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By Nick, April 30, 2013 3:00 pm

CAIRO — Copts are being persecuted in Egypt. So, what’s new about that? This has been the norm in our “beloved homeland” since at least the 1970s.

But in fact, there is something new: sectarianism against Copts and many other minorities — including Shias, Bahais, and Bedouins — intensified after the beginning of the January 2011 revolution.

The romantic dream of social unity and tranquility between all sects and religions was dashed a few weeks after 11 February 2011, when Salafi Muslims started to ignite sectarian strife against Christians accusing them of cooperating with the secularists who wanted to transform Egypt into an anti-Islamist state.

Why did this happen? Why did a revolution that succeeded in overthrowing a deeply entrenched dictatorship, precisely because it united all Egyptians behind its banners, result in further persecution of Copts and other minorities? Why did hope turn into despair?

A simple and straightforward answer might be because of the ugly and reactionary politics of the Islamists. This is true, but only partly. It begs the question of how Islamists succeeded in convincing hundreds of thousands, even millions, of ordinary Muslims to follow in the footsteps of their sectarianism. Why did ordinary citizens enthusiastically demolish churches and kill Copts, for just being Copts?

To solve this riddle, we have to look wider and deeper.

The revolution broke out in a society already mired in racism against minorities, especially Copts. Sectarianism and hatred of “the others” had been seeping deep into the minds and souls of Egyptians long before January 2011.

This was partly the result of the 1967 defeat in the war with Israel, combined with the rise of neo liberalism disguised in the form of infitah — former President Anwar Sadat’s “open-door” economic policy. The ruling classes and the Islamists, each in their own way, invested in this apocalyptic atmosphere to blow the winds of hatred.

When hopes of liberation, through popular resistance from below, were lost after the defeat of the January 1977 uprising, sectarianism started to fill the vacuum with a vengeance.

The January 2011 uprising brought Egyptians back together. It revived hope in unity as it dealt a strong blow to vertical divisions between equally exploited and oppressed citizens.

But revolutions are not magic. Yes, they can start a new path but they cannot miraculously bury all the old grievances in one stroke.

The new beginnings needed to be nurtured in order to blossom but this did not happen. The united Egyptians — Copts, Sunnis, Shias, Bahais, Nubians and Bedouins — toppled former President Hosni Mubarak, yet the following day they found themselves lacking a united strategy for the future.

The spontaneous unity of the progressive masses, forged by hatred of a filthy regime, did not translate itself into a conscious unity to build a new society.

The lack of unity among the revolutionary strata of the population allowed the Islamists and the military junta to exploit the inert layers — the village dwellers and sections of the so-called marginalized — in a series of frontal assaults against the revolution, from the 19 March constitutional referendum in which the Islamists mobilized these backward classes to win a “yes” vote, to the attacks by “honest citizens” on mass rallies in Tahrir Square and Abbasseya.

Hence, the failure of the progressive mass movement to enforce itself and dictate its will, due to the lack of an organized, truly libertarian force rooted in the movement and capable of providing a sense of direction. This led the revolution to the labyrinth of unfulfilled promises and sunken hopes under military and Muslim Brotherhood rule. And here, the very old law of human despair reigned: When anger is not combined with hope, it will necessarily be coupled with hatred.

Revolutionary despair is much more dangerous than ordinary despair. In their normal, routine life, people grow accustomed to their misery and hopelessness.

The problem of revolution is that it resurrects hope. Now the genie is out of the bottle and it is unbelievably difficult to put it back there. And hence, if not fulfilled, it will metamorphose into uncontainable despair.

The energy that was once directed against a hated regime might in one second be redirected against fellow subalterns.

Evil reactionary forces — in our case, reactionary Islamists — step in exactly at this moment. If not challenged, they might win the day.

The only way to fight reactionary Islamists, the only way to fight rising sectarianism, is to restore hope in the united mass movement from below.

By Tamer Wagih
http://www.almasryalyoum.com

Assyrian International News Agency

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By Nick, April 22, 2013 6:53 pm

The Siege of Egypt’s St. Mark Cathedral

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By Nick, April 13, 2013 1:10 am

CAIRO — The Mass was celebrated as if from centuries past: A bearded priest veiled in incense chanted for grace in a church along the Nile, near the spot where Christians believe Jesus and his mother sought refuge in an earlier age of bloodshed and uncertainty.

