Tag: Minya

Egypt: Court will try 3 men for assault on elderly Coptic woman

April 25, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya, Soad Thabet

Soad Thabet and Bishop Makarius of the Coptic Church.

Three men are scheduled to stand trial in an Egyptian court for publicly stripping a 70-year-old Christian woman following rumours that her son had an affair with a married Muslim woman. Following the rumour and threats made to him and his family, Ashraf Attiya, a then-31-year-old Coptic Christian trader, fled . . . Read More

Egypt’s elections and the man dividing the country’s Copts

March 14, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Arab Spring, Aswan, Asyut, Bahrain, Cairo, Catholics, Churches, Converts, Copts, Egypt, El-Ghad Party, Elections, Faiyum, Hosni Mubarak, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minya, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood, Pope Tawadros II, Protestants, Samalut, Sinai, Sohag, Sunni, Tanta, Terrorism, Upper Egypt

Walking around Cairo you would be forgiven for thinking that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the only candidate running in the elections later this month. His is the only grandiose face bearing down on passers-by, while billboards of his rival, Mousa Mostafa Mousa, are nowhere to be seen. Egypt’s 26-28 March presidential elections have . . . Read More

Beheaded Copts’ remains to be returned to families after three-year wait

March 8, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Libya, Minya, Samalut

Copts visit new church in Al-Our to remember 21 Christians killed by Islamic State on a beach in Libya in February 2015.

The bodies of the 20 Egyptian Copts and one Ghanaian Christian, beheaded by the Islamic State group on the Libyan coast in February 2015, are due to be returned to their families within the next two weeks, a local source told World Watch Monitor. The families of the victims have . . . Read More

53 churches legalised in Egypt, 1000s more still waiting

March 5, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Catholics, Copts, Egypt, Minya, Protestants

Coptic Church in central Egypt. (Photo: World Watch Monitor, 2004)

Fifty-three Coptic Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches were recently granted licenses by the Egyptian government, as Catholic news agency Fides reported last week. These churches and annexed buildings already existed before the new law on the construction of Christian buildings of worship was passed by the Egyptian Parliament on 30 August . . . Read More

Egypt: Monks want new church in memory of Copts killed in Minya bus attack

February 22, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Minya

Following an Egyptian town council’s order last week to demolish a makeshift memorial for the 28 Copts murdered on Ascension Day last year as they travelled towards a monastery, the governor of Minya has met with a delegation of monks from the monastery to discuss the matter. The memorial was . . . Read More

Egypt’s Copts flock to see church opened in remembrance of beheaded Christians

February 15, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Libya, Minya, Upper Egypt

It is a special day for the Coptic community of Minya province, Upper Egypt, as a new church was inaugurated this morning in Al-Our village in remembrance of 20 Egyptian Copts and one Ghanaian Christian beheaded by IS on the Libyan coast three years ago today (15 February 2015). In . . . Read More

Church built to honour beheaded Copts, but families still waiting for bodies’ return

February 14, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Libya, Minya, Pope Tawadros II, Tunisia, Upper Egypt

Tomorrow, 15 February, will mark the third anniversary of the beheading of 20 Egyptian Copts and a Ghanaian Christian, carried out by IS on the Libyan coast. In remembrance of the 21 Christians, a new church is to be inaugurated in Upper Egypt’s Minya province, where the Egyptians came from. As . . . Read More

Egypt church celebrates long-awaited official opening

January 15, 2018 Egypt Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minya, Pope Tawadros II

Members of the Holy Virgin and Mar Girgis church staged a sit-in to protest the closure of their church in October. (Photo: Watani)

A Coptic church in Minya, Upper Egypt, was officially allowed to open last week for the first time since it was built in 2015, and three months after clashes with local Muslims had forced it to close indefinitely. The Holy Virgin and Mar Girgis church in the village of Sheikh . . . Read More

Egypt’s human rights move dismissed as ploy to win back US aid

January 10, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Human rights, Kidnapping, Minya, Muslim Brotherhood, Sohag

Efforts by the Egyptian government to improve its record on human rights are aimed primarily at persuading the US government to reinstate its generous aid package, Coptic activists have said. Last month Egypt announced it would set up 60 human-rights departments across the country to record complaints from citizens of . . . Read More

Egypt: After 7 years of delays, new church for Copts, who agree to drop arson claims

December 21, 2017 Egypt Anba Macarius, Copts, Egypt, Kom El-Loufy, Minya

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

Copts in the Egyptian town of Kom El-Loufy, Upper Egypt, 250 km south of Cairo, started the construction of a church today, seven years after their previous building was closed by local authorities because of “security reasons”. They have withdrawn their charges against 23 Muslims who burned down some of their . . . Read More

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