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A former Obama administration official at the Department of Homeland Security said Sunday that when it comes to the Islamic State slaughtering Egyptian Christians, “what goes around, comes around.” In a tweet posted Sunday, Mohamed Elibiary, who formerly served as senior member of the DHS’ Homeland Security Advisory Council, stated, “Reading ISIS’s latest mag ‘otherizing’ Egypt’s Copts. Subhanallah how what goes around comes around. Coptic ldrs did same to MB Egyptians.” “Subhanallah” is Arabic for “Glory to Allah,” and so in this tweet, Elibiary is expressing praise to Allah for the fact that ISIS is killing Egyptian Christians as apparent...

The "Sub tuum praesidium" was originally used in an ancient Coptic liturgy As we pray for the success of Pope Francis’ trip to Egypt this weekend, a perfect prayer to use is the oldest known Marian prayer, which in fact, traces back to the pope’s host country.The oldest known Marian prayer is found on an ancient Egyptian papyrus dating from around the year 250. Today known in the Church as the Sub tuum praesidium, the prayer is believed to have been part of the Coptic Vespers liturgy during the Christmas season. Read more: Saint Mark: Father of Coptic Christianity    The original prayer was...

French investigators have found no traces of explosives on the bodies of French victims of Egypt Air flight MS 804 that crashed into the Mediterranean last year ...

It can hardly be called a coincidence that as Pope Francis heads to Egypt, no doubt to promote "dialogue" with Islam, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has several days ago published a short letter to a Polish conference on his thought on Church-State relations, in which he echoes his thesis from his famous Regensberg address, that Islam and violence are inherently linked because of its detachment from reason itself. As Francis prepares to repeat his view to persecuted Egyptian Christians that "Muslim terrorism does not exist," and again that it is not "right to identify Islam with violence," Benedict does not...

Release of an American charity worker Aya Hijazi, who was unjustly imprisoned in an Egyptian prison for three years With the release of an American charity worker Aya Hijazi, who was unjustly imprisoned in an Egyptian prison for three years, President Trump’s innovative approach to the Middle East has been vindicated. For weeks, Trump administration officials had been working behind the scenes to secure the release of Ms. Hijazi, her husband and four other humanitarian aid workers. The administration was working to fulfill President Trump’s directive to bring the group back home to the United States. The negotiations paid off...

<p>Aya Hijazi, 30, and her husband, Mohamed Hassanein, an Egyptian, returned to the Washington area Thursday. She met Friday with Trump in the Oval Office.</p> <p>Trump had hosted Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi at the White House at the beginning of this month. The two leaders discussed the case at the time.</p>

Accused of human trafficking, she was actually trying to improve the lives of street children I never lit into Barack Obama more viciously than I did the day we learned how Kayla Mueller died, and it still makes me angry when I think about it. Caught up in a hostage situation with Doctors Without Borders, this young American Christian woman was just trying to help others and hurting absolutely no one. But Obama not only refused to help her, he threatened to prosecute her family if they paid the ransom demanded for her release. So she was tortured and killed....

As part of the bilateral military co-operation between Egypt and France, Dassault Aviation, a multinational Rafale fighter manufacturing company named based in France, delivered three Rafale fighters to Egypt on Wednesday which represents the third batch of the total deal of 24 fighters, according to a statement released by the official army spokesperson on Facebook. This Egypt-France deal is the first of its kind. For France to sell Rafale fighters to any country, as was the case in February 2015, was unprecedented. The deal also includes training Egyptian fighter pilots in these imported Rafale fighters in France. The Egyptian pilots'...

An Egyptian American charity worker who was imprisoned in Cairo for three years and became the global face of Egypt’s brutal crackdown on civil society returned home to the United States late Thursday after the Trump administration quietly negotiated her release. President Trump and his aides worked for several weeks with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi to secure the freedom of Aya Hijazi, 30, a U.S. citizen, as well as her husband, Mohamed Hassanein, who is Egyptian, and four other humanitarian workers. Trump dispatched a U.S. government aircraft to Cairo to bring Hijazi and her family to Washington. Hijazi, who...

An American woman and her Egyptian husband who had been imprisoned by the Egyptian government for three years arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland late Thursday and will visit President Trump at the White House on Friday. Aya Hijazi and Mohamed Hassanein were among the group of six aid workers who were locked up in 2014 over allegations of child abuse and trafficking charges. After years of failed negotiations by the Obama administration, a family member of the couple credited Trump with "personally" stepping in to free him and his wife, as well as the four others....

