Free Republic

As The new Republican led 112th Congress convenes this Wednesday we will discuss the challenges ahead, the US-Israel relationship, the Middle east conflict, the peace process and the growing threat of radical Islam in the US. Eric and our guest Dexter Van Zile the christian media analyst for CAMERA.org will discuss the Alexandria attack ,the attack on Coptic's, what this has to do with Israel, and another terrorist attack in the making in the coming days. Chatroom open for discussions.

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt was on high alert on Monday ahead of the Coptic Christmas holiday following a New Year's Day church bombing that killed 21 people, as investigators raced to identify those behind the attack. Police cancelled leave for senior officers and were tightening surveillance of airports and ports to prevent suspects from leaving the country, as new checkpoints were set up across the nation. Security was also to be beefed up at churches for Christmas which Copts celebrate on January 7, security officials said. The clampdown comes amid concerns of new protests by Copts following overnight clashes at...

Azhar, Coptic Church to try to resolve disputesEgypt's top Muslim cleric on Sunday criticized Pope Benedict XVI's call for world leaders to defend Christians as interference in his country's affairs, the official MENA news agency reported. The call, following a deadly church car-bombing in northern Egypt, was "unacceptable interference in Egypt's affairs," Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the oldest Islamic seat of learning, told reporters. "I disagree with the pope's view, and I ask why did the pope not call for the protection of Muslims when they were subjected to killings in Iraq?" he said at a news...

Official announcement follows day of unrest in Alexandria neighbourhood where car-bomb attack claimed 21 lives Sunday's announcement came as congregants were back praying in al-Qiddissine [The Saints] church, targeted the day before by a car bomb that also wounded 97 people. Dozens of worshippers attended Sunday Mass at the church, located in the Sidi Bechr district of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, while riot police backed by armoured vehicles were deployed outside. The service was marked by the grief and anger felt by a congregation devastated by the attack, which took place on Saturday outside the church's door about...

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt –  A powerful bomb, possibly from a homicide attacker, exploded in front of a Coptic Christian church as a crowd of worshippers emerged from a New Years Mass early Saturday, killing at least 21 people and wounding nearly 80 in an attack that raised suspicions of an Al Qaeda role. The attack came in the wake of repeated threats by Al Qaeda militants in Iraq to attack Egypt's Christians. A direct Al Qaeda hand in the bombing would be a dramatic development, as Egypt's government has long denied that the terror network has a significant presence in the...

CAIRO (AP) - A car exploded in front of a Coptic Christian church as worshippers emerged from a New Year's Mass in the Egyptian city of Alexandria early Saturday, killing at least seven people, officials said. After the blast, enraged Christians emerging from the church clashed with police and stormed a nearby mosque, prompting fights and volleys of stone throwing with Muslims, police and witnesses said—a sign of the sectarian anger that has been arising with greater frequency in Egypt. Nearly 1,000 Christians were attending the Mass at the Saints Church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, said a...

e-mail this to a friend printable version » 11/24/2010 12:14EGYPTIslamists lay siege to Coptic church near pyramidsThe Egyptian Union of Human Rights calls for local government chief to be dismissed for fuelling interreligious tensions. Police forces surround church under construction, seizing four concrete mixing vehicles. Thousands of Copts surround the building to protect it. Cairo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Copts and Egyptian security forces clashed on Sunday outside the Saints Mary and Michael Church in Talbiya, near the Pyramids, Giza. Police want to stop the church construction, which is in its final stage. This is the second time in ten days...

Islamists demolish foundation; police withhold crime report from court. NAIROBI, Kenya – On an island off the coast of East Africa where the local government limits the ability of Christians to obtain land, officials in one town have colluded with area Muslims to erect a mosque in place of a planned church building. On the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, Pastor Paulo Kamole Masegi of the Evangelistic Assemblies of God had purchased land in April 2007 for a church building in Mwanyanya-Mtoni, and by November of that year he had built a house that served as a temporary worship center, he...

Ezzaz Aziz and his offensive necklace "The Netherlands is a democratic country. I think it's nonsense that you can express one religion but not another. I feel a fire burning inside me because I don't live in a democratic country, but in a third world country." That's what it has come to. "Conductor banned from wearing crucifix necklace," by Thijs Papôt for Radio Netherlands, June 16 (thanks to C. Cantoni): An Amsterdam appeal court has ruled that the Amsterdam public transport service is within its rights to ban its conductors from visibly wearing a necklace bearing a crucifix. The verdict...

CAIRO, June 8 (Reuters) - The head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church rejected on Tuesday a court ruling that Coptic men could remarry, saying the decision was against the church's principles and reflected interference in its affairs. A court upheld a ruling last week that two Coptic men had the right to remarry even though divorced, a move seen as undermining the church's efforts to maintain authority over Christians in Muslim-majority Egypt. The court decision was prompted by a rare intervention by Coptic Pope Shenouda who had launched an appeal on behalf of the church to overturn a similar court...

