Egyptians have made several achievements in fencing and many of them won international competitions. In that account, we may hear about champions like Adham Moataz, the European gold medal for the fencing for young men, and Medhat Moataz, owner of the world bronze medal for the fencing. Now, there is a new generation of Egyptians who is not satisfied with achieving local titles, but works hard to win international competitions and the sky has become their limit. Fencing was the first Olympic game for the Egyptians to participate in when Ahmed Hassanein Pasha traveled to participate in the Stockholm Games in 1912. Yet, they waited exactly one hundred years before winning the first Olympic medal when Alaa Abu Al-Qasim won the London Games in 2012. I see a bright future for that game in Egypt with young competitive people seeking glory and working hard to raise the flag of their country. Greetings to the Egyptian fencing heroes and those responsible for reviving the sport in Egypt.

Many people talk about love, but they don’t really realize what it is. Creative American novelist Raymond Carver described love as spiritual feeling, physical relationship or familiarity. It is several feelings that we have each time differently. I myself have fallen in love several times and experienced this feeling in various ways. At the age of 13 years old, I fall in love with the daughter of the neighbors, who lived with her family on the first floor of the building. She was incredibly beautiful, or so I saw her. I didn’t see her much except through coincidence meetings at the entrance to the building, or when she paid my sisters a short visit. One day, I played a small role in a TV series, and she met me and was very proud of me. my heart couldn’t stop beating and I realized ever since that love is a story that can’t be explained. By time, I realized that she was simply an ordinary girl, but I saw her outstanding because I loved her, even because I didn’t know her very well. It looks like we love more when we know less! My father told me a funny story about a girl that he saw her face from her window on his way to school, but finally realized she was a doll! Love is what we believe it is and we see our beloved person as we want to see and not as he or she really is!

In the first day of the fasting of Jonah the Prophet, it is said that he is the son of the widow who was raised by Elijah the Prophet from death. God has called him to carry the message of repentance and salvation of the Kingdom of Assyria, whose capital was Nineveh (Mosul) in the State of Iraq. It was the Kingdom of Assyria that destroyed the Kingdom of Israel in the year 722 BC. In the story of Jonah the Prophet, it is an explicit and clear declaration that God s love for man exceeds the awareness and mind of human beings. He is the all-loving Creator, the long-suffering, merciful, and compassionate who wants everyone to know the way and the truth and be saved. Many times does the Holy Spirit visit us and call us to repentance and salvation by people and many means of media. It is His love that sought to save the people of Neneveh and calls us to repent every single day of our life. On the other hand, we find Jonah thinking they don t deserve repentance and they will never know God. Thus, he flee to another city His thinking was limited and he was worried more about this own dignity as a prophet. Yet, God didn t lose hope in them and decided to save them by all means. In that account we realize that one s selfishness may lead to disobedience for God s commandments. The Prophet Jonah lost time and money in his attempt to escape. He also needed to repent just like the people of Neneveh and he didn t realize that God exists everywhere. The story of the people of Neneveh was recorded in history and their repentance was taken as a role model by many people including the Coptic people who are currently fasting for three days to learn from their repentance. God is waiting for us just like He waited for the people of Neneveh.

With what s going around in Syria, Iran , Iraq, is it possible to see an end to this tunnel. Unfortunately, Turkey is going on its own way to destroy Syria in the name of Kurdish people. Russia is so burdened that Turkey bought a lot of weapons from it and it s a good market for Russian weapons. Iran is involved in many conflicts in the region and can t leave these countries after all what Iran did.