A U.S. charity worker returned home after President Trump and aides quietly worked to secure her release from from an Egyptian jail after nearly three years, according to the Washington Post. Aya Hijazi, a U.S. citizen, her Egyptian husband Mohamed Hassanein and four other humanitarian workers were freed after weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiation by the Trump administration.

Palm Sunday, which starts the holy week of Easter—two Christian churches were bombed during mass in Egypt, leaving at least 50 worshippers dead and nearly 130 injured and/or mutilated (graphic images/video of aftermath here).    Less than four months earlier, around Christmas, another Christian church was bombed in Egypt, leaving 27 worshippers—mostly women and children—dead and wounding nearly 70.  On New Year’s Day, 2011, yet another Egyptian church was bombed, leaving 23 worshippers dead.  In 2013, almost 70 Christian churches in Egypt were attacked, many burned to the ground, by Muslim Brotherhood supports. 

This year’s most notable attack occurred in Egypt, where two Coptic Christian churches were bombed during Palm Sunday mass, leaving 50 dead and 120 injured. While this incident received some coverage in Western media, attacks on churches in Egypt on or around Easter are not uncommon. For instance, this last April 12, just two days after the Palm Sunday attacks, authorities thwarted another Islamic terror attack targeting a Coptic monastery in Upper Egypt. Similarly, on April 12, 2015, Easter Sunday, two explosions targeting two separate churches took place in Egypt. Although no casualties were reported, hence no reporting in Western...

Fr Rafic Greiche describes the situation in the country as "calm". Christians "are not intimidated" and flock to church. Liturgical services continue, but other events have been cancelled. The victims are remembered. Western Christians are asked to visit as pilgrims and tourists. The attacker in Tanta has been identified. Al-Sisi reiterates commitment to the anti-terror struggle.Cairo (AsiaNews) – Holy Week in Egypt has been marred by attacks against the country’s Coptic community. The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the bombings in Tanta and Alexandria. Some 45 people were killed and hundreds wounded. Yet, the “situation is calm for...

The US Embassy in Cairo issued a security alert to US citizens on Tuesday, indicating that they should avoid identifiable places of worship for the next two weeks following recent terrorist attacks on Palm Sunday that targeted churches in Alexandria and Tanta and left at least 45 people dead and over 100 injured. These attacks signified one of the deadliest days of violence against Christians in Egypt in years, which led President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to promptly declare a three-month state of emergency, saying the measure was necessary to efficiently wage war on terror. On Tuesday, a statement from the...

Sisi said that the “corpus of [Islamic] texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the centuries” are “antagonizing the entire world” and that Egypt “is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and it is being lost by our own hands.” Egypt’s Christians began Holy Week celebrations by being blown up today. Two Coptic Christian Orthodox churches packed with worshippers for Palm Sunday mass were attacked by Islamic suicide bombers; a total of 44 were killed and 126 wounded or mutilated. Horrific scenes of carnage—limbs and blood splattered on altars and pews—are being reported from both churches....

FULL TITLE: Heartbroken Egyptian families weep over the coffins of their loved ones after Palm Sunday massacre kills nearly 50 Coptic Christians in two ISIS suicide bomb attacks Mourners filled a church in Egypt that had been torn apart in a terrorist bombing to commemorate the victims claimed in one of two attacks on Palm Sunday. People in Tanta packed the streets leading to the Coptic Church of Mar Girgis - or St. George - to pay their respects while relatives inside laid their bodies across the coffins and wept. A suicide bomber slipped past security and detonated the bomb...

Dozens of worshippers were killed or wounded when bombs were detonated at two Egyptian churches earlier today. The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency quickly claimed credit for the attacks, saying that a “covert cell” had struck churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria. The first bomb was detonated at Saint George church in Tanta and the second at Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria. Pope Tawadros II, who heads the Coptic Orthodox Church, was reportedly in attendance at Saint Mark’s either shortly before or after the jihadists struck. Initial casualty reports say that at least 37 people were killed and...

Officials said that Pope Tawadros II was inside at the time of attack but was not harmed. According to the Associated Press, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Sunday for the attacks. Pope Francis reacted to the news during his Sunday address. “May the Lord convert the hearts of those who sow fear, violence and terror,” Pope Francis said after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square, reading from a note handed to him, to which he added: “And that of those who produce and sell weapons.”

An explosion on Sunday morning at the Mar Girgis Coptic church in the central Delta city of Tanta has left at least 21 dead and over 40 people injured, according to officials. Worshippers were celebrating Palm Sunday.