Free Republic

Twelve seconds of silence is an awkward eternity on television. Amr Adeeb, perhaps the most prominent talk show host in Egypt, leaned forward as he searched for a response. “The Copts of Egypt … are made of … steel!” he finally uttered. Moments earlier, Adeeb was watching a colleague in a simple home in Alexandria speak with the widow of Naseem Faheem, the guard at St. Mark’s Cathedral in the seaside Mediterranean city. On Palm Sunday, the guard had redirected a suicide bomber through the perimeter metal detector, where the terrorist detonated. Likely the first to die in the blast,...

Flight of families to Ismailia follows warning of attacks by ISIL and murders targeting community in El Arish. Flight of families to Ismailia follows warning of attacks by ISIL and murders targeting community in El Arish. 26 Feb 2017 21:43 GMT Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, Middle East, ISIS Hundreds of members of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority have fled the Sinai Peninsula to Ismailia city, 115km northeast of the capital Cairo, following a series of killings by a local armed group.The assailants have shot and killed at least seven Christians in separate attacks in Sinai's El Arish city in February.At least 90...

The recent beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian workers in Libya by Islamic State (IS) affiliates prompted a conversation with Joseph Hakim, President of the International Christian Union (ICU), an umbrella organization that seeks to secure the wellbeing and survival of Middle Eastern Christians. Hakim is a Lebanese-born Orthodox Christian and a proud American.

Islamist militants have abducted 20 Egyptian Christians in Libya in recent days, a source close to the government said Saturday. The source said the Ansar al-Sharia militia had kidnapped 13 of them on Saturday in the coastal city of Sirte and the rest of them there over the past few days. The identity of those kidnapped was not immediately clear, except that they were said to be Coptic Christians.

Long-dormant pilgrimage route focuses on Jesus' post-Christmas journey.The sound bomb exploded right behind the Egyptian Museum on Cairo’s Tahrir Square, throwing Ibrahim Morgan’s Swedish tour group into a temporary panic. Then they settled back down and finished their tea. This latest tactic in Egypt’s Islamist insurgency is meant to instill terror without harming civilians. It seeks to convey a message to citizen and tourist alike: Egypt is unstable. This has been the dominant narrative abroad regarding Egypt, thanks to three years of instability, four presidents, and two revolutions. However, some locals like Morgan disagree. “We know it is nonsense what...

A mob marched nuns through the battle-torn streets of Cairo ‘like prisoners of war’ in the latest outrage against Egypt’s Christian minority. Sister Manal, principal of a Franciscan school in suburban Cairo, watched for six hours as a mob looted the building, knocked the cross off the gate and replaced it with a black banner resembling the flag of Al Qaeda. The classrooms were then burned to the ground and the women taken away, attracting a crowd of abusive onlookers. Police told Sister Manal that the nuns had been targeted by hardline Islamists, convinced that they had given Muslim children...

Islamists outraged by the popular coup that toppled the Mohamed Morsi government have found a target for their wrath. CBS News reports that Coptic Christians in the country have been harrassed, beaten, and killed since Morsi’s removal, and now live in fear of even greater violence which Islamists threaten on a daily basis: It was nighttime and 10,000 Islamists were marching down the most heavily Christian street in this ancient Egyptian city, chanting “Islamic, Islamic, despite the Christians.” A half-dozen kids were spray-painting “Boycott the Christians” on walls, supervised by an adult.While Islamists are on the defensive in Cairo following...

Days ago, al-Qaeda’s Egyptian leader, Ayman Zawahiri, portrayed the overthrow of Muhammad Morsi and the Brotherhood as a “Crusader” campaign led by Coptic Pope Tawadros II who, according to Zawahiri and other terrorists, is trying to create a Coptic state in Egypt. Since then, not only are Egypt’s Christians and churches now being attacked in ways unprecedented in the modern era, but new reports indicate that al-Qaeda’s black flag has been raised on some of them, specifically St. George Church in Sohag. Considering that it was al-Qaeda linked terrorists who initiated one of the bloodiest church attacks in recent history,...

Alarmed at the fresh targeting of Egyptian Christians since the military takeover, 16 human rights groups on Wednesday condemned both sides in the continuing standoff—Islamists for inciting violence against the religious minority and the state for not providing adequate protection. … As Egyptian Muslims prepared to mark the end-of-Ramadan Eid holiday on Thursday, their Orthodox Coptic compatriots have little to celebrate. Attacks against Christians have increased over the past month, with churches, homes and stores targeted, a Coptic priest shot dead, and several other Christians killed—including a shopkeeper in the Sinai who was kidnapped and beheaded. Last weekend in a...

Egypt: Morsi supporters open fire at Port Said church Morsi supporters have been attacking Christians, blaming them for the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood government. "Masked gunmen open fire at Port Said church," from MENA, July 9: Masked gunmen opened fire at Mar Mina Church in Port Said's al-Manakh early Tuesday and managed to get away, according to state-run news agency MENA. No casualties were reported. Army and police squads arrived at the scene of the attack and efforts are being undertaken to identify the perpetrators. This is the third such attack in 24 hours. Yesterday, unknown attackers assaulted Port...