Marianne Samir knelt and prayed for the Coptic Christians killed in a spasm of sectarian violence that has further shaken a nation engulfed in economic and political anxieties.

“I feel unsafe,” said Samir, a high school philosophy teacher with a cross tattooed on her wrist. “The Islamists want war. They want strife. But this is our land too. It is a country blessed by God, and there’s no way we’ll leave it to them.”

Wind gusted and whitecaps rose and fell on the river bending around the Church of the Virgin Mary.

“They set a Christian man on fire the other day,” Samir added. “They threw a gasoline bomb at him and no one did anything.”

Seven Copts and one Muslim have died in clashes in recent days. The latest violence began after Coptic youths in a village north of Cairo drew offensive images, including a swastika that was mistaken for a cross, on the wall of a Muslim institute. Gun battles broke out and a church was set aflame, a sign that President Mohamed Morsi’s Islamist-led government has failed to defuse religious enmity.

Scores of Copts have been killed in sectarian conflict since early 2011, including 24 worshipers who died in a church bombing in Alexandria and 27 who were attacked by soldiers and thugs at a rally to protest the burning of a church. Those incidents occurred before the political ascendancy of Islamists that same year. Since then, thousands of Christians have left Egypt and more are expected to follow.

“Copts are facing organized oppression and forced emigration,” Azmi Wadie, a 28-year-old engineering student, said as he leaned on a railing at the river’s edge. “Islamist radicals want to get rid of Christians across the Middle East. Preachers and sheiks on satellite channels say the Coptic Church wants to get involved in politics and they won’t let that happen.”

A popular ultraconservative Salafi preacher known as Abu Islam has chided Copts on his TV program:

“If you’re sure of yourselves and you have a grain of self confidence, speak,” he said. “I say that you are heathens, say we are not heathens; I say you are infidels, say we are not infidels…. I say your women are naked and that this is not fit for Islam or Christianity.”

Copts make up about 10% of Egypt’s population of 84 million. They have faced discrimination throughout history but have coexisted in relative peace with the Muslim majority. The 30-year rule of secular autocrat Hosni Mubarak offered limited protection amid growing violence and persecution. Since Mubarak’s downfall in 2011, Copts have felt increasingly threatened by an array of Islamist voices.

“Mubarak painted a pretty picture but he didn’t help us,” said Wadie, who plans to leave Egypt after he receives a master’s degree. “Today, things are more systematic against us. Copts are definitely arming themselves, but the problem is the weapons dealers are Muslims.”

Egypt was startled Sunday when a funeral for four of the Copts killed in the village clashes was attacked at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo. One Copt died in bursts of tear gas, gunfire and gasoline bombs outside the cathedral; another was killed that day in fighting back in the village.

Morsi told Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, that he considered any “aggression against the cathedral an aggression against me personally.” But the pope blamed Morsi for not providing enough security, which, he said, “comes under the category of negligence” that the church has not encountered even in the most oppressive times.

Egypt’s Christians have long been suspicious of Morsi. The president and the Muslim Brotherhood backed a constitution that Copts say jeopardizes religious and civil freedoms. Copts complain of facing restrictions on church construction and school curriculums often tailored to Islam.

Salafi preachers accuse Copts of kidnapping Christians who want to convert to Islam. Sectarian hatred spills into violence on rare occasions when a Copt and a Muslim start a romance. A video, reportedly recorded in 2009 and uploaded this week to YouTube, shows a mob of Muslim men yelling “God is great” while sexually assaulting two Coptic women.

The marginalization of Christians has been sharpened against the nation’s economic and political turmoil. Morsi and the Brotherhood, which controls the government, have shut out opposition voices amid joblessness, inflation, gas shortages, widening public debt and plummeting foreign reserves. Protests and labor strikes erupt daily and Egyptians are balanced between bewilderment and rage.

“The country’s general chaos is causing everything to escalate and allows a radical Muslim ideology to propagate violence,” said biomedical engineer Karim Samuel, a Copt. “I sometimes sit on the Metro [subway] next to men reading the Koran. I wonder if they really understand what they’re reading or do they blindly follow sheiks.”

