Today is the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, which is celebrated by Muslims worldwide, but in Egypt is celebrated by both Muslims and Christians. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Prophet Muhammad according to Islamic belief. This annual observance is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The month lasts 29–30 days based on the visual sightings of the crescent moon, according to numerous biographical accounts compiled in the hadiths. It’s clearly an Islamic religious occasion,

I had this discussion with a retired police officer who was talking about discrimination in Egypt based on religion. I said that writing the religion in the national ID card is a dangerous tool to define and target Coptic Christians in Egypt. The man defended the importance of this information on the national ID card assuring that this is very useful to decide where to bury dead people whose families are unknown, whether in Muslim or Christian tombs! Indeed, he was defending the right of the dead to be buried properly! Yet, he forgot that some living people among the Copts don’t have the right to live in their homes at all. This is true with several Copts whom are expelled from their homes for no reason excep

I met with many atheists in the United States of America, and was surprised to find the words "In God We Trust" on its banknotes, which was adopted as the official motto of the United States in 1956. I’ve always wondered which God they mean or accept if many of them don’t really believe in God. Finally, I found it responds to mercy and tolerance rather than any other God or religion. In the Middle East, we have so many religious people that the Egyptian people for example are generally called “religious people”; however, we are losing many beautiful human values and morals including mercy and tolerance, and left those morals and values for the atheists to adopt and apply since they have mercy by nature and apply them away from written commandments.

After ISIS had released a video showing the beheading of the Copts that were kidnapped in Libya, many people denounced the brutality of the extremist group. However, it should be known that the Coptic Church has presented too many martyrs across the history. Coptic years are counted from AD 284, the year Diocletian became Roman Emperor, whose reign was marked by tortures and mass executions of Christians, especially in Egypt. Hence, the Coptic year is identified by the abbreviation A.M. (for Anno Martyrum or "Year of the Martyrs"). The A.M. abbreviation is also used for the unrelated Jewish year (Anno Mundi).

I know that many people all over the world are interested in the Egyptian history and antiquities. However, most of them don’t even know that Christians represent 10 - 15% of the Egyptian population. Therefore, they don’t know to what extent the Copts are being prosecuted in their home country, where they are pretty much ranked as second degree citizens and are discriminated against through writing the religion in the identification card.

Public transportation in Egypt is a good place to chat with people you don’t know, learn more about their lives, and even to fight with them. Couple of days ago, I took the bus. Suddenly, I heard some people arguing about losing Sinai for the