Tag: Minya

‘Mixed feelings’ for families after IS cameraman reveals where beheaded Copts were buried

October 3, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Anba Macarius, Copts, Islamic State, Libya, Minya, Muslim Brotherhood, Upper Egypt

The families of the 20 Egyptian Christians beheaded on a beach in Libya in 2015 say they have “mixed feelings” after the cameraman who filmed the beheadings reportedly told the authorities where the bodies were buried. Coptic news site Watani spoke to the families of 13 of the murdered Christians, . . . Read More

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: 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 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

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

Terrorist threat forces Egyptian Christians to cancel summer activities

July 13, 2017 Egypt Alexandria, Andrea Zaki, Asyut, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Ismailia, Minya, Suez, Tanta, Terrorism

The churches of Egypt are temporarily shutting down their summer activities. “I asked all our churches and conference centres to cancel their trips and events for the next three weeks,” Dr. Andrea Zaki, president of the Protestant Churches of Egypt, told World Watch Monitor. “There is news they could be . . . Read More

Copts tired of ‘sacrificing willingly’ for Egypt’s unity

July 7, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, El-Arish, Ismailia, Minya, Pope Tawadros II

“Fifty-three per cent of ISIS attacks against the public in 2017 were aimed at the Coptic community." (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The Coptic Orthodox Church held a memorial service on Monday (3 July), commemorating 40 days since the bus attack in Minya that killed 29 Copts on Ascension Day. Egypt’s Copts, who make up around 10 per cent of the population, have suffered countless deadly attacks this year and say they . . . Read More

Four more Copts killed in ‘most aggressive campaign in history of modern Egypt’

July 7, 2017 Egypt Copts, Hosni Mubarak, Islamic State, Minya, Tala

Coptic Christians in Egypt are reeling from a fresh spate of murders, which they fear are part of a jihadist campaign against them. Three Coptic men were found dead in the space of eight days from the last week of June to the first week of July. A fourth was . . . Read More

Al-Azhar says Islam ‘totally incompatible’ with violence, as IS shifts focus to Upper Egypt

June 29, 2017 Egypt Al-Azhar, Alexandria, Anba Macarius, Copts, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minya, Mohamed Morsi, Sinai, Upper Egypt

Scholars at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, the pre-eminent seat of Sunni Islamic learning, have submitted a bill to the Egyptian government, which “aims to reaffirm the total incompatibility between the violence justified by religious arguments and Islamic law”. As World Watch Monitor reported on 21 June, Al-Azhar has distanced itself from . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye