Despite the growing popularity of celebrating Christmas among our beloved Muslim friends, and as Christmas trees are decorating Egyptian squares by Muslim and Christen youth, there are hateful speeches that warns against such celebrations and even scare children against Santa. I have tried hard to calm a child in the streets who was screaming and at the end we discovered that he was scared of Santa who would kidnap and kill him!

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. This is an important message by God to man. It represents the true discipleship based on love. The work of the bishop is derived from this service of Jesus Christ, which is based on advancement and teaching. His Holiness Pope Tawadros II in his article “The work of the bishop" explained four titles characterized by the Lord Jesus that can mark the work of the bishop. “A loving shepherd”: Jesus Christ is the good shepherd who showed love to Zacchaeus, the chief tax-collector, and the sinner woman. Thus, the bishop should be full of love to everyone and his heart is open to everyone. The Bishop should also be a good teacher, as the Lord Jesus was.

On the occasion of Christmas and New Year, I invite you to offer your gifts to the Baby born in order to participate in that great event. Let’s visit Christ, take care of Him, feed Him, give Him clothes, host Him, and honor Him. Our gift is not just part of the annual traditional celebrations, but are gifts of mercy and giving to the poor and the needy. They are gifts to the expelled, patients, wronged, imprisoned and those who are left behind. Those were called by Jesus Christ His little brothers.

The local government system was established in October 1960, where the governors took their offices and were usually chosen from the judiciary, the army, the police, and university professors. I believe the governor s job is different from the minister s since the governor is more of a mayor of the region. In Europe, governors are called mayors, and therefore, they are supposed to work in the streets and meet with the people to know their needs and fulfill them. During the days of the royal system mayors were elected in the villages by the rich people. The rest of the people had to wait the results and deal with it. After the revolution of July 23, the system changed and each person has the right to vote in the elections to choose the mayor. Soon, the mayors were appointed instead of being elected. Maybe in order to avoid disputes and even murder crimes accompanying the election process! However, the vote system remains the best even if it has a number of defects. Thus, I call to return the election system for governors and mayors.

Once again and crazy police man killed 2 copts in front of the church and in front of the people without any mercy on them or their families . It seems for me that the interior ministry hires only the crazy people and put them to guard the church so they can practice their craziness against the Christian in Egypt.

Once again and crazy police man killed 2 copts in front of the church and in front of the people without any mercy on them or their families . It seems for me that the interior ministry hires only the crazy people and put them to guard the church so they can practice their craziness against the Christian in Egypt. Unfortunately, we became read and digest this kind of news as something normal to happen to the Coptic and to the Christian of Egypt, not only that but also another security guard threaten a Christian woman and wishing Christian to meet someone to bomb them and bomb the church. To that extent Copts and Christian in Egypt became an easy aim to all fanatic people in Egypt which are a lot now days. In conclusion, it s the right time to admit that the social peace will not come only from the top of the pyramids but has to come from the bottom as well and without that we will continue to see a fire in the future.

As the Christmas celebrations approach, many fanatics used to raise questions in Egypt about the possibility of congratulating the infidels on their feasts. The answers varies between yes and no, and some people follow this approach or the other. However, as Egypt is supposed to move forward towards a civil state, some policemen decided to prove fanaticism and hatred is deeply rooted in their system and souls. Therefore, we found policeman wishes a Coptic woman a terrorist attack on her church in order to gloat over their grief! Later, a policeman used his weapon to kill a Coptic father and his son after they had disagreement the day before. It is worth mentioning that this is the very first time in which a policeman assigned to secure a church in Egypt uses his weapon. Yet, it was to kill Copts and not to protect them! The good thing is that the two policemen are currently being investigated on what they did or said. However, they should be punished along with all who decide to express their hatred and say Merry Christmas on their ugly own way.

Egypt has moved from a state of security collusion with terrorists to facilitate the task of killing the Christians in what we call the safe country . This mission was too hard for previous regimes. Unarmed policeman enters a church without weapon to declare the worshippers are infidels, then policemen prevent food from reaching monks at St. Samuel monastery in the desert after travelers and visitors were prevented. Maybe they decided to make its monks hungry till they abandon it forever. The investigations in the above mentioned cases were unrevealed before the public till they totally forgot about the case.

