A new church was closed today in Suhag after many discussions about closing churches and its negative impact on the Coptic public opinion, especially as we are getting ready to the referendum on the Constitution. People forget the number of churches legalized and all steps taken by the regime in the path of citizenship and makes people angry. In fact, such closure is a disgrace on the dignity of citizens and equal citizenship.

Finally, the Sudanne s President Omar al-Bashir forced to step down by his army. This scene looks exactly like the scene happened in Egypt 6 years ago. Army step down a president and forced anther one step down. I have just was reading a book about why some countries are rich and some other are poor, although both of them could have the same potential. The book was explaining that land, labor and natural resources are main factors for production if used rationally.

The monthly statement of the Egyptian Ministry of Finance showed that the number of tourists to the country jumped by 47.5 percent to 9.8 million tourists comparing to the same period in the last year. This good news show that the tourism sector benefited from the improvement of security situation and the floating of the Egyptian pound. Such good news related to tourism sector should increase by activating the Path of the Holy Family tourist project, which is supported by the Vatican. Egypt is the only land outside Jerusalem that was visited by St. Mary and Joseph with Jesus who fled to Egypt to escape Herod.

Growth is a characteristic of spiritual life in order to reach the main goal in our life, which is the eternal life. Thus, His Eminence Bishop Benjamin of Monofia, in his article ‘The Life of Growth’ explained that growth is a characteristic of life in general and spiritual life in particular. Man tries to overcome all what disrupts him according to the saying of St. Paul the Apostle: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead &(Philippians 3: 13) Such pursuit of spiritual growth is the ultimate goal of life. Thus, St. Paul warns us of preoccupation with any other purpose as an alternative to eternal life: ‘Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you’.

I send this message to the Governor of Egypt, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, while he is holding a meeting with US President Donald Trump. I want him to remember the importance and status of Egypt that was mentioned in the holy books and visited by many prophets and scholars throughout history. Mr. President, I want you to remember that Egypt has always been the heart of the heart of the Arab world, and great source of science, literature and art. It has Al-Azhar, Al-Husayn, Sayeda Nafisah, St. Tereze. On its land many great people lived like: Naguib Mahfouz, Abdel Wahab, Mustapha Mahmoud, Sargios, Mustafa Amin, Faten Hamamah, and other religious scholars, pioneers of science, literature and the arts.

Since I have worked for years in higher education and scientific research at the University of Alexandria, one of the oldest universities in Egypt and the Middle East, I am very proud of the positive steps taken by the political leaders in Egypt to promote university education and scientific research in the past few years. In a very successful move, Egypt hosted the World Forum on Higher Education last Thursday under the theme The Future Begins From Here . The conference was organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Egypt under the patronage of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi with the participation of fifty-five different countries of the world. The World Forum on Higher Education comes as part of the Year of Education activities in Egypt is a confirmation that the bright and enlightened future can only be achieved through quality education and modern scientific research.

The Egyptian player Mohamad Salah suffered lately from discrimination from some fans in England. Some fans was trying to see this discrimination is the cause for his week performance. If you live in Europe, you will see some discrimination from time to time but the most important is that you will see some other people refuse this discrimination and defend you and ask for justice.

Historically, the ancient Egyptian king Ahmose led the Egyptians in the battle of Liberation against the Hyksos, the tribes that Egypt and occupied it for nearly a hundred years. When Egypt decided to restore its land, the King Ahmose was the leader of its army that followed them to the borders of Palestine. In the past years, the Egyptian society has been subjected to a serious intellectual and cultural invasion that negatively affected Egyptian identity and ideology after the extremists reached the presidential palace leading to the division of Egyptians following the ugly ideas and retardation that affected the Egyptian society.

One of the researchers specializing in genetics at the Center for Genomics in Zewail University won the L Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award and received it at the closing ceremony in Paris. Minnat Allah Alsirifi is known for being a promising researcher. This year, her research presented new functions of proteins in the treatment of DNA damage, which is a cause of many diseases of the immune, neurological and cancer.

The Egyptian Constitution in Article 1 states that Egypt is a republican democratic system based on citizenship. Citizenship is the relationship between the individual and his state, provided that all citizens are enjoy equality, coexistence and the democratic system through the laws approved by the Constitution. Citizenship in Egypt has gone through multiple stages, which led to the lack of full citizenship rights. However current political system is trying to reach full citizenship; it bears the consequences of the history of incomplete citizenship that the Egyptians faced for many years.

One of the newspapers published its headlines: Egypt Races Time With Recent Archaeological Discoveries . Egypt is one of the world s oldest civilization, and our ancestors and those who came after have left us relics and monuments, commemorating their existence, and great civilization at the time the rest of the world was properly trying to discover clothing. There was many eras in Egypt including Pharaonic Egypt, followed by Persian Egypt, and then the Ptolemies followed by the Romans. Great history that left its impact all over Egypt and the world is still amazed by its antiquities.

