In April 2013, the Cathedral of St. Mark in Abbasiya was attacked and 3 Copts were killed and 84 were injured. The perpetrators were likely searching for weapons in the church or Coptic women who have converted into Islam and are still trapped in the church according to many stories spread by fanatics. They were likely searching for a reason to justify their attacks on Christian houses and churches. Ever since, the fascist regime was collapsing and this attack was a step towards overthrowing the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood. During the transitional period from July 2013 to June 2014, Copts were subject to many sectarian attacks as a price to pay by the Copts for supporting President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, and they are still supporting him.

Recently, I have read a statement from Dr. Baha Abu Shaka, Al-wafd Leader, stating that Muslims a new interpretation for the “ Quran” to be able to face the terrorism. I have tried to think a lot about this statement and I came to a conclusion that I don’t think that a new interpretation to Quran will help at all in this case. I don’t want go to more details of how new interpretation is useless and will not help. In fact, I believe that the only way to face terrorism will be through the education and create new chances and new hope to the coming generation. Egypt needs to invest in education double of what they spent in military and weapons.

Cairo University is one of the oldest and greatest universities in Egypt and its president has always been a prominent Professor. The previous president Dr. Jabber Nassar has taken some bold decision against extremism including banning the head to toe covering of women known as Niqab, and striking religion from official documents inside the university. These decisions were clearly taken to support a civil state in Egypt and cure the disease of extremism before it spreads more and more in the Egyptian body. Few hours ago, the new president of the university was named Dr. Muhammad Othman Elkhosht, professor of philosophy of religion and contemporary philosophy at Faculty of Arts. This man has called for the renewal of religious discourse, and for developing the understanding of Islam as fit to be a modern religion. At the beginning, this gave me a good impression that the man is going to support civil state in Egypt and dialogue between religions.

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.

No one can deny the role of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the 1952 revolution by the free officers who belong to the Muslim Brotherhood. This revolution was used to propagate the Wahhabi ideology in Egypt by developing Al-Azhar and establishing Al-Azhar university where the study was limited to Muslims only. Moreover, the Saudi Arabia opened its doors to the Egyptian workers where they absorbed the cultural backwardness of Wahhabism and spread Hijab, Naqab, beard and jilbab. After the revolution of June 30, Egyptian government has been seeking the blessings of the clerics and worked hard to fight and resist terrorism but due to the failure of the law and the police to face terrorism the National Council to combat terrorism and extremism was established. However, the membership of the church in this council raises many questions concerning the role of the church in terrorism. I believe this membership only aims to use the approval of the church on its decisions and promote this before the whole world. Yet, this can embarrass His Holiness Pope Twadros II and the church before its congregation, especially in the Diaspora.

God has created men and women as equal human being. This emphasis the company, unity and adherence between them as the essence of humanity. Adam was created from dust and Eve was taken from his rips to be made equal to him. This equality does not cancel that both Adam and Eve had different role and function. Therefore, Christ didn t choose a woman among his disciples and messengers. Neither the apostles nor their successors have ordained women as priests. St. Peter called men to (be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life). However, women had no priestly work in the Tent of Meeting of the Old Testament.

There is no doubt that Qatar plays a role in the Middle East region since Arab spring stared and until now. What is this role and is it negative or positive role that what will try to explain in the coming lines. Since the Arab spring started, all the arb nation was thinking that this is the moment to feel the freedom and to practice it, however, few months later we found out that it wasn’t peaceful revolution as everyone was dreaming with.

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.

Dr. Magdy Yaccoub is a modest loving man who is a rare heart surgeon. He gave lessons in love without preaching as Saint Teresa did. His loving heart served the people using little science and much love making him an ambassador to Christ in the work of mercy in the developing and poor countries. He established centers in several countries to treat children and to spread the love of Jesus Christ among the nations. He knows how to follow that voice of Jesus Christ that calls us to be merciful and holy (Luke 6:36) (1 Peter 1:16). Being saints is not limited to working miracles, but also to show mercy and love. Therefore, the name of Dr. Magyd Yacoub may be remembered one day as the saint of mercy.

Every time I try not to write about Nasser and what he called a revolution, the supporters of him provoke me to write about his crimes and forge the history. They claim that Nasser was poor, but they fail to explain how he paid to all singers and artists of Egypt who performed in the wedding of his daughter. Some may claim they didn t receive money for such performance, but even this proves his tyranny and dictatorship. Maybe Nasser was so powerful that he didn t need money. They claim he has built factories, but he only nationalized them and failed to run them later. He didn t plan to develop nationalized industries since he was motivated by class hatred that he instilled in the hearts of everybody. Only the Suez Canal was so important to the whole whorld that he couldn t ruin like other nationalized factories. Yet, he failed to develop and waited for Mubarak and al-Sisi to do so.

