Tag: Egypt

Egypt: Copts face arrest after Facebook post leads Muslims to riot

September 25, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Anba Macarius, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya

Two Coptic Christians in a village in Minya, Upper Egypt are facing charges of inciting sectarian strife and insulting Islamic leaders, after comments from one of the men on social media, shared by the other, caused some Muslims in their village to riot. Bassem Abdel-Malak Fahim, 25, from the village . . . Read More

Egypt: death penalty for terrorists linked to beheading of 20 Copts

September 19, 2017 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Libya, Mohamed Morsi, Sinai

An Egyptian court has sentenced seven people to death for their links with the Islamic State (IS) group in Libya. An unspecified number of the condemned were accused of taking part in the beheading of 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians and a Ghanaian on a beach in Libya in 2015 – an . . . Read More

Egypt: ex-kidnapper admits ‘they get paid for every Coptic Christian girl they bring in’

September 14, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Kidnapping, Minya, Salafism, Women

“I remember a Coptic Christian girl from a rich, well-known family in Minya. She was kidnapped by five Muslim men. They held her in a house, stripped her and filmed her naked. In the video, one of them also undressed. They threatened to make the video public if the girl . . . Read More

Egypt: Coptic churches ‘closed for security’ reopen

September 12, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Anba Macarius, Copts, Egypt, Kom El-Loufy, Minya

Copts are celebrating the reopening of their church in Ezbat Al-Forn. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Copts in the village of Ezbat Al-Forn, in the Minya governorate, have their church back after it was forced to close “for security reasons” last month, and celebrated this with a mass on Sunday morning (10 September) – the same day that another village church reopened elsewhere in Minya. The . . . Read More

Egypt: Copts appeal to PM after 24-year delay in return of school

September 1, 2017 Egypt Copts, Education, Egypt, Sohag

A field and some houses in Egypt's Sohag governorate where there has been an ongoing dispute over a Coptic school between the Church and the Ministry of Education.

Egypt’s Education Ministry has rejected another court order to return a Coptic primary school to the Coptic Bishopric of Baylana and Dar as-Salam in the southern governorate of Sohag and, instead, issued a decision to postpone the handover for three years. The order came after an appeals process, which has . . . Read More

Egypt: Coptic woman stabbed after leaving Alexandria church

August 25, 2017 Egypt Alexandria, Copts, Egypt, Tanta

Bishop Pavli visited Amal Awad at Beit El-Neama Hospital where she was recovering from multiple stabbing wounds. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A 46-year-old Coptic woman in Egypt’s port city of Alexandria was attacked and stabbed multiple times by an unknown man after attending a church service on the evening of 21 August, reports Coptic news site Watani. When Amal Awad left the church of the Holy Virgin and Archangel Raphael, in . . . Read More

Egypt: Copts worship in streets after clashes over church permit

August 23, 2017 Egypt Anba Macarius, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Kom El-Loufy, Samalut

Tensions between Muslims and Coptic Christians in a village in Upper Egypt have reportedly softened following clashes at the weekend. Copts in the village of Ezbat Al-Forn, in the Minya governorate, were stopped from holding mass at a private home on Sunday (20 August) because they had no permit. Local . . . Read More

Egypt: ‘Copts barred from church by police’

August 21, 2017 Egypt Anba Macarius, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Kom El-Loufy, Minya, Samalut

In Minya, south of Cairo, 15 Coptic churches have been closed by security order, and some 70 villages and hamlets have no church or any place to hold Christian worship. (Photo: Open Doors International)

The 400 Coptic Christians in Ezbat Al-Forn, a village in Egypt’s Minya governorate, can no longer access their church after they were stopped from holding Sunday mass and banned from the premises by police yesterday (20 August), according to Coptic news site Watani. When the Copts started chanting “Kyrie Eleison . . . Read More

Egypt: second Copt in two years dies mysteriously in same Army unit – this time on his first day

August 11, 2017 Egypt Beni Suef, Conscripts, Copts, Egypt

The family of a Coptic Christian soldier who died last month on his first day at work – in the same regiment where another Copt died in mysterious circumstances in November 2015 – say he was murdered because of his Christian faith. Having just completed his army training, 22-year-old Joseph . . . Read More

Copts in Kom El-Loufy still have no church in their village, and they’re not alone

July 31, 2017 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Islamic extremism, Kom El-Loufy, Minya, Pope Tawadros II, Religious freedom, Samalut

After 12 years of fierce opposition Coptic Christians in Kom El-Loufy, Minya, will soon again have a church. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The more than 1,600 Copts in the village of Kom El-Loufy in Minya, Upper Egypt are still waiting for a new church building, seven years after their previous building was closed the same month it was opened. Ever since the Copts started looking for a new venue, they have experienced fierce . . . Read More

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