U.S. Copts Association

Well-known pastor Wang Zaiqing held for printing Christian literature.

July 28 (Compass Direct News) - China Aid Association (CAA) reported that government raids of two house churches last week resulted in the arrest of about 80 Christians. Six policemen, including two plainclothes officers, interrupted a fellowship meeting of 43 people in Hubei province, south of Beijing, and detained 20 of them on July 21, according to CAA. Eight of the congregants were sentenced to 10 to 15 days of jail, while the rest were released by 5:30 p.m. that day. In Henan province, authorities on July 19 detained and interrogated more than 60 house church members, CAA said. They were released later the same day. In Anhui province, well-known house church pastor Wang Zaiqing was arrested on May 26. A church-planter and preacher in Anhui and surrounding provinces in east China, Pastor Wang was arrested for printing and distributing Christian books.

Featuring the ever-slick Mahdi Bray to deny the charges. “Muslims attack Jew at U.S. Islamic rally: Man says his life threatened at protest demonstrating support for Hezbollah,” from WND, with thanks to all who sent this in:

A Jewish activist was physically assaulted and his life was threatened during a planned “peaceful” rally held by the Muslim American Society in Boston, he told WorldNetDaily today.

Read the rest…

CAIRO, July 11 (Reuters) - Guards stopped a Muslim from carrying out a knife attack on Christians at a church in Egypt on Tuesday, security sources said. Police arrested Mohammed Masoud Khalil after he was stopped by guards at the door of St. George’s church in the southern Egyptian town of Qous, the sources said. Police said he was mentally ill.

Of course he was. Ill with the jihad ideology.

The authorities blamed mental illness for a knife attack by a Muslim on Christians in Alexandria in April. The attacker, who killed one Christian and wounded five others at two churches, has been committed to a mental hospital.

Perhaps the jihad ideology should be classified as a mental illness and the Egyptian government should quarantine all its adherents. Of course, that would be millions of people.

Machete cuts down 15-year-old boy in Kaduna state, nerve center of extremism.

July 10 (Compass Direct) - For two years Francis Yohanna Anche, 15, has been suffering from a brain injury he sustained when Muslim students in his high school in Zaria city attacked Christian students. His right hand and leg are still paralyzed from a machete cut to his head. Muslim students at the Government Science Secondary School-Kufena, Anche told Compass, had written a letter on June 24, 2004 warning Christian students that they should stop worshipping in the school’s chapel or else face their wrath. Seven other Christian students also sustained injuries in this attack. Christian leaders in Kaduna describe the state as the nerve-center of Islamic extremism, where many religious conflicts in northern Nigeria originate and spread to other parts of Nigeria.

By Joelle Bassoul - CAIRO

Maximus I says Egypt has never lived sectarian clashes as they have under Pope Shenuda III.

Charlatan”, “heretic” and “traitor” are but a few words that have been used to describe rebel priest Maximus I, who has decided to break away from the Egyptian Coptic Church under Pope Shenuda III and form his own alternative church.
Read the rest…

Attack underscores growing pattern of anti-Christian violence.

July 5 (Compass Direct) - A schizophrenic with a history of feeding Turkish media false rumors of proselytizing by Father Pierre Brunissen knifed the elderly French Catholic priest on Sunday night (July 2), though the lead prosecutor insisted there was no religious motive. The attack on the 75-year-old Fr. Brunissen in the northern port city of Samsun left him bleeding profusely from a stab wound four inches into his thigh. After an overnight stay in intensive care at the May 19 University Medical Hospital, he was released the following morning. It was the fourth attack on Catholic clergy this year in Turkey, where two Turkish Protestant church leaders also have been assaulted in the past six months. The assailant, a diagnosed schizophrenic named Atilla Nuran, 47, was taken into police custody shortly after the attack. Nuran has appeared on Turkish TV accusing the church of smuggling heroin, showing pornographic videos and paying students to attend church. The church’s lawyer has won a series of court cases for libel against Nuran and other critics for spreading false rumors about its ministry.

A group of Coptic Christians have started legal proceedings against a bishop who has said he is setting up an alternative orthodox church in Egypt.
Read the rest…

PUTRAJAYA: Having “Islam” included in a Muslim’s identity card is not discriminatory but is constitutional because Muslims have obligations, counsel for the Federal Territories Religious Council Sulaiman Abdullah said today (July 3, 2006).

In his more than an hour-long submission to the Federal Court in the Lina Joy case, Sulaiman said entering “Islam” on a person’s IC was a public order issue and not the National Registration Department (NRD) acting on a whim.
Read the rest…

By Sally Bishai

Just one week ago, Fouad Fawzy and his wife could amuse their children with bedtime stories, or sing their son and daughter-ages three and seven-to sleep. Just one week ago, Fawzy, 40, could attend church services in his town of Zagazig (in Egypt, province of al-Sharqeya) and participate in the Coptic Orthodox mass. Just one week ago, the talented shoemaker may have had a good-natured argument with a friend about whether leather really was the best material to craft shoes from. A lot can happen in one week, though.
Read the rest…

Radical Muslims in Britain have blasted Hamas for failing to carry out a “real” Islamic holy war, and have called for a Jihad against Israel following the recent escalation of the Israeli - Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip.
A number of British-based Muslim organizations have in recent days called on followers to wage war on Israel.
“What the Jews are doing in Palestine today will no doubt disturb any true Muslim,” a statement authored by ‘Abdul Aziz al-Dimashqi’ said on the website of the Saved Sect group.
Read the rest…