Tag: Sinai

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

Egypt: small signs challenging religious intolerance

May 17, 2017 Egypt Al-Azhar, Copts, Pope Francis, Port Said, Sinai

Pope Francis visits with Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Photo: Getty Images

Recent developments in Egypt show that Pope Francis’ visit to its capital Cairo last month might have inspired a more vigilant approach to religious hate speech against Christians by religious leaders and the media alike. John L. Allen writes in the Catholic publication Crux that two recent signs suggest the . . . Read More

Sinai: eighth El-Arish Copt killed in targeted attack

May 8, 2017 Egypt Copts, Helwan, Islamic State, Port Said, Sinai

Nabil Saber Ayoub Mansour became the eighth Egyptian Coptic Christian to be murdered in El-Arish, northern Sinai, this year in what appear to be linked killings. He was shot dead by four masked men on 6 May. Mansour, 40, was in El-Arish for a brief visit (contrary to media reports that said he had returned . . . Read More

Egypt: Sinai monastery attacker wore suicide belt

April 25, 2017 Egypt Copts, Islamic State, Sinai

One of the gunmen involved in the 18 April attack at a checkpoint close to St Catherine’s monastery, Mount Sinai, was wearing a belt of explosives that failed to detonate, reports Coptic news site Watani. The man – named by Egypt’s Interior Ministry as Abu-Faris al-Maghrabi – was shot dead . . . Read More

IS claims deadly attack near old Egyptian monastery

April 20, 2017 Egypt Copts, El-Arish, Ismailia, Sinai

One policeman was killed and four others injured when gunmen opened fire near St. Catherine’s monastery in Egypt on Tuesday (18 April), reports Reuters. The attack, at a police checkpoint less than a kilometre from the monastery, was later claimed by the Islamic State group. It came a week after . . . 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

Merkel accused of downplaying attacks on Copts

March 3, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Al-Azhar, Copts, Egypt, North Africa, Pope Tawadros II, Sinai, Sunni

A leading German Catholic priest yesterday (2 March) criticised German Chancellor Angela Merkel for “genuflecting” to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and failing to raise human-rights concerns as she headed to North Africa for trade talks. Joachim Schroedel, who has worked in Egypt for more than two decades, rejected Mrs . . . Read More

Egyptian Copt widow: ‘Gunmen who killed my husband and son then ticked them off their IS hit-list’

March 2, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Bishop Angaelos, Cairo, Copts, El-Arish, Islamic State, Ismailia, Sinai, Suez

A Coptic Christian mother in North Sinai who saw her son and husband killed in front of her in their home says she then saw the gunman calmly tick off her loved ones from a hit-list he carried. In an exclusive interview with World Watch Monitor, Nabila Fawzi Hanna, 65, . . . Read More

Muslims condemn killings of Copts, as more flee

February 28, 2017 Egypt Al-Nour Party, Copts, Egypt, El-Arish, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Ismailia, Sinai, Suez

An ultra-conservative Islamic political party in Egypt, Al-Nour, has publicly condemned the killings of Copts in northern Sinai, saying they “go against the teaching of Islam”. The House of Fatwa, chaired by the Grand Mufti of Egypt, also condemned the murders, saying they are “sabotaging” national unity. Coptic families have . . . Read More

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