When the Egyptian constitution decided to give a positive discrimination to the Copts, the Coptic MPs should have defended the Copts and demanded their needs. Yet, those MPs failed to represent the Copts and claim their rights. The very first law that they should have cared about was the unified law of houses of worship. But they failed to pass a respectful law to protect the Copts. Instead, it became a law to prevent the Copts from building houses of worship or open the already existing closed ones.

Peace is more important than food for the world and our lives since the bible says: Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife. (Proverbs 17:1) Pope Tawadros in his sermon about peace said that sin makes us lose our peace, and this first happened to Adam and Eve. In the Old Testament, Cain killed Abel and lost his peace. This is the way the world loses peace ever since. Therefore, we have to seek peace in our hearts first and then our homes, churches and community.

Many Egyptian when you ask them how you feel in general about your life in Egypt? most properly his or her answer will not be positive. I cant blame any Egyptian especially the poor and the middle class about any negative answer they will say. Having said that, you will find most of the poor people especially from Upper Egypt, very satisfied and say always thank be to God. I can feel both sides.

The blood of the innocent martyrs of the Egyptian armed forces is so precious, but it is shed in Sinai by the terrorists. The soldiers are willing to sacrifice their souls for their country, but there is a big evil plan targeting them in North Sinai. They face armed militants supported by intelligence of foreign countries and organizations that have taken Sinai as the scene of their battles. The brutal terrorist attack on July 7th, 2017, that targeted our soldiers in North Sinai led to the death and injury of dozens of our brave men. There were about 150 terrorists who used guns and anti-aircraft missiles and explosives. They wore clothes similar to the Egyptian army. I wonder: how did they get all the equipments and how did they cross the border with Gaza? Where did they go after the attack?

The New York Times published information on a secret meeting in June 2016 between Junior Donald Trump, and a Russian lawyer who have strong ties to the Kremlin At the beginning he said the meeting was to discuss adoption of poor orphans, but the New York Times said the meeting was about information that hurt Hillary Clinton in the presidential campaign. Soon, Junior Trump said it was really about Hillary which is justified. The meeting was not useful, he added. Moreover, he published emails between him and the Russian lawyer trying to show his good intentions.

The electronics have invaded our lives and threatened our privacy. Seeking unlimited information, we became addicted to technology and fell like Adam and Eve who lost paradise seeking similar false knowledge away from God. We all lose time before modern technology seeking both information and entertainment. Many dangerous games are among our hands to provoke instincts and violence, and make our minds captive to their logic. Moreover, many people fall in sin thanks to social networks. This addiction has become a case of fall and captivity for thought and heart. Therefore, we lose our motivation to do good and show love to other people. Talking with millions of people on Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and Whatsapp should be accompanied by love. This love that we should receive from God first, but we have no more time to do so just like we don t have time to pray or minister.

Lately the church announced to cancel all trips and visits to monasteries due to security reason as mention in the brief statement released by the church lately. What clear is for me that Copts pay the price of their belief in the peaceful time and in the time that the country suffers from political tension.

On June 12th, the Copts celebrated the feast of the holy apostles. This feast commemorates the martyrdom of St. Paul and St. Peter. It is a liturgical feast in honor of their martyrdom in Rome at the end of the first century. Ever since the Christians have been suffering and murdered in the name of Jesus Christ and the Coptic Christians have been no exception. For 20 centuries, the Copts have suffering from intermittent waves of persecution by the Roman and Muslim rulers. Moreover, they were recently called (the primary target and favorite prey) by ISIS. This explains several terrorist attacks against the Copts most of which ISIS has claimed responsibility of. The group also called on its supporters to continue targeting the Copts.

It was very painful to hear about the 17 years old Algerian student Fatima Gholam who was killed in car accident in her way to participate in the reading competition organized by UAE. The poor girl had spent 18 hours in her way to the Algerian capital but she died before she achieves her goal. Fatima Gholam will be the name called on 10 libraries in the UAE to remember the girl that can be called martyr of the books. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid, governor of Dubai, expressed his great sorrow for such loss. However, I salute the UAE and its government for giving great concern to reading and culture, not only through competition, but rather by honoring its martyrs.

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.