Tag: Tanta

Egypt: Suicide attack on Coptic church foiled

August 13, 2018 Egypt Alexandria, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Tanta

Dome of the Church of the Holy Virgin in Cairo's Mostorod district where a suicide bomber tried to get inside. (Photo: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)

A suicide attack on a Coptic church in north Cairo, Egypt, was thwarted on Saturday, 12 August, reports Coptic news site Watani. A man wearing a suicide vest detonated the bomb about 250 metres from the Church of the Holy Virgin in the Mostorod district. He was killed instantly, as . . . Read More

Egypt church bombings: Court considers death sentences for 36

April 11, 2018 Egypt Alexandria, Cairo, Islamic State, Tanta

Chaos in St George's cathedral, Tanta, after a suicide bomber blew himself up during the Palm Sunday liturgy

An Egyptian military court has asked the country’s highest-ranking Muslim legal authority whether 36 people should receive the death penalty for their role in three deadly church bombings. Reuters reports that the court’s referral was announced Tuesday, 10 April, by state television. The accused are suspected of taking part in . . . Read More

Egypt: Three arrested for plotting Easter attacks

April 11, 2018 Egypt Alexandria, Copts, Islamic State, Palm Sunday, Sohag, Tanta

Coptic Church in central Egypt. (Photo: World Watch Monitor, 2004)

Egyptian security forces arrested three people suspected of planning to target Coptic churches during last Sunday’s Orthodox Easter celebrations. Sources said that police arrested three Egyptians in the city of Maragha, in Egypt’s southern province of Sohag last Thursday, as churches prepared for three days of services culminating on Easter . . . Read More

Egypt’s elections and the man dividing the country’s Copts

March 14, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Arab Spring, Aswan, Asyut, Bahrain, Cairo, Catholics, Churches, Converts, Copts, Egypt, El-Ghad Party, Elections, Faiyum, Hosni Mubarak, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minya, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood, Pope Tawadros II, Protestants, Samalut, Sinai, Sohag, Sunni, Tanta, Terrorism, Upper Egypt

Walking around Cairo you would be forgiven for thinking that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was the only candidate running in the elections later this month. His is the only grandiose face bearing down on passers-by, while billboards of his rival, Mousa Mostafa Mousa, are nowhere to be seen. Egypt’s 26-28 March presidential elections have . . . Read More

Egypt: Coptic church reopens 8 months after Palm Sunday bombing

December 4, 2017 Egypt Alexandria, Catholics, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Gharbia, Palm Sunday, Protestants, Tanta

A Coptic cathedral has been restored and reopened eight months after a suicide bombing there on Palm Sunday killed 28 and injured 74 others. St. George’s Cathedral in Tanta, the capital of the Gharbia governorate north of Cairo, has been renamed the Cathedral of St. George and the Martyrs, and . . . Read More

Egypt: Coptic woman stabbed after leaving Alexandria church

August 25, 2017 Egypt Alexandria, Copts, Egypt, Tanta

Bishop Pavli visited Amal Awad at Beit El-Neama Hospital where she was recovering from multiple stabbing wounds. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A 46-year-old Coptic woman in Egypt’s port city of Alexandria was attacked and stabbed multiple times by an unknown man after attending a church service on the evening of 21 August, reports Coptic news site Watani. When Amal Awad left the church of the Holy Virgin and Archangel Raphael, in . . . Read More

Terrorist threat forces Egyptian Christians to cancel summer activities

July 13, 2017 Egypt Alexandria, Andrea Zaki, Asyut, Cairo, Copts, Egypt, Islamic State, Ismailia, Minya, Suez, Tanta, Terrorism

The churches of Egypt are temporarily shutting down their summer activities. “I asked all our churches and conference centres to cancel their trips and events for the next three weeks,” Dr. Andrea Zaki, president of the Protestant Churches of Egypt, told World Watch Monitor. “There is news they could be . . . Read More

Gunmen kill 28 Egyptian Christians in Ascension Day bus attack

May 26, 2017 Egypt Children, Egypt, Minya, Port Said, Tanta

Gunmen opened fire and killed at least 28 Coptic Orthodox Christians – some reports say up to 35 – and wounded about 25 others; the Copts were traveling to Ascension Day services at the Monastery of St. Samuel in Minya, southern Egypt. Bishop Ermia, General Bishop and President of the Coptic . . . Read More

Solidarity for Egypt’s beleaguered Christians during first Coptic papal visit to UK

May 10, 2017 Egypt Bishop Angaelos, Copts, Egypt, Pope Tawadros II, Tanta

British Christian and political leaders praised Egypt’s embattled Coptic Christians during Pope Tawadros II’s pastoral visit to the UK, the first by a Coptic Pope. Tawadros’ visit follows Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt during which he told the head of the Coptic Church: “The innocent blood of defenceless Christians was . . . Read More

Pope Francis in Egypt: ‘Violence is the denial of every true religion’

May 2, 2017 Egypt Al-Azhar, Cairo, Copts, Islamic extremism, Pope Francis, Tanta

visited the Coptic Pope, Tawadros II, who narrowly escaped injury on Palm Sunday. Photo: World Watch Monitor

Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, went to Cairo with a message of unity and peace. On his first day, speaking at an International Peace Conference held at the al-Azhar conference centre, he said that “violence is the denial of every true religion” and called on religious leaders to . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye