(Mariz Tadros is a fellow at the Institute of Development Studies of the University of Sussex in Great Britain.)
On the afternoon of January 6, a number of youths found a suspicious-looking cardboard box inside the Church of St. Antonious in the Upper Egyptian city of Minya. From its appearance, the box seemed to contain explosives, so the youths slowly removed it from the church, placing it in the middle of the street. They then phoned the police, who arrived immediately and whisked the box away.
Why did these young men take the risk of handling a container they thought might blow up at any minute? According to them, they did so out of concern that security forces might not respond with celerity to a threat upon a church, but would definitely rush to the scene if the threat were posed to the public at large. And there was another reason: The parishioners wanted the incident to be registered, openly, so that it cannot be denied, written off as the work of vivid imaginations and consigned to the dustbin of undocumented history. Nothing more has been heard about the suspect parcel to date. Irrespective of the package’s actual contents -- or what the Egyptian Ministry of Interior later announces them to be -- the incident in Minya is telling of the deep distrust that Coptic Christians in Egypt bear toward the security forces and their commitment to serve and protect, irrespective of religious affiliation.
Coptic Christians weep under the broken remains of a sign celebrating "2011" Sunday in the blood-spattered Saints Church in Alexandria, Egypt. Just after a New Year's Mass, 21 worshippers were killed and about 100 wounded in an apparent suicide bombing. (Associated Press)
Radical Muslims detonated a car bomb outside a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt, on Saturday, killing 21 and wounding many others. The White House condemned the attack as a "barbaric and heinous act" but - true to form - remained silent on the jihadist motives of its perpetrators.
Christmas and the New Year were marked by two bloody and ominous attacks on Christian worshippers in Iraq and Egypt. On December 30th, in Baghdad, at least two Christians were killed and nine wounded in a string of six attacks on Christian homes. The areas targeted were predominantly Christian areas, and the homes attacked were specifically Christian homes. And, on new Year's Eve, an even more lethal attack resulted in the massacre of over 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians in the ancient city of Alexandria.
The Muslim terrorists behind the New Year church massacre in Alexandria, Egypt, must be laughing their heads off as they see and hear an increasing number of Egyptians and Arabs point an accusing finger at the Mossad and Jews.
What is disturbing is that these allegations have now made their way to the mainstream media in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world.
We’ve heard outlandish allegations of Islamophobia sweeping America. Not getting nearly as much attention is the bloody persecution of Christians in parts of the Muslim world.
Every report of an Islamist terrorist plot is accompanied by a chorus of warnings against Americans hating or attacking Muslim Americans. Yet, that much-ballyhooed bigotry almost never seems to arise. The latest FBI hate crime statistics, for 2009, found that 8.4 percent of the 1,575 victims of anti-religious crimes were attacked because of anti-Islamic bias. In contrast, 71.9 percent of the victims were Jews.
President of the European Parliament: Buzek on the deadly blast at Egyptian church Warsaw/Brussels
The President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek sends his condolences and support to the families of the victims following the car bomb explosion outside a church in the north Egyptian city of Alexandria after the New Year's service last night. According to news wires the blast killed 21 people and injured at least another 43.
Laments Violence That Targets Christians, Affects Whole Population
VATICAN CITY, JAN. 6, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The Jan. 1 bombing at the Coptic Church of the Saints in Alexandria that claimed the lives of 21 people leaving Mass is a "despicable act of death," says Benedict XVI.
Coptic church bombing in Egypt: Mubarak must prosecute
Minority Christians -- called Copts -- rightly complain that no one goes to jail for religious attacks on them. Egypt and other countries must reverse this practice of impunity for perpetrators.
Strong condemnation of the deadly New Year’s bombing at a Christian church in Egypt has come from where it counts most: religious and political leaders of this predominantly Muslim country.
Rise of radical Islam threatens Mideast Christians with extinction
As Americans celebrate Christmas in peace in our nation, many Christians across the Middle East are in peril: Muslim fanatics seek to exterminate them.
Over the past several years, Christians have endured bombings, murders, assassinations, torture, imprisonment and expulsions. These anti-Christian pogroms culminated recently with the brutal attack on Our Lady of Salvation, an Assyrian Catholic church in Baghdad. Al Qaida gunmen stormed the church during Mass, slaughtering 51 worshippers and two priests. Father Wassim Sabih begged the jihadists to spare the lives of his parishioners. They executed him and then launched their campaign of mass murder.
Has America’s obsession with this region been worth it?
Dec 29th 2010
THE Middle East holds a giant chunk of the world’s energy reserves, and also generates its biggest political headaches. Small wonder that the United States has long had an outsize interest in the place. Since September 11th 2001, and the rise of radical Islam as the sole violent challenge to an American-shaped international order, America’s focus on the region between the Nile and the Indus rivers has been obsessive. Yet all the attention would seem to have been in vain. America’s influence has dwindled everywhere with the financial crisis and the rise of emerging powers. But it seems to be withering faster in the Middle East than anywhere else.