The monastery of St. George for nuns in ancient Cairo issued the largest and most comprehensive encyclopedia in Arabic documenting the biography of of the Saint. His Holiness Pope Tawadros II said that it is the greatest Arabic reference in the history of recording the biography of this great martyr. The book is a study in 96 manuscripts written in five different languages which are Coptic with its dialects, Bahriya, Syriac, Greek, Abyssinian and Arabic. These have been translated into the Arabic language, and many of these manuscripts date back to the sixth century. The study has varied in this book consisting of twelve chapters including a study on the icon of the saint, a study on the melodies about the saint. The book introduced new facts about the saint like the king who tortured him was Danyanus and not Diocletian, and that he was martyred in Iraq in 268 not in Lebanon 302 AD as it was known before. Indeed, we are proud of this distinguished work that proves that the church and monastery can be a spirtual universities providing great scientific research.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations accused all member states of not implementing Security Council and international law decisions on international and non-international armed conflicts taking place in Libya, Yemen, Sudan and Syria. He said that such violations proved the failure of the Berlin Conference to impose the ban on supplying weapons to Libya. Egyptian people were proud to find their President among leaders of the world, some of whom proved to be insane. Now, Turkey has established a military base and sent more than 1500 fighters to Libya based on an agreement with the Siraj government and its terrorist parties to combat the second terrorist party Haftar! Now, the Egyptians are proud to find their country occupying the ninth place in the world armaments. It is true that the international law did not prohibit the possession of weapons but rather banned the export of arms to areas of conflicts in order to achieve international peace and security. In short, Peace is not possible without weapons and power.

Through an important press investigation on examples of the retreat of the role of cultural houses in Al-Watan newspaper, the editor mentioned the burning of Bahr Aazam culture house in Giza as an attempt to attack culture houses and enlightenment. Yet, the house was rebuilt and expanded 8 years later to include many segments, galleries, grand library and open areas. I was thrilled to hear the comment of Dr. Inas Abdul Dayem, Minister of Culture, on the library that it includes about 7500 books in various knowledge, sciences and literature, and the last floor includes an open area for open cultural activities. She added that several books and magazines in Braille for the blind offering adults and children culture and knowledge. Media has to support cultural work in Egypt unlike ministers of Media and culture competed under Mubrak regime. Finally, the General Authority of Cultural Palaces is one of the cultural institutions with a prominent role in providing cultural and artistic services. It is an Egyptian body that aims to participate in raising the cultural level and directing the national awareness of the masses in the fields of cinema, theater, music, literature, folk and plastic arts. It provides activities of children, women and youth in the governorates.

Conferences of Al-Azhar institution held under the slogan of renewing religious discourse is only an attempt to improve its image without a real desire to change the current situation. The current religious discourse is a terrorist speech that intelligently selects its words, so that people may think it is different from ISIS and Al-Qaeda. In fact, Al-Azhar is only a political tool and an intellectual terrorist arm of institutions described as terrorist in Europe, such as the Organization of Islamic Countries. Claiming that it represents Islam gave it bigger role than it deserves that it became a state within a state. Thus, its public fund should stop and its schools and universities should be transferred by law into regular educational institutions. The war on terrorism must bear in mind that terrorism inhabits this edifice called Al-Azhar that claim to be moderate, but is too far from moderation. Sheikh Al-Azhar s boycott of the speech of the President of Cairo University is more like wasting his blood only because the university president dared to demand the renewal of the Islamic mind before renewing the language of the speech. Sheikh of Al-Azhar decided to move to protect the entity that generates billions of dollars even it becomes the biggest challenge before developing the Egyptian society.

Building a future is not something easy or an easy process. A person has to evaluate his abilities and try to see how he can achieve his goals using these capabilities. The same thing for any country, any country must set goals based on its capabilities and the abilities of their people. Unfortunately, with whats going around the world right now from wars and chaos, countries exhaust their resources not in building futures but on contrary in running futures for the coming generation.