He paused and calculated the political math against his faith and other minorities.

“Morsi and the Brotherhood don’t care about Copts, liberals or leftists,” Samuel said. “I don’t know what we can do as a Christian community.”

Samir left the Mass, the scent of incense upon her, the priest’s voice echoing from the altar into a breeze along the river, where fishermen gather nets and wooden boats drift in the sun beyond marshes and broken cliffs. She said Egypt needs a moderate voice and, unlike many these days, she opposes suggestions that the military might return to power.

“Copts died under army rule too,” she said. “I want a civilian government.”

She squinted into the sun; a few tourists lingered at the church’s gift shop.

“I know a lot of Christians who have left. There are so many now in Australia and Canada,” she said. “We are facing blind [Islamist] fundamentalism…. The Brotherhood wants to create conflict between all religions. They’re trying to drum us out of the country, but we’ll hold on even more to our faith.”

By Jeffrey Fleishman
Los Angeles Times

Special correspondent Ingy Hassieb contributed to this report.

Assyrian International News Agency

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By Nick, April 10, 2013 4:45 am

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Coptic Christian pope delivered an unprecedented direct criticism of the Islamist president Tuesday after a mob attack on the church’s main cathedral, saying he had failed to protect the building and warning that the country is collapsing.

The comments by Pope Tawadros II and the cathedral attack itself illustrate a new reality in Egypt, where institutions long seen as above the fray are being dragged into the country’s intense polarization and political violence.

Egypt has become increasingly divided between two camps, with President Mohammed Morsi and Islamist allies on one side and an opposition made up of moderate Muslims, Christians and liberals on the other, a schism essentially over the country’s political future after decades of dictatorship. Opponents accuse Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood of seeking to monopolize power, while Morsi’s allies say the opposition is trying to destabilize the country to derail the elected leadership.

Traditionally, a number of state icons were considered untouchable politically — nationalist pillars vital for the state’s stability and so too important to be criticized or mired in disputes. But one by one, they have been sucked into the country’s divisions, whether under pressure to take sides or outright plunged into controversy.

The military was pulled into politics early on when it took power following the February 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak and ruled for nearly 17 months. The courts became the center of controversy last year, with repeated confrontations between Morsi’s administration and members of the judiciary.

Now, not only the Coptic Church but also the country’s most eminent Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, are getting caught up in the turmoil.

Tawadros’ remarks Tuesday in a telephone interview with the private ONTV network were his first direct criticism of Morsi since he was enthroned in November as the spiritual leader of Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic Christians. Christians make up an estimated 10 percent of Egypt’s 90 million people.

Tawadros said Morsi had promised him in a telephone conversation to do everything to protect the St Mark Cathedral, which also serves as the papal seat.

“But in reality he did not,” Tawadros said. When asked to explain, he said: It “comes under the category of negligence and poor assessment of events.” He did not make clear whether he was accusing Morsi himself of negligence or whether he was addressing the president’s government.

In violence Sunday, an angry mob of Muslims threw firebombs and rocks at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo, leaving two people dead. One of the two was identified as a Christian.

The attack followed a funeral service for four Christians killed in sectarian clashes in a town north of Cairo, which also left a Muslim dead, the deadliest sectarian violence since Morsi came to office as Egypt’s first freely elected president.

Tawadros warned, “This is a society that is collapsing. Society is collapsing every day.”

“The church has been a national symbol for 2,000 years,” he said. “It has not been subjected to anything like this even during the darkest ages … There has been no positive and clear action from the state, but there is a God. The church does not ask for anyone’s protection, only from God.”

Morsi strongly condemned the recent violence and said that he considered any attack on the cathedral to be an attack on him personally. He also ordered an investigation into the violence and revived a state body called the National Council for Justice and Equality mandated to promote equality between Egyptians regardless of their religious and ethnic background.

On Tuesday, four of his top aides visited the cathedral to offer their condolences for the victims of the violence.

A presidential statement issued late Tuesday reasserted Morsi’s commitment to protect the Coptic church and to bring to justice those behind the violence. It described the president’s order to revive the council as a “serious initial step.”

