Posted on 02/08/2016 9:53:19 AM PST by NRx
After Egypt President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi apologised for not finishing the reconstruction work of Christian properties damaged in the aftermath of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's ouster in 2013, the engineering unit of the Armed Forces immediately started cooperating with Coptic authorities to wrap up the pending renovations, religious Coptic figures said.
While visiting Cairo's St. Mark Cathedral on Christmas Eve, El-Sisi apologised to the country's Christians over the delay in the completion of renovations, which he says will be done by the end of 2016.
The churches undergoing renovation were attacked in August 2013 on the day of the dispersals of pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo, with the ensuing hours seeing sectarian attacks against Christians in Upper Egypt, where the Coptic population is relatively large.
El-Sisi, who was defence minister at the time, immediately announced that the Armed Forces would pay the costs of renovating and rebuilding all churches damaged in the attacks, which lasted over 12 hours.
In October 2013, the Egyptian Family House called for an initiative to renovate the damaged houses of worship and opened a bank account to receive donations.
The Family House is an authority launched by Egypt's Al-Azhar -- the country's highest Muslim Sunni authority -- and all Egyptian churches immediately after the deadly 2011 bombing of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria, one of the most infamous attacks on churches in the country's modern history.
The Family House's mission is to unite Muslim and Christian Egyptians to ease sectarian strife.
Safwat El-Bayadi, the former head of Egypt's Evangelical Church and a member of the Family House, told Ahram Online that "unfortunately, we only received EGP 9 million and $8,000 since the initiative started, which is a very small amount of money in relation to the damages."
Restoration work sponsored by the Armed Forces will cost some EGP 200 million ($25.5 million).
"I appreciate so much the president's promise to continue the restoration process this year," said Bishop Macarius of Minya in a phone call with Ahram Online.
He also thanked "the Armed Forces for their effort in renovating the churches to return them to the way they were before the attacks, or even better, and also the efforts of the Muslims who protected churches from attacks and provided refuge for their Christian neighbours to save their lives."
"14 August 2013 marks the worst attacks in the Church's modern history, as all Christian lives were threatened," Macarius added.
"They lost their properties in seconds, but thank God despite all the sectarian incidents and discrimination, Christianity in Egypt not only remains, but flourishes."
Although Christians only make up roughly 10 percent of the Egypt's 90 million people, many Islamists blamed Copts for the massive, nationwide protests that preceded Morsi's ouster on 3 July 2013.
The attacks following the dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins targeted churches and Christian religious institutions, as well as Coptic-owned properties including six Christian schools, 60 houses, 85 shops, three hotels and 80 vehicles.
A number of Christians were also killed in the attacks.
According to a report issued by Coptic rights group Maspero Youth Union (MYU), supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which Morsi hails, destroyed and set fire to around 65 Churches. Some these churches, according to the report, dated as far back as the fourth century.
Bishop Pimen of Upper Egypt's Naqada and Qus villages, who is also the head of the crisis committee of the Coptic Orthodox Church, said the engineering unit of the Armed Forces has set a three-stage plan to renovate and rebuild the churches, monasteries and other institutions.
"The first stage, which included 20 churches with renovations costing EGP 70 ($8.9) million, and the second stage, which included 21 churches costing EGP 9.5 ($1.2) million, are already finished," he said. "Now we are working on the third stage, which includes 24 churches at a cost range of EGP 118-125 ($15-16) million."
"There are criteria in choosing the churches for each stage based on the security conditions and the level of damages," Pimen added. "The first stage included completely devastated churches that needed a lot of work. This has led to the delay of the second stage, which included less damaged churches."
Evangelical pastor Refaat Fekry told Ahram Online that the number of Evangelical churches damaged in the attacks was less than Orthodox churches.
"In the first and second stages, the armed forces restored four churches," he said. "We now have three churches and a church-owned boat to be restored in the third stage."
Father Botros Danial, president of the Egyptian Catholic Cinema Centre, said "two churches and a school have already been rebuilt, and we still need to restore two other churches in the third stage."
Any yet Obama, who mentions tolerance and inclusion at the drop of a hat, still views this guy as the enemy. He’s not perfect but he’s exactly what Egypt needs — brutally cracking down on Muslim zealots while protecting and restoring Christian minorities who have been savaged by the Islamic zealot mobs.
NOT ENOUGH is being said about Hillary's despicable support and adoration for Mohammed Morsi of Egypt!
The ultimate reason for this is the high level military-to-military relationship we’ve had with Egypt going back decades. A great many Egyptian officers come here, are trained, and exposed to our ideals of tolerance and freedom. It’s really the primary thing that has enabled moderation in Egypt.
Good news!
More would be Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood terrorist thugs suffering the execution of their sentences upon them.
Justice delayed is justice denied.
They've been protecting Copts, encouraging tolerance and secularism, and fighting the Muzlim Brotherhood hard since Nassar. You do realize it was radical Muzzies who assassinated Sadat, don't you ?
