Free Republic

Vatican’s ecumenism comes at the expense of Egypt’s human rights Pope Francis, who is “building bridges to build peace” around the world, has naturally reached out to embrace Sunni Muslims. Last month, for the first time after years of Vatican silence, Pope Francis summoned to his private library in Rome grand imam Ahmed El-Tayeb of Cairo’s Al-Ahzar Mosque Institute. Absent a press release before this event, the Pope was quoted as saying, “this meeting is the message” – leading all to dwell on the meaning and purpose of their 25 minutes together. Christians, especially Egyptian Coptic Christians, have observed the...

The draft law on the construction of churches has renewed the crisis that has existed between the ruling regimes and the Copts in Egypt since the Ottoman era. Over the years, Egypt’s Christians have requested the state to promulgate a law governing the construction of houses of worship, regulating the building of mosques for Muslims and churches for Christians, in light of the challenges in obtaining permission to build new churches, despite the growing Christian population. A law was issued on Oct. 17, 2001, governing only the construction of mosques, with no mention of the building of churches. In Egypt,...

Vatican City, Feb 25, 2016 / 12:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- For Pope Francis, dialogue with Islam is a core issue. He recently voiced hopes to meet a major Sunni leader: the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Mosque, Ahmed el-Tayeb. "I want to meet him. I know that he would like it," the Pope said during his Feb. 18 in-flight press conference. The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, headed by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, is reaching out to al-Azhar Mosque. "We are looking for the way, always through Cardinal Tauran because it is the path, but we will achieve it," Pope Francis said...

I'm a Muslim & I love you: Egypt-born man to Trump Reuters | Feb 22, 2016, 10.27 AM IST Elhamy Ibrahim, 62, is a Muslim who does not like very many other Muslims these days, but loves Donald Trump. The Egyptian-born businessman who came to the United States in 1981 and became a citizen two decades later said in an interview on Friday that he was alarmed by changes in Egypt, where, in his view, high unemployment and poverty have driven many young Egyptians to religious extremism. He strongly backs Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US until...

Egypt's embattled Coptic community on Monday, February 15, marked the one year since video surfaced of the murder of 21 Coptic Orthodox Christians on a beach in Libya. The men were marched in orange suits across the beach, forced to kneel and then were beheaded by Islamic State group militants. The Christians, who went to Libya as construction workers to support their families, were seen saying their last prayers. As the blade came to their neck they all cried in unison "Ya Rabbi Yasou" or 'O My Lord Jesus', according to a video and Christian experts familiar with the situation....

After Egypt President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi apologised for not finishing the reconstruction work of Christian properties damaged in the aftermath of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's ouster in 2013, the engineering unit of the Armed Forces immediately started cooperating with Coptic authorities to wrap up the pending renovations, religious Coptic figures said. While visiting Cairo's St. Mark Cathedral on Christmas Eve, El-Sisi apologised to the country's Christians over the delay in the completion of renovations, which he says will be done by the end of 2016.The churches undergoing renovation were attacked in August 2013 on the day of the dispersals of pro-Morsi...