U.S. Copts Association

By Heba Saleh

Published: May 31 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 31 2006 03:00

Alaa Ali, a young freelance translator from Cairo, consulted a religious scholar to find out what would helpher gain more credit with God - praying at the mosque on the holiest night of Ramadan or going to see a sick relative.

“I wanted to know what was of more religious value, what carried the bigger reward from God,” said Miss Ali. The answer was visiting her relation.

But even she expresses unease about the rise in demand for fatwas, or religious opinions, which has taken place in Egypt.
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By Margret Ramirez

Tribune Religion Reporter

Under the shadow of immense gold banners heralding the opening of the King Tut exhibition, dozens of Coptic Orthodox church members from across the Chicago area gathered Thursday outside the Field Museum to protest religios discrimination against fellow Christians in Egypt.

The crowd of about 80 included memmbers of the three area Coptic Orthodox churches: St. Mark in Burr Ridge, St. Mary in Palatine, and St. George in Monee. With heavy media surrounding the Tut exhibit,the Coptic community saw an opportunity to raise awareness about the plight of Christians in their homeland.

“We need to be recognized as people and we need to be heard,” Atef Mackar said. “It is important to show that we are the Copts, we are sons and daughters of King Tut and we will not tolerate seeing our sisters and brothers persecuted in Eypt.”
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By Dalia Hatuqa

Medill News Service

(Medill News Service) CHICAGO Egyptian Christians and their supporters say they will protest against Egypt’s persecution of its Coptic minority outside the Field Museum Thursday.

The demonstration will coincide with the arrival of Egyptian delegates who are scheduled to attend the opening of the King Tut exhibition.

The delegation will include the country’s consul general in Chicago, a former Egyptian ambassador to the U.S,. high-ranking officials from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, according to members of the Coptic community in Chicago.
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Palestinians aided the Sinai terrorist cell blamed for a deadly April bombing, Egypt said Tuesday.

By Sarah Gauch | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
EL-ARISH, EGYPT - As Egypt’s security forces complete their massive manhunt for suspects in three suicide bombings in the Sinai resort of Dahab last month, experts and residents say it’s clear that this city and the sprawling desert and craggy mountains around North Sinai have become a new breeding ground for violent Islamic extremism in Egypt.

It is here in this vast and isolated region, traditionally known for smuggling, that extremists have planned high-profile attacks on nearby resorts, officials say.
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More than a month after Copts knifed in Alexandria, fact-finding team still unformed.

May 22 (Compass Direct) - With Cairo reeling from two weeks of clashes between thousands of police and demonstrators over the trial of two judges, Egypt appears to have forgotten its promises to investigate the April 14 stabbing of Christians in Alexandria.

Egyptian leaders were quick to condemn the church knife attacks that left one Christian dead and more than a dozen wounded on April 14. In an effort to quell the ensuing two days of violent clashes, Egypt’s parliament announced the formation of a fact-finding committee, headed by Deputy Speaker of the People’s Assembly Dr. Zeinab Radwan.

The panel was charged with investigating the cause of the attacks and reporting its findings within 30 days. More than one month later, with 68 of those arrested during the Alexandria violence still imprisoned without charges, the committee has yet to be formed.
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First the Holocaust, then Egypt’s National ID Cards, and now.. a calamity of colourful (and cataclysmic) proportions.

You havenâ€^TMt the foggiest notion what Iâ€^TMm talking about, have you.

Well, consider this: To begin with, Hitler made Jews wear a Star of David, to easier identify them for his devious, “experimental” and genocidal purposes.

Then—and I have no idea just when it started—the Egyptian government put “Christian” and “Muslim” on National ID Cards, making it that much easier for systematic and legalised discrimination against Christians to take place in Egypt (check out a satirical take on “The Way Things Are in Egypt” if you donâ€^TMt believe me, at http://sallybishai.blogspot.com/2006/05/what-are-copts-doing-in-
egypt.html ).
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by Mohamed Salmawi, as printed in El-Masry Elyoom Newspaper

There is a devil who says that the victim is the cause of
the crime, not the person who committed the crime. And along came the incidents in Alexandria last week to prove the truth of his statement. Why would Copts meet to pray in more than one church at the same time other than to incite anger in Muslims who are protective of their religion?

That’s why when a devout Muslim saw Christians openly
praying in a church in Hadra, he was overcome with patriotic feelings and
attacked them. Then he went to another church on the other side of the city and found more Christians praying, so he attacked them too. And he went to a third church and found exactly the same thing. But why should we blame him for what he did?
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This past Good Friday, a man entered Mar Girgis Church in Alexandria, Egypt, and stabbed one worshipper to death and wounded two others. He then went to another church and stabbed three other Christians.

The events in Alexandria were a reminder of the, at best, tenuous status of Christians in the Islamic world.

The Egyptian government immediately dismissed the possibility that animus toward Christians played a role in the attacks. Egypt’s Interior Ministry said that the attacker suffered from “psychological disturbances.” How convenient.

Egyptian Christians, known as Copts, did not buy it, and for good reason: Police officials had a different version, announcing that “three men had been arrested in four simultaneous church assaults.” According to the police, these assaults had killed one and injured another 17.
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Fatal Stabbings Underline Growing Sectarian Tensions in Historic Port City of Alexandria

  By Daniel WilliamsWashington Post Foreign Service

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — This ancient port city clings to a self-proclaimed myth of urban tolerance as stubbornly as barnacles adhere to its harbor breakwaters. Ask anyone idling on the waterfront drive what Alexandria is like, and the answer will be that everyone gets along here, that the city is neither narrow-minded, like villages in Egypt’s far south, nor coldly anonymous, like Cairo.

Alexandria’s tolerance stems, residents say, from the city’s earliest days. When Alexander the Great founded a Greek settlement on Africa’s shore in 332 B.C., it merged cultures from north and south, east and west, quickly growing into a place that welcomed travelers, traders and refugees from all over the Mediterranean region. But last month, a 2,300-year-old reputation was undermined, perhaps fatally, by a dagger stroke.
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Difficult to visit today because of poor infrastructure, tourism advocates say sites on the ‘Holy Family Trail’ could attract up to six million new visitors per year with a relatively low rate of investment

By Sherine El-Madany