While celebrating the feast, they suddenly closed their eyes and opened it to see a wondrous light leading to the face of God. I am talking here about the martyrs of the Churches of St. George in Tanta and St. Mark in Alexandria. They were killed on Palm Sunday to celebrate the Easter in heaven. In these days, we celebrate the joyful resurrection of Jesus Christ which was a turning point in the history of mankind. However, evil terrorism has used this wonderful occasion to kill and demolish in the name of God. Several terrorist attacks against Coptic Churches have tried to incite hatred, sectarianism and extremism between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. Yet, Christ faced such evil saying: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heavenâ€
Death has always been the end of life. Thus, many people fear it as evil and hateful destiny. Those who love the earth hate death above all. Jesus Christ gave us many marks of the end of earth and said: “So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is nearâ€. (Luke 21: 31) Here we must emphasize that trials and tribulations increase the faith of Christians. I remember here the terrible scene of slaying Coptic martyrs in Libya in 2015, which came after a series of torture in order to force them to change their faith. They were forced to carry heavy sand bags and walk for long time after being stripped off under the heat of the sun. They believed the words of Jesus Christ when he said: “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! (Luke 12:4-5)
In the framework of the "Active Citizens" initiative, organized by the British Council in Aswan, Egypt, 7 countries participated when four blind Egyptian girls talked about their experience within the initiative« a challenging step ».
Aya is supposed to be Mahmoud Hassan Mubarak's wifenot too sure if the traditions of Terrorists = Fanatic Muslims = Muslims who transilate Koran verses their own way to justify killing even suwicide isn't suicide banned by GOD? What you call EXPLODING YOURSELF? Well lot of bla bla followed Osama Kamal interview to Aya on dmc and I wonder why? Is she banned by the public from expressing her views just for being a terrorists wife? Is she blacklisted just beause of that or some malicious minds think she was covering his terror acts! There are namy angles to look throughtout a terrorist life some requested to interview his whole family some exreem views to procecute them cause they failed to raise him right!
Although Easter is tomorrow, I want to express my condolences, not my congratulations to all the loved ones and friends of the martyrs of Tanta and Alexandria, after terrorists bombed the two churches on Palm Sunday, leaving more than 50 dead hundreds injured. Also, I believe that cancelling the Easter Celebration was the right decision from Pope Tawadros. I don’t think that celebrating Easter shows respect and sorrow for the people enduring this horrible attack.
The Coptic Christians really appreciate martyrdom and many of them hope one day they will go to heaven as martyrs. This fact coincides with the terrorist attacks that have been targeting Coptic churches for years at feasts to turn the prayers into funerals and the celebrations into mourning. As a Copt, I should say that losing one’s life is considered heavenly gift for the martyr, and we have always been proud that the Coptic Church has offered a lot of martyrs since its very beginning. I believe such appreciation to martyrdom in the Coptic Church comes as sacrificing one blood was considered the greatest offering and sacrifice to make. However, I believe that there are even greater sacrifice and continues suffering that can be more painful than martyrdom.
The blood of Coptic martyrs in Tanta and Alexandria colored the branches of palm that were prepared for the celebration of the feast last Sunday. There is a serious security failure by the security services in Gharbia and Alexandria as they did not intensify the security measures and take all precautionary measures to secure the churches during such Christian celebration, especially at the church in Tanta where an explosive device was dismantled couple of days before the attack. Moreover, one week earlier, another terrorist attack occurred in Tanta at a police training camp, which proves there is a serious security negligence.
Salafis and some scholars of Al-Azhar used to attack Christians and their beliefs without accountability. The state has not taken most reports against those fanatics seriously. The president has called several times about renewal of religious discourse, but the government has cooperated with the fanatics and let them manipulate minds of the people and call the Copts infidels. In fact, the president has to remove the Sheikh of Al-Azhar since the current curricula produced suicide bombers who believe they do the right thing by killing themselves to murder innocent people.
I do not know if the president will refuse to meet the families of the martyrs until he names the terrorists who carried out the attacks against the Coptic churches on Palm Sunday. However, he may name directors of security and senior officials on charges of complicity by negligence. The truth is that the terrorists would have never succeeded without such negligence and failure. I also remember here the hero of police forces who saved hundreds of Egyptians by sacrificing his blood, namely officer Emad RAkaiby.
After the horrible Palm Sunday terrorist attack, I've noticed many people attacking our beloved Pope Tawadros for supporting Sisi and sharing in the responsibility for what is happening to the Copts in Egypt. It Is irrational to attack Pope Tawadros especially in this time. We need to show our solidarity, not attacking our Pope becuase he has chosen to support the State not the Regime, regardless of who becomes president after this.
