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.
The way Christians in the Egyptian town of Nazlet El-Badraman describe it, the deadly rampage that engulfed their village grew out of an unfounded rumour. When it finally blew over, one person was dead, nine were wounded, nearly 20 houses had been burned, and a teen-aged girl had been hurled […]
Egypt’s Constituent Assembly declared on Monday that the draft of the country’s proposed new constitution is ready for public review. A popular vote is intended within 30 days of Monday’s release. What’s in it? The Washington, D.C.-based Atlantic Council has published a close study of the document, including a detailed […]
The Committee drafting a revised Egyptian Constitution has voted to revise Article 47, which guarantees the free exercise of religion for all citizens – not just the three Abrahamic faiths, as a draft in August had proposed. The draft will now be amended to include all religious minorities, including Shia […]
Four people, including an eight-year-old girl, have been killed in an attack outside a Coptic church after a wedding in Cairo. At least nine others were injured, some seriously, after the attack by gunmen on motorbikes. Egypt’s Prime Minister has condemned the attack, saying that the perpetrators will not succeed in […]
A new report by Amnesty International claims the authorities in Egypt are failing to prevent “deeply disturbing” attacks on the country’s Coptic Christian minority. The organisation has called for an investigation into a series of deadly sectarian incidents. “Failure to bring to justice those responsible for sectarian attacks sends the […]
An automobile occupied by the bishop of the Coptic Church in Minya, Egypt, and several companions came under gunfire on Monday. No one was hurt. “We are all safe,” Bishop Makarios told Bishop Angaelos, general bishop of The Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, according to a release from the […]
World Watch Monitor / David Degner, Getty Images Markus Tozman, a graduate student of the Middle East at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, did research work in Cairo from 17 June until 16 August 2013. His views, contained in the essay below, are the product of information gathered from interviews, […]
The charred remains of the Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary in Delga.World Watch Monitor A few days on from the Egyptian army’s re-establishment of state control over Delga in Minya province, the country’s Coptic Christians are beginning to reveal the extent of their sufferings at the hands of […]
Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights has condemned attacks on Christians in Upper Egypt, reports Ahram. The council said attacks on Christians, their homes and places and worship have proved that Christians are targeted because of their beliefs. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the drafting committee responsible for the country’s new […]
Since the Aug. 14 wave of anti-Christian violence that swept over Egypt, the Christians of Delga have complained they had been abandoned by government security forces. Many of their churches and businesses burned, and their houses marked with red “X”s, Delga Christians either fled or hunkered down in their homes, […]