U.S. Copts Association

By Robeir al-Faris

A textbook used by the first-year students at Cairo University’s faculty of arts is the History of the Arab Islamic State , authored by none other than Mohamed Barakat al-Biali who heads the Islamic History Department at the same faculty.
In 308 large-size pages, the book tackles Islamic history from the Mohammedan [prophetic] mission until the fall of the Umayyad State, with the life of the Prophet Mohamed taking up 123 pages. Given that the book is a history textbook taught in a civil-not a religious-university, one would assume it would stick to historical facts. But this is far from the case; the book brims with material that lies strictly within the domain of faith. Christian students must acknowledge in the examinations that the Torah and the Bible currently in use are misquotations of previous versions that included prophesies of the coming of Mohamed and that have consequently been disfigured by ‘Zionists’, and that the only true religion before God is Islam.
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By Nader Shukry

In the wee hours of dawn last Monday, the police knocked on the door of Bahiya Nagy al-Sissy in the small east-Delta town of Mit Ghamr, woke the family up, and arrested her. Bahiya is a 34-year old Coptic peasant woman, and she was caught in order to serve a three year prison sentence she was handed, together with her 36-year-old sister Shadya, in absentia in 2000 by a criminal court. Bahiya’s and Shadya’s crime: forgery, even though there were no forged documents to indict them in the first place. The two sisters were born Christian, had lived and had married as Christians, and had Christian children. The court, however, considered that they should have been Muslim according to their father’s brief conversion to Islam more than thirty years ago. Shadya and Bahiya had then been children and were ignorant of their father’s conversion, especially that he later reverted to his original Christianity. The story was kept secret by the father, but surfaced in 1996 when Ramadan Hassan Hussein, a forger, was arrested and, among his confessions, related how he had helped Sissy acquire Christian identity papers which were practically almost impossible to obtain once he had reverted to Christianity.

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Pope Shenuda III has left for US to have medical treatment after reportedly suffering from kidney pain.
CAIRO - The head of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenuda III, has left for the United States for medical treatment, the Coptic Orthodox Lay Council which manages the church’s affairs said.

The 84-year-old patriarch left Cairo late on Monday on an unscheduled trip to Cleveland, Ohio, Dr Tharwat Bassily of the council said, on what he said was a “routine check-up”.
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Nader Shukry-Emad Khalil

For Copts, the fortnight preceding Easter is usually a busy, happy time of preparation for the major feast of the Resurrection and the pharaonic-old spring feast of Sham al-Nessim. This year, however, the happy expectation was marred by incidents of sectarian hatred in two villages some 500 kilometres apart along the eternal Nile valley.

Palm Sunday attack
In the village of Qasr Hur close to the monastery of Abu-Fana in Minya some 250km south of Cairo, Copts were celebrating Palm Sunday in the village church. As Holy Mass ended early afternoon, the congregation began leaving the church and heading to their homes, in preparation for the evening Pascha service which is held every evening during Passion Week. The last group to leave was suddenly attacked by a group of men carrying sticks and clubs. Five Copts were injured: Samuel Kamel, Ashraf Menassa, Ishaq Nessim, Hany Samir and Baha’ Samir.
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 Al-Maqrizi (1364-1442): A witness & chronicler from the late medieval ages, Part III

by Ed Rizkalla

It is often said that sparks from different ideas ignite innovation and creativity. The writer noted that Al-Maqrizi chronicled some Coptic culture traits in his book, Al-khitat (1). Al-Maqrizi witnessed that the Copts were knowledge people (علم اهل), and Coptic men tended to discuss matters with their wives. He however could not comprehend why Coptic men sought their wives views and participation. The writer presented the tale of “King Cheops and the Magicians” (2) (3) as an example of ancient Egyptian literature, and briefly reviewed the 3rd story of the tale to shed light on the two Coptic cultural traits noted by Al-Maqrizi. With the grace of the Lord, the writer will review the 4^th story of the tale “King Cheops and the Magicians” to further discuss the two cultural traits noted by Al-Maqrizi and provide background for a third Coptic cultural trait that help the evolution of different views and ideas, whose sparks ignite innovation and creativity. This Coptic cultural trait is the respect for individuality, the individual’s dignity and his or her creative abilities.
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A glimpse into the life of non-Muslims under Islamic oppression
By Jesse Petrilla

 have recently returned to the United States from Egypt where I was on a fact-finding mission to see what life is like for non-Muslims who live under Islam. What I saw was a dire situation of oppression and discrimination that many in America and the West have all but ignored. A place with rampant police brutality and corruption, where non-Muslims are second-class citizens at best, who are brutally victimized on a daily basis.
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All which is hidden to be revealed.

Our hearts hold mysteries locked.

The book of Daniel which was sealed,

Is opened by the ticking clock.

Evangelist of Alexandria,
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THE DEATH OF DEATH

By H.G. Bishop Serapion

Today, we rejoice as we celebrate the Feast of feasts: the Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus ChriSt We rejoice because of the death of death. The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and His victory over death are the proof of the death of death, as St Cyril of Alexandria said, “For the Word of God ever lives, and is by His own nature Life; but when He humbled Himself unto emptying, and submitted to be made like unto us He tasted death. But this proved to be the death of death; for He arose from the dead, to be the way whereby not Himself so much but we rather return unto incorruption.”
Also St Augustine carried to us the joyful news about the death of death and said, “Where is death? Seek it in Christ, for it exists no longer. It did exist, and now death is dead. O Life, O death of death! Be of good heart, death will die in us also.”
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 Al-Maqrizi (1364-1442): A witness & chronicler from the late medieval ages, Part II

by Ed Rizkalla

In a recent article, the writer noted that the late medieval age Muslim historian Al-Maqrizi chronicled some of the Coptic culture traits in his famous book, Al-khitat (1), though he did not recognize them as such. It should be noted that Al-Maqrizi was not a Coptophile or a friend of the Copts by any extent of the imagination. It is perhaps fair to say that he was a product of his times. Al-Maqrizi, like other medieval Arab writers, used the word “Copts” to refer to both the ancient Egyptians and the Christians of Egypt, and as he wrote about the Muslim population of Egypt he simply referred to them as “Muslims”.
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 …But not at the Journalists Syndicate

By Nader Shukry - Watani Newspaper

“Spreading hatred against non-Muslims has reached an unendurable level in Egypt”, said Mounir Megahed in his capacity as head of Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination (EARD). The danger, he explained, was that incidents of sectarian violence were not carried out by terrorist groups or extremist parties but were in the major part planned and executed by ordinary people regularly bombarded with fanatic thought.
Last Friday and Saturday EARD held its first national conference at the headquarters of the leftist Tagammu party in Cairo. The first to be held against religious discrimination, it raised the slogan “Egypt for all Egyptians”. Egyptian researchers, writers, intellectuals, politicians, and rights activists from home and abroad gathered to discuss the issue and figure out solutions for the sectarian problem that has increasingly plagued Egypt during the last few years.
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