United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
EGYPT 2017 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT
Executive Summary The constitution describes freedom of belief as “absolute” and specifies Islam as the state religion. It also enshrines the principles of sharia as the primary source of legislation, which local lawyers stated creates potential legal ambiguities with regard to the freedom of belief guaranteed in the constitution. The constitution only provides adherents of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism the right to practice their religion freely and to build houses of worship. The government continued not to recognize and restrict Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Bahais. According to multiple sources, authorities continued to detain and physically mistreat former Muslims. Irrespective of religion, authorities also did not apply equal protection to all citizens and sometimes closed churches, in violation of the law, according to multiple sources. Courts charged citizens, including Muslim clerics, with “denigration of religions.” Christians reported discrimination by authorities, especially in rural areas. The government completed rebuilding 78 churches and other church-owned properties which had been destroyed or damaged in mob violence in 2013 and repaired Saints Peter and Paul Church in Cairo after a December 2016 suicide bombing that killed 29 people. It also issued an unprecedented civil marriage license to a Bahai couple with no religious affiliation designated on their national identity card. The government continued its efforts to preserve the nation’s Jewish heritage, including starting work to renovate and protect a historic synagogue in Alexandria. There were incidents of official anti-Semitism and public anti-Semitic statements by Al-Azhar, the country’s primary institution for spreading Islam and defending Islamic doctrine. According to religious leaders, educators, and families, the Ministry of Education made progress in removing language from school textbooks that it said could engender hate toward non-Muslims or promote the view that Islam was superior to other religions. The government-supported Islamic institutions Al-Azhar and Dar al-Ifta, the country’s fatwa issuing authority, continued to debate reforms to Islamic jurisprudence which mandates the death penalty for apostasy from Islam.
Terrorist kills 3 in Belgium with guns of stabbed police officers
A Knife-wielding man stabs two police officers in the Belgian city of Liege, steals their weapons and shoots them and a bystander dead in an attack prosecutors say is terror-related.
Reuters|Published: 05.29.18 , 14:33
A man killed two policewomen and a bystander in the Belgian city of Liege on Tuesday before being shot dead in a gunbattle at a school in what prosecutors are treating as a terrorist attack.
The man was named by public broadcaster RTBF as a 36-year-old petty criminal who had been let out on day-release from a local prison on Monday. It said investigators were looking into whether he had converted to Islam and been radicalized in jail.
Gunshots fired in Belgium
A public prosecutor told a news conference that the man attacked the policewomen from behind with a knife, described as a box-cutter by RTBF, around 10:30 am (4.30 am ET) on a boulevard in the center of Belgium’s third city, near the German border.After stabbing the officers, prosecutor Philippe Dulieu said, the man seized one of their handguns and shot both women dead before walking down the street and shooting dead a 22-year-old man who was sitting in the passenger seat of a parked car.The man then made his way into a high school where he took a woman employee hostage, triggering a major intervention by armed police. Pupils were moved to safety as a gunbattle broke out that sent people in the street racing for cover. Several police were wounded before the attacker was finally killed.“The event is classed as a terrorist incident,” Dulieu said.
Coptic Christian battles prejudice in Egyptian football
Bassem Aboualabass
Agence France-Presse
Alexandria, Egypt | Mon, May 21, 2018| 06:15 pm
Youth members of (AFP/Mohamed El-Shahed)
Mina Bendary dreamed of becoming a professional footballer in Egypt, but found his Coptic Christian name was an insurmountable barrier in the Muslim-majority country.
After a three-year wait, the Egyptian Coptic families of 20 men beheaded by the so-called Islamic State in Libya in 2015 have finally received their loved ones’ remains.
The leader of the Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, accompanied by several bishops, priests and deacons, welcomed the 20 coffins at the Cairo airport on Monday evening, 14th May, with prayers and Coptic chants.
The families finally received their loved ones’ remains yesterday. PICTURE: World Watch Monitor
From there the coffins were transported to the village of Al-Our in Minya province, where the Church of the Martyrs of Faith and Homeland, dedicated to the victims, had been inaugurated in February in anticipation of their repatriation.
Jakarta (CNN)Police believe a husband, wife and their four children carried out the suicide attacks on three churches in Surabaya that left seven people dead, Indonesia's top cop said Sunday.
