Tag: Egypt

Egypt: 4 Coptic churches closed after Muslim protests

October 26, 2017 Egypt Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya, Sohag

Four Coptic churches in Upper Egypt were closed down last weekend by local authorities seeking to ease tensions between Muslim and Christian villagers. Three of the churches were in Minya governorate, just south of Cairo, and the fourth in Sohag, further south. In the Minya village of Ezbet al-Qeshiri, the . . . Read More

Qatar conference: ‘no peace in Middle East without democracy and rule of law’

October 25, 2017 Arabian Peninsula, Arabs, Copts, Doha, Egypt, Iraq, Middle East, Minorities, Qatar

A two-day conference in Qatar earlier this week focused on the plight of Arab Christians and the threats they face through wars and conflicts in the Middle East, recognising there is “no magic wand” to deal with inter-religious and sectarian strife. Bomb attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt and forced . . . Read More

Egyptian police foil latest terrorist attack on Coptic church in Sinai

October 24, 2017 Egypt Copts, Egypt, El-Arish, Ismailia, Sinai, Suez

An attack on a Coptic church in north-eastern Egypt, which was also targeted during the wave of anti-Christian violence in August 2013, has been repelled by state security forces stationed outside the building. The heavy security presence outside the Mar Girgis (St. George) church in El-Arish, which had the use . . . Read More

Film about Sultan and St. Francis shown in Egypt

October 24, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Terrorism

Francis of Assisi (l) and Mohammad Malik (r) meet, seeking peace in the midst of war. (Photo: a still taken from the movie trailer)

The film ‘The Sultan and the Saint’, about the relationship at the height of the Crusades between Sultan Malik Al-Kamel, a Muslim ruler, and Francis of Assisi (later to become one of Christianity’s most famous saints), has had its first showing in Egypt where, under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, inter-religious . . . Read More

Egypt: the public spectacle of a slain Coptic priest

October 13, 2017 Egypt Al-Azhar, Beni Suef, Bishop Angaelos, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Samaan Shehata

The images were horrific. Father Samaan Shehata, a 45-year-old Coptic Orthodox priest, lay dead on the ground, stabbed and beaten by a young man wielding a meat cleaver. Blood dripped down his face into his long, black beard. Dirt discoloured his flowing black robe. His cross pendant rested peacefully on . . . Read More

Coptic priest killed in Cairo

October 12, 2017 Egypt Beni Suef, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Salafism, Samaan Shehata, Upper Egypt

A Coptic priest has been stabbed to death in Cairo, reports Egypt Independent. Samaan Shehata, who is from the Beni Suef governorate south of Cairo, was visiting the capital for a conference when a man reportedly stopped his vehicle and then attacked him with a cleaver. The attacker, who has . . . Read More

Egypt Cabinet committee starts work on legalisation of unlicensed churches

October 10, 2017 Egypt Andrea Zaki, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Religious freedom

Church building in village in the southern part of Egypt. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A cabinet committee met on Monday 8 October to start work on the legalisation of unlicensed churches, following the approval by Egypt’s parliament of a law relating to the building and renovating of churches, reports the Egypt Independent. Andrea Zaki, President of the Protestant Community of Egypt, said there was . . . Read More

Libya: bodies of beheaded Copts found

October 9, 2017 Libya Copts, Egypt, Libya, Sirte, Tunisia

Libya has officially confirmed it has found the bodies of the 20 Coptic Christians beheaded by the Islamic State group in February 2015, reports Agenzia Fides. The 20 Egyptians and one Ghanaian were found close to where they were executed on a beach in the coastal city of Sirte, according . . . Read More

Coptic girl, 16, rescued 92 days after Islamists kidnapped her

October 5, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Kidnapping, Minya, Women

A 16-year-old Coptic Christian girl kidnapped on 28 June to be “converted to Islam, then married off or sold”, was released and returned to her family on 30 September after police found her and arrested her kidnappers in a city just outside Cairo. Marilyn was recovered from a city named . . . Read More

Latest attack on Copts in Egypt: newborn baby’s throat slit

October 2, 2017 Egypt Asyut, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Upper Egypt

Egyptian police have charged a Coptic mother with the murder of her newborn baby, though she says her baby was killed by intruders who entered her home and took her baby from her arms. Azza Gamal, 27, was home alone with her two-year-old twin girls Mariam and Martha, and baby . . . Read More

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