(AINA) -- An Egyptian court issued a controversial ruling on Saturday, May 29, which deprived the head of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church of the control over matters of divorce and marriage, giving the civil courts the authority to oversee affairs which the Church considers are in its core religious competencies.The Supreme Administrative Court's ruling compels HH Pope Shenouda III, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, to give a license for marriage for the second time to a divorced Coptic man, rejecting Pope Shenouda's appeal and upholding the ruling by a lower court.The Supreme Administrative Court, headed by Justice...

Faithful were gathered in prayer when attack occurred. There were four priests, one deacon and 400 parishioners in the building, women and children also targeted. Fundamentalists fury, egged on by the imam, unleashed by the rumour that the Christians are building a new church. In reality it is a hospice. the Muslims - a group of Bedouins and Salafi fanatics - started throwing stones. In Egypt, the Coptic Christian community is about 10% of the population in a country with an overwhelming Muslim majority, which discriminates against the Christian community. It is the victim of violence, caused by a sharp...

More love and charity from the beautiful and peaceful religion! As Egypt's ancient Christian-Coptic community is genocided, the world idly stands by and repeats the pretense that Islam is a "religion of peace." The latest reported atrocity from the Wonderful World of Islam is the kidnap and gang rape of Christian girls in Egypt, with the rapist-beasts receiving what appears to be total immunity for their crimes. Indeed, it is in keeping with the centuries-long Islamic practice of "rape jihad" that these thugs are to be lauded for their despicable behavior.

Egypt's Christians forced to live in garbage city.

For the last several years, I've been following with great interest the astonishing success that Father Zakaria Botros, a Coptic priest, has had in evangelizing the Muslim world — in Arabic, using the Koran. As an Arab, he understands the mindset that so many Muslims have toward Christianity, and he exploits that knowledge quite effectively, not by simply presenting the claims for the divinity of Christ, as an example. Rather, he firmly turns the tables on Muslim apologists by relentlessly critiquing and refuting their own claims, using mainly the Koran as his tool. The reports are, he is successfully converting...

Photos included. # SNIPPET: "Cairo (AINA) -- In an effort to cover up the Muslim mob violence against the Copts which broke out last week in the town of Farshoot and neighboring villages (AINA 11-22-2009, 11-23-2009), and in view of the complete news blackout imposed by the Egyptian government, Egyptian State Security has intensified its pressure on the Coptic Church in Nag Hammadi and the victims of the violence into accepting extrajudicial reconciliation with the perpetrators, and opening their businesses without any compensation. Similar State Security scenarios have been experienced by Copts in all sectarian incidents in the past, in...

Uniformed and plain-clothed Egyptian policemen clash with a demonstrator in al-Mukatam neighbourhood in Cairo on May 2009. Hundreds of Muslim protesters on Saturday burnt Christian-owned shops in southern Egypt and attacked a police station where they believed a Christian accused of raping a Muslim girl was being held, a police official said. Cairo, Egypt, Nov 25, 2009 / 10:36 am (CNA).- For several days massive mobs of Muslims have been attacking Coptic Christians in the Egyptian town of Farshoot 300 miles south of Cairo. The mobs’ looting, vandalism and arson have caused at least $1 million in damage as Copts...

Christian critical of Islamization of society, Orthodox church jailed without charges. A Coptic Christian blogger in Egypt entering his second year of prison without charge is being pressured to convert to Islam in exchange for his freedom... On Oct. 3, 2008, Hani Nazeer, a 28-year-old high school social worker from Qena, Egypt and author of the blog “Karz El Hob” (“Love Cherries”), was arrested by Egypt’s State Security Investigations (SSI) and sent to Burj Al-Arab prison. Although police never charged him with any crime, Nazeer has been detained for more than a year under Egypt’s administrative imprisonment law. Gamel Eid,...

Two Coptic Christians in Egypt have been arrested and are being held without charge after reporting to police they had been beaten by a mob... On the evening of July 31, Reda Hnein, 35, his brother Nagi Hnein Fawzi, 27, and their uncle Youssef Fawzi Iskandar, 58, all Coptic farmers, were leading a cow down a road in the village of Al-Fashn when two Muslim men riding a motorbike crashed into the cow. An argument ensued, and a mob of about 10 other Muslim men joined into the disagreement and began beating the Copts with sticks... On the day of...

The Monthly » December 2006 - January 2007, No. 19 » The Nation Reviewed | Dec 2006 - Jan 2007 Contra Mundum Kate Holden A paean in an arcane language derived from ancient Egyptian and Greek; a ceremonial procession of men in Byzantine beards and robes; a supper table laid with platters of pizza and fried rice; a sermon aided by PowerPoint slides above a Madonna icon outlined in blue sequins; the spiritual wisdom of the Desert Fathers. Welcome to a Friday night Coptic service in a northern Melbourne suburb. There is something splendidly venerable about an institution such as...