Also in an earlier statement, the office of Morsi’s assistant for foreign relations underlined that the presidency rejects violence “in all forms and under any pretext” and that “all Egyptians are citizens who should enjoy all rights and are equal before the law.” It said the presidency has ordered authorities to “to exert their utmost efforts to contain the situation and protect the lives and property of citizens.”

Speaking to reporters in Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell urged Morsi to make good on his promise of a full investigation and to make public the findings.

“The failure to prosecute perpetrators of sectarian crimes has contributed to an environment of impunity in Egypt, and so we are concerned,” he said.

Still, Tawadros was critical of the promises of investigation and the revival of the justice and equality body. “Enough already of formations, committees and groups and whatever else,” he said. “We want action not words and, let me say this, there are many names and committees but there is no action on the ground.”

Long before the weekend’s deadly sectarian violence, Tawadros has gone on record saying he was unhappy with the Islamist-backed constitution that was rushed to passage in a referendum in December.

But his criticism Tuesday was a powerful departure from the church’s longstanding policy of avoiding confrontations with the government of the day. Pointedly, Tawadros added his praise of the sheik of Al-Azhar — another institution struggling to stay immune from the country’s political battles — saying the sheik was the first to call him and express support amid Sunday’s violence.

Al-Azhar, the centuries-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning, was hit by the turmoil last week. Students from Al-Azhar University stormed the office of the sheik of Al-Azhar, Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb, angry over a case of food poisoning in the university that sickened dozens. El-Tayeb was forced to remove the university’s president.

Some Al-Azhar clerics and opponents of Islamists charged that the Muslim Brotherhood was behind the protests, trying to embarrass el-Tayeb. Some in Al-Azhar, which is touted as a center for religious moderation, believe the Brotherhood or more hardline Islamists want to replace el-Tayeb to install one of their own in the post.

In an interview with ONTV this week, an aide to el-Tayeb, Mahmoud Azab, suggested the protest seemed “politicized,” adding, “We hope that is not the case… We hope that the path of Al-Azhar toward unifying the Egyptian people will not be obstructed” — though he later issued a statement insisting his comments were not directed at any group.

In a statement Saturday, the Brotherhood denied any role in the protest, blaming “counter-revolution forces who control certain media outlets” for spreading the idea to create tensions between the group and el-Tayeb.

“Our relationship is good, and our respect for the institution of Al-Azhar and its imam is immense,” it said.

But the questions swirling around so many institutions at once have fueled the sense of instability among many Egyptians, on top of the country’s mounting economic woes and the struggle to end lawlessness on the streets that has been pervasive since Mubarak’s fall.

Some of Morsi’s opponents have called on the military to step back in to a direct role in politics. The generals have said nothing publicly on such calls, but its leaders have made it clear on several occasions they were the ultimate guarantors of the nation’s stability and would not hesitate to intervene if things go out of control.

Morsi’s tussles with the judiciary — including a recent court order annulling his installation of a new top prosecutor late last year — have deeply divided the country. Opponents accuse Morsi of trying to undermine the courts, a claim the presidency denies, while Morsi supporters often depict some in the judiciary as counter-revolutionaries trying to stop his agenda.

In its statement Saturday, the Brotherhood blasted what it called “libel, slander and misinformation” that it said were aimed at causing divisions between the group and the military or judiciary.

“We have great faith in the wisdom of Egypt’s national and religious institutions, and that they cannot be fooled by counter-revolutionary conspiracies that plot against the homeland and the people who have known the Brotherhood for decades,” it said.

AP correspondent Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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By Nick, March 27, 2013 3:49 pm

A rise in tensions between religious communities in the town of Wasta, about one hundred kilometres south of Cairo, in recent weeks highlights the failure of the Egyptian authorities to protect Egypt’s Coptic Christians, the largest religious minority in the country.

Tensions were sparked in February when a local Muslim young woman was reported “missing” and members of her family and local Salafis — Sunni Muslims who advocate a return to what they consider to be Islam’s fundamental principles as practiced by the first Muslims — blamed the Mar-Girgis Church, claiming they had influenced the woman to convert to Christianity — an allegation the Church denies.

