Hundreds Of Muslim Demonstrators Storm An Egyptian Coptic Christian Church South Of Cairo

DW: Crowds attack Coptic Church in Egypt

Hundreds of Muslim demonstrators have reportedly assaulted an Egyptian Coptic Christian church south of Cairo. This marks the latest in a series of assaults on members of the country's Coptic minority.

The incident took place at the Prince Tawadros church in Giza, 100 kilometers (60 miles) outside Cairo, following Friday prayers at a nearby mosque. Demonstrators gathered outside the church building in the afternoon and stormed it, chanting hostile slogans and calling for the church's demolition.

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Update #1: Coptic diocese says hundreds attack church in Egypt (AP)
Update #2: Hundreds of Muslim demonstrators storm Egyptian Coptic church and call for it to be demolished (Daily Mail)

WNU Editor: At least the authorities arrested some of them .... 15 arrested in connection with Egypt's church attack (Washington Post). On a more positive note .... Christians gather to celebrate Christmas in Mosul church for first time since Isis driven out (The Independent).

Egyptian Copts Flee Sinai After Being Targeted By Islamic State Attacks

Image of Daesh militants in Sinai [file photo]

Naharnet: Copts Flee Sinai after Suspected Islamic State Attacks

Dozens of Coptic Christians have left Egypt's Sinai Peninsula after a string of jihadist attacks killed three Christians in the restive province, church officials said.

On Thursday, suspected Islamic State jihadists killed a member of the minority in the North Sinai city of El-Arish and set his house on fire.

About 250 Christians took refuge in the Evangelical Church in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya, said church deacon and administrator Nabil Shukrallah.

"They've come running with their children. It's a very difficult situation. We're expecting 50 or 60 more," he told AFP.

Other church officials said they have also received Copts fleeing the peninsula.

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More News On Egyptian Copts Fleeing Sinai After Being Targeted By The Islamic State

Egypt Christians flee Sinai after a spate of attacks -- AP
ISIS Egypt affiliate: Christians are our 'favorite prey' -- FOX News
ISIS vows more attacks on Egypt’s Christians -- Catholic Herald
Sixth Christian killed in Egypt’s Sinai in a month -- Middle East Monitor
Egyptian Coptic Christian killed, house torched -- AFP
Christian father is shot dead and his son is burned alive in Egyptian ISIS hotbed days after the group vowed Christians were its 'favourite prey' -- Daily Mail
Egypt: Coptic Christian killed in his House in North Sinai -- Middle East Confidential

Bombing Attack At Cairo's Largest Coptic Cathedral Has Killed 25 And Wounded 49

Reuters: Cairo church bombing kills 25, raises fears among Christians

A bombing at Cairo's largest Coptic cathedral killed at least 25 people and wounded 49, many of them women and children attending Sunday mass, in the deadliest attack on Egypt's Christian minority in years.

The attack comes as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi fights battles on several fronts. His economic reforms have angered the poor, a bloody crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood has seen thousands jailed, whilst an insurgency rages in Northern Sinai, led by the Egyptian branch of Islamic State.

The militant group has also carried out deadly attacks in Cairo and has urged its supporters to launch attacks around the world in recent weeks as it goes on the defensive in its Iraqi and Syrian strongholds.

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More News On Today`s Bombing Attack At Cairo's Largest Coptic Cathedral That Killed 25 And Wounded 49

Bombing at Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral kills 25 -- AP
Bombing kills at least 25 near Cairo Coptic cathedral -- AFP
At least 25 killed in explosion at Coptic Christian chapel in Cairo -- UPI
Bomb Hits Coptic Christian Church In Cairo, Killing At Least 25 -- NPR
25 deaths tarnish Sunday mass and Islamic holiday -- Daily News Egypt
Bomb explodes in Cairo’s Coptic cathedral -- Al Arabiya
Cairo: 25 killed by bomb blast near St Mark's Cathedral -- Al Jazeera

