U.S. Copts Association

Our latest podcast on Mideast Youth features an interview with a Christian Iranian activist, Firouz Khanjani, whose brother, a pastor, was arrested twice this year in Iran. In the podcast Firouz describes the persecution Christians suffer in Iran, the limitations of freedom, harassments, arrests and mass exodus of Christians from Iran as a result. According to Firouz, the Iranian regime maintains a policy of “religious Apartheid” toward religious minorities in Iran like the Christians, Baha’is and Zoroastrians, amongst others. Firouz said that before people in the Middle East protest against discrimination of Muslims in the public sphere of Western countries (e.g. the niqab ban in France), they must offer religious freedom to discriminated religious minorities in their own countries.
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Last Tuesday, some 50 young Copts from the village of al-Uzeib, in Samalout, Minya, Upper Egypt, held a sit-in at the grounds of St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Abbasiya, Cairo. The young villagers protested what they described as the climate of terror imposed upon them by their fellow Muslim villagers, who belonged to strong, influential families. These families tyrannised the Copts into paying tribute money, and performing forced work, severely underpaid. The Copts are frequently forced to sell them land, houses, or cattle at the ludicrous prices. When the Coptic villagers attempt to report such practices to the police, the officers refuse to file any complaints. The sit-in of last Tuesday was triggered by the most recent incident against a Coptic villager in Uzeib. According to the protesters, the 20-year-old Copt Ernest Bushra was badly beaten by a Muslim man called Fathy Gabra, resulting in a head injury and bruises in various parts of the body. When Bushra headed to the police station to file a complaint last Sunday, he was detained at Samalout police station for more than three days on the pretext that the police were searching for Gabra. When Gabra finally turned himself in, it was, according to eye-witness reports, with self-inflicted injuries and a medical report.
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By Youssef Sidhom

Wit November only a few weeks away, competition among candidates who will then be running for the People’s Assembly (PA)—the lower house of Egypt’s parliament—is rapidly heating up. Once the running candidates are officially approved, they will be scrambling to familiarise voters in their constituencies with their respective electoral platforms, in a bid to win. The contest is expected to be a fierce one, and not without its hazards.
The manner in which many candidates conduct their campaigns makes them appear indifferent to any public damage or affront that may cause. Posters carrying their names and images are glued all over the place; never mind if this involves the ugly smearing of walls of private or public buildings, or even utilities. This culture of apathy which governs many a campaign—and the discussion of which has so long been placed on hold—should now prompt a thorough revision of common campaigning practices. True, publicity is needed to acquaint voters with potential
representatives, but the question is how best to achieve this goal with no damages incurred. Sticking pictures of nominees on every possible public wall is nothing short of an eyesore, and shows disrespect of the voters’ better judgement. Instead of striving to meet prospective voters, discuss their problems and aspirations, and figure out how best to serve them, candidates behave as though they have landed from another planet and need to stick their pictures everywhere for the voters to get familiar with them. What benefit can there be of the copious display of pictures of candidates who are arguably already known and trusted by the voters? Nominees should presumably have behind them a history of public work sufficient to earn votes without the need to stick their pictures everywhere possible in the face of the public eye.
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Egypt, is an ally?

In the December 29,03 issue of Al-Ahram (the official Egyptian Newspaper) a disturbing piece of information, which could mean nothing to the uninformed about the Middle East, but its dangerous magnitude should not, by any means, be ignored.

It says that Egypt is proposing 2 Billion Dollars to open a branch of Al-Azhar in Philippine.

Al-Azhar is the most prestigious Islamic University in the world. It was founded in Egypt and still there.

It is operating as an educational (Islamic) institute.

Copts are not allowed to join, even though they pay taxes which cover the Al Azhar University’s costs, imam’s salaries, building’s renovation and additions…etc.

The fact is that it produces all kind of terrorists and exporting them to the entire world!

Since the USA is watching the Arab countries, Egypt thought to have a branch of its discriminatory “educational” institute out of the area.
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed “deep concern” on Thursday over the continued persecution of religious minority communities in Iran by the national government.

“Freedom of religion is the birthright of people of all faiths and beliefs in all places,” Clinton stated following the sentencing of seven Baha’i leaders earlier this week.

“The United States is committed to defending religious freedom around the world,” she added, “and we have not forgotten the Baha’i community in Iran.”
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Zahi Hawass has never exactly been afraid of making enemies. Egypt’s 63-year-old antiquities chief (a man who cheerfully refers to himself as “The Pharoah”) has, over the years conducted public feuds with fellow Egyptologists, prominent international museums and a host of alternative archeologists who he cheerfully dismisses as “pyramidiots.”

Hawass’ latest target isn’t exactly new; for years he has railed against foreign museums holding onto treasured Egyptian artifacts that he believes should be returned home. At the top of this list is the Rosetta Stone, currently housed in the British Museum in London.
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(CNN) — Three men suspected of being part of a homegrown Canadian terror group participating in terrorist activities are in custody, Canadian law enforcement officials said Thursday.

