Meet the Moslem leader who declared Jesus is God and was imprisoned

Bahaa el-Din Ahmed Hussein el-Akkad was a respected Egyptian Muslim imam who led a mosque in the Al-Haram district of Giza, Cairo.

For more than 20 years, he was a member of the fundamentalist Islamic group Tabligh and Da’wa.

In 1994, he published a 500-page book titled “Islam: the Religion,” reviewing the traditional beliefs of the Islamic faith.

After years of studying both Islam and Christianity, el-Akkad converted to Christianity in January 2005. In handwritten notes later smuggled out of prison, he wrote that anyone who studies both religions seriously and objectively will choose the Christian way.

On April 6, 2005, only three months after his conversion, Egypt’s State Security Intelligence arrested him.

He was accused of “insulting a heavenly religion,” a misdemeanor under Article 98-F of the Egyptian penal code.

In July 2006, a Cairo court ordered his release.

State Security ignored the order and transferred him to the maximum-security Wadi el-Natroun Prison in the desert, where many Egyptian Islamists convicted of anti-government activities were held.

He was reportedly told that he would remain imprisoned indefinitely unless he agreed to inform on other converts.

On April 28, 2007, el-Akkad was finally released after two years of imprisonment without formal charges.