Salafi Muslims’ Agenda behind Christian Persecution in Egypt

A recent spate of violence in Egypt, mostly incited by conservative Salafi Muslims after President Hosni Mubarak’s downfall, has left over 24 killed, more than 200 wounded and three churches destroyed.

According to a report by the World Evangelical Alliance’s Religious Liberty Commission (WEA-RLC), the perception of threat to Christians is so severe that many of them are reportedly seeking to move out of the country.

WEA-RLC said while for the youth and moderate Muslims of the country the Jan. 25 uprising was about democratic freedoms, the Salafis who had been inactive for decades quickly saw it as an opportunity to push an Islamist agenda. Read more of this post

Former Egyptian Interior Minister Accused of Collusion in Alexandria Church Bombing

The Egyptian attorney general has reopened the investigation into the bombing of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve, which killed 24 Copts and injured more than 90.

In a story for the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA), Mary Abdelmassih wrote that on May 25 Coptic Church attorney Joseph Malak presented a petition to the Attorney General to reopen the investigations into the church bombing. The petition accused former Minister of Interior, Habib el-Adly, of criminal responsibility and collusion.

AINA reported that the Attorney General assigned the case to the Supreme State Security Prosecution to question the former Minister of Interior. He is currently in prison on other charges, including ordering the shooting of more than 900 protesters in Tahrir Square on Jan. 28. Read more of this post

Egyptian Military Courts Do Little to Ensure Justice for Christians

It seems that no amount of freedom and democracy will help the Christian minority in Egypt. The loose order of things and the chaos we live can only be expected in a country still torn every which way. Every month we are faced with another tragedy, another misfortune, another adversity that reminds us of how far we are from achieving our goals for democracy. Every incident pulls us farther away from our hopes and honest desire for a democratic and prosperous nation free of oppression and corruption.

Again I believe this can only be expected after such a revolution, that not only toppled a dictator but wishes for a complete overhaul of the regime, which the new government seems unwilling to do at the moment. I’m not sure they will go that far in appeasing the people just yet.

Of all the different injustices we’ve seen in the past and which seem to persist no matter what changes unfold are sectarian issues. The oppression and inequality of Christians in the Arab world is no mystery, but you would imagine after the revolution and after witnessing such heartwarming stories and videos of Christians and Muslims holding hands in Tahrir Square it would simmer down, but unfortunately these affections are not shared by many. I think we can all agree that any kind of division can destroy a country, but none other than sectarian divisions; they are the root of all chaos and a disruption to any nation attempting to move forward. Read more of this post

Authorities, Islamists in Egypt Stop Church from Re-Opening

Compass Direct News (CDN) is reporting that hundreds of Muslims, angered by the prospect of a government-closed church re-opening in their neighborhood, protested outside the church yesterday, causing the provisional military authority to back away from its promise to allow Orthodox clergy to reopen it.

CDN said that protestors started gathering on Thursday afternoon (May 19) outside the Church of the Virgin Mary and St. Abraam in Ain Shams, a poor section of northeastern Cairo. The church was scheduled to reopen that day, but protestors surrounded the building, preventing anyone from getting into it and trapping priests who were inside. Read more of this post

Woman Who Sparked Muslim Attacks on Christians in Egypt is Under Investigation

The unprovoked attack by Muslim Salafis on Copts in Embaba on May 7, 2011, which killed 14, injured 232 and destroyed two churches, was sparked by a Muslim man, Yassin Thabet, allegedly searching for his wife, who he claims was held captive and tortured by a church in Embaba, Giza, Egypt.

According to Mary Abdelmassih, writing for the Assyrian International News Agency (www.aina.org), the woman was later identified as Ms. Abeer Talaat, a Christian from Assiut in Upper Egypt, who converted to Islam in September 2010.

“Although still waiting for the divorce from her Christian husband to come through, she was also unofficially married to Yassin Thabet, a Muslim driver she knew from her village, and lived with him in Benha since her conversion to Islam, according the official Al-Ahram newspaper,” said Abdelmassih. Read more of this post

Egypt: churches attacked in Cairo

In the 1980s, thousands of Egyptian Salafi (‘pure Islam’) jihadists went to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. As the veterans started returning home to Egypt in the 1990s, domestic terrorism escalated, so President Mubarak blacklisted some 3000 members of Salafi jihadist groups, preventing their return to Egypt. However, Egypt’s new ruling military council recently removed nearly 2000 names from that list. Thousands of jihadists have returned since to Egypt from Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Kenya, Iran and London. The spirit of jihad is returning to Egypt. Read more of this post

’Collective Punishment’ of Egyptian Christians for Death of Two Muslims

A Middle East journalist is reporting that after the death of two Muslims on Monday, April 18, 2011, sectarian violence broke out in the southern Egyptian town of Abu Qurqas El Balad, in Minya Governorate, 260 kilometers (162 miles) south of Cairo.

“One Christian Copt was killed, an old woman was thrown out of her second floor balcony and ten Copts were hospitalized. Coptic homes, shops, businesses, fields and livestock were plundered and torched,” said Mary Abdelmassih, writing for the Assyrian International News Agency (www.aina.org).

She went on to say that Christians lived in terror, anticipating a blood bath on Friday, April 22, 2011, because Muslims as announced their intention to avenge the death of the two Muslims. Rumors spread throughout Abu Qurqas of many strangers and of trucks loaded with weapons coming into the village to carry out the threats during the Easter week. The terrorized Christian villagers sent pleas everywhere, asking for protection, even to Coptic groups in Europe and the U.S. Read more of this post

Three Churches Attacked; Egyptian Military Sides With Radical Muslims

In the last two weeks there were three attacks on churches by Salafis or Islamic Fundamentalists in Egypt.

According to a story by Mary Abdelmassih for the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA), the Salafis demanded churches move to locations outside communities and be forbidden from making repairs, “even if they are so dilapidated that the roofs will collapse over the heads of the congregation,” said Father Estephanos Shehata of Samalut Coptic Diocese.

AINA said the latest of these incidents occurred in the village of Kamadeer, in Samalout, Minya province on April 5. It escalated to the point where it was feared the church would be torched and demolished, as happened in the case of St. George and St. Mina Church in village of Soul, Atfif, on March 5. Read more of this post

Muslim Gang Leader Terrorizing Christians in Egyptian Village

Cairo (AINA) — Ten human rights organization staged a rally on March 30 in front of the building of the Attorney General to bring to public attention the tragedy of some nine thousand Coptic villagers living in terror since end January in the Upper Egyptian villages of Badraman and Nazlet Badraman in Deir Mawas, Minya. Rights activists and Badraman villagers were joined by attorney activist Peter elNaggar, who filed a complaint with the Attorney General against 34-year-old Muslim police informer Ali Hussein, nicknamed “Holaku” after the ruthless Mongol leader. Read more of this post

Muslims in Egypt Demand Release of Alleged Convert to Islam

A Middle East journalist is reporting that hundreds of Muslims staged a protest in front of the State Council on Wednesday, March 30, 2011, during the hearing of the case filed by a number of Muslim clerics with the administrative judiciary court, contesting the validity of the detention of Camelia Shehata and Wafaa Constantine in the churches of Pope Shenouda III.

Mary Abdelmassih, writing for the Assyrian International News Agency (www.aina.org) said that after a three-months pause Muslims resumed their demonstrations today against the Egyptian Coptic Church, demanding the release of Camelia Shehata, a the priest’s wife, and “her sisters in faith,” whom they allege converted to Islam and are imprisoned by the Church and tortured to give up Islam. Read more of this post