Scholar Daniel Pipes says Americans must stand up to Islamists and encourage a 'moderate, neighborly' Islam | Marvin Olas
Daniel Pipes founded the Middle East Forum in 1994. The author of 12 books, with a Ph.D. in medieval Islamic history, he is the most prominent American scholar of radical Islam; even CBS said he was "years ahead of the curve" in identifying the radical threat.
Many people associate Islam with terrorism, but you also examine a long-term threat that would be peaceful but transformative. In this country, mostly because of 9/11, we focus on terrorism, but in Europe the discussion is much more about immigration and culture. They say, "Unless we make changes, our civilization will disappear." Demographics, culture, and religion may make Europe an extension of North Africa, with attractions like the Mosque of Notre Dame in Paris.
Egyptian Court Discrriminates against Coptic Community. 21 YO man denied fair trial
Assad Elepty
Dear President Mubarak,
In light of your recent speeches in Egypt, promoting a society free of religious discrimination and equality for all Egyptian citizens, I would draw your attention and request your personal intervention with regard to the following.
The cross is near extinction in the ancient lands of its origin
By Jeffrey T. Kuhner
An Iraqi policeman stands guard at the scene of a car bomb attack in front of a Syrian Catholic Church, in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday Nov. 1, 2010. Islamic militants held around 120 Iraqi Christians hostage for nearly four hours in a church Sunday before security forces stormed the building and freed them, ending a standoff that left dozens of people dead, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
As Americans celebrate Christmas in peace in our nation, many Christians across the Middle East are in peril: Muslim fanatics seek to exterminate them.
Egypt's Coptic Christians struggle against institutionalised prejudice
Clashes with security forces, triggered when the building of a church was halted, makes the sect feel strangers in their own country
Coptic Christians protest against the halting of work on St Mary's church in Giza. Photograph: Mohamed Omar/EPA
Christmas is coming in Giza, but the neighbourhood is far from festive. The road to St Mary's, the half-built church in the neighbourhood of Al-Talbiyya, is strewn with giant clumps of concrete – all torn from the four-lane highway that towers above.
Priest says Muslim extremists want to rid Middle East of Christians
Cairo, Egypt, Dec 19, 2010 / 06:02 pm (CNA).- An Egyptian priest has explained that radical Muslims are trying to rid the Middle East entirely of Christians, who once comprised the largest religious group in the region.
“يسوع المسيح إلهنا الحقيقي الذي أتي من أجل خلاصنا متجسدا“
As the writer writes down these few lines, it is Advent season and Christians all over the world - depending on their denominational affiliations - will celebrate the birth of Christ the Lord on December 25, 2010 or January 7, 2011. The writer would like to extend his greetings and best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to all the readers and their families.
The Second World War witnessed the continuing growth of the Muslim Brotherhood, which developed under Hassan al-Banna’s leadership into an Islamist mass movement. It had become the largest Islamic society in Egypt and had set up affiliates in Sudan, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and North Africa. Aiming to establish an Islamic state under the slogan ‘The Koran is our constitution’, the Brotherhood preached strict observance of the tenets of Islam and offered a religious alternative to both the secular nationalist movements and communist parties in Egypt and the Middle East – forces which were becoming the two major challengers to British, and US, power in the region.
Muslim Genocide of Christians throughout Middle East
ICC Note:
Hudson New York reports that, “Christians in Arab countries are no longer being persecuted; they are now being slaughtered and driven out of their homes and lands.” The article highlights the persecution of Christians in Iraq, Egypt and the Palestinian territories.
By Khaled Abu Toameh
11/26/2010 Middle East (Hudson New York) – It is obvious by now that the Christians in the Middle East are an “endangered species.”
Christians in Arab countries are no longer being persecuted; they are now being slaughtered and driven out of their homes and lands.
Muslim Cleric Anjem Choudary has openly called for the implimentation of Sharia law in the United States as well as the United Kingdom. Even though he is a citizen of the United Kingdom, Choudary claims that he is a man of Islam only and not a citizen of any country. His law is of the Sharia and not of any one particular country.
Choudary is the spokesman and leader of Islam4UK. Islam4UK has since been banned by British authorities for inciting violence in support of the Sharia. On its website, Islam4UK described itself as having "been established by sincere Muslims as a platform to propagate the supreme Islamic ideology within the United Kingdom as a divine alternative to man-made law" to "convince the British public about the superiority of Islam...thereby changing public opinion in favour of Islam in order to transfer the authority and power “. Choudary has declared that the flag of Islam will one day fly over the White House.
