"Egypt’s Copts growing fearful" by Hamza Hendawi | Associated Press, November 23, 2012
MAR GIRGIS MONASTERY, Egypt — There was no mention of churches torched or Christians killed, but....
This month, hundreds of thousands of Copts from across the country flocked to the monastery of Mar Girgis, as St. George is known in Arabic, in one of the biggest and most exuberant events of the year for Egypt’s Christians. The annual pilgrimage is a festival of faith, a time to pay homage to the third-century saint who is one of the most revered figures of Christianity’s oldest Church.
It is also an opportunity for Christians to exult in their identity away from the daily discrimination — large and small, subtle and blatant — they say they increasingly face in this nation where the Muslim majority has been growing more conservative for decades.
At this year’s pilgrimage, the Christians’ sense of siege is stronger than ever, after Muslim hardliners gained political dominance, vowing to rule Egypt by Islamic law. Some speak of an imminent second ‘‘age of martyrdom,’’ recalling the era of persecution of Christians under Roman rule....
I guess I've stopped buying the sectarian line from my war-promoting paper, so.... that's not to say I don't think there is discrimination and such things in Egypt, but whenever I see my jewspaper pushing a religious divide, well...
Egypt’s Christian minority, about 10 percent of the population of more than 80 million, has long complained of discrimination. But Christians fear things are reaching a crisis point since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago and the subsequent rise to power of Islamists.
Related: Egypt's Evolving Revolution
They are nostalgic for the old days?
Over the past 20 months, dozens of Christians have been killed, churches torched or vandalized, and Christian-owned stores trashed and looted. In several villages, Christian families were driven out of their homes after personal disputes turned into anti-Christian riots. Ultraconservative Muslim clerics preach that Muslims cannot be friends with Christians.
:-(
In recent weeks, there have been several cases of Muslim women forcibly cutting the hair of Christian girls, who unlike almost all Egyptian Muslim women don’t wear headscarves.
Among the crowds at Mar Girgis, about 400 miles south of Cairo, Copts find a place where they don’t have to worry about disapproving looks from ultraconservative Muslims. They don’t have to be cautious about saying or doing something that could be construed as an offense to Islam. They don’t have to try to blend in.
Men and women flaunted the cross tattoos on the inside of their wrists, which these days they often keep discreet. Others showed off more elaborate tattoos of their favorite saints on their arms.
--more--"
This month, hundreds of thousands of Copts from across the country flocked to the monastery of Mar Girgis, as St. George is known in Arabic, in one of the biggest and most exuberant events of the year for Egypt’s Christians. The annual pilgrimage is a festival of faith, a time to pay homage to the third-century saint who is one of the most revered figures of Christianity’s oldest Church.
It is also an opportunity for Christians to exult in their identity away from the daily discrimination — large and small, subtle and blatant — they say they increasingly face in this nation where the Muslim majority has been growing more conservative for decades.
At this year’s pilgrimage, the Christians’ sense of siege is stronger than ever, after Muslim hardliners gained political dominance, vowing to rule Egypt by Islamic law. Some speak of an imminent second ‘‘age of martyrdom,’’ recalling the era of persecution of Christians under Roman rule....
I guess I've stopped buying the sectarian line from my war-promoting paper, so.... that's not to say I don't think there is discrimination and such things in Egypt, but whenever I see my jewspaper pushing a religious divide, well...
Egypt’s Christian minority, about 10 percent of the population of more than 80 million, has long complained of discrimination. But Christians fear things are reaching a crisis point since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago and the subsequent rise to power of Islamists.
Related: Egypt's Evolving Revolution
They are nostalgic for the old days?
Over the past 20 months, dozens of Christians have been killed, churches torched or vandalized, and Christian-owned stores trashed and looted. In several villages, Christian families were driven out of their homes after personal disputes turned into anti-Christian riots. Ultraconservative Muslim clerics preach that Muslims cannot be friends with Christians.
:-(
In recent weeks, there have been several cases of Muslim women forcibly cutting the hair of Christian girls, who unlike almost all Egyptian Muslim women don’t wear headscarves.
Among the crowds at Mar Girgis, about 400 miles south of Cairo, Copts find a place where they don’t have to worry about disapproving looks from ultraconservative Muslims. They don’t have to be cautious about saying or doing something that could be construed as an offense to Islam. They don’t have to try to blend in.
Men and women flaunted the cross tattoos on the inside of their wrists, which these days they often keep discreet. Others showed off more elaborate tattoos of their favorite saints on their arms.
--more--"
Related:
Eight sentenced to death in Egypt
The case was seen as largely symbolic because the defendants, most of whom live in the United States, are all outside Egypt and are thus unlikely to ever face the sentence. The charges were brought in September during a wave of public outrage in Egypt over the amateur film, which was produced by an Egyptian-American Copt."
Oh, that fake film that was never made. They took an existing film and dubbed over a trailer. I always suspected Copts were an adjunct asset of the CIA.
