Displaying items by tag: Egypt

Egypt has had three days of mourning after two bombings of Coptic Christian churches by IS on Palm Sunday, killing 49 and injuring dozens. In response to the attacks, Egypt will set up a supreme council to counter terrorism and extremism. At the end of March Israel reported, ‘Egypt is likely to be subject to an IS terror attack in the near future.’ Eitan Ben-David, head of Israel's counter-terror bureau, said, ‘We don't want to cry wolf but we really believe that the threat is serious.’ In many countries, particularly Nigeria, Easter prompts heightened tension between Christians and Muslims. Nigerian churches will be overwhelmingly full, and Easter Monday is a holiday with crowds gathering at markets, beaches, etc. Historically Nigeria has experienced horrendous Easter church bombings. Other countries also experience Christian / Muslim tensions at Easter. In Pakistan last Easter, 75 were killed and 340 injured in Christian-targeted bombings. See also

Egyptian Christians, as security worsens, are fleeing the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula, some with just the clothes on their backs, after several killings and explicit calls by IS to target them. The displacement has reached a scale rarely seen outside natural disasters. Pray for God’s comfort and strength for all experiencing continued death threats, and for those who have fled from their homes and communities. Ex-president Hosni Mubarak was freed last week after six years in custody. His release comes amid an economic crisis after years of political tumult and worsening security. Egyptians complain of empty pockets and rumbling bellies as inflation exceeds 30% and the government tightens its belt in return for loans from the International Monetary Fund. A politician said that the economic crisis and high prices, plus the fear of terrorism, take priority over everything, including politics. See

‘Are you a Christian?’ These were the last words 45-year-old Medhat Saad Hakim heard before he was shot in the head on his doorstep last month. The gunmen dragged Hakim's screaming mother outside the house before going back inside and shooting his father dead. The attackers then looted the house before torching it. Medhat Saad and Saad Hakim are the sixth and seventh Christians killed in the town of Al-Arish in a month. All are targeted by Al Wilayat Sinai, a local affiliate of IS waging a low-level insurgency on the peninsula. The two killings, followed by another one 48 hours later, prompted Christians to flee the coastal town; over 500 have arrived in Ismailia, 200 km away, since 21 February. Those who cannot leave have sent their children away to relatives outside Sinai. Terrorists have threatened taxi and minibus drivers with death if they take fleeing Christians from Al-Arish.

“Christians in Egypt request prayer after the killing of four Christians in the last three weeks, and after the publication on 19th February of a video calling for further killings.

Wa'el Youssef was shot dead by militants in front of his wife and son in his shop in the North Sinai town of al-Arish on 31st January. Two weeks later militants in the same town shot and killed two more Christians: Bahgat William and Adel Shawqi. A fourth Christian, Gamal Tawfiq, was shot and killed last Thursday, 16th February.

Three days later, on 19th February, a video was published by Daesh (the so-called Islamic State group) which called for Christians in Egypt to be killed. The video featured a recording of the suicide bomber who blew himself up in a church adjacent to the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo on 11th December. The bomber killed 29 people.

Five years ago many Christians left the North Sinai region after a priest and a Christian trader were killed and leaflets were distributed which gave Christians 48 hours to leave the region or be killed. Since the overthrow of former President Morsi in 2013, numerous Christians have returned to the region. Now Christians are fearful again. One Christian resident told the Watani newspaper: "We have been leading very hard lives since the last four killings... We can't leave because our livelihoods are here, our homes are here, and we have nowhere else to go. We keep on asking ourselves every day 'Who's next?'"

Islamic militants also regularly attack security personnel in the North Sinai region and abduct or kill civilians suspected of working with the security forces. Last November in al-Arish they killed Suleiman Abu Haraz, a highly respected 100-year-old Sufi Muslim leader. Shortly afterwards they issued a threat against Sufi Muslims in Egypt, saying they must renounce their ways or be killed.

Christians in Egypt request prayer:
a. for the Lord's comfort for all those whose loved ones were killed by Daesh (ISIS) in North Sinai
b. for protection for Christians and others threatened by militants, and for wisdom as to how to respond to these threats
c. that those responsible for the killings will be touched by God's love and will repent”

Middle East Concern
meconcern.org

50-year-old Christian schoolteacher Gamal Tawfiq was shot in the head on his way to El-Samran School in el-Arish, Northern Sinai. His killers rode motorbikes. Also this week militants killed local Christian vet Bahgat Zakher. Last month a Christian merchant was gunned down by militants in his shop, and five Coptic Christians had their throats slashed in a killing spree. In December IS bombed a Cairo church killing 27 people and wounding 40+. IS called it a 'martyrdom operation' targeting 'infidels' and 'apostates'. Ishaq Ibrahim of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said, ‘We are witnessing an increase of Christian killings that I think will turn into a repetitive pattern in el-Arish’. On 20 February IS released a video calling for the slaughter of Egyptian Christians. See:

Four men have been arrested in connection with the suicide attack at the St Peter and St Paul church in Cairo last month, which killed 28 people and injured over 40. Eleven people are still in the hospital. Egypt's Interior Ministry says one of the four men arrested has links to the Muslim Brotherhood, though the group has denied any involvement. Hours after the attack, the terror group IS said one of its soldiers, named Abu Abdallah-al-Masri, was responsible for carrying out the attack, the worst on Egypt's Coptic Christian community since 2011. Despite this claim by IS, Egypt appears eager to pin the blame on the outlawed Brotherhood. Damage to the church was repaired just before 7 January, the day Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas. The renovations were undertaken by Egypt's army under orders of president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who has promised to rebuild all churches that have been destroyed or damaged since 2013.