Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts
Egypt: Christians pelted with rocks, four churches closed as government treats prayer “as a crime” ( This Could Happen Soon In America )
According to the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of Minya, in describing the worsening state of persecution against the Copts in Egypt:
What happened within two weeks, hasn’t happen over years; churches are closed, the Coptic Christians are being attacked and their property destroyed, and there is no deterrent
The walls have been closing in for the historic Coptic Church in Egypt, yet virtually nothing is being done.
they have been pelted by rocks while the government in the southern province of Minya has closed down four churches this past month
Coptic Christians have been fleeing Egypt by the tens of thousands since Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi took over in 2012. After Morsi was toppled by a military coup in 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood blamed the nation’s Christians, and attacks upon them intensified.
Last April, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi declared a state of emergency after an Islamic State attack on two Coptic churches killed at least 43 people.
One needs to wonder what is going on with Sisi, with all his talk against “radical Islam” and his outward verbal support for the Coptic Church. According to the International Business Times:
Christians continue to complain of rampant and systemic discrimination, and they are virtually shut out from the political sphere. All church construction and repairs must be approved by authorities, and Christians in rural areas have frequently been on the receiving end of violent attacks. Human rights groups say crimes against Christians regularly go unpunished.
“Coptic Christians Pelted With Rocks, Four Churches Closed as Government Treats Prayer ‘as a Crime’”, by Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post, October 31, 2017:
Coptic Christians in Egypt have said that they have been pelted by rocks while the government in the southern province of Minya has closed down four churches this past month, much to the protest of the believers.“We stayed silent for two weeks after the closure of a church hoping that the officials would do the job they were assigned to do by the state. However, this silence has led to something worse, as if prayer is a crime the Copts should be punished for. The Coptic Christians go to the neighboring villages to perform their prayers,” the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of Minya said in a statement, as reported on Sunday.“What happened within two weeks, hasn’t happen over years; churches are closed, the Coptic Christians are being attacked and their property destroyed, and there is no deterrent. The bargaining and the balance are usually used under the name of peaceful coexistence. The Copts always pay the price of this coexistence, not the aggressors,” the statement continued.It further called the reaction from Egyptian authorities “disappointing,” and argued that whenever there is an attack on Copts, aggressors are treated with impunity.Coptic Christians have complained that they have been harassed and pelted with rocks at churches, Reuters noted.The Minya security directorate has not yet commented on the statement from the Minya diocese. The government has vowed to protect Christians from violent Islamic attacks on a number of occasions, though Christians have complained that not enough is being done to secure their safety.A number of families who have been forced to flee North Sinai said in a statement in May that they are “suffering” due to neglect.“We are the families displaced from al-Arish to Port Said in February. We are living inside small rooms inside the youth camps and the aid building. We are suffering and none of the officials or the Port Said governor will listen to us,” the statement read at the time.“As time passed, 28 families remained in the camps and aid buildings. Three months passed without any attention from the government or officials in Port Said. The governor then declared that there was a lack of residential houses to transfer the families to, in addition to a lack to jobs, which forced the martyr Nabil Saber to return to Arish, where he was killed — a message to every Copt thinking about returning.”The statement came following a deadly attack by IS gunmen on a group of Copts traveling to a monastery in Minya, which left 29 believers dead and 24 others wounded.Bishop Anba Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the U.K. also recently condemned the killing of priests in Egypt, such as the fate of Samaan Shehta, who was murdered in Cairo by a suspected IS radical……
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