People in the town went out on the streets calling for the return of the woman or the departure of the Coptic Christian community from Wasta.

In some of the protests, shouts of “let the Christian die from fear”, “today your sister, tomorrow your wife” and “she returns or they (Coptic Christians) leave” were heard.

Local residents told Amnesty International that leaflets are being distributed at the market, the public transport rank, and outside stores owned by Christians highlighting Muslims’ religious duty to stand-up against the woman’s alleged disappearance.

Discrimination and violence According to local residents, violence escalated further between 19 and 25 March, when groups of men believed to be Salafis and their supporters forced all Christian stores and other businesses to close. They then patrolled the area to ensure they stayed shut and became violent with anyone who resisted.

A restaurant owner told Amnesty International that on 20 March, at around 6pm, some 15 men carrying sticks entered his restaurant whilst clients were inside, ordering its closure. Larger groups of men waited outside, while others entered other Christian businesses on the street also ordering they shut.

Local residents said security forces failed to intervene and that, in most cases, police stations refused to register complaints. One resident told Amnesty International that the head of the Security Directorate and the head of the General Security Investigations told him that filing complaints would only serve to ignite tensions further, advising him to pursue the reconciliation route.

As days progressed, the situation deteriorated.

On 25 March, after evening prayers, a large group of Muslim men walked to the Mar-Girgis Church and threw stones and Molotov cocktails inside the building. Some of the church employees who were there at the time managed to contain the fire.

Members of the security forces arrived at the scene shortly after and managed to halt the violence.

That night, the car of a local priest Father Shenouda Sabry was set on fire while parked outside his home. Other cars parked near-by were left untouched.

However, according to information available, no arrests have been made and no investigation established to find out who was responsible.

“Coptic Christians across Egypt face discrimination in law and practice and have been victims of regular sectarian attacks while authorities systematically look the other way,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director at Amnesty International.

Later on 25 March, Coptic Christian and Muslim elders held a “reconciliation meeting”.

It was agreed that businesses run by Coptic Christians could reopen save Fridays.

However, Coptic Christians in Wasta were also warned that if the “missing” woman did not return by 24 April, they will face dire consequences.

A pattern of discrimination Human rights organizations including Amnesty International have, over time, documented a pattern of discrimination against Coptic Christians in Egypt.

Under Hosni Mubarak, at least 15 major attacks on Copts were documented and the situation didn’t improve under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) which ruled the country between the downfall of Hosni Mubarak and the election of President Mohamed Morsi.

In 2013, Coptic Christian activists reported at least four attacks on Churches or affiliated buildings in addition to Wasta, taking place in the Governorates of Aswan, Beni Suef, Cairo, and Fayoum.

The authorities’ response to the violence has been poor, at best.

They have often favoured “reconciliation” over the prosecution of offenders as a way to address sectarian violence.

In addition, both Hosni Mubarak and the SCAF failed to end discriminatory practices preventing Copts from building or restoring houses of worship.

Churches have been closed or destroyed because the authorities alleged that the communities did not have the correct permissions to build or renovate. Presidential Decree 291/2005 makes repair or expansion of Christian churches subject to a permit from the regional governor. In some cases, this has reportedly been used by the local authorities to delay or impede the construction or repair of churches.

“It is high time for the authorities to take sectarian violence and threats seriously. The Egyptian authorities are responsible for ensuring the protection of people, their homes and livelihoods. Time and time again, President Morsi claimed to be President of all Egyptians. Now, he needs to take action to ensure that sectarian violence is prevented and when it occurs it is properly investigated, and those responsible face justice,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

“By not prosecuting those responsible for sectarian violence, the Egyptian authorities are signalling Coptic Christians can be attacked with impunity”.

Egypt is a state party to a number of treaties which prohibit any forms of discrimination based on the grounds of religion including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

http://www.amnesty.org

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By Nick, February 23, 2013 2:15 pm

A group of Christian priests from a local Coptic church in Egypt were told to convert to Islam or face death, according to an Arabic news site.

The incident, which comes in the midst of continued persecution and pressure on Egypt’s Christian community, took place this week in the town of Safaga, near the Red Sea, the El Balad site reported.

