Tag: Egypt

Key trends show in 2019 List of countries where it’s most difficult to live as a Christian

January 16, 2019 Global News -- No Particular Country BJP, Blasphemy, Boko Haram, China, Egypt, Hindu nationalism, India, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Middle East, Minorities, Nigeria, Religious freedom, World Watch List

WWL 2019 key trends, gender, China, woman (photo: VPA)

In its 2019 World Watch List, Open Doors International reports that 11 countries score highly enough to fit into the ‘extreme’ category for the level of persecution of Christians. It was the same last year, but five years ago, only North Korea was in that category. From roughly 2006, and accelerating from 2012, the NGO says the . . . Read More

Egypt: Eleven men sent for trial for attacking Copts

December 20, 2018 Egypt Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Helwan, Islamic State

A funeral is held for the eight victims of the attack on the Mar Mina Church in Helwan on 29 December last year. Photo: Getty Images)

Eleven men suspected of an attack Coptic Christians in Egypt’s capital Cairo a year ago will have to appear before a criminal court, reports Coptic news site Watani. The suspects were caught by police following a double attack on the Mar Mina and Pope Kyrillos VI Coptic Orthodox Church in the . . . Read More

Egypt: Copt sentenced to three years in prison for ‘blasphemous’ Facebook post

December 12, 2018 Egypt Blasphemy, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya, Prophet Muhammad

Following Adel's facebook post in July an attempt by a mob to attack the Coptic Saint Tadros Church in Menbal village was prevented by security guards. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

An Egyptian court has sentenced a Coptic Christian to three years in prison after he was found guilty of “insulting Islam in the first degree”. Abdo Adel, 43, from Menbal, a village in Egypt’s Minya governorate, 200km south of Cairo, was accused in July of publishing a post on his . . . Read More

UK parliamentary group calls out 27 countries for ‘significant’ religious freedom violations

December 10, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Ahmed Shaheed, Bangladesh, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, Egypt, Eritrea, Human rights, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tariq Ahmad, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UK, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen

A church in Bartella, a town near the Iraqi city of Mosul, after Islamic State militants left the area in October 2016. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A “Commentary on the Current State of Freedom of Religion or Belief” presented by a group of British parliamentarians today, 10 December, highlights 27 countries where people’s religious freedom has been denied and abused in the past year. The report, presented by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for International . . . Read More

70 years since universal declaration, human rights ‘ignored and abused all over the world’

December 7, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Andrew Brunson, China, Colombia, Dalits, Don Ossewaarde, Egypt, Ethiopia, Human rights, India, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, Myanmar, New York, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Syria, Turkey, UN

Ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Monday, 10 December, rights group ADF International has called for “recommitment” to the founding principles, which it says are being “consistently ignored and abused … all over the world”. Chief among those rights, ADF notes, is the . . . Read More

Egypt: Fighting discrimination will need ‘a lot more than taking religion off ID cards’

November 29, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Minorities

Coptic Christians traditionally have a tattoo of a cross on their wrists to demark their religious affiliation. (Photo: Open Doors International)

The Egyptian Parliament will soon look into removing religious affiliation from ID cards, Al-Monitor reported last week. The proposed bill will be submitted to the parliament by Ismail Nasr El-Din to “pave the way for a civil state that respects the values of citizenship”, according to the website Cairo Scene. . . . Read More

Persecution of minority Christian women ‘hidden, complex, and interwoven with “everyday” discrimination’

November 26, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Central African Republic, Colombia, Education, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, Minorities, Religious freedom, Women

Women's suffering because of their faith is often in daily life. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Five new reports – about Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, Colombia and the Central African Republic – unmask the multiple domestic, societal and state dynamics used in the persecution of Christian women and girls in each country. When viewed individually, the tactics used against women – from subtle discrimination surrounding access to . . . Read More

Egypt bus attack survivors ask ‘how could this happen again?’

November 23, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minya

Survivors of the bus attack arrive back at their church on Saturday 3 November. (Photo: Open Doors International)

Egypt’s Copts are still reeling from a second bus attack in two years on the desert road to a monastery in Minya and asking why there was no protection for them. It should have been a joyful day. On Friday 2 November a Coptic family had celebrated the baptisms of two . . . Read More

Egypt: Man accused of IS allegiance sentenced to death for killing Coptic doctor

November 20, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Mohamed Morsi

The Supreme Court in Egypt's capital Cairo. (Photo: Rachid H via Flickr; CC 2.0)

An Egyptian court sentenced a man to death last Saturday, 17 November, for the killing of an 80-year-old Christian doctor in Cairo in September last year, reports The Associated Press. The 40-year-old assailant, whose identity remains undisclosed, entered the doctor’s office in the Egyptian capital pretending to be a patient, . . . Read More

UK government commits £12 million to championing religious freedom

November 9, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Alexandria, Bishop Angaelos, Copts, Easter, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palm Sunday, Plateau, Religious freedom, UK

More than 20 people lost their lives in the Palm Sunday attack on the St George Cathedral in Tanta, Egypt.

The UK government has committed £12 million ($15.5 million) to championing freedom of religion of belief worldwide. The UK’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Lord Tariq Ahmad, said the money “will go a long way in bolstering the work of civil society and NGOs to promote respect, . . . Read More

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