Check It Out: A Canadian version of James Bond shares his story

By Joan Janzen

One Free World International (OFWI) is the leading human rights organization in Canada, with teams in 28 countries. Majed El Shafie founded the organization after having escaped his own death sentence. While Eric Huffman was interviewing Majed, he referred to his guest as a Canadian version of James Bond. A quote from an old James Bond movie said, “If you’re not willing to risk it all, you don’t want it bad enough.” Those words accurately describe Majed’s story.

Majed was born into a moderate Muslim family in Egypt. “The majority of my family worked in legal careers. My father was a lawyer, and my uncle was a judge in the Supreme Court,” he said. As a young man, he followed in their footsteps.

“In my first year of law school the reality of the persecution of Christians shocked me to the core. I read lots of books about freedom, justice and human rights, and I believed in every one of those principles,” he reported. When he asked a long-time friend why this persecution was happening, his friend handed him a Bible. The young law student said he felt compelled to believe what was written in the book, even though he knew it was a difficult choice.

He began to be involved with an activist group and was eventually arrested and taken to Abu Zaabal Prison. “Prison was hell on earth, but you will not hear this information on the media,” he said. “Twenty-five percent of the prison is underground, and that’s where they tortured me for seven days. Every day was a higher level of torture.”

Masked officers called each other by number as they pushed his head into cold and then hot water on the first day. This would continue for four-hour periods with a twenty-minute break in between. His captors wanted Majed to release the names of his friends, but he refused because he knew that would only cause more deaths and torture.

On the second day, they hung him upside down and burned him with cigarettes. “I couldn’t remember that day. I just remember them dragging me by my legs to my room,” he recalled.

The following day, he was told trained dogs would be released into his room, and Majed prayed he would die before the dogs arrived rather than release the names of his friends. He cowered in a corner, legs against his chest and arms covering his face and neck as he heard the dogs’ heavy breathing.

“I waited for pain, but nothing happened. I looked through my fingers, and I saw the three dogs sitting around me and not moving,” he reported. Even when the officers beat the dogs, they wouldn’t move. Finally, the middle dog stepped forward and licked Majed’s face. It was a miracle; however, the next day, he would experience the worst torture you can imagine.

They stripped him, tied him and hung him up. “They cut my back shoulder to the bone and filled it with salt and lemon. Thankfully, I lost consciousness,” he said.

Majed spent three months in a prison hospital, was under house arrest for 11 months, had one day in court without a lawyer and was sentenced to the death penalty. “My uncle went to the court and asked the judge to give me the death penalty to clear the family from the shame I caused,” he recalled after his family disowned him.

While waiting for the death penalty, his team distracted the guards while he was under house arrest and helped Majed escape. “At the border between Israel and Egypt, I stole a jet ski, and I enjoyed it,” he said. After a 3-minute ride, he landed in Israel. He was imprisoned in Israel for 1 year, 3 months and fifteen days until the UN and Amnesty International confirmed his story and released him.

“You count the days when you’re an innocent man,” he said. Yet, in Egypt, there’s still an active warrant for his arrest. “I was wanted for $100,000 American dollars. I don’t know how much it is now.”

The Canadian version of James Bond settled in Canada in 2002 and became a Canadian citizen in 2006. After his escape, he started OFWI. “I wanted to rescue people who are at risk and in the same place I was in,” he explained. “You have two options after an experience like mine: you can become part of the problem by your silence or you become the heart of the solution. I chose to fight back in love.”

Just one example of this fight of love involves rescuing girls kidnapped and used as sex slaves. Majed recalled rescuing a group of girls, including a 9-year-old and her mother. “Her mom told me her daughter would scream if any man got close to her. I listened to their story, and I couldn’t breathe … the stories were so heavy,” he said. “I went down on my knees and asked the girls to forgive me as a man for what other men have done. Then I felt little hands hugging me from behind; it was the 9-year-old girl.”

After being rescued the girls are put in a safe home, where step by step they can heal and reconnect with their family. The mechanisms used for the rescue involve buying materials and exchanging those materials for the girls. Their captors are led to believe the girls are being bought, not rescued. “This rescue almost bankrupt our organization. I had to take a second mortgage on my home and max my credit cards,” he said. “We don’t exchange money with terrorist organizations because it can be used to hurt more people.”

When he was asked what advice he would offer to Canadians, Majed said: “Never give up and never compromise. Let’s go out and see what an amazing difference it would make in our society. Faith and family are the foundation of our nation.”

Screenwriters wrote the words, “If you’re not willing to risk it all, you don’t want it bad enough.” However, Majed El Shafie and OFWI are living out those words in real time.