According to El Balad, the threats are from a new group in Egypt, Jihad al-Kufr, whose name translates to Jihad against non-believers or non-Muslims. The group targets non-Muslims, and reportedly pressures them to convert to Islam.

“It’s not the first time. This is happening every day,” said Adel Guindy, president of Coptic Solidarity and a member of Egypt’s Coptic community who travels between Paris and Cairo. “This one incident caught the attention of the news agencies, but there are worse things happening to the Christians every day in Egypt,” he said.

Christians have felt increasingly at risk since the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, which resulted in the rise of President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

“It has definitely worsened under the revolution. Once the worst part of the society surfaced — the Islamists — the Copts are paying a heavy price. The West doesn’t really feel our pain. It’s a war of attrition,” Guindy said.

Copts are the largest Christian community in the Middle East, and the most prominent religious minority in the region. Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 85 million people.

Egypt’s new constitution has come under scrutiny by many for including elements of Sharia, or Islamic law, while simultaneously legitimizing the marginalization of the country’s religious minorities by denying them legal protection. It also granted increased powers to Morsi, who self-declared sweeping powers in a Nov. 22 power grab that prompted heavy international criticism.

The new constitution was ratified after its second referendum in late December, winning more than 70 percent of the vote. Moderate Egyptians took to the streets to protest the rushed ratification, but the demonstrations were quickly quashed.

Some believe members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic extremists, emboldened by the constitution’s passage, have stepped up attacks against Egyptian Christians.

“There was a relative amount of freedom (for Christians) before Egypt’s revolution, and many were hoping for more freedoms, and now things are unfortunately much worse and much more difficult,” said Jason DeMars, founder of Present Truth Ministries, a Christian advocacy group that tracks religious persecution around the world.

“It’s what they’ve always wanted to do, but Mubarak held some of that back because of the support he got from the United States and other Western countries,” DeMars said. “People were paying attention, but now the extremists are seeing this as an opportunity to crack down on the community there.”

Extremists over the weekend set fire to a Christian Church in the Province of Fayoum, the second such assault against the town’s Coptic population in a month. The attackers ripped down the church’s cross and hurled rocks at church members, injuring four people including the priest, according to a report by Morning Star News.

There have also been several reported cases of rape and harassment of Coptic women. Two women in traditional Islamic headdress cut off the hair of two Christian women on the subway in Cairo in December, the Egypt Independent reported. It was the third such incident in two months.

And last week, an Egyptian court forced two Coptic Christian boys, ages 10 and 9, to face trial for “insulting the Koran,” according to reports. The boys were arrested after playing in a pile of trash, which authorities claimed included pages of the Koran.

Egypt’s Coptic Christian leader, Pope Tawadros II, spoke openly this month when he dismissed the new constitution as discriminatory.

“We are a part of the soil of this nation and an extension of the pharaohs and their age before Christ,” he told the Associated Press. “Yes, we are a minority in the numerical sense, but we are not a minority when it comes to value, history, interaction and love for our nation.”

By Lisa Daftari
Fox News

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By Nick, February 6, 2013 12:24 am

AL-MUHARRAQ MONASTERY, Egypt (AP) — Egypt’s Coptic Christian pope sharply criticized the country’s Islamist leadership in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, saying the new constitution is discriminatory and Christians should not be treated as a minority.

The comments by Pope Tawadros II reflected the unusually vocal political activist stance he has taken since being enthroned in November as the spiritual leader of the Copts, the main community of Egypt’s Christians. His papacy comes as Christians are increasingly worried over the power of Islamists in the country and the rule of President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Tawadros dismissed a national dialogue that Morsi has been holding, ostensibly as a way to broaden decision-making amid criticism that his government concentrates power in the Brotherhood. Most opposition parties have refused to join the dialogue, as has the Coptic Church, calling it mere window dressing

“We will actively take part in any national dialogue that would benefit the nation,” Tawadros told The AP. “But when a dialogue ends before it starts and none of its results are implemented then we do not take part.”

The 60-year-old pope took issue with references that Morsi has made to Christians as a minority, underlining that the community — which makes up about 10 percent of the country’s 85 million people — must be seen as having an equal voice with the Muslim majority.