In the wake of the sad incident in which a policeman assigned to guard the Church of the Holy Renaissance in Minya province, opened fire on a Coptic contractor and his son, there were many comments on social media including one that surprised me. The comment suggested the replacement of government guard of the churches by private escorts from security companies to ease the burden on the state and avoid the obsession of security personnel. Such suggestion may have came based on good intentions, but I refused it for several reasons. First, the Church is an Egyptian national institution, and the state is entrusted with guarding and protecting its people through the Egyptian police and the national security apparatuses. Second, the suggestion to replace the government guard with private escorts from security companies reflects a completely inappropriate sectarian classification. We all know that there are those who hold radical and extremist ideologies from various professions and trades, including private security companies. Third: As for relieving the burden on the state, it is the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens and churches, especially under the war on terror.On the other hand, it is impossible to provide guards from the private security companies of all churches in all governorates of Egypt, especially in the nights of holidays, where millions of Christians pray and celebrate holidays throughout the country. Above all, the budgets of churches that rely on donations can not cover the expense of private security.

In the past five years, I have written two studies and more than 50 articles on Minya, where media denounce dozens of terrorist and sectarian attack soon before they are forgotten. However, these attacks escalated till two terrorist attacks targeted the Christians near St. Samuel monastery and a corrupt police officer killed two unarmed Copts, a father and a son. Muslims and Christians denounced the unprecedented attacks and showed sympathy with them. Many people describe Minya as governorate of terrorism and extremism, but in fact it is the city of contradictions. It looks very modern from outside, but from inside it looks like Kabul.

I listened to the phone call that president Sisi made on the TV yesterday talking about the lady “ Nehmedo”, who drives a microbus as her own source of living. No one can deny that this lady doing amazing work and many like her in Egypt doing the same which president Sisi praised yesterday. Having said that, President Sisi started to talk about the yellow vest movement in France and declaring that Media has to clarify that this group of people demonstrate because the price in France equal about 30 Egyptian pound and we can t compare their situation with our situation which is true. Unfortunately, and because media now became only one voice, the host: Shreef Amer” couldn t utter a word or revise what president Sisi said. For example, he couldn t say that they have something called “ Minimum wage” which Egypt doesn t have, they have something called “ Unemployment aid” Which Egypt doesn t have. They have “Fair medical care” which Egypt doesn t have. The most sacred thing ever, when someone tells you that we are amazing and everything is great. This is a moment you need to feel we are in danger, because covering the truth will never put us forward. In conclusion, I m calling the free writers to speak loud about the real situation Egypt live through because the next generation will never forget about the silence moment we live in right now.

The scenes on Television from France reminded me of the Egyptian scenario in 2011. However, there may be another factor in common other than violence and burning of police cars. This factor is the existence of the Muslim Brotherhood members. For many years, France has opened it s arms for members of the Muslim Brotherhood though Egypt has declared it a terrorist organization. Does the Muslim Brotherhood organization has something to do with the Yellow Vests protests and how would the government respond to it in that case?

The famous Egyptian leader Saad Zaghloul told his wife that there is no use from taking medicine with his powerful illness. This no use was changed by some people into his negotiations with the Britain High Commissioner to falsely prove he lost his patience during the negotiations. Such unfair twisting is also demonstrated by the people who take half of the facts and ignore the rest of it like those who take half of a verse of the Koran saying: don t pray and ignore the rest of it that says while you are drunk . Thus, the meaning of the verse becomes don t pray !

"Our Lord loves beauty including Peace and goodness. In our country we offer beauty and goodness before the whole world” This was part of the speech given by President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi during his visit to the Great Cathedral of St. Mark to congratulate Copts on Christmas. The Coptic church has been trying to motivate its congregation to develop an active participation in all social, political and human activities. For instance, Bishop Moussa of Youth Bishopric gave examples to such active participation like voting in the elections, participating in the political parties, student unions and public syndicates, in addition to civil society associations.

We received news from the parliament that an MP has presented a bill requiring the government to remove religion from national ID cards and official documents. This matches the Egyptian Constitution which stipulates non-discrimination among citizens, and that equal citizenship is the only basis in that account. The Egyptian identity must be considered instead of religious identity. Dr Ismail Nasreddin, presenter of the bill, said that he is supported by more than 200 MPs out of the 596 in the parliament, and assured that removing religion will be in all documents that don t require mentioning religion, not including for instance birth or marriage certificates.

