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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2056056/posts
As Tensions Rise for Egypt’s Christians, Officials Call Clashes Secular
The NY Times ^ | August 2, 2008 | MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Posted on August 3, 2008 9:48:07 PM PDT by forkinsocket
CAIRO — A monastery was ransacked in January. In May, monks there were kidnapped, whipped and beaten and ordered to spit on the cross. Christian-owned jewelry stores were robbed over the summer. The rash of violence was so bad that one prominent Egyptian writer worried it had become “open season” on the nation’s Christians.
Does Egypt face a sectarian problem?
Not according to its security officials, who insist that each dispute represents a “singular incident” tied to something other than faith. In the case of the monastery and the monks, officials said the conflict was essentially a land dispute between the church and local residents.
“Every incident has to be seen within its proper framework; you study an incident as an incident,” said an Interior Ministry spokesman who grew furious at the suggestion that Egyptians were in conflict because of their differing faiths. It is customary for security officials not to have their names revealed publicly.
“An incident is an incident, and a crime is a crime,” he said.
But the Egyptian security apparatus is increasingly alone in its insistence.
As more and more conflicts pile up and as the tensions of daily life increase, many people in Egypt and around the region said the problem of sectarian clashes had become more urgent. They said that ordinary conflicts had become more bitterly sectarian as religious identity had become more prominent among Muslims and Christians alike.
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http://www.onenewsnow.com/Persecution/Default.aspx?id=201016
“Somali Christian martyred”
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 8/3/2008 4:05:00 AM
“A Somali Christian has paid the ultimate price for his faith.”
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Hussein, the 28-year-old victim, had converted from the Muslim faith to Christianity. Jonathan Racho of International Christian Concern says he was confronted by Islamic extremists who demanded to know if he faces Mecca when he prays, which is required of Muslims.
“Hussein says he doesn’t face Mecca when he prays because his God is omnipresent and he can face anywhere to pray,” Racho recounts the incident. “[T]he extremists were very much enraged by his comments, and they killed him.”
Upon learning that her husband had been shot to death, Hussein’s wife went into premature labor and delivered a stillborn baby.”