Pigs can fly, the sky is orange and I am the Queen of England!
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Posted on 12/08/2004 6:30:44 PM PST by nickcarraway
SEVERAL thousand Christians took over the compound of the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Egypt's capital today, hurling stones at riot police in a protest over a woman who was allegedly forced to convert to Islam.
The stones injured at least 30 people, including 21 police. Some policemen were seen wiping blood from their heads in the streets outside the compound in the city's Abbasiya district.
Police sealed off the compound, parking 40 trucks around its walls, and closed adjacent roads.
Protests began at the cathedral on Sunday as word spread that the wife of a Coptic priest in Abou al-Matameer, a town 135km north of Cairo, had been forced by her civil service boss, a Muslim, to convert.
A security official has said the 47-year-old woman, Wafaa Constantine, was found living in a Muslim household in Cairo and had become a Muslim of her own free will.
Some Copts, as Egypt's Christians are known, said Constantine had been kidnapped and taken to Cairo with the complicity of local authorities.
The facts of the case are not clear, but have highlighted the potential for friction between Egypt's Muslim majority and Christian minority. The Copts account for an estimated 10 per cent of the population of 70 million.
Last night a brother-in-law of Constantine entered the compound and told the protesters through a loudspeaker that the woman had returned home.
"My brothers and sisters, my brother just told me that she arrived in a safe place and she is in good condition," Meshiha Maawad said.
The protesters clapped and whistled, but refused to leave. They demanded that Pope Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, speak to them. The Pope has offices in the compound.
An assistant to the Pope, Bishop Yoanas, told the crowd that the Pope had left the compound because he was "upset" that the authorities delayed Constantine's return.
Some protesters said that they would not leave the until they saw Constantine herself. But, as the night wore on, many did leave.
Among the injured was Matyas Abdel Maseh, a young priest with a bandage around his head. Leaning against a wall for support, he said he was hit by a stone thrown by the police as he tried to stop the demonstrators from getting too close to the compound's gates.
"The Government is attacking Christians," he said. "The army outside the gates is attacking us with stones."
The protesters got the "stones" by chipping pieces of masonry from steps and other pavings in the compound.
Accusations of forced conversion surface every year in Egypt.
The editor of the Coptic newspaper Watani, Youssef Sidhom, accused the government and local authorities of being reluctant to investigate and prosecute cases of forced conversion.
Pigs can fly, the sky is orange and I am the Queen of England!
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I had no idea there were so many.
I'd ask the local Christians if they did it, but I'm not sure they'd Copt to it.
The day is coming...
Thank you Good Morning
"The Coptic Christians in Egypt are under a constant state of persecution. It's a miracle that any of them are left."Good Morning Thank you that is truth! why why why persons do not like persons G-D like persons why persons do not like persons why persons atack persons that is not good
what what on God's what God's on on green earth are are youyouyou trying to to say to saysaysay SAY?
I am sorry
It seemed like you had something good to say... then... GAD ZUKES!
Thank you
US aid to Egypt $1.88B (Source: Congressional Research Service)
Egypt's entire budget $19.03B (Source: CIA factbook)
That's right we pay for 1/10 of their entire operating budget.
Wow BUMP
Yes, and that's pretty much why the Egyptian government no longer participates in attacks on Israel, and why they participate in the WOT.
As far as I can tell, it's an outright bribe, and Egypt so far is staying bought. In the Mediterranean cultural world, that makes Egypt honorable.
"Protests began at the cathedral on Sunday as word spread that the wife of a Coptic priest in Abou al-Matameer, a town 135km north of Cairo, had been forced by her civil service boss, a Muslim, to convert.
A security official has said the 47-year-old woman, Wafaa Constantine, was found living in a Muslim household in Cairo and had become a Muslim of her own free will."
Why would anyone, especially a Christian, convert to Islam of their "own free will?" - rhetorical question.
Dollars to donuts a fabricated story to stir up Muslims to persecute Coptic Christians. Only this time, the "dhimmis" fought back at the heathens.
This may have had some bearing on their decision to leave the Israelis alone.
1967 war: Egypt's losses in the war were enormous: approximately 10,000 soldiers and 1,500 officers killed, 5,000 soldiers and 500 officers captured, 80 percent of military equipment destroyed. Sinai was under Israeli control, and the Suez Canal was blocked and closed to shipping.
1973 war: In Egypt the casualties included about 8,000 killed.
After the June 1967 War and again after the October 1973 War, Egypt had to rebuild totally its air force. Only a few hours after the June 1967 War began, Israel had virtually wiped out the Egyptian air force.
I thought MY wife was the Queen of England!....
Looks like this is the beginning of a trend in the Middle East.
(SA)
Damascus - More than 1 500 members of an Iraqi Christian group have gone to northern Iraq to try to protect Christians following attacks on churches in Baghdad and Mosul, the leader of the group said pm Saturday.
In an interview, Yonadem Kana, the leader of the Assyrian Democratic Movement in Iraq and a member of the Iraqi National Council, said the fighters have been deployed in Baghdida near the northern city of Mosul.
"We do not want to transform our movement into a militia," he said. "But if needed, we can arm more than 10nbsp;000 people
EXCERPTED: LINK FOLLOWS
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1631298,00.html
Speaking of the Egyptian Air Force, remember how all those Air Force officers were killed in the plane crash? Supposedly the loss inflicted tremendous damage. The officers killed had just been here in the US to learn to train pilots. It was a devastating loss to their armed forces. We claimed it was pilot suicide. Egypt vehemently denied it.
Suicide is against the rules of Islam so it couldn't have been that.
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