believe in Allah and the truth which has come to us, seeing that we long for our Lord to admit us to the company of the righteous?'" (Quran 5:84)
I said to him, "You should have wept in humiliation to God on hearing the Quran and believe in the truth which you know but you refuse. He stood up and left me as he saw no use. My official conversion to Islam was in January 1960."
