Tag: Upper Egypt

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

‘Unprecedented’ persecution of Egypt’s Christians heads 2018 World Watch List

January 10, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Anti-conversion law, Boko Haram, Cairo, Central Asia, Churches, Converts, Copts, Egypt, Eritrea, Fulani herdsmen, Hindu nationalism, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Jharkhand, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Marawi, Middle Belt, Middle East, Mindanao, Minorities, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, Philippines, Somalia, Southeast Asia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Upper Egypt

More Christians abused in India than in all other countries combined; Nepal enters list Islamic extremists driven out of Iraq and Syria are behind a new intensity of Christian persecution in surrounding countries, says global charity Open Doors in its latest annual survey of countries where it is most difficult . . . Read More

Egypt teenager’s murder ‘aimed to intimidate Copts ahead of Christmas’, says his pastor

December 22, 2017 Egypt Asyut, Copts, Egypt, Upper Egypt

Murdered 14 yr old Ishak Nashaat Birwan, who drove a 'tuk-tuk' taxi

The body of 14-year-old Ishak Nashaat Birwan was found on Wednesday (20 December), 11 days after he disappeared, in a canal near where he lived in Izziyah, a large Christian village near Manfalout in Asyut. Samir Fekry, Ishak’s cousin, told World Watch Monitor that the body was taken to the . . . Read More

Egypt: 21 churches receive long-delayed government approval to build

November 29, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Al-Azhar, Anba Macarius, Cairo, Churches, Copts, Egypt, El-Arish, Islamic State, Minya, Pentecostals, Port Said, Protestants, Religious freedom, Samalut, Sinai, Sohag, Sunni, Upper Egypt, USA

Twenty-one churches in Egypt’s southern rural Minya governorate can restore, expand and rebuild their churches after receiving approval from the Minya Governor. Governor Essam al-Bedeiwi approved the 21 applications over the last six months. Some of the churches had been waiting for more than 20 years for a permit to come . . . Read More

Egypt: Copts stage sit-in to protest at church closure

October 27, 2017 Egypt Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya, Upper Egypt

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

After four Coptic churches in Upper Egypt were forced to close last weekend following clashes with local Muslims, the priest at one church has staged a sit-in, but another church has agreed, under duress, to remain closed until it has obtained an official permit. Father Moussa Thabet remains in his . . . Read More

Coptic priest killed in Cairo

October 12, 2017 Egypt Beni Suef, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Salafism, Samaan Shehata, Upper Egypt

A Coptic priest has been stabbed to death in Cairo, reports Egypt Independent. Samaan Shehata, who is from the Beni Suef governorate south of Cairo, was visiting the capital for a conference when a man reportedly stopped his vehicle and then attacked him with a cleaver. The attacker, who has . . . Read More

‘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

Latest attack on Copts in Egypt: newborn baby’s throat slit

October 2, 2017 Egypt Asyut, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Upper Egypt

Egyptian police have charged a Coptic mother with the murder of her newborn baby, though she says her baby was killed by intruders who entered her home and took her baby from her arms. Azza Gamal, 27, was home alone with her two-year-old twin girls Mariam and Martha, and baby . . . Read More

Egypt’s Copts face discrimination in football, too

July 24, 2017 Egypt Asyut, Copts, Egypt, Football, Middle East, Upper Egypt

“Systematic discrimination” is preventing Coptic Christians from participating in professional sport in Egypt, according to a feature article on the Egyptian website MadaMasr: ‘Copts and Egypt’s national game – We’ll call you back later‘. Though Copts make up around 10 per cent of Egypt’s population, not one of the 122 . . . Read More

Murder of fifth Copt in six weeks creating ‘state of fear and terror’ among Egypt’s Christians

July 12, 2017 Egypt Cairo, Copts, Muslim Brotherhood, Upper Egypt

A fifth Copt has been murdered in Egypt in six weeks, aggravating fears among Christians that Islamist extremists are targeting them with impunity. Nadra Mounir, 26, was found dead in her flat in Cairo last Thursday evening (6 July), and religious icons in her home had reportedly been desecrated. Her . . . Read More

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