U.S. Copts Association

Local believers fear kingdom’s traditional religious tolerance may be waning.

ISTANBUL, January 29 (Compass Direct News) - Jordan has increased pressure on foreign Christians living in the kingdom, expelling many long-time residents over the past 13 months in what local churches see as an attack on their legitimacy.Authorities deported or refused residence permits to at least 27 expatriate Christian families and individuals in 2007, a number of them working with local churches or studying at a Christian seminary, Compass has confirmed.

In all but one case, officials refused to provide written explanations for the decisions. But many of those expelled told Compass that they had been questioned by intelligence officers regarding evangelism of Muslims.

“They said that I am a threat to Jordanian security and I am making the society unstable,” said Hannu Lahtinen, a Finnish pastor deported last month. “They have a thousand ways to say you are preaching the gospel.”
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Number of Palestinians crossing into Egypt from Gaza slows down after resealing borders.
Hamas forces joined Egyptian forces for a second day Monday in trying to restore control at three breaches in the Gaza border, building a chain-link fence to seal off one opening and directing traffic at two others.

The number of Palestinians crossing into Egypt from Gaza slowed on Monday as Egyptian authorities tried to control the flow by sealing parts of the blown-up border and stopping supply trucks reaching Rafah.
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29/01/2008
His father threatened to kill him unless his decision is due
Court: A Jewish and Christian are allowed to convert to Islam, but vice-versa is not accepted.
 CAIRO - Reuters
Egyptian court Tuesday rejected a lawsuit filed by an Egyptian on 29-1-2008 turning to the Christian students that the Ministry of Interior to change his name and religion on identity cards portable and said it is permissible for a Muslim to change his religion.

The lawyer said that three human rights organizations seeking a new lawsuit with the same request after the issuance of this provision.
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Iran has sentenced three members of the Bahai faith to four years in jail for security offences and 51 others to suspended prison terms.They were convicted for propaganda against the system in the southern city of Shiraz, a judiciary spokesman said, without giving details.

Bahaism is a branch of Islam viewed as heresy by Iran’s religious authorities.
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By Youssef Sidhom

As we celebrate Watani’s golden jubilee this year, we are reminded of another jubilee, this time a silver one, of a problem that has yet to find a solution. The problem concerns the monastery of the Holy Virgin in the western mountain of Assiut, which was presented in full detail in Watani several times before, but no official ever took any action to resolve it. Today I ask: Is 25 years not enough?
The monastery of the Holy Virgin in Assiut’s western mountain is a gem of religious tourism since it marks the site where the Holy family resided for some six months while on its flight into Egypt. Besides the cave churches, the monastery conglomerate includes guest facilities of outstanding architectural harmony, to accommodate the thousands of visitors it receives. A vacant area at the foot of the mountain stands between the monastery and the Assiut-Ghanayem motorway. Planners agree that the area should remain free of any buildings so as not to distort the view, and to play the role of a spiritual prelude to the place of worship and praise above. The obvious option would be to turn it into a lush, green area. Yet what happened in this respect is the core of our problem.

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Daily News 

 Cairo court on Tuesday postponed till Jan. 29 the final verdict on the case of Mohamed Hegazy, a Muslim who converted to Christianity.
Hegazy’s lawyer had requested a freeze on the case to complete legal procedures, but while the public attorney had agreed to the request, the 20 lawyers spearheading an apostasy case against Hegazy had refused the request, leading the court to adjourn the hearing till Jan. 29.
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Egypt invites Hamas, Fatah for separate talks in Cairo to discuss breached Gaza border.
RAFAH, Egypt - Egypt said Saturday it would keep allowing Palestinians to cross the breached border and stock up on supplies for a fourth day of unfettered access from the Gaza Strip.

However, security forces moved to stop Gazans from penetrating into the Sinai peninsula beyond the border town of Rafah.

Cairo’s wider concern was reflected in the fact that few security forces were posted at the border itself, most having been pulled back to reinforce checkpoints barring Palestinians from travelling through Egypt, a media correspondent reported.
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MADRID (Reuters) - Islamist extremists were planning attacks across Europe, especially against public transport, before their arrests in Barcelona last weekend, a Spanish paper reported on Saturday, citing a would-be attacker’s testimony.

The Al Qaeda-inspired cell planned to attack the Barcelona metro and other targets in Spain, Germany, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom, said the bomber turned police informant.

In testimony that led to the arrest of 14 South Asians last Saturday, the informant told police the group had a preference for attacks on public transport, especially metro systems, El Pais newspaper reported.
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Set to be baptized in February, 70-year-old suffers burns on 70 percent of body.

DHAKA, Bangladesh, January 24 (Compass Direct News) - Unknown attackers tried to burn a 70-year-old woman to death on January 7 after learning that she would be baptized as a Christian next month.

Rahima Beoa, who was planning to be baptized on February 13 in Muslim-majority Rangpur district, 248 kilometers (154miles) northwest of the capital city of Dhaka, suffered burns on 70 percent of her body.

“The unknown people wanted to burn alive the elderly woman because they came to know that she would be a Christian in the next month,” said Khaled Mintu, a regional supervisor of the Rangpur district of the Isha-E-Jamat Bangladesh denomination. “It was a devilish conspiracy to stop her being a Christian.”
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Local authorities tore down building citing lack of construction permission.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, January 24 (Compass Direct News) - An indigenous church community has filed a lawsuit against local authorities in the state of Kelantan over the demolition of their church building on June 4, 2007.

The state claims that the building was constructed on state land without proper approval. The church of indigenous Temiar Orang Asli people in Gua Musang disputes this, arguing that the building was built on land belonging to village headman Pedik bin Busu, who had donated it to the Temiar Orang Asli community for erection of the worship structure.

According to local media reports, Pedik claimed that nearly everyone in the village had become Christian in February 2007.
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