U.S. Copts Association

Issandr El Amrani is a freelance journalist based in Cairo.)In the early morning of April 14, 2006, Mahmoud Salah al-Din Abd al-Raziq, a Muslim, entered the church of Mar Girgis (Saint George) in Alexandria’s al-Hadra district and stabbed three parishioners who had gathered for a service. Abd al-Raziq then proceeded to attack worshippers at two other churches, according to police accounts, before being arrested en route to a fourth. Nushi Atta Girgis, 78, died from his stab wounds, while several others were injured, some severely.
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Breakfast’s main story this morning is the bombings in the Egyptian resort of Dahab last night, which killed at least 23 people.
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Majlis Taklim accuses foundation in West Java of ‘Christianization,’ demands closure.

April 25 (Compass Direct) - A Muslim community group called Majlis Taklim on April 9 entered the premises of a Christian social institution in West Java, Indonesia, demanding its closure for the fifth time this year.

The Apostolic Nation Building Foundation (ABB) operates from a residential building in the Griya Bintara Indah housing complex in Bintara sub-district, West Bekasi district, West Java.

Around 70 Majlis Taklim members came to the ABB headquarters on April 9 and told the foundation to cease all activities, accusing them of running an illegal church and trying to “Christianize” the community.

Staff immediately called the police, who arrived and monitored the situation; there was no violence.
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PRESIDENT MUBARAK SHOULD STOP COPTS’ PERSECUTION!

On Friday, the fourteenth of April 2006, 4 Muslim men, holding swords, attacked 3 different churches in Alexandria, Egypt. Officials say that one was found dead and 7 injured, however Al-Aalam (The World) Satellite Television mentioned that the numbers are 3 dead and 17 injured, which could be the real number. An eye-witness priest explaining the event mentioned that one of the attackers entered the church with a sword in each hand viciously attacking innocent Copts, while praying. They were screaming Allah Akbar (God is Great). This is just the beginning of many woes that the Fanatic Muslims in Egypt intend to inflict on the Copts (Christians of Egypt). We truly believe that there is an impending massacre that will occur on the Copt’s celebration of Good Friday, April 21. 2006.
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Coptics from across the nation and several countries convened outside the White House on Wednesday to protest the violence against Egyptian Christians.

By Michelle Vu

WASHINGTON - Coptics from across the nation and several countries convened outside the White House on Wednesday to protest the violence against Egyptian Coptics that recently flared following knife attacks over the weekend.

Holding signs that read “Stop Burning the Churches in Egypt,” “Justice for Christians in Egypt,” “Stop Persecution of Christians in Egypt,” and “Why Copts are Considered Second Class Citizens in Egypt,” protestors circled in front of the White House as the leaders of the National American Coptic Assembly explained to onlookers the reason for the demonstration.

“There was an accident that happened about three to four days ago where some extreme Muslims started walking into the churches and stabbing the worshippers on Sunday,” said NACA’s Ehab Shafik, who spoke on behalf of the protestors as they marched.
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Muslims and Christians in Alexandria called for calm after two days of clashes.

By Ursula Lindsey | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT - An attack on several Christian churches in this Egyptian coastal city, followed by two days of sectarian clashes, raises fresh concerns that the social compact between the country’s Muslim majority and Coptic Christian minority is unraveling.

While the government and many Egyptians say religious tolerance is the rule, some in the country’s Coptic community view the attack, and the way the investigation is being handled, as evidence they are increasingly under siege.

On Sunday evening, Christians and Muslims came together for a peaceful march in a neighborhood where some of the clashes occurred. The demonstrators, led by Muslim and Christian clergy, chanted “Long live the crescent and the cross,” referring to the symbols of their two religions. It’s a slogan that has its roots in Egypt’s 1919 Independence movements, when Christians and Muslims came together to protest British occupation, and the idea of “national unity” - regardless of creed - was forged.
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By ELI LAKE
Staff Reporter of the Sun
 ALEXANDRIA, Egypt - In temporary offices near the Virgin Mary Church in the Asafra neighborhood here, Father Bejimey Shawky catalogs the damage the Muslim rioters wrought.

First they smashed his church’s windows.Then they unhinged the rear door.

The pious Muslim looters broke the electrical switch for the air-conditioner. They burned the anteroom near the main hall reserved for baptism; they burned the father’s offices, and they burned the cupboards and shelves that contained the church’s library.

“I cannot say where this hatred comes from,” Father Bejimey said, his voice low and weary. “We have coexisted for generations.”

The church, which smelled faintly of smoke, was barely fit for worship. But Father Bejimey’s flock turned out every night for the evening service between the Coptic Palm and Easter Sundays to recite lines from the Gospel and remember Christ’s last week before the crucifixion. A few members of the congregation had bandages on their arms and legs from the clashes two days before.
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By Stephen Schwartz  - TCS Daily

Allegations of “apostasy” among Muslims are presently a topic for global controversy. To Westerners, apostasy from Islam seems to denote conversion to Christianity, since the persecution of Muslims who have changed their religion has gained media attention — most recently in the case of a Christian convert, Abdul Rahman, who was threatened by a local judge in Afghanistan. It is also widely believed in the West that apostasy from Islam is invariably punished by death.

Both views are distorted. The phenomenon of public abandonment of Islam for Christianity did not become widespread until the last 150 years or so, and cases have remained rare enough that there is no substantial body of Islamic jurisprudence dealing with it. In general, apostasy from Islam was defined in the past as denial of foundational concepts of the religion — more as heresy than as a change of faiths.

Shafi’i Sunni jurisprudence, a school of shari’a which remains widespread in Arab countries and Southeast Asia, defines apostasy as straying from the religion, rather than leaving it or joining another, and recommends repeated mercy and opportunities to correct alleged errors. The Maliki school of jurisprudence, which is established in northwest Africa, is severe on those who change religions, demanding capital punishment. This may reflect the history of formerly-Islamic Spain where, during periods when territory passed from Muslim to Christian rule, Muslims who had converted from Christianity to Islam returned to their earlier faith.
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Fifty-two people have been detained in Egypt over their alleged involvement in three days of religious violence in the city of Alexandria.
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The World Maronite Union strongly condemns the criminal attacks against the Copts of Egypt, particularly the aggression against the Churches in Alexandria last week.1) The Union blames the Jihadists who are planning and executing these attacks against unarmed and innocent civilians with in the Coptic Christian community of Egypt. The Maronite Union hold the Islamic Fundamentalist organizations in Egypt as responsible for incitement and support to the Jihadi networks, implicated in terrorism against Copts and moderate Muslims in Egypt and the region.
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