Chief Superintendent Serge Therriault of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the three are Canadian citizens Hiva Mohammad Alizadeh, 30, of Ottawa; Misbahuddin Ahmed, 26, of Ottawa; and Khurram Syed Sher, 28, of London, Ontario.

Alizadeh faces three charges: conspiracy, committing an act for a terrorist group and providing or making available property for terrorist purposes. Canadian federal prosecutor David McKercher told CNN the three charges carry maximum sentences ranging from 14 years to life in prison.
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(AINA) — Egyptians, Muslims and Christians alike, are closely watching the controversy associated with the Ground Zero Mosque project, though for different reasons. The Egyptian media is giving this issue full coverage with articles mostly accusing Americans of Islamophobia, and supporting Muslims to hold on to their rights to build a mosque anywhere as guaranteed by the US constitution, regardless of what Americans think.

On the other hand, some influential Muslims rejected the idea of a Mosque near Ground Zero only on grounds that it would backfire on Islam, by connecting it to the 9/11 events. Dr. AbdelMotey Bayoumi, a member of Al Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy, believes it could be a “Zionist conspiracy” to harm Islam.
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The proposed mosque near to ground zero is not really a religious institution. It would be — as many mosques throughout the nation are — a terrorist recruitment, indoctrination and training center. It is not the worship of Islam that is the problem. It is the efforts to advance Sharia law, with its requirement of jihad and violence, that is the nub of the issue.

There is a global effort to advance Sharia law and make it the legal system of the world. Most major banks and financial institutions offer Sharia compliant funds, which have their investments vetted by the most fundamentalist and reactionary of clerics to assure that they advance Sharia law.
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Archaeologists uncover pharaonic settlement in Egyptian oasis dating back to 1600 BC.
CAIRO - Archaeologists have uncovered a pharaonic settlement in an Egyptian oasis that may have supplied food for troops along Saharan trade routes, Egypt’s antiquities department said on Wednesday.

Yale University’s American-Egyptian mission, which found the site in Kharga, the most southerly of the ring of oases that circle Egypt’s Western Desert, believes it was a major administrative centre dating back to around 1600 BC.
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Egypt’s most influential opposition movement to promote own views at Ikhwanbook.com.
CAIRO - The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s influential Islamist opposition movement, will launch its own social networking site next month to promote moderate Islam, an official said on Wednesday.

Ikhwanbook.com, which is already up, was created by the Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo to “promote moderate Islam and clarify who we are,” said politburo member Mohammed Mursi.
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If France’s Senate votes to approve a full ban on the burqa next month, debate over Muslim dress will only intensify around the world. Concern centers around how a liberal democracy can create legislation determining religious practice without compromising its core democratic principles. Surprisingly, support for a European ban on Islamic dress comes from an unlikely source: Syria.

In July, Ghiath Barakat, Syria’s minister of higher education, banned students and teachers wearing head and face veils from registering for classes or even stepping on university campuses, saying head coverings were against academic principles. Previously, Mr. Barakat transferred approximately 1,200 female teachers in full head coverings to administrative jobs. Of course, in an authoritarian dictatorship like Syria, the minister of higher education alone does not have the authority to pass such a radical policy. To be sure, such a decision must have been made at the highest levels of the Syrian political and security apparatus.
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Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Pamela Geller, founder, editor and publisher of the popular and award-winning weblog AtlasShrugs.com. She has won acclaim for her interviews with internationally renowned figures, including John Bolton, Geert Wilders, Bat Ye’or, Natan Sharansky, and many others, and has broken numerous important stories — notably the questionable sources of some of the financing of the Obama campaign. Her op-eds have been published in The Washington Times, The American Thinker, Israel National News, Frontpage Magazine, World Net Daily, and New Media Journal, among other publications. She is the co-author (with Robert Spencer) of the new book, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America ^[1] (forward by Ambassador John Bolton).
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Over the recent Fourth of July weekend, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR ^[1]) interviewed ^[2] attendees of the 47th annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA ^[3]) convention about their experiences in dealing with “Islamophobia.” Shortly afterwards, on July 6, CAIR called on the FBI to investigate an act of arson ^[4] at a Georgia mosque, saying that hate crimes were increasing because of a “vocal minority in our society promoting anti-Muslim bigotry.” The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA ^[5]) referred ^[6] to it as one of the “incidents of Islamophobia [that] are on the rise in this country.” However, police later arrested ^[7] a Muslim suspect.
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Despite the platitudes by President Obama about Islam being based on peace, the cold reality is very different. After all, peace and Islam do not go hand-in-hand because Islamic Sharia law is not based on equality, on the contrary it is about the supremacy of Muslims over the non-Muslim dhimmis.

Also, the central aspect of Islam is clearly about Mohammed and not God. Muslims follow what Mohammed did and not what God ordained and for non-Muslims this appears that Muslims have a “duality” because God appears to come a poor second to Mohammed.

Yet when you delve into the reality of the real Mohammed then it is clear that modern Islam is based on the sayings of Mohammed, the life of Mohammed, and so forth. Did God ordain that old men can marry young children? Of course not, however, the marriage age of children in Saudi Arabia is based on Mohammed.
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