After everyone thought it came to an end, Trump decided to declare his peace plan causing great controversy among supporters and denouncers. Yet, nobody tried to read the situation through its two parties, one of them is approaching elections at the end of the year to be re-elected President of America, and is in bad need to get the support of the Jewish lobby in America. The second party is the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has been Prime Minister of Israel since 2009 and will enter this year an election to secure in which he tries to secure a majority in the Knesset, who almost lost his majority in the previous elections. He is also facing charges of corruption that may lead him and his wife to prison. On the other hand, we can find the recipients of the offer are seeking protection from Iran, such as the Gulf countries, and more countries are threatened, divided, torn apart or seeking American protection and fund. The Palestinians are also divided without a state and work under a weak government. Even Egypt is threatened by the Renaissance Dam though it offered a lot to the Palestinian cause. In short, the general situation for everyone is bad, and if it is a deal it is an electoral deal for its sponsors, and a protection deal for the Arab party. Politics is now a trade to give and take.

I had written an article 7 years ago on our beloved news website (Copts united) about the story of the 9 years old child Abd al-Masih who was acquitted by Beni Suef misdemeanor court from charges of stealing 5 loaves of bread from a bakery. The owner of the bakery filed a lawsuit against the child and got a ruling to place him in a juvenile rehabilitation centre. The child was in fact working at the bakery and the rules allow him to take the bread he needs. This case revealed corruption of our rules since some people claimed honor and justice to condemn the child, and others took it as a sectarian case since the child name is Christian and translated slave of Christ!

It is unfortunate that we find some important values collapsing in our society, with many people with no culture leading media and spreading ignorance in the community. We can see such danger when we ask our youth about the great Egyptian writers and thinkers like: Muhammad Abdo, Taha Hussein, Al-Akkad, Tawfiq Al-Hakim, Naguib Mahfouz, Sayed Darwish and Salama Moussa. They don t even realize who they are as if we are infected with some virus to destroy our cultural identity. Those writers are the authentic cultural symbols who presented enlightenment ideology and participated in building this country. Now, the media is presenting bad models who lack knowledge and morals as well. This happens with the retardation of education, culture and art. This makes me say that our cultural identity is in danger since it is a number of cultural and epistemological accumulations, including the knowledge that comes from the traditions and customs of the family and the community surrounding it. I think that there is a plan to destroy our cultural identity, which is implemented slowly and effectively. Thus, we have to take care before we lose our customs, traditions, civilization and history.

While senate discussing impeachment of trump, we suddenly heard about the “deal of the century” again. At the same time, Israel announced for the first time that Israeli people can travel to Saudi Arabia while Saudi Arabia denied. Trump seems confident that this impeachment thing is going nowhere and will continue in his plan as he promised his people. He moved the Israel embassy to Jerusalem, He mad first trad deal with Chia, he is talking about the deal of the century and American people see him does what he promised.

Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River in wonderful humility, among the crowds of penitents. Yes, he didn t commit any sin, but he was baptized in order to explain to us our faith in the Holy Trinity and the sacrament of baptism. HG Bishop Bakhomius, former Acting Patriarch, in his article Baptism and the Theophania , explained the faith in the Holy Trinity and the sacrament of baptism through the glorious feast of Epiphany. Christ was in the water and the Holy Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove, and the Father saying: This is my beloved son The baptism of Jesus Christ confirms our belief in sacred baptism, which is based on three things: firstly, repentance, which is necessary in the baptism of adults, secondly, believing in Jesus Christ and his redemption, and thirdly, the acceptance of new born from water and spirit. Baptism in our faith is carried out by immersion, and it bears profound dogmatic faith and spiritual messages.

I met today at the Subway 9 young ladies under 15 years old. 5 of them were wearing Niqab (full face cover) and the rest are wearing Hijab. They were revising a book of ‘Islamic culture’ on their way to the exam. They book was discussing how to deal with non-Muslims? Is it permissible to exchange gifts with them? What people from other religions should do to Muslims? Furhtermore, it was describing Niqab as an appearance of chastity! I wonder what is the return on the state from religious education like Al-Azhar, which costs annually about one billion dollars? We should be teaching young people about life, technology, medicine and geology instead of teaching them about racism and extremism? Would they benefit humanity with such kind of education? People all over the world are seeking solutions for illness at the time we are seeking answers to questions like: is it permissible to congratulate Christians on their feasts? Instead, we should be teaching them history of their country and great grandparents. Many new countries have developed at the time we are suffering from retardation. This is not strange since we will reap extremism as long as we plant its seeds . Police and army will be offering martyrs in the war against terrorism, but the clergy won’t stop fueling the fire.

