Tag: Copts

Egypt: Fighting discrimination will need ‘a lot more than taking religion off ID cards’

November 29, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Minorities

Coptic Christians traditionally have a tattoo of a cross on their wrists to demark their religious affiliation. (Photo: Open Doors International)

The Egyptian Parliament will soon look into removing religious affiliation from ID cards, Al-Monitor reported last week. The proposed bill will be submitted to the parliament by Ismail Nasr El-Din to “pave the way for a civil state that respects the values of citizenship”, according to the website Cairo Scene. . . . Read More

Egypt bus attack survivors ask ‘how could this happen again?’

November 23, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minya

Survivors of the bus attack arrive back at their church on Saturday 3 November. (Photo: Open Doors International)

Egypt’s Copts are still reeling from a second bus attack in two years on the desert road to a monastery in Minya and asking why there was no protection for them. It should have been a joyful day. On Friday 2 November a Coptic family had celebrated the baptisms of two . . . Read More

Egypt: Man accused of IS allegiance sentenced to death for killing Coptic doctor

November 20, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Mohamed Morsi

The Supreme Court in Egypt's capital Cairo. (Photo: Rachid H via Flickr; CC 2.0)

An Egyptian court sentenced a man to death last Saturday, 17 November, for the killing of an 80-year-old Christian doctor in Cairo in September last year, reports The Associated Press. The 40-year-old assailant, whose identity remains undisclosed, entered the doctor’s office in the Egyptian capital pretending to be a patient, . . . Read More

UK government commits £12 million to championing religious freedom

November 9, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Alexandria, Bishop Angaelos, Copts, Easter, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palm Sunday, Plateau, Religious freedom, UK

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

The UK government has committed £12 million ($15.5 million) to championing freedom of religion of belief worldwide. The UK’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Lord Tariq Ahmad, said the money “will go a long way in bolstering the work of civil society and NGOs to promote respect, . . . Read More

Islamists suspected of bus attack killed, as Copts mourn

November 5, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Anba Macarius, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Minorities, Minya, Mohamed Morsi

Egypt’s interior ministry claimed yesterday to have killed 19 Islamist militants suspected of carrying out the bus attack on Friday that killed seven Copts and injured over a dozen others. The militants were killed in a shootout in the desert area west of Minya governorate, where the attack took place, . . . Read More

Egypt: 7 dead as Coptic pilgrims targeted in another bus attack in Minya

November 2, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya

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At least seven people have been killed and 14 injured in another attack on a bus of Coptic Christians travelling back from a monastery in Egypt, Reuters reports. The attack reportedly took place at almost exactly the same location as the May 2017 attack by Islamist militants which left 28 . . . Read More

Coptic monks injured in clash with Israeli police

October 26, 2018 Israel Copts, Egypt, Israel, Jerusalem

A skirmish between Coptic clergymen and Israeli police took place in Jerusalem on Wednesday (24 October) after the monks protested against Israeli authorities forcibly taking charge of repairs to a chapel the Copts say they own, Associated Press reports. The Antiquities Authority of Israel moved to repair the St. Michael . . . Read More

Coptic woman who lost half her face in church bombing arrives in Germany for operation

October 24, 2018 Egypt Cairo, Copts, Egypt

The Coptic Christian woman who lost the right side of her face in a bomb attack on her church in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in 2016 is now in Germany for a complicated operation, World Watch Monitor has learnt. Samiha Tawfiq will be treated at a university hospital in the . . . Read More

17 sentenced to death for Coptic church bomb attacks

October 12, 2018 Egypt Alexandria, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Minya, Palm Sunday, Pope Tawadros II

Egypt’s military court has handed death sentences to 17 people for carrying out bomb attacks on Coptic churches in 2016 and 2017, the BBC reports. The attacks, which killed dozens of people, were claimed by Islamic State. One of them was the bomb explosion in a chapel adjacent to the . . . Read More

Perpetrators of Minya bus attack and the beheading of Coptic Christians captured in Libya

October 11, 2018 Al-Mourabitoun, Al-Qaeda, Copts, Egypt, Ghana, Islamic extremism, Libya, Minya

One of the “most wanted” Islamic extremists suspected of participation in the gun attack on a bus convoy of Coptic Christian pilgrims in May 2017 has been captured by Libyan security forces, the BBC reports. The attack killed 28 people, including two children. Twenty-five others were injured. Hisham Ashmawi is . . . Read More

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