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.
Bishoy Kameel Kamel GarasWorld Watch Monitor After a three-year rash of blasphemy cases filed against Egyptian Christians, the nation’s highest court backtracked last month on its harsh verdict against one young Copt. Bishoy Kameel Kamel Garas was sent to prison for six years in September 2012 for allegedly insulting […]
At sundown each day during Ramadan, which ended on 17 July with the Eid-al-Fitr celebrations, observant Muslims customarily broke their fast at their evening iftar meal by eating dates. A week prior, on the evening of 10 July, 16-year-old Fawzi Osama was on the street in the northern Egyptian city […]
The facts are these: Bahaa Gamal Mikhail Silvanus, 23 and a conscript in the Egyptian Army, was found dead June 24 in a chair in the office of the military base where he was stationed. There were two bullet wounds in his chest, and a gun at his feet. One […]
Egyptian President al-Sisi’s New Year’s Day speech asking how belief in Islam could make Muslim nations “a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction” ought to have triggered a worldwide theological debate amongst Muslims asking where the mechanism for restraining Islamic violence lies, according to Canon Dr. Gavin Ashenden, writing […]
Having spent most of his adult life either harassed, in hiding, or in jail, former Muslim now Christian Mohamed Hegazy can expect more of the same. Hegazy, who has been in prison since December 2, 2013, is known to be the first Egyptian to openly seek a change from Muslim […]
The last of four Egyptian boys accused of having “offended” Islam has been released on bail while trial is expected to continue after the Muslim month of Ramadan. The 17-year-old student from Upper Egypt was released after 62 days in prison, subject to the payment of 10,000 Egyptian pounds, equivalent […]
Forgive Emad Youssef if he and his extended family felt quite confused. The crowd welcoming them back to the village had only a few days earlier demanded they leave. “They said this is the first time something like this has happened in our village,” he told private satellite channel, OnTV “and that, […]
An Egyptian court has sentenced 71 people to life in prison for attacking and burning a Coptic church in reaction to the 2013 removal of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, Ahram Online reports. The Virgin Mary Church in Giza province’s Kafr Hakim village was torched and looted by a mob on […]
An April 17 ‘reconciliation meeting’ in Al-Nasriyah village in Upper Egypt, where Christians announce a local teacher, Gad Younan, will leave town and not return.World Watch Monitor When an Egyptian teacher filmed five Coptic Christian secondary school students impersonating terrorists from the so-called Islamic State, the boys could be […]
The Coptic Church has set up a “crisis unit” in order to facilitate rapid evacuation and repatriation of Egyptians still present in Libya – starting with those most affected by the fighting. Families of the expatriates have been urged to provide information to the Crisis Committee before Feb. 28. According […]