We celebrate the Nativity of Christ once a year, but we also celebrate his birth with every new born child. The Virgin traveled with Joseph to register and the prophecies were fulfilled: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel” Thus, the Nativity was linked to a national civil even from its very beginning. And so did the Egyptian churches as they are called Coptic (related to Egypt) before they are called Orthodox, Catholic or Evangelical. Therefore, the Copts rejected all invaders and occupation and participated in all revolutions starting with the revolution of 1804 against the Ottoman occupier and the overthrow of the governor Khurshid Pasha until the revolution of July 30, 2013 against the government of the Muslim Brotherhood.

It was not a good surprised to watch the interview between the Egyptian media reporter Imad Adeeb and the Libyan terrorist Abdel Rahim Mohammed Abdullah Al-Massmari, who killed Egyptian people. The terrorist explained that Prophet Mohammed killed his uncles, and therefore, he doesn t feel bad for killing those infidels! This story made Brigadier General Khalid Okasha, security expert, say that the terrorist organization benefited a lot from this interview. I wonder how come media reporter and a decent television network takes such decision. What are the morals related to such decision?

I spent my life until 1978 defending the working class and the hardworking. From 1987 to 1987, I studied the culture of minorities in the Arab region and wandered among minorities in almost 24 countries, Kurds, Shiites, Amazighs, Nubians, Armenians, Maronites, etc. I realized the suffering of those peoples and returned back to Egypt. I was working then with Abdul Rahim Ali, the famous journalist, to expose the extremist groups all over Egypt. We have reported several massacres of Ezbet Nassarah and of Muharraq monastery, in which 320 people were killed on their Christian identity. It should be mentioned that we were risking our lives then. In 1992, I met with Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim and participated in the establishment of the Ibn Khaldun Center. We also participated in the drafting of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Minorities. I was the first coordinator of the minorities unit in the Arab region. In 1994, we held the Minorities Conference in Egypt and wrote an Encyclopedia of minorities in the region and dedicated a special chapter on the Copts with a respected group of thinkers, including Dr. Mona Makram Ebeid, Dr. Mostafa El Feki, Samir Morcos, Dr. Aly El Din Halal, and others.

The public opinion in Egypt was surprised by the message from Mahmoud al-Alayli, head of the Free Egyptians Party, in which he told a story about a judge who refused to hear a Christian witness and demanded the lawyer to bring a Muslim witness instead.Can a citizen be deprived of one of his civil rights because of his religion? If this is the position of the judiciary against a Christian citizen, how can we complain of the fanatics and extremists among the public! Moreover, how can such fanatic judge issue ruling in other cases related to sectarian strife, building a church or other Christian complaints! I see that the subject is more dangerous than burning churches and blowing them up. It is more important than targeting Christian citizens and preventing them from praying, and it is more important than preventing Christians from taking senior jobs in the state. The issue is about extracting a basic civil right before the judiciary based on one s religion. It should be known that several cases in four where a Christian mother was deprived from custody to her children because their father changed his religion to Islam, which is considered by Egyptian law: the best religion! This is clear in the Islamic books and has been practiced by Egyptian courts for years.

Some people began issuing strange statements in an attempt to escape the crisis of Copts right to pray in Upper Egypt. They accused Bishop Makarios of being responsible for the crisis since he defends his children as if he should have encouraged his children to accept persecution and discrimination no matter what happens! In fact, those people should have called instead to apply the law by officials. 50 years ago, there were only few Christian families in small villages. Yet, those small villages now have hundreds of Christians who need to pray. Those have agreed with Muslims to pray in a house or a hall every week and preventing them was the odd action. Now, with the new law of building houses of worship, it is almost impossible for them to get licensed churches as most of the lands are owned by the state.

It is a crime against Egypt and Coptic relics that made silence no longer possible. Some people who are part of the regime are full of corruption and fanaticism that they threaten the alliance of June 30 not caring about the homeland, the religion or even our history. The Monastery of Abu Al-Daraj dates back to the 4th century. It has several monuments including the well of Abu al-Daraj, which is used by the pilgrimages to Jerusalem. These monuments were documented by the Jesuit Father Maurice Martin after the discoveries of the French archeology mission in 1963 to 2005, which were published by the French Scientific Institute of Oriental Antiquities of the French Ministry of Culture.

One of the sheikhs of Al-Azhar issued a Fatwa that saluting the Copts is a moral impurity. He cited a verse of Quran saying: O you who believe, the idolaters are surely unclean, so they shall not approach the Sacred Mosque after this year of theirs. (Al-Tawba Verse No:28). I decided to research the meaning of "moral impurity" and found that impurity is two kinds: the sensual impurity like all what was prohibited by Islamic Sharia, and moral impurity including lechery, infidelity and idolatry.

