Tag: Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

Dare Egypt’s new Parliament amend or even abolish its blasphemy law?

January 8, 2016 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Blasphemy, Gad Younan

Egypt’s Secular Party has called on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to support legislation which cancels the blasphemy law, because, in the words of lawyer Hamdi al-Assyouti, it has “become a tool in the hands of extremists against minorities, thinkers, and the creative impulse”. And, in his experience as a defence . . . Read More

Egypt church goes ahead despite opposition

October 6, 2015 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Libya

A church commemorating the beheading of 20 Coptic Christians and one Ghanaian by the Islamic State in Libya has finally received the go-ahead by government authorities, seven months after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi ordered its construction. Coptic newspaper Watani quoted local priest Fr. Maqar Eissa saying that all building and . . . Read More

Muslims must ‘face up’ to Quran’s violence

June 23, 2015 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Prophet Muhammad, Quran

Egyptian President al-Sisi’s New Year’s Day speech asking how belief in Islam could make Muslim nations “a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction” ought to have triggered a worldwide theological debate amongst Muslims asking where the mechanism for restraining Islamic violence lies, according to Canon Dr. Gavin Ashenden, writing . . . Read More

Community ‘justice’ expels Copts from their homes

June 17, 2015 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Beni Suef, Copts, Egypt, Gad Younan, Islamic State, Minya, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood

Forgive Emad Youssef if he and his extended family felt quite confused. The crowd welcoming them back to the village had only a few days earlier demanded they leave. “They said this is the first time something like this has happened in our village,” he told private satellite channel, OnTV “and that, . . . Read More

71 life sentences for burning Egyptian church

April 30, 2015 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Giza, Islamic extremism, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood

An Egyptian court has sentenced 71 people to life in prison for attacking and burning a Coptic church in reaction to the 2013 removal of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, Ahram Online reports. The Virgin Mary Church in Giza province’s Kafr Hakim village was torched and looted by a mob on . . . Read More

Shea: Copt massacre may unite Egypt

February 20, 2015 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt

The mass beheadings of 21 Coptic Egyptians in Libya may have the surprising effect of bringing Egypt’s Muslims and Christians closer together. So says Nina Shea, director of the . “The killers may have aimed to exploit sectarian hostilities – as they have in Iraq and Syria – and splinter Egyptian society. . . . Read More

Egypt seeks international help against IS after 21 Christians beheaded

February 16, 2015 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Al-Azhar, Bishop Angaelos, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Libya, Minya, Samalut, Terrorism, Wahhabism

Egypt began seven days of national mourning after Islamist militants released a graphic video on 15 February, depicting the mass beheading of 20 Coptic Christians and a Ghanaian Christian in Libya. Originally it was believed that all 21 men were Coptic Egyptians, but on 25 February MidEast Christian News confirmed . . . Read More

President Sisi sets a historic milestone

January 8, 2015 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Christmas, Copts, Libya

nEgyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, center, attends a Christmas Eve mass led by Egyptian Coptic Pope Tawadros II, left, at St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Abbassia District of Cairo on Jan. 6 Ahmed Gamel / AFP / Getty Images Hours before Egypt’s Coptic Christian communities gathered for their . . . Read More

Egypt’s Sisi: Brotherhood is finished

May 6, 2014 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood

The man likely to become Egypt’s new president after the May 26-27 balloting told a nationwide television audience Monday that the Muslim Brotherhood would cease to exist after his election. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former Army field marshall who in 2013 directed the removal of former President Mohamed Morsi, gave his . . . Read More

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