Tag: Minya

Four years after revolution Egypt’s Copts ask: ‘Where is our government?’

June 22, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Beni Suef, Cairo, Copts, Islamic State, Minya

A child hovers over the coffins of his parents during their funeral service at St Samuel Monastery. They were among the 29 Coptic Christians killed in the attack on Ascension Day. (Photo: Getty Images)

Two days before the bus attack in Minya that killed 29 Copts travelling to a monastery on Ascension Day (26 May), the US embassy in Cairo warned of a possible terrorist attack. Now Egypt’s Copts are querying the absence of increased security measures and wondering why the emergency response was . . . Read More

For Egypt’s Copts, if it isn’t extremism, it’s sectarianism

June 21, 2017 Egypt Islamic State, Minya, Religious freedom

Last Friday (16 June), the Coptic community in Saft el-Khirsa, 180km south of Cairo, woke up to find their three-storey community centre had been broken into and sealed off by police, and their furniture, rugs and religious icons were lying on the street outside. The building had been allocated to . . . Read More

‘Horrific’ social media posts celebrated murder of Coptic Christians in Minya

June 8, 2017 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Minya

Writing an anonymous opinion piece as ‘The girl with the Christian tattoo‘, a woman has expressed her shock at abusive social media posts published in response to the 26 May attack in Minya, Egypt, by so-called Islamic State that killed at least 28 Coptic Christians, including several children. The Christian woman . . . Read More

Bomb found outside Cairo church

May 30, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Cairo, Copts, El-Arish, Helwan, Islamic State, Minya, Port Said

A bomb was found outside an Egyptian church just south of the capital, Cairo, yesterday (29 May), according to Coptic news site Watani. A guard reportedly found the bomb inside a paper box by the gate to the Anba-Barsoum al-Erian Monastery, in the Greater Cairo city of Helwan, and “quickly . . . Read More

Gunmen kill 28 Egyptian Christians in Ascension Day bus attack

May 26, 2017 Egypt Children, Egypt, Minya, Port Said, Tanta

Gunmen opened fire and killed at least 28 Coptic Orthodox Christians – some reports say up to 35 – and wounded about 25 others; the Copts were traveling to Ascension Day services at the Monastery of St. Samuel in Minya, southern Egypt. Bishop Ermia, General Bishop and President of the Coptic . . . Read More

Coptic boy, 16, ‘murdered by Islamic extremists seeking to scare Christians’

April 20, 2017 Egypt Copts, El-Arish, Islamic State, Minya, Palm Sunday, Sinai, Upper Egypt

An Egyptian Christian boy murdered on Holy Thursday (13 April) was killed by Islamic extremists hoping to further intimidate Christians in the run up to Easter, say his family. Allam Bashay Gabriel found his 16-year-old son, Gamal, with his throat slit and lying in a pool of blood, in Qai . . . Read More

Copts still homeless months after homes burnt down

March 16, 2017 Egypt Copts, Egypt, El-Arish, Kom El-Loufy, Minya, Sinai

Makeshift church in Minya burned down by extremists
Photo: Wataninet

In July last year, four Coptic homes were set on fire in a village 230km south of Cairo, following rumours the Copts planned to turn one of the houses into a church. Eight months later, the Copts – two brothers, Ashraf and Ibrahim Khalaf, and their families – are still . . . Read More

Charges reinstated against men accused of stripping elderly Coptic woman in public

February 17, 2017 Egypt Bishop Angaelos, Copts, Minya, Soad Thabet

Soad Thabet and Bishop Makarius of the Coptic Church.Watani UPDATE (17 Feb, 2017) The case against three men accused of publicly stripping naked a 70-year-old woman has been reopened. A month ago today (17 January), charges were dropped against the three men over a reported lack of evidence, despite . . . Read More

Egypt’s Christians ‘at breaking point’ says bishop

September 8, 2016 Egypt Anba Macarius, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Minya, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood, Upper Egypt

Christians feel “under siege” in Egypt after a series of attacks this summer, and continued difficulties faced by the community in building churches, the New York Times reports. In Minya (Upper Egypt) alone, Copts continue to “suffer violence and humiliation”. Houses have been burned, Copts attacked on the streets and . . . Read More

Coptic Pope prays in ancient church symbolic of past persecutions

July 21, 2016 Egypt Anba Macarius, Copts, Egypt, Minya, Pope Tawadros II

Egypt’s Pope Tawadros II made a heartfelt plea on Wednesday (20 July) on behalf of his country’s Coptic minority which has suffered in excess of 12 violent incidents in the last two months. Shifting the venue of his weekly sermon from the downtown Cathedral of Abbasia to the historic ‘hanging . . . Read More

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