Tag: Egypt

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

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

To flee or not to flee?

November 17, 2017 Civil War, Converts, Egypt, IDPs, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Middle East, Migrants, Refugees, Syria

It is sometimes said that the Middle East is being denuded of Christians. Against this, church leaders throughout the Middle East urge Christians to remain in their country, or, where conflict makes that impossible, then to at least stay in the region. The emigration of Christians from the Middle East . . . 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

IS renews threat to Copts as Al-Azhar head says Islam ‘at war with itself’

November 14, 2017 Egypt Al-Azhar, Egypt, Islamic State, Pope Francis, Terrorism

Pope Francis welcomes Sheik Ahmed Muhammad Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, during a private audience in Vatican, 7 November 2017. (Photo: AFP PHOTO / OSSERVATORE ROMANO / Handout)

A pro-Islamic State (IS) group media outlet has issued a new threat against Egypt’s Coptic Christians, saying they must be attacked as “infidel fighters” and their churches must be blown up. The message, issued by the Wafa Media Foundation, said Copts did not accept dhimmitude – the condition of submission imposed . . . 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

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