The attackers included two daughters aged 9 and 12 years old, said Head Gen. Tito Karnavian, the country's highest-ranking police official.
خالد منتصر يتحدى شيخ الازهر على قوله أن يكون قد تخرج من الأزهر إرهابي أو تكفيري واحد
قال الدكتور خالد منتصر عبر صفحته علي موقع التواصل الاجتماعي فيس بوك شيخ الأزهر يتحدي أن يكون قد تخرج من الأزهر إرهابي أو تكفيري واحد وأنا موافق علي كلامه ففعلاً لم يتخرج إرهابي واحد بل تخرج أكثر بكثير و مع احترامي نحن نستأذن فضيلته أن يراجع تلك الأسماء وهل هم من خريجي الأزهر أم من مدرسة الباليه ومعاهد تنسيق الزهور؟! :
د عمر عبد الرحمن دكتوراه كلية أصول الدين
محمد سالم رحال مؤسس تنظيم الجهاد الإسلامي في الأردن كلية أصول الدين .
أبو بكر شيكاو زعيم بوكو حرام شريعه وقانون
أبو اسأمه المصري قائد تنظيم ولاية سينا ء
أبو ربيعه المصري زعيم تنظيم القاعدة بالبصرة شريعه وقانون عبد الله عزام. الأب الروحي لتنظيمات الجهاد الأفغانية ليسانس أصول فقه.
عبد رب الرسول سياف رئيس الاتحاد الإسلامي الأفغاني ماجستير الحديث
برهان الدين رباني ثاني رئيس لدولة المجاهدين في كابول ماجستير في الفلسفة الإسلامية.
7 أقباط يدفعون ثمن التوازنات بعد الاحتجاج على رفض كنيسة بالكومير في “إسنا” غلق كنيسة بعد تجمهر للمتشددين لرفض الصلاة بقرية “الحليلة” في إسنا الكنيستان تم معاينتهما من لجنة التقنين ومخاوف استمرار الغلق مقابل التصالح جلسة صلح بالكومير للإفراج عن المحبوسين ومصير الكنيسة مجهول
عندما نتحدث عن تطبيق القانون العادل، فنحن ننظر بالجانب الأول إلى مصلحة الوطن، والتصدي لكافة المحاولات من قبل التيارات المتطرفة لضرب وحدة الوطن وتفتيت تحالف 30 يونيو لوحدة الشعب المصري، ولكن يبدو أن هناك أمور يجب الوقوف أمامها في الوقت الحالي بعد تزايد وتيرة النعرات الطائفية، والتي أصبحت حديث الأقباط وأثارت حالة من الغضب بشأن تقنين ظاهرة اختفاء الفتيات القبطيات والمطالبة بوضع قانون أو إعادة جلسات النصح والإرشاد الديني للقضاء على أي شكوك بشأن ما يتردد عن الاختطاف من جانب، والثانية هو الاحتجاج على حق الأقباط في الصلاة أو إقامة كنيسة والذي تزايد خلال شهور الأخيرة يمثل ظاهرة في الغلق والاحتجاج على دور عباده قدمت أوراقها للجنة تقنين أوضاع الكنائس، ومنها ما حدث في القبابات وكفر الواصلين بأطفيح بالجيزة والطود مركز أبوتشت بقنا والحاجر والنغاميش بسوهاج والقشيري والكرم بالمنيا وبني منين بالفشن.
يدين اتحاد المنظمات القبطية في أوروبا (إيكور) كافة أشكال جرائم الخطف والاغتصاب والأسلمة القسرية التي تتعرض لها القبطيات وخاصة القاصرات منهن من قِبَلْ جماعات سلفية وأخوانية متطرفة مدعومة من قِبَل بعض الجهات الأمنية المشبوهة وبعض قيادات وشيوخ مؤسسة الأزهر في ظل تجاهل وتواطؤ أمني سافر من قِبَل الأجهزة المعنية.