Many people think that the reason behind the Qatari crisis is Tamim and his mother, but those don’t consider the economic basis of this country. It is almost the objective equivalent of Israel in the region. It is even more dangerous than Israel since it is able to collect three extreme conflicting parties on its land. It has a military base for America, and another for Turkey, in addition to the experts from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. In short, Qatar has collected what the devil can’t collect by himself! The four Arab states leading the boycott against Qatar have issued a list of demands to Doha, including severing diplomatic ties with Iran and closing down the Turkish military base. Moreover, they demanded the closure of Al Jazeera, the reduction of the Iranian diplomatic representation and the expulsion of members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in addition to stop financing terrorism and terrorist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda and ISIS. However, months have passed and nothing happened.

The terrorist groups backed by the intelligence of Arab, regional and international countries are fighting a war to make Egypt fail by military confrontations with the armed forces, especially in North Sinai, successive assassinations of soldiers and police officers, systematic targeting of Egyptian Christian citizens. Not to mention the attempts to create chaos and incite sedition through the fifth column of militants and the remnants of the Muslim Brotherhood. The question is whether terrorism targets the Copts mainly for their national positions concerning June 30 revolution or for their religious identity. I don t believe there is much of separation between nationality and faith. The Egyptian churches were named Coptic before they carried the name of its denomination. However, the successive terrorist attacks against Copts revealed they are targeted for their faith. Governor of Minya said the terrorists tried to make the Copts declare they believe in Islam before they were shot dead after they refused to convert into Islam. Copts between national and church deprivation, this was the title of a research published 25 years ago. It tells how Egyptian Copts struggled for the homeland, but got no rights in return. This happened through all political revolutions in Egypt starting with 1804 to the revolution of June 30, 2013.

God has never said that faith will be easy, but he has mentioned the difficult conditions and expensive costs to follow him. He also invited us to calculate the maintenance. To be both believer and patriot, this has its impact on the relation between the Coptic church and nation. At the events of Omrania in 2010, the Cairo police assaulted peaceful protesters who were seeking to protect a church under construction, and killed two of the protesters. Demonstrations erupted in front of the administrative building and 154 Coptic Christian citizens were arrested. At that moment, the Coptic youth went out of the churches for the first time in modern history. After the church of the saints were bombed in 2011, demonstrations erupted against Mubarak and his government. On January 25, the first Coptic man who was injured was called Mina Nagy and the first Coptic martyrs in January 28th, Mina Daniel, even before the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood joined the revolution against Mubarak’s regime.

In January 1977, Ahmed Bahaa Eddin wrote an Arab editorial about the critical situation after the glorious victory of October 1973. He warned against several threats that he saw a revolution at hand. The regime clashed with the people and Sadat had to visit Jerusalem following the American Administration to become a basis in our foreign policy and democracy became a fake play in our country. On the other hand, Saddam Hussein led the Arabs to fight against Iran and then occupied Kuwait to face his destiny and get his army destroyed and his country divided. Iraq ever since became a land for civil war and destruction. Then we had our war against terrorism after the Muslim Brotherhood took office in Egypt. The revolution of June 30 came to remove them from power and to demand the Minister of Defense Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to run for presidency and fix the situation.

I was surprised by the statement of the Holy Synod last week in which it decided to celebrate martyrs of the Coptic Church in the modern history on February 15th, which marks the martyrdom of 21 Copts by ISIS in Libya. They chose that day since this is the only time Coptic Christies were killed without the involvement of the Egyptian regime. The regime performed air strike on ISIS in Libya and built a church for the martyrs in their home village. Thus, they didn’t chose the anniversary of other sectarian incidents where Copts were killed based on their religious identity such as the Saints Church, Maspero, St. Peter Chapel, St. George Church in Tanta, or the martyrs of St. Samuel terrorist attack. The statement decided to avoid embarrassing the regime of Mubarak and al-Sisi.

Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt brought seeds of unity and love, but Christians decided to refuse the decisions of unity between Catholic and Coptic Orthodox Churches. Moreover, the dark forces in Egypt decided to beat all the results of this visit by declaring Christianity a corrupt doctrine and declaring Christians as infidels. Statements of Sheikh Salem Abdul Jalil violate the successive constitutions of Egypt starting with 1923 till the current one since they state that Egyptians are equal before the law and enjoy equal civil and political rights. Unfortunately, Sheikh Salem and his supporters didn’t start such attitude, as other Sheikhs like Yasser Bohamy used to issue fatwas that are documented on the official website of the Salafist Call. Yet, the great disaster is that such explanations come out from Sheikh Salem, who was a member of the committees to renew the religious discourse, and Sheikh Abdullah Rushdie, Secretary of Religious Affairs in the Future Party, who have strong ties with the regime, which shows that the attitude of calling the Copts infidels is taking an official form.