Dr. Mina Wagdy Ibrahim is a doctor who works at the Mercy Mosque Clinic in Safat al-Laban, Cairo. However it is a little bit strange to find a Christian doctor in an Islamic clinic, Dr. Mina decided to donate his time and work for free in service of the Muslims in the neighborhood. Head of the Islamic Sharia Association said that Dr. Mina made a good reputation by serving the people. Furthermore, one of the patients said that he found it strange in the beginning to deal with a Coptic Christian doctor, whose name is revealing his identity. Yet, the patient said he realized that Dr. Mina doesn’t differentiate between his patients based on their religion. Yes, there is no difference between people when it comes to illness. It is either you are human or not. I salute Dr. Mina and those who deal with him who realized there is no difference between people.

A few days ago, Egypt witnessed a major historical military achievement as President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi opened the South Bernese military base, in the presence of a number of Arab and foreign heads of state and defense ministers and high-ranking diplomatic figures. The South Bernice Military Base was built in a record time, as it took only one year to build one of the giant military fortresses on the southern strategic direction with a strike force in the sea, air and land linked to various regional and international challenges and raises the global classification of the Egyptian armed forces. The South Bernice base is a strong addition to the capabilities of the Egyptian armed forces and represents one of the support hubs in the Red Sea region and Bab al-Mandab Strait, using advanced weapons and improving Egypt’s chance to to become the largest naval air base in the Middle East to be built on an area of 150 A thousand acres. The base aims to protect and secure the southern Egyptian coasts and protect and serve the giant development projects that Egypt has witnessed in recent years since power support development and peace. During the opening ceremony marking the inauguration of the South Bernice base, an air naval exercise with live ammunition (Qadir 2020) was carried out. Various advanced weapons participated in the maneuver, including the Mistral aircraft carrier, the French Raval fighters, the American F-11, the Russian MiG 29, the American Apache attack helicopter, the Russian Kamov, the German submarine 209 and other huge naval vessels, as well as the missiles that were used for the first time. The great Egyptian army has sent messages of reassurance to all Egyptians and the Arab brothers, as well as warning messages for anyone who thinks or tries to threaten Egyptian or Arab national security. Long live Egypt.

Recently, the US and China signed trade agreement known as “Phase one deal”after almost 18 months of tariffs and retaliation between two parts. The trade deal has a lot of pros and cons for both sides but what is the most important that both could reach this agreement which hurt the market and the global economy so much.

We live in a world that raises slogans of freedom of worship, but tear them apart on daily basis with increasing hatred, sectarian attacks and persecution. This is wrong and I believe such sectarian violence should come to an end some day. Yet, the latest annual accounting from Open Doors USA revealed that the world is only increasing persecution against Christians with 245 Million persecuted people this year compared to 215 Million last year. The World Watch List 2019 reporting period showed that 4,136 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons, which means that on average 11 Christians were killed every day for their faith. 1.266 churches or Christian buildings were attacked. 2.625 Christians were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced and imprisoned. The rise in the number of persecuted Christians in the top 50 countries is 14% on the World Watch List and sadly enough they experience high levels of persecution. The countries on top of the list where Christians suffer from extreme persecution are North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan, Eritrea, Yemen, Iran, India and Syria. Since 1 in 9 Christians experience high levels of persecution worldwide, the lucky 8 Christians should not only be grateful and thankful, but also praying for the persecuted ones. Moreover, the whole world should be praying for peace and progress and working hard to spread love rather than hatred and division.