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Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has attended the Coptic Christmas mass to mark the first attendance ever made by an Egyptian president to the religious occasion. El-Sisi arrived at Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo's Abbasiya district during the mass and gave a brief speech before leaving instantly. He said that both of Egypt's Muslims and Christians are celebrating this occasion, asserting that they are "one entity" in the world's eyes. He added that he had to come to congratulate the Coptic community and then apologised for interrupting the mass. Video footage broadcast by State TV – covering the full...

Islamist militants have abducted 20 Egyptian Christians in Libya in recent days, a source close to the government said Saturday. The source said the Ansar al-Sharia militia had kidnapped 13 of them on Saturday in the coastal city of Sirte and the rest of them there over the past few days. The identity of those kidnapped was not immediately clear, except that they were said to be Coptic Christians.

Masked gunmen in northern Libya have kidnapped 13 Coptic Christian workers from Egypt, just a week after seven others were abducted. Eyewitnesses in the city of Sirte said suspected Islamist militants went to a residential compound late at night and asked to see identification papers. Christians were then separated from the Muslims before reportedly being handcuffed and kidnapped. It is the latest in a series of attacks on Egyptian Christians in Libya. One witness said 15 masked gunmen went from room to room in the residential complex at about 02:30 local time (04:30 GMT) on Saturday morning. "They had a...

EGYPT – After three years of hard times consequence of political turmoil born at Tahrir Square in Cairo, the Coptic community seems to raise its head. Following an uneasy coexistence with the Moslem Brotherhood, the handing of power to General Al Sissi brings about hope. It seems that many have converted to Christianity, the figures however remaining unknown.Among the Irakis compelled to quit Mossul under pressure by blood-thirsty djihadists of Islamic Caliphates, it is likely that some of them may dream of the Coptic Church, still on its feet despite all the dark years. They hope may be, deep in...

This is odd and surprising. It would seem most likely that the Pope wanted a secretary from the Islamic world to show his favorable view of Islam, and is unaware of Father Yoannis Lahzi Gaido’s previous statements. He will undoubtedly soon find out, however, if he hasn’t already, and what happens then will be interesting. Here is Blazing Cat Fur’s modified Google translation of a German-language article: “The Pope’s new Coptic secretary: Islam is a ‘culture of death,’” Blazing Cat Fur, April 29, 2014 (thanks to Jamal): Pope Francis has a new secretary who speaks Arabic and has very clear...

....Two weeks ago, on April 10, in a manner reminiscent of King’s carefully controlled original unveiling of the fragment, the Harvard Divinity School issued a press release declaring that a “wide range of scientific testing indicates that a papyrus fragment containing the words ‘Jesus said to them my wife’ is an ancient document” and that “its contents may have been composed as early as the second to fourth centuries.” Harvard had given an advance viewing of the test results and an interview with King to reporters for just three newspapers—the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Harvard student...

The first woman elected to head an Egyptian political party expressed doubt over the country’s transition to democracy on Monday, criticizing the interim authorities’ increasing intolerance of dissent. Hala Shukrallah, a 59-year-old Coptic Christian, condemned the security crackdown that has resulted in mass detentions and trials in the months since the military overthrew the Islamist president last July. […] Hundreds of Islamists have been killed and thousands detained. But by the end of last year and with the issuance of a draconian protest law, the appetite for dissent decreased and the clampdown widened to include some of the main figures...

The anti-Christian sentiment of Muslims in Libya has now reached a new, official level; the Libyan government has declared its new constitution will be based on Shariah law. The Libyan General National Congress stated, "Islamic law is the source of legislation in Libya. All state institutions need to comply with this." This is a change from the policy under former Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who allowed Libya's 300,000 Coptic Christians, 5% of its population, to openly practice their faith. Reports assert that a special committee is examining current laws to make sure they comply with Shariah. Patrick Sookhdeo, international director...

Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood planned a series of bombings at Egyptian churches, according to a report in the Kuwaiti paper Al-Watan, according to Channel 10 news. According to the report, the attacks were to take place on Christmas. Terrorists in Sinai had succeeded in gathering explosives for the planned attack. Egyptian intelligence reportedly foiled the plot after discovering communications between the two groups. Intelligence agents also listened in on calls between the Muslim Brotherhood and other Gaza-based terrorist groups. …

Cairo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Egypt's churches came under attack once again yesterday when a procession of students linked to the Muslim Brotherhood attacked the church of the Virgin Mary in Zaytoun , in the eastern part of Cairo, which marks the site of a famous apparition of Our Lady . The group - which came directly from Friday prayers in the mosque next door - clashed with some young Christians, who prevented the Islamists from storming the building. Thanks to the intervention of some passers-by, who calmed the brawl, a more serious incident of violence was avoided, but the...