An assassination that triggered a major crackdown on Muzzie radicals of all sorts followed by an increased acceptance of foreigners. Our connection to Egypt was to pay Sadat for making a deal with Israel and compensate for the cut in what the Saudis were giving them because they were against Egypt making that deal.
In addition, the US funding, training, and egging on the MB radicals who took over the country only to be thrown out by the military so recently has destroyed any good will the US built up over decades there. Egypt is back to where it was when Nassar went Medieval on the MB and their ilk meaning that only a few notable radicals who are protected by none other than the US are still walking the streets, and they're looking over their shoulders. Even with all the aid the Saudis give them, they've thrown out notable Saudi clerics and cracked down on their schools.
Great ideals from us ? Please, we've proved to them time and time again that whatever ideals we espouse, that's all we do, espouse them, not live by them. We had a good shot at a solid ally in the Egyptians and we blew it big time. Any garbage about our being a shining example for them is nothing but pure 100% BS.
I have relatives who have lived and worked there going on twenty years. When they had to be escorted to and from work by the military and the school their kids attended was protected by the military due to the US backed MB government making threats, that was an example of the ideals the US was showing the Egyptian. The ideal that when the US thought backing the radicals like the MB who promised to slaughter a few hundred thousand "unfaithful" Egyptians was in our best interest we'd do it in a heartbeat, screw all the promises and commitments we'd made to help fight radicals in Egypt and elsewhere.
Political expediency and just how little our commitments are worth, that's what the US has demonstrated to Egypt.
Did you think that only began recently or aomething?
After all, it was largely the U.S. trained military that threw the MB out of power.
While they see the people of the US one way, they don't trust the US a bit any more. That's the point, whatever good they pick up about the US people is destroyed by the way we deal with Egypt.
That crap about the US trained military throwing the MB out is just that, crap. The Egyptian military was told in no uncertain terms that they were not to intervene in politics to throw out the MB and that there would be consequences if they did intervene. IOW, they were supposed to just chew the chit sandwich the MB politicians (funded, aided, and backed by the US) handed them just like the US military always has.
The real "After all" is that it was largely in part US trained military who ignored and rejected their US training as it related to the role of the military who threw out the MB, not a group of shining examples of what they get here in the US from the US military.
You apparently "don't have any idea" about an awful lot of things.
Right. They were told not to throw out the MB by the pro-MB current U.S. government led by Barack Obama.
The problem for Obama was that many of those officers had been exposed to how religious tolerance can make a country stronger, and on the opposition to Islamic radicalism they learned here over decades.in that sense, they had developed much like the Turkish military.
So, when they saw the nutbags of the MB take over and try to push their country into a more radical direction, they resisted. Eventually, what they'd learned about building a stronger nation over here trumped the garbage orders Oba had given them, and so they told d out the MB.
I've personally been involved with training/working with some of those officers, and they're the best pro-western faction in that entire nation. Which is why they decided to ignore that anti-western schmuck Obama.
If you choose not to believe that, fine.
Thanks for permission to believe the facts rather than the glossy brochures.
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You got that right.
When we were living in the middle east for five years we took TWO trips to Egypt...we loved it so much.
Of course, we were tourists and thus got to see the best all the time. We did see the poverty but it was all right since the Egyptians SEEMED content.
Egypt's poverty was far easier to see, smell and hear than the Indian and Chinese poverty. It was easier than Mexico City's as well. I lived there two years when I was in my mid-late twenties.
After Egypt President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi apologised for not finishing the reconstruction work of Christian properties damaged in the aftermath of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's ouster in 2013, the engineering unit of the Armed Forces immediately started cooperating with Coptic authorities to wrap up the pending renovations, religious Coptic figures said... While visiting Cairo's St. Mark Cathedral on Christmas Eve, El-Sisi apologised to the country's Christians over the delay in the completion of renovations, which he says will be done by the end of 2016. The churches undergoing renovation were attacked in August 2013 on the day of the dispersals of pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo, with the ensuing hours seeing sectarian attacks against Christians in Upper Egypt, where the Coptic population is relatively large. El-Sisi, who was defence minister at the time, immediately announced that the Armed Forces would pay the costs of renovating and rebuilding all churches damaged in the attacks, which lasted over 12 hours. In October 2013, the Egyptian Family House called for an initiative to renovate the damaged houses of worship and opened a bank account to receive donations. The Family House is an authority launched by Egypt's Al-Azhar -- the country's highest Muslim Sunni authority ...[its] mission is to unite Muslim and Christian Egyptians to ease sectarian strife. Safwat El-Bayadi, the former head of Egypt's Evangelical Church and a member of the Family House, told Ahram Online that "unfortunately, we only received EGP 9 million and $8,000 since the initiative started, which is a very small amount of money in relation to the damages." Restoration work sponsored by the Armed Forces will cost some EGP 200 million ($25.5 million).
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