"Egypt’s Copts look to future with foreboding; Christians mark Christmas after year of changes" by Sarah el Deeb | Associated Press, January 07, 2013
Eight sentenced to death in Egypt
The case was seen as largely symbolic because the defendants, most of whom live in the United States, are all outside Egypt and are thus unlikely to ever face the sentence. The charges were brought in September during a wave of public outrage in Egypt over the amateur film, which was produced by an Egyptian-American Copt."
Oh, that fake film that was never made. They took an existing film and dubbed over a trailer. I always suspected Copts were an adjunct asset of the CIA.
"Egypt’s Copts look to future with foreboding; Christians mark Christmas after year of changes" by Sarah el Deeb | Associated Press, January 07, 2013
CAIRO — The country’s Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, called Pope Tawadros II with Christmas greetings and sent one of his aides to the Christmas Mass.
What?
On the same day, Morsi added to the Islamists in his government, swearing in new security and finance chiefs as he tries to set the country on a more stable course.
What?
On the same day, Morsi added to the Islamists in his government, swearing in new security and finance chiefs as he tries to set the country on a more stable course.
As Egypt struggles with the role of religion in society, many Copts are aligning themselves with moderate Muslims and secular Egyptians who also fear the rise of Islamic power.
Concerned for their future and their ancient heritage in Egypt, some Copts are reportedly considering leaving the country, but others are hoping to build a more tolerant country....
Egypt’s Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 85 million people, have long complained of discrimination by the state and the country’s Muslim majority. Clashes with Muslims have occasionally broken out, sparked by church construction, land disputes or Muslim-Christian love affairs.
Say what?
Yeah, that's why I no longer buy the whole sectarian propaganda pushed by my war-promoting jewspaper. People have been intermingling and intermarrying over there for centuries and none of this s***.
Say what?
Yeah, that's why I no longer buy the whole sectarian propaganda pushed by my war-promoting jewspaper. People have been intermingling and intermarrying over there for centuries and none of this s***.
After the ouster of Mubarak in 2011, sectarian violence rose, and attacks on churches sent thousands of Coptic protesters into the streets. A protest in October 2011 was violently quelled by the country’s military rulers, leaving 26 people dead and sparking further outrage....
"Sectarian unrest flares anew in southern Egypt" Associated Press, January 19, 2013
LUXOR, Egypt — Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Muslim protesters trying to storm a Coptic Christian church in southern Egypt on Friday, after a word spread that a Christian man sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl.
Witnesses in Marashda village in the province of Qena said several shops and cars owned by Coptic Christians were torched overnight Thursday after Muslim villagers accused a merchant in his 60s of molesting the girl.
Violence flared again after Friday prayers, with witnesses saying protesters surrounded the village’s central Abu Fam church, hurling stones and trying to storm it. Some climbed the church walls and destroyed a cross atop it. Police fired tear gas to scatter the crowd....
A resident who lives next to the church blamed extremist Islamists for spreading news of the accusations in order to enrage crowds and incite an attack on the church.
Seems to be a characteristic of people with power over other people, doesn't it?
Seems to be a characteristic of people with power over other people, doesn't it?
‘‘They are terrorizing us. They try to find a reason to attack us,’’ said the resident, asking not to be named for fear of retribution. ‘‘In no time, this village turned to a ball of fire.’’
‘‘We know those behind it,’’ he said, referring to the Group for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, an organization which he said over the past two months has been visiting cafes and ordering people not to smoke. They force Muslims to go to the mosque to pray, he added.
The villages of Qena are among the poorest in Egypt. They also have a significant Coptic Christian population.
Flare-ups of violence among Egypt’s Christians and Muslims have become more frequent in the two years since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising, an event that also left the country’s security weakened.
‘‘We want law enforcement, not mass punishment of all Christians for an individual mistake,’’ said Coptic activist Hana Hasseb. ‘‘What is the guilt of all of those whose stores were set ablaze?’’
--more--"
Also see: Christian families flee Egyptian town
Leaflets, masked militants, and no one hurt?
Also see: Christian families flee Egyptian town
Leaflets, masked militants, and no one hurt?
"Attack kills 1 as Egypt’s Copts protest government" Associated Press, April 08, 2013
CAIRO — One person was killed Sunday in violence outside Cairo’s main Coptic Christian cathedral, officials said.
A mob threw rocks and fired birdshot at several hundred Christians marching in a protest against Egypt’s Islamist government after the funeral of four Christians killed in sectarian clashes during the weekend.
The Christians were chanting slogans against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, just as several thousand did earlier during the funeral service nearby in St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo.
Can't blame him anymore.
Can't blame him anymore.
The attacking mob, described by witnesses as area residents, forced marchers to take shelter inside the huge cathedral complex. Attackers also showered the protesters with rocks from the roofs of nearby buildings, according to witness Ibrahim el-Shareef.
At least 21 people were injured.
Riot police fired tear gas to quell the rioting. Several tear gas canisters landed inside the cathedral’s grounds, causing a panic among women and children who attended the funeral.
Video footage aired live on the private ONTV network showed young men on the roof of a building adjacent to the cathedral firing handguns toward the compound.
The four Christians, along with a Muslim, were killed in clashes Saturday in a town north of Cairo....