All Media was busy last week talking about the dress of the actress “ Rania Youseef”. All media forget about the severe economic problems that Egypt suffer from and just paid their attention to one of the basics human rights which is the right of wearing what suits you. Unfortunately, the media is poor because they are forbidden to discuss any political or economic problems and that s why this topic became number one to discuss. In fact, President Sisi closed every possibility to discuss or to criticise, otherwise, there are many accusations are ready to put you in the prison without any mercy and without any one can know anything about you. I believe we are in danger situation not because the dress of “ Rania” but because we neglect any serious issue we need to discuss and resort to any nonsense because this is the current atmosphere we live in. In conclusion, I want to admit that Egypt set backward and no longer is an open society which you can discuss anything and accept any opinion or any person as long as he or she didn t hurt you.

Mr. Hanafi is an old man who educates young people about history through his street gallery. He prints photos related to certain political occasions like October 6th war, the revolution of June 30, and even World Wars. Then, he walks in the streets to explain his photos to the people walking in the streets. He says that many people learn from his stories and tell him that the information is new to them, which makes him very happy, but few people make fun of him. The man doesn t have certain place, but all streets of Cairo and all people walking in them are his audience. He talked about events and public figures and even art, and teaches many people who knew nothing about such events and people.

"Our Lord loves beauty including Peace and goodness. In our country we offer beauty and goodness before the whole world” This was part of the speech given by President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi during his visit to the Great Cathedral of St. Mark to congratulate Copts on Christmas. The Coptic church has been trying to motivate its congregation to develop an active participation in all social, political and human activities. For instance, Bishop Moussa of Youth Bishopric gave examples to such active participation like voting in the elections, participating in the political parties, student unions and public syndicates, in addition to civil society associations.

In 2016, the Egyptian President formed a presidential committee composed of five members, without any Coptic members. The Committee decided who deserves presidential amnesty. The committee should be linked to the human rights committee of the parliament, but in fact it doesn t. Coptic MPs should have completed to join the committee to express problems and pains of the Copts. Yet, they claim they care when Copts face a calamity, but in fact they take no action to prove they care. On the other hand, the Salafi MPs rush to join this committee to support their friends in prisons. Some Christians received presidential amnesty, but we have to ask what about Girgis Baromi and others in prison whose religion led them to it. Why the anger of Coptic MP Margit Azer raised to solve the problem of street dogs, but moved no muscle to save the rights of Mr. Baromi! The Coptic MPs are doing nothing at the time criminals and members of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group are getting amnesty!

Abba Markos, Metropolitan of Shubra Al-Khaimah, is currently visiting the Saudi Arabia after the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the papal headquarters last March. Abba Markos asked for permission of Bin Salman to visit the kingdom and visit the Coptic congregation working there. At the airport, the Coptic bishop was received by senior Egyptian officials and members of the Egyptian community in the Saudi Kingdom. Many people visited Abba Markos to talk with him about Egypt and its efforts of development. The man called everybody to support the Egyptian state led by President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. He also assured that the government is dealing with many accumulated problems. The Bishop showed his knowledge and patriotism in his answers. Many people visited the bishop under extra security measures taken by Saudi Police. This visit coincided with the visit of Saudi Crown Prince to Egypt after the smearing campaign against him aiming to destroy the plans to develop the kingdom supported by its enemies including the Muslim Brotherhood and several terrorist organizations. However, the support of other Arab countries including Egypt and UAE destroyed such evil plans. As I live in the Saudi Kingdom for years, I would say that the Crown Prince brought a revolutionary thinking and development for the kingdom and his mentality will change the entire region. On the other hand, the visit of bishop Markos came to assure tolerance, love and hospitality of the kingdom towards the Egyptian church. His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Alaissi, Secretary General of the Muslim World League, received Bishop Markos and discussed several topics of common interest. It is worth mentioning that the visit will continue until December 6, in which bishop Markos will complete his pastoral visit to the Egyptian community in the Saudi Kingdom. The Kingdom is embracing the human civilization to face any external conspiracy seeking to control the region and its wealth.

I was watching the news when paid my attention news report from National Geographic states that Cairo, Egypt is one of 10 places must see. I was happy to see Egypt among many places recommended as must see. I have tried to see and look at the Egyptian news hoping they can catch the news and start working on it to encourage tourism in Egypt which will help the economy in this rough time that Egypt pass by. Unfortunately, I didn t see this news anywhere in the Egyptian media or on the TV programs. And if the media neglect such news so what kind of news the media would care about among a severe economic crisis Egypt face. In fact, Media was not the only one neglected such news but also the Egyptian government didn t pay any attention of how this news could help Egypt especially, with all bad news coming from Italy to cut the relationship and stop tourism because of Regeni case. In conclusion, I hope someone pay attention to such news and start to work on it as I believe if the government pay attention that will create all of opportunities to Egyptian tourism.