Posted on 01/05/2013 11:08:23 AM PST by marshmallow
Coptic Christians will celebrate Christmas on Monday, and many will do so outside their native Egypt. Since the revolution there, their future in the country has looked uncertain, and many are resettling in the United States.
Their population in the U.S. may have grown by nearly 30 percent, according to rough estimates. One church that has felt its membership swell with new arrivals from Egypt is in the Queens borough of New York. St. Mary and St. Antonios Coptic Orthodox Church boasts more than 1,000 members, according to Father Michael Sorial. Egyptian Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas Nativity Liturgy, the start of Christmas, at the Coptic Orthodox Church of St. George in Brooklyn last January.
Egyptian Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas Nativity Liturgy, the start of Christmas, at the Coptic Orthodox Church of St. George in Brooklyn last January. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
"I would say probably in the past two years, our community has, if not doubled, quite possibly more than doubled in size," Sorial says.
The story is the same at churches around New York, New Jersey and Southern California, the centers of Coptic life in the U.S. since the early 1970s. Nationwide, researchers estimate that as many as 100,000 Copts have joined a pre-revolution population of around 350,000.
They're leaving continued instability in Egypt uncertain economic prospects combined with ongoing violence.
Mariana Bolis is from Assiut, Egypt, home to a big concentration of Copts. Her father was a victim of this violence.
"He was a priest, and he was killed at home. So after this accident, I decided to leave Egypt and to go anywhere," Bolis says.
They call it an accident, but the family is clear about what happened: They say he was murdered by Muslims.
Bolis arrived in Queens with her husband and two children in mid-October.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
It's time to stop calling it a religion. Just a bunch of ignorant followers of a cult of death.
Any Christian with the means to leave Egypt had better do so —and soon.
The Copts are welcome here. The entire state of New Jersey should be cleaned out and they should be set up there.
Their persecutors in the cult of death should be permanently banned from the USA and all civilized countries.
>>Under Obamas rule, I am not sure how safe the US is going to be for Christians - Coptic or otherwise.<<
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula is in prison for a “video” that started a demonstration in Benghazi.
Initially I felt it would be Israel that would accept them. Now, after becoming more enlightened, I'm not too sure Israel is the place for them. IMO, the faithful in America should rise up, provide assistance, and welcome these fellow believers, as would Jews welcome their brothers and sisters to the land of Israel.
I believe this is an important development and a sign of the times we're living in. Thanks for posting.
Actually, it has finally been admitted by the State Department that the video had nothing to do with the Benghazi attack and there was no demonstration before the assault.
Exactly. Obama fabricated a story to cover his butt in the Benghazi massacres, and Basseley, a Coptic Christian, was the patsy. Message: Christians are expendable.
Kabukki theatre.
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