I have been watching for a long time the struggles of the Coptic youth movements, especially Maspero Youth Union. I realized that Copts, as a major component of the Egyptian nation, were able to contribute in all Egyptian revolutions (1804, 1882, 1919, 1952, January 2011 and June 30, 2013). Not only they sacrificed their lives and participated in all wars of the Egyptian armed forces, but also sacrificed their churches and properties that were attacked by supporters of the terrorist organization after the dispersal of Rabaa Adawia and Nahda sit-ins. However, their sacrifices did not bring them full citizenship in their home country for many reasons. The church and the Patriarch have represented the Copts instead of their actual presence. Since the founding of the first General Congregation Council in the ninth century, only two councils were completed. Many conflicts between the clergy and the laity deprived the denominational boards its effectiveness. Many secular Copts have been trading on their presence in the General Congregation Council and all official occasions.

As the Egyptian armed forces is waging fierce war against Takfirists in Sinai, terrorists of ISIS have killed six Copts in two weeks taking the number of killed Copts since 2012 to 16 martyrs. This caused panic among them and therefore they decided to flee to Ismailia just like they did in 2012 when a leaflet was distributed giving the Copts 48 hours to leave Rafah or else they would lose their lives. Two Coptic priests were shot dead later. "The state of the Sinai" has always declared its responsibility for the attacks. Such attacks have always been an introduction for forced displacement, which threatens national security of Egypt. I have written five articles about that topic since 2011. El-Arish was founded by Muhammad Ali in 1810 before he faces its very first rebellion in 1831 against his policy to recognize the right of the people in Sinai to own the land. From 1831 to 1950, there were 14 rebellions against the government by people of Sinai.

Forced displacement returned to the scene under auspices of officials and MPs who took an oath to respect the Constitution that prohibit forced displacement. Unfortunately, most Egyptian intellectuals ignore that the majority of Christians live in Upper Egypt where 90 percent of the churches need legalization of their status, and that most of them are built on agricultural Land and don’t have even have ownership documents like most of the buildings there. According to the law No. 119 to build churches, most of these churches will not be approved by the Commission appointed by the Parliament. Islamic houses of worship will never suffer the same giving the fact that more than 150 churches in Minya are closed for security reasons which gives the Copts in these villages that they are oppressed by their government.

The interests have made Russia ignore the Turkish attack against its plane just like it ignored the murder of the Russian ambassador to Turkey. If we think about the Russian Turkish relations, we would discover the mutual interests that are more powerful than blood. We would also discover that these interests have started five centuries ago. Russian-Turkish relations began when Ivan III, governor of Russia in 1492 exchanged letters with the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II on maritime trade between the two countries. The Russian embassy was opened in 1701 in Constantinople. The diplomatic relations between Turkey and Russia started in 1991. Turkish-Russian relations are primarily based on economic ties that prevent any degradation, especially with the existence of “the Supreme Council for Turkish-Russian Cooperation” Russia is considered the most important supplier of natural gas to Turkey, as nearly half of Turkish imports of natural gas and 12% of its oil imports come from Russia. Turkey is a very important trade partner with Russia and the most important tourist place for Russian tourism.

The over reaction to the visit of Abba Makarious, Bishop of Minya, to family of the Coptic man who was killed in police station Magdy McCain in order to offer his consonances in Magdy’s death was very strange to me, especially as the Coptic MP Nadia Henary was there offering her sincere condolences as well. In fact, I didn’t find any official reactions to Coptic clergy against any torture incidents. No religion supports torture, but church has always tried to keep pace with the regimes though they never stopped violating rights of the poor, women and Copts.

Coptic youth are debating over the national and political role in the Coptic Orthodox Church. They realize indeed that the role of their church in building the nation and its participation in all Egyptian revolutions. Moreover, the Coptic Orthodox Church gives great concern to the nation. Its belonging to Egypt is sometimes considered before its faith. The Coptic church is known for belonging to the nation and willing to sacrifice for it. Belonging now means to care for the nation without supporting a certain party or ideology. When people fight a common enemy, the war becomes a national duty just like facing terrorism in all its forms. Many young people don’t realize the national role of the Coptic church. There are almost five generations do not know that the Coptic church experienced democratic struggle for long time

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi returned home after his visit to New York. The church has taken the right decision to support the president, and paid the price for such support, which will be forgotten soon, just like they forgot about aunt Sauad, the Coptic lady that was stripped nude in the streets of Minya. In fact, this was not the first sectarian attack against the Copts and won’t be the last. The Copts are still suffering after they offered many sacrifices for their homeland hoping for better future, and a civil democratic state with a decent constitution.

Egypt and the region is experiencing a critical moment during which we need to talk more than mobilization. We have to discuss our problems without imposing an opinion or guardianship of any party on the others. Coptic Christians have never carried weapons except against the foreign occupation. They care for their land before they think about their religion. Therefore, they are called Coptic Orthodox or Coptic Catholic, or Coptic Evangelist.