Over 100 Coptic Christians were killed in 2017 in a wave of deadly attacks by militants belonging to, or inspired by, the Islamic State group, which has vowed to “wipe them out”. Egypt’s Copts, who account for around 10 per cent of the population, were also targeted in 2013, after they were perceived as supporting the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government. Scores of churches across the country were attacked and burned.
Souad Thabet and Bishop Makarius of the Coptic Church have both stood for justice and reconcilliation.Courtesy of Wataninet, Diocese of Minya A Coptic bishop has urged full recourse to law to punish those behind an attack in Minya, Upper Egypt, which saw the 70-year-old mother of a man rumoured […]
At least two Copts were injured and seven homes burned when angry villagers ran amok after a rumoured affair between a married Christian man and a Muslim woman in Minya, 250km south of Cairo. According to local Christian sources, scores of Muslims ransacked and torched several properties belonging to the […]
Egyptian security forces raided the home of a prominent minority rights activist early on Thursday (19 May), and are now refusing to disclose his place of detention, reports Amnesty International. Mina Thabet, Director of the Minority and Religious Groups Department of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, and family […]
On May 12, the makeshift church of Esmaelia al-Bahreia, Minya, was burned down by ‘extremists’ as the proper church has since 2009 been awaiting government permit to function.Courtesy of www.wataninet.com Once again the Egyptian Parliament is considering a proposal on the construction of churches that Christians hope will narrow […]
“Extremists” were behind the destruction of a makeshift village church in Upper Egypt, said a local Coptic bishop on Thursday (12 May). “St. Mary’s Church in the village of Esmaelia al-Bahreia was burned down completely after an attack carried out by extremists,” said Bishop Macarius of Minya, referring to the […]
A Coptic civil servant was killed in Sinai, Egypt, after his vehicle was stopped and passengers were asked if any “Christian infidels” were on board. Messak Nasralla, 58, was going about his business as a government medical supplier when he was found dead last week, south of Arish, reports in […]
The News Earlier this month, a young Christian boy was kidnapped in Upper Egypt, before being released 12 days later after the payment of a hefty ransom. Anthonius Farag, 13, was snatched outside his school early in the morning on April 5, in the village of Mansheyyit Manbal, off Matay […]
A Coptic Christian, Bishoy Kameel Garas, has been declared “innocent” after he served more than half his six-year sentence for charges including defamation of Islam. Garas, now in his late twenties, was jailed in September 2012 for offending the country’s dominant religion, the then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, and a Muslim […]
Another Egyptian Christian conscript has died in suspicious circumstances. Michael Gamal, 22, was due to finish his two-year compulsory military service this May, when his family heard the shock news of his ‘suicide’. Last time his family heard from him was Feb 15. “As often, we talked over the phone. […]
An Egyptian headmistress is not being instated in her post “because she’s a Christian.” This is the claim surrounding the case of Mervat Sefein, a vocational teacher in Beni Mazar, a town of Minya, 220 km south of Cairo. Sefein was included on a Feb. 8 Egyptian Ministry of Education […]