I wonder is it Syria next Iraq in CIA or MI and European intelligence agenda? Big head line news Bashar El Assad used bombs Internationally FORBIDEN! True Pentagon alerted Putin who definitely alerted Bashar which explains how a Syrian air base bombarded and ONLY 5 people died! A whole Syrian airbase accused of bombing civilians with gas bombs Internationally banned is run by 5 guys? Or it is the introduction to a new massacre like the one that took place several years ago in Iraq? Many more questions rises as you listen to the news and the international reaction moreover when you hear the Syrian news commentator accusing Bashar of that massacre caused by USA rockets you wonder is she really a Syrian lady or just an actress to escalate mayhem on Syrian regime?
As the expression “Copts of the Diaspora†has bad reputation in Egypt, some people called to replace it by “Egyptians of the Diaspora†to describe the Coptic community in the West. Indeed, they are true Egyptians even if they live far away unlike those who live in an Egyptian soil and know nothing about belonging to this land and are willing to destroy this country and divide it for the sake of fanatic ideas. In his meeting with representatives of the Egyptian community in America, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi called the Egyptian community in America to support their homeland in such difficult time, and I am sure they are going to.
What happened to Egypt, which was the first to know and teach civilization? This country was the first to liberate slaves, abolish slavery and the tribute created by the invading Arabs. Egypt has lost its moderation after the defeat of 1967, which was accompanied by the migration of Egyptian labor to the Saudi Arabia to learn Wahhabism. After Sadat came in power, he called himself the faithful president and promised to destroy Christianity in Egypt. He collaborated with extremists who spread fanaticism in Egypt and converted Islam into racist and sectarian religion that hates the others and persecute them. Such sectarianism expanded to call all different Muslims infidels as long as they are not Wahhabi. The truth is that terrorism all over the world is related to Wahhabism. Yet, the same ideology is taught to students in Al-Azhar University.
Everybody in Egypt is talking about the visit of Egyptian president to America and what will he discuss with the American president. Yet, I believe that Donald Trump will take a different path as he prefers. According to the statements of Stephen Beecroft, the American ambassador in Egypt, and how he sees the relations with Egypt I can tell that the Americans are working hard to strengthen the relations with the Egyptian regime that they appreciate and support.
Teresa May finished her plot to take out Britain from the European Common Wealth … great but just like Britain I wish Egypt gets out of the Arab world... Egypt since ever was created by Pharaohs ruled by them had nothing to do with Arabs or Saudi Arabia! It all started with the Islamic Invasions when they decided to imitate /crusaders and spread Islamic religion over the edge of the sward! Either you become Muslim or you get killed! Obviously this policy did not succeed as Muslims that become Muslims due to their fear on their lives they were to firsts to exit Islam once the sward was off their necks!
Lately, many accidents involving poison has been happening to Egyptian children after eating their school meal. However, the Egyptian Parliament has been dealing with this accident as if nothing happened. It appears the children are not important enough to question the Minister of Education, or at least investigate the incident. As an avid follower for all Parliament-related news, I believe this is incredibly horrible, and something that will stain Egyptian’s history as a terrible occurrence, and shame. This Parliament is composed of security personnel hand-picked, not by
The disappearance of a Coptic minor girl has recently become a normal incident in Egypt. Thus, it was not strange to hear that a Coptic minor girl called Marina Nashaat has disappeared recently in mysterious circumstances and there was no real investigation concerning her disappearance as reported by her father. However, there were several strange attacks against Coptic women that occurred this week including two slaying attempts and kidnap attempt to a Coptic minor girl from her house by hundreds of people under the sight of the police. Furthermore, it is very strange that these attacks were somehow connected to covering their heads by hijab as this is the main way to differentiate between Christian and Muslim women in Egypt along with cross tattoo or necklaces. Two Coptic women were attacked with white weapons, one of them in Warraq and the other in Mansiet Nasser, and both were not covering their heads indeed. Yet, they were lucky to survive the savage attack and the matter is currently under investigation by Egyptian police.
In Nag Mohidat, Luxor, the sedition decided to attack the beautiful city that was chosen the capital of Arab culture and is full of Pharaonic temples. This city is full of tourists and history as it has always been capital of art, science and ethics. The sedition of Mohidat came with rumors that the Christian girl Amira Girgis, 17 years old, has converted into Islam before on of the Sheikhs in her small town. The rumors assured that her father has moved her from her from house to an unknown place. Dozens of people headed to her house demanding her father to hand her over to them where to find her. They assured that their new Muslim sister is married to a Muslim young man called Ibrahim, 19 years old.
Groups of Muslims in Luxor demonstrated demanding a Coptic family to hand over their daughter claiming she converted into Islam and got married to a Muslim young man. On the other hand, Copts say the Muslim young man is trying to force their daughter to convert into Islam and marry him. Yet, the Muslims insist she has already converted into Islam and her family is hiding her. However, the Muslims don’t have any prove or documents she married this man or converted into Islam.
Others
The birth of Christ was a reason for progress of all humankind and taught humans to move from pride to humility. Christ the God became man and was born poor to teach us humility.