An Egyptian convert to Christianity who had jet-skied to safety in Israel after being arrested, tortured and sentenced to death for his religious beliefs over a quarter century ago has returned to the Jewish state to make a documentary film about Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and the dangers of Islamic extremism.
“God used Israel to save my life,” Majed el-Shafie, the president and founder of the Toronto-based One Free World International, told JNS this week in Jerusalem. “I felt that after Oct. 7 I had to do something. I had to return the favor.”
The 70-minute film he produced, “Dying to Live: The October 7 Massacre,” tells the story of the deadliest single attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust through the lens of a Muslim turned evangelical Christian who is now an outspoken supporter of Israel.
The English-language documentary, which was supported by evangelical and Jewish groups, premiered in Israel this week after being shown in private settings in Canada last month.
El-Shafie says he is working to translate his film—which includes interviews with both Arab and Muslim officials in discussing how such an attack can ever be justified—into Arabic, Persian and Urdu.
“You can kill hundreds of Yahya Sinwars and Hassan Nasrallahs,” he said, referring to the Hamas and Hezbollah leaders eliminated by Israel last year, “but more will come.”
“You have to fight the ideology and change people’s minds and hearts.”
Closing a circle
His fifth wartime visit to Israel, for the nationwide screening of the movie, closes something of a circle for the 47-year-old human rights activist.
Born in Cairo to a well-off Muslim family, he was arrested in Egypt in 1998 for converting to Christianity and speaking out about his religious beliefs. He was imprisoned and tortured. After receiving the death penalty and placed under house arrest, he managed to escape Egypt by driving a stolen jet-ski from Taba in Sinai to the nearby Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat, realizing that Israel was his only way out of the predominantly Arab Middle East.
He was arrested in Israel and served nearly a year in jail, but was able to fight off an Egyptian extradition request and was eventually freed through the assistance of various Christian organizations, including the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, which helped him to obtain political asylum in Canada. His Egyptian family had disowned him.
Living in Canada over the last two decades, he became a respected voice for human rights but never forgot his road to freedom in the West via Israel. The Oct. 7 attack spurred him to action.
“I am returning the favor by speaking the truth and by saying what is happening,” he said.
The challenges he faces are evident toward the end of the film when he speaks in Arabic to a Palestinian living near Bethlehem who still questions the Oct. 7 attack—despite it being filmed live by Hamas terrorists themselves—and who levels the blame squarely on both sides. In another scene, el-Shafie, who interviews bereaved Israeli family members as well as families of the hostages still being held in Gaza, apologizes to one of them as a former Muslim, only to be rebuked by the Israeli, who says he has nothing to do with the likes of Hamas.
“It was very important for me as an Egyptian to come here and say I love you and will defend you,” he told JNS, noting that the cold peace that exists between Egypt and Israel is mostly only at the government level.
While expressing shock over the outburst of rabid antisemitism in the West, including in Canada, amid the 15-month-old war, el-Shafie said that Hamas and its acolytes have shown their true colors.
“I thank Hamas for showing the true face of terrorism and antisemitism in the West, and for also uniting the Jewish people—who have shown zeal and strength under attack—and showing them where their soul is.”