“We are a part of the soil of this nation. We are not a minority when it comes to value, history and the love of our nation,” he said, speaking during a visit to the historic al-Muharraq Monastery, a centuries-old site some 180 miles (300 kilometers) south of Cairo in the province of Assiut.

He also criticized the constitution, which Morsi’s Islamist allies rammed through to approval in December, angering opponents who said the move reflected the Brotherhood’s determination to impose its way without building consensus. Provisions in the document allow for a far stricter implementation of Shariah than in the past, raising opponents’ fears that it could bring restrictions on many civil liberties and the rights of women and Christians.

“Some clauses bore a religious slant, and that in itself is discrimination because constitutions are supposed to unite people not divide them,” Tawadros said of the charter.

Tawadros’ active public stance on politics reflects a new attitude among Christian activists, who say the community must become more vocal in demanding equal status with Muslims. In the past, activists say, Christians relied too much on the church to represent them behind the scenes with the country’s power-brokers, a strategy they argue consigned Christians to second-class status.

Tawadros’ predecessor, the late Shenouda III, was cautious about public criticism of Egypt’s leadership, working instead in backroom arrangements. He close to former President Hosni Mubarak, who until his ouster in February 2011 was seen by many Christians as the community’s protector against Islamists.

Nevertheless, under Mubarak’s rule, Christians complained of widespread official discrimination and said police failed to move against those accused in attacks on Christians or on churches. Egypt has seen a string of such attacks, before and after Mubarak’s fall — sometimes the result of local feuds that take on a sectarian nature, sometimes outright sectarian attacks. In the past two years, hardline Islamists have also become more open in anti-Christian rhetoric.

Tawadros said Morsi’s government must take greater action to prevent attacks on Christians.

“Realistically, we want actions not words. We don’t want a show. Egypt has changed, we live in a new Egypt now.”

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By Nick, January 28, 2013 5:29 am

An armed Islamic movement calling itself the “Brigade of Muslims” released a statement on Saturday threatening Egypt’s Coptic Christians and asking them to pay tribute.

“Egypt is an Islamic country and will be ruled according to Shariah,” the statement added.

The movement threatened all Egyptian media professionals who “mock religion and Islamic rule,” adding that it has a special list of media professionals and their persistence in mocking will result in the “shedding of their blood in the ugliest way.”

The movement explained that it has been established because of the strife being plotted against the country and the plans of enemies of Islam, both at home and abroad.

The movement accused Copts of trying to create a “separate Coptic state,” accused the National Salvation Front of involvement in the burning of Egypt, and accused the so-called corrupt media of distorting the image of Muslims and Islamic rule.

The movement noted its approach is jihad, and it would fight the Egyptian army and Interior Ministry if they do not stand up to “Copts and their helpers.”

“Let the unbelievers and the hypocrites know we are as keen on dying for the sake of God as they are keen on life,” the movement confirmed.

Christian Post

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By Nick, January 17, 2013 7:16 am

Leading Coptic figures have signed a statement rejecting the idea of a parliamentary quota for Coptic Christians, citing sectarian fears.

The statement was signed by dozens of Coptic representatives including Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour and George Ishak, state-run Al-Ahram reported.

A quota for Copts was suggested by Naguib Gabriel, Head of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights. Gabriel suggested the idea to some members of the Shura Council. The idea was discussed in the legislature and refused.

Gabriel said Christians are facing an exclusionary atmosphere which is why they need “positive discrimination.” He believes that if the quota is not applied, very few Coptic Christians will manage to win seats in parliament.

The statement rejecting the quota acknowledges that some of the Christians who contested seats in parliament have faced a sectarian atmosphere and that they are among the least represented groups in parliament. However, they described the quota as departure from the historic national Coptic path.

The signatories announced that they are not ignoring the problem. On the contrary, they want to retain Egypt’s religious and cultural diversity which should guarantee equal rights for all Egyptians including representation in legislatures.

“We will refuse dividing the nation on a religious basis through all legal purposes,” the statement said.

By Hend Kortam
http://dailynewsegypt.com

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By Nick, December 21, 2012 10:30 pm

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