Free Republic

Christians in Egypt are mourning after another believer was murdered in Egypt, the fifth killing in less than two weeks. Ishak Ibrahim Fayez Younan, 37, was found dead by his brother at the victim's temporary residence in the old part of Cairo, the capital. He leaves behind a grieving wife and two children, ages 10 and 12, Christians said. Ishak's death bears similarities with the other slain Christians who each had their throat cut, while money and other valuables were left behind, according to Christians familiar with the situation. Egypt police reportedly said that robbery was the motive ... The...

Cairo (Agenzia Fides) - It will be the largest Coptic Church of Egypt, it will be inaugurated by 2018 in the new capital which is being built on the margin of Cairo's metropolis, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi will be among its direct sponsors. The announcement of the project was given by the same al Sisi on the occasion of his participation in the Christmas liturgy in the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo, celebrated by Patriarch Tawadros II. Egyptian President said he had destined 100 thousand Egyptian pounds in the first funding initiative, which involves the construction at...

The worst attack on Egypt's Christian minority in recent years occurred yesterday, Sunday, December 11, 2016. St. Peter Cathedral in Cairo, packed with worshipers celebrating Sunday mass, was bombed; at least 27 churchgoers, mostly women and children, were killed and 65 severely wounded. As many of the wounded are in critical condition, the death toll is expected to rise. As usual, witnesses say that state security was not present, and that police took an inordinate amount of time to arrive after the explosion. Preliminary investigations point to a bomb placed inside an unattended woman's purse on one of the rear...

CAIRO (AP) — A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral killed 25 people and wounded another 49 during Sunday Mass, in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. [Snip] "I found bodies, many of them women, lying on the pews. It was a horrible scene," said cathedral worker Attiya Mahrous, who rushed to the chapel after he heard the blast. His clothes and hands were stained with blood and his hair matted with dust. "I saw a headless woman being carried away," Mariam Shenouda said as she pounded...

Residents of the Coptic neighborhood in central Yaffo continue their protest on Sunday against the construction of a religious Jewish school in Yaffo saying that they object to “The settlers' conquest,” according to the Arabic newspaper, Falastin. A member of neighborhood council, Yosef Asfur, told the newspaper that the residents of the neighborhood are protesting against the settlers who came to the neighborhood with the support of the government. According to Asfur, if the municipality won’t listen to the loud call against the “settlers,” they will succeed in in fulfilling their goal of creating a Jewish religious school in Yaffo,...

In a video posted on her Facebook page on September 21, New York-based Egyptian-American activist Ayat Oraby called the Coptic church "a gang, striving to establish a Coptic mini-state," and "a full-fledged mafia," and described Pope Tawadros as "a criminal." Oraby called upon Muslims to participate in an economic boycott of Copts, saying that: "They must be made to understand that the crescent must be on top of the cross."

In a lengthy and disturbing piece on Egypt’s Coptic Christians this week, Rod Nordland of the New York Times described them as a community at the “breaking point,” to borrow the words of Bishop Makarios of Minya. This is not what a casual consumer of Egyptian news would expect, and it is not what the Copts expected, either. Nordland writes of high hopes for protection after the Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohammed Morsi was topped by the current Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is often given solid marks by foreign observers for his stance against Islamist oppression. Egypt’s Christians...

CAIRO (AP) — The leader of Egypt's Coptic Christian church warned on Monday of increased attacks on Christians, saying national unity is being "defaced." In a meeting with lawmakers, Pope Tawadros II said that since 2013 there have been 37 sectarian attacks on Christians — nearly an incident a month. He describes the situation as "very painful." He told lawmakers that preserving national unity is "our responsibility in front of the world, future generations, history and in front of God." His remarks were published on his personal website. The Pope's website also quoted lawmaker Saad el-Gammal as saying that parliament...

A video, which was posted on YouTube on July 22 and and which circulated on social media, shows a Muslim mob throwing stones at families in the village of Saft Al-Kharsa in the Beni Suef governorate. The video was shot from the balcony of one of the Coptic families. According to reports, the attacks followed the Friday sermons at the local mosques and were instigated by rumors that Copts had converted their homes into churches. albawaba.com reported that the tension started when security forces apprehended Ishaq Fahim, a Copt whose home was used as a church since the nearest church...

Christian homes and property have been attacked by a Muslim mob in Egypt over rumours a house under construction was being turned into a church. A large group of Muslims gathered around the house, owned by Coptic Christian Naim Aziz, in Qarayat al Bayda village near Alexandria after Friday prayers on June 17, chanting: "By no means shall there be a church here". "A great deal of fanatic Muslims gathered in front of the new house of my cousin, Naim Aziz, during its construction because of a rumour spread in the village that this building would be turned into a...

A Muslim mob torched and looted the homes of 80 Christian families in the Al-Beida village in Egypt, looking to punish them for wanting to turn one of the buildings in the village into a church so they can worship. One witness, Christian resident Mousa Zarif, recalled the events: "On Friday afternoon, following Friday noon prayer, a great deal of fanatic Muslims gathered in the front of the new house of my cousin, Naim Aziz, during its construction because of a rumor spread in the village that this building would be turned into a church."

A mob of over a thousand Islamic extremists attacked a Christian village destroying property and setting the homes of over 80 families ablaze over rumors that a Coptic man was converting a home into a church. The attacks, which took place Friday in Egypt’s Qaryat Al-Bayda village, near Alexandria, left two Copts seriously injured and resulted in thousands of dollars worth of damage, according to a Coptic activist. "A great deal of fanatic Muslims gathered in front of the new house of my cousin," Mousa Zarif, a Christian who witnessed the events, told Christian advocacy group International Christian Concern.

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...

A new study by the Media Research Center (MRC) has revealed that mainstream media devoted some six times as much air time to covering the recent death of Harambe the gorilla than they did to the gruesome Islamic State decapitation of 21 Coptic Christians on a Libyan beach last year. On Saturday, May 28, security officials shot a gorilla named Harambe to protect a three-year-old boy who'd fallen into the pen at the Cincinnati Zoo. In the five days that followed the animal’s death, the three major networks devoted a total of 1 hour, 28 minutes and 17 seconds to...

A mob ransacked and torched seven Christian homes in a province south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, after rumors spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman, according to a statement by the local Orthodox Coptic church. Released late Wednesday, it said that during the May 20 attack, the mother of the Christian man, who had fled the village, was publicly stripped of her clothes by the mob to humiliate her.