Tag: Copts

Iraq and Philippines Christians join Red Wednesday religious freedom solidarity display

November 22, 2017 Bashar Warda, Belgium, China, Copts, Egypt, France, IDPs, India, Iraq, Islamic State, London, Manila, Myanmar, Nineveh Plains, Religious freedom, Rohingya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, UN, Uyghurs

Landmarks in the UK, Ireland, Iraq and the Philippines are due to be floodlit in red today (22 November) to highlight the persecution of faith groups for their “peacefully held beliefs”. The “Red Wednesday” initiative is in its second year and has been pioneered by Aid to the Church in . . . Read More

ISIS ‘the greatest preacher for Christianity in the world’

November 21, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Middle East, Minya, Samaan Shehata

More than 20 people lost their lives in the Palm Sunday attack on the St George Cathedral in Tanta, Egypt.

An Egyptian bishop says that by killing hundreds of Christians across the Middle East the Islamic State group has in fact strengthened the Church and been “the greatest preacher for Christianity in the world”. Bishop Stephen of Beba and Fashn, speaking during a memorial service for the murdered Coptic priest . . . Read More

Egypt: Coptic priest’s murderer sentenced to death

November 17, 2017 Egypt Beni Suef, Bishop Angaelos, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Minya, Palm Sunday, Samaan Shehata, Sinai

Egypt’s North Cairo Criminal Court has sentenced to death 19-year-old Ahmad Saeed Ibrahim al-Sonbati for killing a priest and injuring another in a knife attack. The verdict has now been forwarded to the Grand Mufti, who must give his approval. He is expected to give his final verdict on 15 . . . Read More

Egypt: Copts request new church to honour 28 killed in bus attack

November 14, 2017 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Minya, Sohag

The governor of Minya in Egypt has said he will consider an application to build a church to honour the 28 Coptic pilgrims killed in May when militant Islamists intercepted the buses they were travelling on and opened fire. Anba Athanasius, Bishop of Beni-Mazar and Bahnassa, met General Essam Bedeiwi . . . Read More

Egypt church reopened after 22 years seen by some as gesture to US

November 3, 2017 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Anba Macarius, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Minya, Pentecostals, USA

After 22 years, the doors of the Pentecostal church in Minya City were reopened on 29 October 2017. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A Pentecostal church in Minya City, Egypt, reopened its doors on Sunday (29 October) after 22 years without a permit, a move some see as a goodwill gesture from the government ahead of the visit of US Vice President Mike Pence. Pence announced last week that he hoped to visit . . . Read More

Egypt: another Coptic church closed after flyer causes riot

October 31, 2017 Egypt Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya, Sohag

A broken statue in the Coptic Church of Mallawi, south of Minya city, that was vandalised during riots in 2013. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Police in Egypt’s Minya governorate closed another church and arrested 15 people in the village of Ezbet Zakariya last Friday (27 October) after a mob attacked Copts with stones and destroyed some of their property. The violence appears to have been fuelled by a flyer that was distributed on Friday, . . . 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

Egypt: 4 Coptic churches closed after Muslim protests

October 26, 2017 Egypt Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya, Sohag

Four Coptic churches in Upper Egypt were closed down last weekend by local authorities seeking to ease tensions between Muslim and Christian villagers. Three of the churches were in Minya governorate, just south of Cairo, and the fourth in Sohag, further south. In the Minya village of Ezbet al-Qeshiri, the . . . Read More

Qatar conference: ‘no peace in Middle East without democracy and rule of law’

October 25, 2017 Arabian Peninsula, Arabs, Copts, Doha, Egypt, Iraq, Middle East, Minorities, Qatar

A two-day conference in Qatar earlier this week focused on the plight of Arab Christians and the threats they face through wars and conflicts in the Middle East, recognising there is “no magic wand” to deal with inter-religious and sectarian strife. Bomb attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt and forced . . . Read More

Egyptian police foil latest terrorist attack on Coptic church in Sinai

October 24, 2017 Egypt Copts, Egypt, El-Arish, Ismailia, Sinai, Suez

An attack on a Coptic church in north-eastern Egypt, which was also targeted during the wave of anti-Christian violence in August 2013, has been repelled by state security forces stationed outside the building. The heavy security presence outside the Mar Girgis (St. George) church in El-Arish, which had the use . . . Read More

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