Tag: Copts

Egypt’s Copts nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

September 28, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Giza, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Mohamed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood, Pope Tawadros II

In October last year the Coptic church in Sohag, Minya governorate, had its electricity and water supply cut by police, who said they had received complaints from Muslim villagers (Watani)

Egypt’s Coptic Christians have been nominated for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for choosing peaceful coexistence over retaliation in the face of persecution, reports the US-based news site PR Newswire. It is believed to be the first time in the 116-year history of the prize that an ethnic religious group . . . Read More

Attacks against Copts ‘among deadliest acts of religious persecution’ – report

September 14, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Copts, Egypt, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Lake Chad, Sahel, Somalia, Syria, Tony Blair, Women, Yemen

This is one of the fifty five photos that is part of the photo story "Renewed day by day," commissioned by World Watch Monitor, exploring the extensive damage to churches in Egypt's Minya region that took place in late August 2013.

Attacks by members of the Islamic State group against Egypt’s Coptic Christian community “were among the deadliest acts of religious persecution” last year, according a new report presented in Washington DC yesterday, 13 September. “Fifty-three per cent of ISIS attacks against the public in 2017 were aimed at the Coptic . . . Read More

Closed churches force Copts to hold funerals in the streets

September 12, 2018 Egypt Asyut, Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya

Coptic Christians in various parts of Egypt have been left with no choice but to hold funeral services in the streets because of the closure of their churches. Coptic news site Watani reported on a street funeral last week in the village of Dimshau Hashim, in Minya governorate, where the . . . Read More

‘World leaders can’t continue to ignore persecution of Copts’

September 10, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Islamic State

More than 20 people lost their lives in the Palm Sunday attack on the St George Cathedral in Tanta, Egypt.

The US should make further cuts in foreign aid to Egypt if its government does not tackle the escalation in violence against the country’s Coptic Christians, an imam has said. “World leaders cannot continue to ignore the ongoing persecution of Coptic Christians,” Imam Tawhidi, president of the Islamic Association of . . . Read More

Egypt: Copts’ homes attacked despite advance notice to police of threats

September 3, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Luxor, Minya, Police

Houses of Copts have again come under attack by a mob in a village in Minya Governorate on 31 August, as a protest against Copts praying in a home owned by one of them, since there is no village church, Coptic news site Watani reports. World Watch Monitor last week . . . Read More

Egypt: Mob attacks prevent Coptic church’s recognition for ‘security’ reasons

August 31, 2018 Egypt Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya

Following demonstrations and several attacks on their church, Copts in Ezbet Sultan Pasha village, are back worshipping in the small house where they used to meet. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A Coptic community in Egypt’s Minya governorate, whose church was closed in July following protests by local Muslims, continues to be a target of mob attacks and hostility. The only Coptic church in Ezbet Sultan Pasha village, 250km south of Cairo, where about 20 per cent of the population is . . . Read More

Egypt appoints its first-ever female Coptic governor

August 30, 2018 Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Copts, Egypt, Women

A Coptic church in Cairo - Egypt's Copts account for 10 per cent of the population. (Photo: World Watch Monitor, 2004)

For the first time in Egypt’s history a Coptic Christian woman has been appointed as provincial governor. The new governor of Damietta, Dr. Manal Awad Mikhael, is also the second female governor ever to be appointed in Egypt, reports the BBC. Mikhael, 51, was sworn in by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi . . . Read More

Egypt: Muslim mobs force closure of 8 Coptic churches seeking ‘official’ recognition

August 29, 2018 Egypt Churches, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Luxor, Upper Egypt

The Copts in El-Zeniqa are no longer able to meet in their church following an attack by Muslim villagers. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A Coptic diocese in Upper Egypt last week saw its eighth church closed following attacks by Muslim villagers protesting against the church being legally recognised. Across Egypt, there are thousands of buildings informally acknowledged as churches. Exactly two years ago, the government introduced a new common law granting church buildings the . . . Read More

Egypt: IS murder of Coptic vet followed warnings to ‘leave or die’

August 22, 2018 Egypt Copts, Egypt, El-Arish, Islamic State, Ismailia, Sinai

The string of attacks on Coptic Christians last year in the coastal Egyptian city of El-Arish, which caused a mass exodus, followed warnings “to leave or to die”, say relatives of the Coptic vet who was killed by suspected IS militants. Bahgat William Zakhar, 40, was shot dead by a number . . . Read More

Coptic boy who saw father killed wants to join police ‘to protect Christians’

August 20, 2018 Egypt Children, Copts, Egypt, Islamic extremism, Minya

Marco (l) and Mina (r)standing next to the car that their father drove when he was killed. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A young Christian boy from a small village in Egypt’s Minya region, who saw his father killed by Islamic militants, dreams of becoming a police officer so he can prevent similar attacks. Mina was only ten years old when he and his brother Marco, aged 14, saw their father murdered, . . . Read More

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