If you ever felt there was a decision should be made long time ago and who should make it didn t make it , it means with no doubts that its not taken because it didn t help in a certain way. Egypt went through very tough economic decision in the last 5 years and president Sisi keep telling Egyptian I can t increase your salaries because he claimed that he doesn t enough budget to increase salaries. Suddenly on March 29th, Sisi decided to increase all salaries for all governmental employee and he still didn t explain to us from he could find a budget for this increase suddenly especially with the amendments in the constitution that the parliament discuss for now. In conclusion, No doubt that every citizen needs this increase especially that inflation in Egypt reached its highest rates in decades, however, presidents of Egypt always just give when they need something.

The tragic accident that killed nearly fifty people in New Zealand is a humanitarian disaster by all means. Nobody can accept it, especially Christians, since such attack can only be driven by evil. The assailant being a Muslim who belong to ISIS in Turkey, or a racist atheist who declared his faith in the 73 pages published on his account on Facebook, can t belong to Christianity. If Muslims declare that ISIS don t represent Islam, how can a man who doesn t belong to Christianity represent it.

Sarah Mansour is an Egyptian Oil Engineer who was graduated from the Pioneer School in 2006 before she achieved her dream of being an oil engineer. In the newspapers, she read about a grant by the Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and the Malaysian company Petronas to study oil engineering in Malaysia for five years. She was accepted to the scholarship after 7 years of hard working and receiving a number of prestigious awards including the next generation Lady of the Year Award for Women in Energy. Her company supported her to get the scholarship.

The true prayer is the awakening to the remembrance of God as it is written, "Watch and pray". When the mind wakes up, it doesn t go astray and prefers to stick to the Lord through prayers. Pope Tawadros II in his article entitled "Prayer is our strength" explained that short prayers should include the name of the Lord Jesus Christ unceasingly. Its basic words are: "My Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me the sinner".

Finally president Sisi ordered the government to withdraw the appeal from the court against and give the pension deserved to the old people. No doubt that this step is coming while we are close to amend the constitution so Sisi wants to get some support from the people in that difficult time.

At the world is celebrating the International Day of Happiness, I decided to write about happiness in the world. Happiness as we know is positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Religions apparently aim to achieve happiness in a way or another and this appears in Nirvana of Buddhism. In Advaita Vedanta of Hinduism, the ultimate goal of life is happiness. Serving God in Judaism is a way of happiness or simcha‎ "worship The Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs," (Psalm 100:2).

When we provide evidence that Christians have no hand at all in the events of terrorism, this is not a sign of weakness, but rather to demonstrate to the extremists that Chrsitianity teaches us love since God is love. I wonder about those who believe that God has ordered people to kill and hate like Wagdi Ghoniem, Borhami, Qaradawy, Mohamed Hassan and Howainy, who offend the faith that they preach since they only speak evil. God asked David, in both the Bible and Quraan, to judge fairly among the people. Then it is the job of people in charge to be fair in order to avoid punishment of God. However, the biggest challenge lies before the teachers and clergy who instruct other people.

New Zealand is one of the countries that have not experienced terrorist incidents since its foundation in 1907. It knows nothing a bout terrorism, anti-terrorism law, mass killing, laws that incite religious hatred and racism, and has never been afraid of Islamophobia, as the United Nations and the Islamic countries claimed. It rather allowed Muslims to establish mosques in its city, the Church of Christ. Moreover, it protected them and granted them asylum to save them from being persecuted in their countries. Members of the Security Council condemned the horrific and cowardly terrorist attack on the mosques of New Zealand on March 15th, 2019, during which 49 people were killed and dozens were injured. Members of the Security Council, headed by France at the current session, added in a statement that all countries have to combat by all means and in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations the threats to international peace and security. This was the pretext for establishing military alliances from countries and contracting them with armed groups established by states, just as Saudi Arabia and its alliances have made up the Islamic Army for the war on terror in Yemen. You have established the organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Qaeda before it, which produced more than 11 terrorist organizations. The number of terrorist organizations established by Islamic countries and UN member states is much higher than that of countries Members of the United Nations. Shame on you to issue such statements since your motive of condemnation is the special benefit for the members of the Security Council.

Pope Shenouda III was a source of inspiration for Egyptian Copts with his prestige, courage, firmness and determination. He was an outstanding wise man whose knowledge was impressive. Moreover, he was funny and long suffering as well as very sensitive. During his period, the Church faced many conflicts and problems, but he treated them with wisdom and could manage the situation with the least amount of losses. His Holiness was stronger than all the events and all tribulations that descended upon the Church. During his time, the Church was stable and peaceful. Pope Shenouda was a brilliant politician who knew how and when to oppose and how to speak. His weekly sermon was expected every week by his beloved congregation. At certain time, he decided to lock himself in the monastery to pray, which raised the anger of President Sadat. His relationship with President Mubarak was good and based on common interests, whether political or religious. Pope Shenouda left his troubles to be carried by his successor Pope Tawadros, may God help him to bear such great burden, troubles and unrest.