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.
Charges related to “evangelising” – an act often considered a “defamation of Islam” – have been suspended against three young Christian men in Alexandria. a zealous Muslim bystander, as he handed out dates and Christian words of encouragement to Muslims at the break of their Ramadan fast. Osama and two […]
Three Egyptian Christian students accused of “offending Islam” were sentenced today (25 Feb.) to five years each, Coptic news site Watani said. Muller Atef, Albert Ashraf and Bassem Amgad were given jail terms, while a fourth, Clinton Maged, is due to be remanded in a juvenile facility for five years, according […]
A street in a neighbourhood of Tamia, Egypt, where the romance began.World Watch Monitor Not for the first time in Egypt, a romance between a Muslim divorcee and a Copt eventually ended in tragedy late last year, when the woman, who had ‘converted’ to Christianity, was killed by members […]
A year ago today (15 Feb.), 20 Coptic Christians and one Ghanaian killed by Islamic jihadists in Libya were announced as martyred saints by the Coptic Pope, Tawadros III of Egypt. The head of the ancient Church, the largest in the Middle East and key within its branch of Oriental Orthodoxy, said […]
A year since members of the so-called Islamic State killed 20 Egyptian Copts and one Ghanaian in Libya, Egypt is set to judge four young Copts for alleged blasphemy. The four teenagers, aged 15 to 17, appeared in a 30-second video clip, mocking the militants’ show of Islamic piety in […]
Egyptian authorities have returned all the equipment they had earlier confiscated from SAT-7 local offices, (Feb.2). This comes more than three months after the country’s censorship police , seizing computers and production equipment. On October 10, 2015, the authorities came to the SAT-7 Cairo offices with a search warrant. Country […]
Bishoy Kamel was supposed to walk free from his military service in February. Instead, his family collected his body three months earlier. The corpse bore “signs of torture”, the family said. “When we reached the hospital that afternoon, we saw Bishoy’s body reposed like an angel,” said Natei Kamel, the […]
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has apologised to his nation’s Christians for the violent attacks in August 2013 that damaged or destroyed at least 65 churches and Coptic properties, including businesses, across Egypt. Coming after the ouster of President Morsi, the wave of violence was said to be the worst […]
Egypt’s Secular Party has called on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to support legislation which cancels the blasphemy law, because, in the words of lawyer Hamdi al-Assyouti, it has “become a tool in the hands of extremists against minorities, thinkers, and the creative impulse”. And, in his experience as a defence […]
For three years, the Imam-Priest Exchange has brought Christian and Muslim leaders together to deepen religious unity.World Watch Monitor Gathered at Cairo’s prestigious Dar al-Mudarra’at military complex in early December, 150 imams and priests heard some of Egypt’s highest religious authorities praise their participation in a three-year programme to […]