Muslim Attacks On Christians In Egypt Are Rising

A picture taken on August 14, 2013, shows the facade of the Prince Tadros Coptic church after being torched by unknown assailants in the central Egyptian city of Minya. (AFP PHOTO/STR)

Washington Post: In post-Arab Spring Egypt, Muslim attacks on Christians are rising

ASEM, Egypt — The Christian and Muslim villagers grew up together, played on the same soccer fields as kids, and attended the same schools in this riverside hamlet. But that didn’t matter on a recent day: An argument between boys sparked clashes between neighbors, with Muslims torching shops owned by Christians.

Gamal Sobhy, a Christian farmer, ran into the melee to protect his two sons. Someone in the crowd hit him with a stick. Then others jumped in, striking him repeatedly until he fell to the ground with blood seeping from his head.

“The Muslims were yelling, ‘Kill him, kill him,’ ” Sobhy said a few days after he was released from the hospital.

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WNU Editor: Coptic Christians have always been treated as second citizens in Egypt for as long as I can remember .... but the violence escalated after the removal of Mubarak and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, and it has not abated since.

Christians Targeted By Muslim Mobs In Egypt

An Egyptian Christian woman in a Coptic Orthodox church in Alexandria © Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters

The Independent: Elderly Christian woman stripped naked and paraded through streets by mob

The 300-strong mob of Muslim men in rural Egypt also burned down seven homes belonging to Orthodox Coptic families, over rumours of an affair between a local Christian man and a Muslim woman

A 70-year-old Christian woman has been stripped naked, beaten and paraded through the streets by a mob of around 300 Muslim men in a village in southern Egypt.

The mob also burned down seven homes belonging to Christian families, according to an unusually outspoken statement issued by the local Orthodox Coptic church, after rumours circulated in the village that a Christian man was having a relationship with a Muslim woman.

The violence started at around 8pm on 20 May, and the local diocese said it was two hours before police responded, by which point the mob had already dispersed.

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WNU Editor: As I have said more than once before .... violence against Christians in the Middle East continues to be one of the most under-reported stories in the main stream media.

More News On Muslims Targeting Coptic Christians In Egypt

Egypt Muslims attack Christian woman, houses after affair rumor -- Reuters
Egypt: Muslim Mob Attacks Christians, Parade Naked Woman -- AP
Muslim mob strips, beats & drags elderly woman through streets, torches Christian homes in Egypt -- RT
Egypt's Coptic Pope Tawadros II calls for restraint after Minya sectarian attack against Christians -- Ahram Online

Deadly Attacks Against Egypt’s Christians Continue

Egyptian Christians Fear Chaos After Wedding Bloodshed -- Reuters

(Reuters) - Egyptian Coptic Christians joyfully waited outside the Virgin Church in Cairo for the bride to arrive to join the groom for their wedding.

Instead bearded men on a motorcycle pulled up and fired on the crowd, deepening the fears of many Christians that their minority community will pay the bloodiest price for the ouster of elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

"We heard gunfire and ran outside to find people and children lying on the ground swimming in their blood," said Father Sawiris Boshra of the assault on Sunday night.

Bride Donya Amir Eissa and groom Mena Nashaat survived. Four other Christians who had come to share their happy occasion, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed.

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More News On The Recent Attack Against Coptic Christians In Egypt

Egypt’s Christians stunned after 4 killed, including 2 children, in church shooting -- Washington Post/AP
Three killed after gunmen fire on wedding guests outside Egyptian church -- NBC
4 killed in attack on Christian church in Cairo suburb -- UPI
Egypt gunmen open fire on Coptic Christian wedding in Cairo -- BBC
Deadly attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt draws condemnation -- FOX News/AP
Egyptian PM condemns deadly attack on Copts -- Bloomberg Businessweek/AP
Brotherhood condemns attack on Al-Warraq church -- Ahram Online
Egypt hunts for killers in church wedding attack -- AFP
PHOTO GALLERY: Egypt's churches suffer one more blow -- Ahram Online
Another church down: The progression of terrorism -- Ziad A. Akl, Daily News