Mohamed Elibiary recently got a promotion on the Homeland Security Advisory Council -- in another indication of how topsy-turvy the values of this Administration are. "Coptic Leaders Condemn Obama Adviser's Anti-Coptic Tweets," by John Rossomando for IPT News, October 11:Major Coptic leaders are condemning Mohamed Elibiary, an Obama administration Homeland Security adviser, for suggesting that Copts who raise awareness of anti-Christian violence in Egypt promote "Islamophobic" bigotry. Elibiary sent out a series of tweets that Coptic leaders found offensive last month. The tweets appeared to chastise the Coptic community for lobbying on behalf of their relatives in Egypt. He targeted...

There have been questions about Mohamed Elibiary’s true allegiances for years. He was one of the speakers at a December 2004 conference in Dallas titled “A Tribute to the Great Islamic Visionary.” The visionary in question was none other than the founding father of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini.When I questioned him about his appearance at such a conference, Elibiary claimed that he hadn’t known what kind of conference it was going to be, although he didn’t explain why he went ahead and appeared there anyway once he found out. Among those who found this explanation...

Coptic Christians in America are welcoming a flood of refugees who have fled from violence in Egypt and are seeking to pressure the international community to come to the aid of those who are still being persecuted for their faith. Since the April 2011 demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square—and continuing through the military overthrow this summer of Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohammed Morsi—violence against the estimated 9 million Christians living in Egypt has intensified, resulting in an unprecedented number of Coptic Christians immigrating to the United States. Of the approximately 350,000 Copts living in the U.S., almost one-third of those arrived...

One of the last and largest Christian populations in the Middle East faces mounting persecution---and begins to flee. In the aftermath of President Mohammed Morsi’s overthrow earlier this summer, Egypt’s Coptic Church has faced an onslaught of persecution. Pro-Morsi supporters vented their anger by burning Christian homes and shops, and when the military staged an August 14 crackdown on protesters, the repercussions for Copts were enormous and tragic: at least 42 churches were assailed, looted, and demolished. Mobs destroyed Christian convents, orphanages, schools, shops, and homes.This is the culmination of several years of rising persecution for the Copts, whose freedoms...

The Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters have began forcing the roughly 15,000 Christian Copts of Dalga village in Egypt to pay a jizya tax as indicated in Koran 9:29, author and translator Raymond Ibrahim reported on Sunday. Jizya is the money, or tribute, “that conquered non-Muslims historically had to pay to their Islamic overlords ‘with willing submission and while feeling themselves subdued’ to safeguard their existence,” Mr. Ibrahim explained. According to Fr. Yunis Shawqi, who spoke yesterday to Dostor reporters in Dalga, all Copts in the village, “without exception,” are being forced to pay the tax. “[The] value of the...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Killing Copts for Ransom in EgyptPosted By Raymond Ibrahim On September 4, 2013 @ 12:23 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 4 Comments Not only are the churches, monasteries, and institutions of Egypt’s Christians under attack by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters—nearly 100 now have been torched, destroyed, ransacked, etc.—but Christians themselves are under attack all throughout Egypt, with practically zero coverage in Western media.Days ago, for example, Copts held a funeral for Wahid Jacob, a young Christian deacon who used to serve in St. John the Baptist Church, part of the Qusiya diocese...

Just heard on the blaze on Glenn Beck's TV show from a Coptic Priest who keeps in contact with the Coptic Pope in Egypt, the US embassies are turning away Copts. Sounds a hell of a LOT like when FDR was turning away Jewish refugees from Europe.

Christians in Egypt are under the worst persecution by Islamic radicals in recent memory, Syrian believers are displaced in massive numbers and the effort to assist them in both countries goes on despite tremendous upheaval in both nations. Most of the recent attention has been focused on Egypt. Christians have been in the Muslim Brotherhood’s cross-hairs since the 2011 Arab Spring, but the persecution has greatly intensified in the weeks following the July 3 coup that removed Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from power. The violence is a result of radical leaders blaming the coup on Christians. It’s a...

A pogrom against Christians — torching Churches and killing believers — is perfectly consistent with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamic supremacist ideology. But there are many despicable things, consistent with that ideology, that are not on display at the moment. By contrast, the Brothers and their sympathizers are very consciously and very publicly besieging Christians due to a key tactical calculation: In Egypt, framing a dispute as “Islam v. the Enemies of Islam” works.The pogrom tells us more about Egypt than it does about the Brotherhood. It is convenient to make the Brothers into the all-purpose villain here, and to...

In highly anticipated protests to mark the first anniversary of President Mohammed Morsi’s inauguration, millions of Egyptians took to the streets across the country in unprecedented numbers Sunday to demand his removal from office, three years before his term expires. The protests were largely peaceful after days of worries that they would unleash violence between pro- and anti-Morsi camps. But in those places where they came together, the two sides kept their distance, with Morsi’s supporters vastly outnumbered by the president’s opponents. This normally bustling city set aside its usual business what in Egypt is the first day of the...