My sister in California wanted a better life for her and her two daughters,” explained Marianne Aziz, a 25-year-old pharmacist. “There was a big fight between us and our Muslim neighbors over our parking place ... . They cut my brother-in-law’s face with a knife.” Aziz said that after that incident, “My sister felt she was no longer safe anymore. She got a hospital report on her husband’s injuries and a police report and when they went to the U.S., she immediately [applied for] asylum.” Egyptian now ranks as the second highest nationality to receive asylum in the United States...

As Orthodox Christians held Easter masses Saturday in the Middle East, North Africa and around the world, President Obama greeted the faithful saying Jesus' sacrifice "so that we might have eternal life" is an apt reminder this year with the region facing violent persecution. "For millions of Orthodox Christians, this is a joyful time," Obama said in a statement issued by the White House on Saturday. "But it's also a reminder of the sacrifice Christ made so that we might have eternal life. His decision to choose love in the face of hate; hope in the face of despair is...

Egypt’s Coptic Christians frequently accuse State Security and police of overlooking Muslim attacks on Christians and their places of worship, especially monasteries and churches. The Western mainstream media often ignores these accusations, or mentions them in passing as “unsubstantiated reports.” Last weekend’s assault on the St. Mark Cathedral — unprecedented in significance — was no different, except for the fact that there are many pictures demonstrating State complicity. To recap: After last Sunday’s St. Mark Cathedral funeral service for Egypt’s most recent Christian victims of jihad — including one man set aflame — gangs of Muslims attacked the Christian mourners,...

The leader of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church on Tuesday blasted the country’s Islamist president over his handling of recent deadly sectarian violence, including an attack on the main cathedral in Cairo. The remarks by Pope Tawadros II underscore rising Muslim-Christian tensions in Egypt. They were his first direct criticism of President Mohammed Morsi since he was enthroned in November as the spiritual leader of Egypt’s Orthodox Christians. They are also likely to fuel political turmoil that has been roiling the country since the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak two years ago. Egypt is already divided between two camps, with Morsi...

Cairo’s Copts are experiencing a tough “morning after”. Yesterday’s violence around the Coptic Cathedral of St. Mark’s in the Abbasyia neighbourhood escalated in today’s attack on the Christian community’s landmark building. According to latest estimates, two have been left dead and about 80 injured. This adds to Saturday’s death toll in the Khusous neighbourhood, in the north-Eastern part of the Egyptian capital. Yesterday’s clashes were even more serious because they took place after the funerals of the four Copts that had fallen victim to the violence the day before (seven people died). It all started when a Swastika symbol was...

CAIRO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- At least 21 were injured in clashes that erupted Sunday outside Egypt's main church in Cairo during a mass funeral of several Christians who have recently been killed in a sectarian brawl, a health ministry official told Xinhua."19 were treated on the spot and two were taken to nearby Demerdash Hospital," head of Egypt's Ambulance Authority Mohamed Sultan told Xinhua.Sultan noted the injuries varied from wounds to suffocations, reaffirming no death cases were registered so far."Sound of gunshots from unknown sources were heard and a lot of people exchanged stone throwing outside the cathedral," an...

Libyan Islamists detained 48 Egyptian Christians in Benghazi last week, torturing them and using acid to burn off tattoos of the cross, according to family members. The Christians, who are peddlers, were arrested by Islamist Salafists in Benghazi, who said they had Christian icons at their marketplace stalls ... Benghazi residents have expressed outrage at the hardcore Salafists, who are believed to have been behind the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Repression of Christians living in Libya is on the rise ... Kamel’s uncle, Khalaf Naguib Salib, said the Copts...

A group of Christian priests from a local Coptic church in Egypt were told to convert to Islam or face death, according to an Arabic news site. The incident, which comes in the midst of continued persecution and pressure on Egypt’s Christian community, took place this week in the town of Safaga, near the Red Sea, the El Balad site reported. According to El Balad, the threats are from a new group in Egypt, Jihad al-Kufr, whose name translates to Jihad against non-believers or non-Muslims. The group targets non-Muslims, and reportedly pressures them to convert to Islam. “It’s not the...

#Savage Egyptian Cleric Threatens Egypt's Copts with Genocide: "The day Egyptians…feel you are against them, you will be wiped off the face of the Earth" The above ad is part of our newly expanded anti-jihad campaign. The regime that Barack Obama is responsible for putting into power in Egypt is increasingly showing its true colors -- and the Coptic Christians are in serious jeopardy. Egyptian Cleric Threatens Egypt's Copts with Genocide Raymond Ibrahim Right Side News December 28 (thanks to Assad Elepty) "The day Egyptians…feel you are against them, you will be wiped off the face of the Earth." —...

(AINA) -- Thousands of Muslims attacked and besieged Copts in elGhorayzat village, population 80,000, killing two Copts and severely wounding others, as well as looting and torching homes and businesses. A quarrel between a Copt, John Hosni, and Mahmoud Abdel-Nazeer, who later died in hospital, turned into collective punishment of all Copts in the majority Christian village of elGhorayzat, in the Maragha district of Sohag province. Muslims vowed not to bury Abdel-Nazeer until John Hosni is punished. Mr. Hosni fled from the village with his family, "fearing a wholesale massacre of Copts," reported activist Mariam Ragy. The events started on...