U.S. Copts Association

International (MNN) - Islamic principles are governing policy-making throughout the Middle East. That’s especially true of the cluster of Islamic Republics. Their hard-line, anti-Western sentiment closed doors to the Gospel.

Yet, Words of Hope’s Lee DeYoung cites encouraging reports from inside those restricted access areas. “We have noted through our contacts in recent weeks considerable openness in some of the most tightly-closed countries. It encourages us that Christian broadcasting in such places is effective. Part of that equation is whether or not people are interested at all.”
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By BosNewsLife News Center

GAZA/JERUSALEM (BosNewsLife) — As night fell, “hungry” and “frightened” Christians remained trapped in their houses in Gaza on Monday, May 21, as rival Palestinian factions continued their battles while Israel increased air strikes against militants, a Christian aid group said.

Barnabas Fund told BosNewsLife that a Christian leader has expressed concerns about “the great fear in the hearts of Christians” in Gaza.
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By Sylvia Smith for CNN

CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) — Growing piles of rubbish in cities is something that concerns city dwellers around the globe.

In most countries householders pay to have their garbage taken away by the local council. But in Egypt the boot is on the other foot with private garbage collectors in the capital purchasing rights to gather refuse.
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By YOUSSEF IBRAHIM 

April 23, 2007

Keeping Saudi Arabia’s royal family safe from radical Islamists is the West’s strategic concern and delusion.

The only intelligent question for America about Saudi Arabia is: Should we deal with the royals of the house of Saud or go directly to their bearded, Kalashnikov-toting Osama bin Laden-loving followers?

For half a century, the West has preferred to believe that its choice in Saudi Arabia is the moderate, friendly Saudi royal family or the wild-eyed, sandal-clad zombies of jihad, disregarding the seamless relationship between the two.
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From April 19-21, 2007, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III travelled to Syria for the tenth annual meeting of the Heads of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, with His Holiness Patriarch Zakka I of the Syrian

Orthodox Church and His Holiness Catholicos Aram I of the Armenian Church-Holy See of Cilicia.  This year’s meeting was held at at St. Ephrem Syrian Orthodox Monastery in Damascus, Syria came ten years after the foundational meeting in 1996.Â
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Attackers slit the throats of three people at a Turkish Bible publisher’s on
Wednesday, April 18th
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Sentencing of Fr. Ly bodes poorly for dissident human rights activist Nguyen Van Dai.

HO CHI MINH CITY, April 18 (Compass Direct News) - Following the March 29 sentencing of Father Nguyen Van Ly to eight years in prison for distributing “material harmful to the state,” two Protestant lawyers charged with the same “crime” are expected to face equally harsh sentences in what Human Rights Watch has called the harshest crackdown in 20 years. Attorney Nguyen Van Dai, a 38-year-old member of the main Hanoi congregation of the legally-recognized Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North) since 2000, was arrested on March 2. According to Pastor Au Quang Vinh of the Hanoi church, a second lawyer, 27-year-old Le This Cong Nhan, was also arrested in early March. She had just completed a doctrine course for new believers at the same church in preparation for baptism. Authorities have prohibited Dai’s wife, Khanh, from visiting him, and her home phone and cell phone services have been cut. A Christian source also said that police have been trying to incite neighbors against her.

Sentencing of Fr. Ly bodes poorly for dissident human rights activist Nguyen Van Dai.

The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting comprising two separate attacks about two hours apart on April 16, 2007, on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 25^[4] before committing suicide, making it the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.^[5][6]

Cho, a South Korean who had moved to the United States at age eight, was a senior English major at Virginia Tech. In 2005, he had been accused of stalking two female students and was declared mentally ill by a Virginia special justice.^[7] At least one professor had asked him to seek counseling.
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by Nina Kelly, Open Doors UK & Ireland

The spiritual fields of Egypt are clearly ripe and ready for harvest. Thousands of nominal Christians, many whom are desperate to escape from grinding poverty, are converted to Islam every year via Saudi backed initiatives. However, more than 20,000 of the most vulnerable Christians are now benefiting from Christian run initiatives such as women’s empowerment programmes and Christian educational and professional services to help them improve their quality of life and learn about a living faith in Jesus which helps them stay true to their roots.

Around ten percent of Egypt’s 79 million population is Christian. Of these eight million Christians, 90% are Coptic Orthodox and the vast majority are nominal Christians only, with just 5% of Christians attending Church. With an average annual income of $1,300 many Egyptians find daily living a struggle and nominal Christians in particular are very susceptible to the systematic financial incentives given by Saudi backed Muslims. Their creative economic development programmes are available only on conversion to Islam, although less altruistic methods are sometimes used.
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Millions of Christians have been celebrating Easter - the holiest day in their calendar - during which they believe Jesus Christ was resurrected three days after being crucified.