Christian Churches Continue To Burn In Egypt

People walk around the burnt and destroyed Evangelical Church in Mallawi at Minya governorate, about 152 miles south of Cairo, on Saturday. (Reuters/Stringer)

Across Egypt, Piles Of Ash Where Church Pews Once Stood (+video) -- Kristen Chick, Christian Science Monitor

Anti-Christian attacks have swept through Egypt since Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi was ousted. Christian properties have been desecrated and reduced to rubble.


When a wave of attacks on churches and Christian properties swept across Egypt last month, this city was hit the worst.

Minya's streets are now lined with burned-out hulks. Church interiors have been reduced to ash. The once-cheerful turquoise exterior of a Christian orphanage is now streaked black from the fire that gutted it. Destroyed wheelchairs sit outside a burned-out Jesuit center that worked with disabled people. Torched schools, shops, and monasteries lie in ruins. On one street, several Christian-owned shops are reduced to scorched rubble. Nearby, an untouched snack shop blares a song that proclaims “Egypt is Islamic.”

As the attacks happened, police did little or nothing to stop them.

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My Comment: As I have mentioned on many occasions in this blog .... anti-Christian attacks in the Middle East are one of the most under-reported stories in the main stream media .... and one must wonder if it is being done on purpose.

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s War On Coptic Christians

The Muslim Brotherhood’s War On Coptic Christians -- Kirsten Powers, Daily Beast

Brutal murders, looting and burning, Facebook rumors. Egypt’s Islamist party is leading a campaign of deadly lies against the country’s Christian minority as the world watches.

The Muslim Brotherhood is showing the world its true colors.

The group that “renounced violence” in an effort to gain political power is engaged in a full-scale campaign of terror against Egypt’s Christian minority. Brotherhood leaders have incited their followers to attack Christian homes, shops, schools and churches throughout the country. Samuel Tadros, an Egyptian scholar with the Hudson Institute, told me these attacks are the worst violence against the Coptic Church since the 14th century.

The news coming out of Egypt is staggering. USA Today reports that “forty churches have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged” in one week. According to the Coptic Orthodox and Catholic churches in Egypt, 160 Christian-owned buildings have also been attacked.

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My Comment: One would think that after so many attacks that the muslim Brotherhood's "standing" in the Middle East would be diminished .... unfortunately .... their influence is still very strong.

Egypt Coptics Mark Christmas With A Fear Of The Future

Amid Orthodox Christmas, Egypt's Christians Fear For Their Rights Under Islamist Government -- CNN

It's Orthodox Christmas, but the mood in Cairo's working-class Shobra district this year is somber. There aren't many colorful festivities and decorations that traditionally mark Eastern Christmas celebrations in this predominantly Christian neighborhood, and Shobra's Coptic Christian residents say they are in no mood to celebrate.

Growing concerns about the rights of Egypt's Copts, who make up an estimated 12% of the population, have dampened the mood of Christians, overshadowing this year's celebrations.

"Many of my friends and relatives have left the country," said 27-year-old Beshoy Ragheb. "I would leave, too, if I had a place to go."

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More News On The Plight Of Egypt's Coptic Community

First Christmas for Egypt Copts under Islamist rule -- AFP
Egypt Copts mark Christmas with fear of future -- AP
Egyptian-American Coptic Christmas Marred by Concerns about Christians Back Home -- Voice of America
Egypt's pope urges Copts to 'not be afraid' -- Bloomberg Businessweek/AP
Amid Instability In Egypt, Coptic Christians Flee To U.S. -- NPR
Worry taints Egyptian Coptic Christmas -- BBC
Egypt’s Christians worried by Islamists’ rise -- Washington Post

My Comment: sadly .... I expect more of this to happen .... but not successful in stopping it.