ويطالب الاتحاد:
الدولة المصرية بتحمل كامل المسؤولية تجاه مواطنيها من الأقباط بتوفير الأمن والأمان لهم وحمايتهم من كافة أشكال العنف والاضطهاد الممنهج ضدهم. كما يطالب الاتحاد بإعادة جلسات النصح والإرشاد سريعاً حفاظاً على أمن وسلامة المجتمع. هذا ويؤكد الاتحاد على تصميمه الكامل على فضح كافة أشكال الجرائم والانتهاكات التي يتعرض لها الأقباط في جميع المحافل الدولية ومنظمة الأمم المتحدة لحقوق الإنسان بجنيف، والبرلمان الأوروبي في بروكسل حال عدم قيام الدولة المصرية بواجبها نحو مواطنيها من الأقباط وحمايتهم.
خطف.. إغراء.. إغواء.. تواطؤ.. قصة حب.. توصيفات متعددة لجرائم اختفاء القبطيات وهناك العديد يحاولون الإنكار، ولكن الواقع يؤكد أننا أمام قضية تحرق وطن وتقسمه بين جاني ومجني عليه، مسلم ومسيحي، ونهاية حزينة للأهالي بل مؤسفة للجاني أيضاً ولكل من شارك فيها لأنه يسمى مُغْتصِب.
القانون المصري حدد سن الرشد ب 21 عاماً وفي حالة اختفاء فتاة أكثر من 18 عاما وأقل من سن الـ 21 يُعاقب الجاني إذا اغتصب فتاة.. وقد يُسمى أحياناً اغتصاب فتاة قاصر برضاها والحكم هنا بين خمس أعوام إلى 18 عاماً سجن، وإذا كانت الفتاة أقل من 18 يعاقب الجانيبمؤبد أو إعدام... هذا طبقا للقانون.
What Had Never Been Said In Saudi Arabia. A First For Tauran
By Sandro Magister
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, has been in the capital of Saudi Arabia since April 13, and will stay there until April 20, thereby repaying the visit made to the Vatican on September 20, 2017, by the secretary general of the Muslim World League, the sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa.
Welcomed by Prince Muhammad bin Abdurrahman bin Abdulaziz, vice-governor of Riyadh, Cardinal Tauran gave at the headquarters of the Muslim League, during his meeting with the sheikh Al-Issa, an address without precedent in the history of relations between Christianity and Islam, not because of the things that were said but because of the place where they were pronounced.
The U.S. military remains mired in countless wars in the Greater Middle East. Ironically – and tragically – it tends to combat Islamists that Washington either armed or birthed.
We, Americans, truly are a strange lot. Our government in Washington – ostensibly representative of "We the People" – speaks of peace, but wages endless war, prattles on about "freedom," but backs absolute monarchs and authoritarian strongmen the world over. A bipartisan array of politicians warns of the evils of radical Islamic (though Islamist is more accurate) terrorism; and yet, truthfully, the US once supported and/or funded those same extremists not too long ago. In some cases, and certain circumstances, it backs them still; until, that is, all those guns are turned on the US military, or those fighters threaten Washington’s (ever shifting) "interests."
Police outside the supermarket in Trèbes, southern France. An armed man initially took eight people hostage. Photograph: AP
An undated picture of Radouane Lakdim. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
A gendarme who exchanged himself for a hostage during the French supermarket siege has died, bringing the number of victims to four. Police shot dead the attacker after a series of attacks claimed by Islamic State in Carcassonne, southern France, that culminated in the three-hour hostage-taking.
Mass inside the Arch Angel Michael Cathedral Asyut, EgyptRFI/ Pedro Costa Gomes
As Egypt's elections kick off on Monday 26 March for the next three days, Rfi goes to the southern city of Asyut, which has one of the largest Coptic populations in the country, to see if efforts by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have been effective in ensuring the safety of the Copts after recent terrorist attacks. Photos by Pedro Costas Gomes.
Egyptian expats participation in presidential elections is historic: Copts for the Homeland
Hend El-Behary
The participation of Egyptians inside and outside the country is a national duty
The president of the General Union of ‘Copts for the Homeland’ Karim Kamal said that the participation of Egyptian expats in the 2018 presidential elections is ‘historic’ and the scene of voters lining up in queues will be recorded in history.
Kamal praised the participation of Egyptians in Gulf countries and the United States saying that the number exceeded all the expectations.
