Why are all these Copts praying for equality and an end to discrimination? Don't they know how tolerant Islam is? Alas, only Muslims who are speaking to reporters in the West talk about tolerance and respect for other faiths. The Muslims in Egypt obviously have a different view. The Copts are asking the government "to issue a uniform law for building worship houses" because while it is very easy to get a permit to build a mosque, it is virtually impossible to get a permit to build a church. This is a reflection of the old dhimmi law forbidding dhimmis to build new houses of worship. Here again, Islamic apologists in the West would have you believe that such laws are a relic of history, but they have not managed to convince their Egyptian coreligionists of that. Nor, by the way, have they even bothered to try.
"EGYPT: Thousands of Christians gather to pray for equality in a Muslim land," by Amro Hassan in the Los Angeles Times, September 13 (thanks to James):
Around 7,000 Coptic Christians gathered at the Father Kyrillos church on the outskirts of Cairo to pray for an end to "discriminaton" during the celebration of the Egyptian Coptic New Year this weekend.
The gathering Friday came after calls by a number of Coptic organizations to abandon this year's celebrations as a protest against the perceived oppression of Christians in Egypt were met by deaf ears.
Thousands of Copts attended ceremonial masses on the same day.
But groups like Youth Against Discrimination and Copts United for Egypt urged Copts to show anger by declaring Sept. 11 -- Coptic New Year -- a general sit-in for Christians throughout the country....
The attending crowd carried signs with slogans asking the government to issue a uniform law for building worship houses and condemning what they called the forceful conversion of Coptic minors to Islam.
Coptic New Year is Sept. 11? Interesting.
The Copts apparently haven't got the WORD: islam is a religion of peace.........there now. Mommy fixed everything.
Bit OT, but this is a geat new format for your blog, Robert.
Very handsome set-up.
Signing in with Typepad is more than the hassles I had with Intense debate
Heres a little something for headbangers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDzvHyMG3RI
Shocked that something like this is even reported by the LA Times, but they still can't bear to state the hard truth...."as a protest against the perceived oppression"...,yeah it's all perception, right?
Now wait just a minute. Under sharia law these dhimmis have no rights. What can they be thinking?
- Abdullah Bhullah, the wacky mullah.
By Jove, that's it. It's all imaginary. The girls being kidnapped, the shops/houses/churches being razed/vandalized, the destruction of their livelihoods, the murders. It all most definitely in their minds. Never, NEVER, could the problem be in the minds of muslims. Oh no. Can't be. Impossible, after all islam is the religion of pea.... of pea..... of pea....... Just can't get that last bit out, the sarcasm meter just ran out.
The editor of the Los Angeles Times should be congratulated for at least *printing* this story (which is more than other news outlets have done), however much they obscured the point. Letters to the editor can now be sent from US jihadwatchers, offering additional information such as the sharia rule (from Pact of Omar) about dhimmis not being allowed to build new churches or repair old ones, and referring readers of the LA Times to sources such as Bat Yeor's "The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam" and "The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam", or to Mr Spencer's anthology 'The Myth of Islamic Tolerance'.
The way I see it is the Copts have three options. 1.) They all leave to a tolerant country, 2.) They stay and put up with it until they are all forced in Islam, taken as sex slaves or killed, 3. They get some balls and take up arms and at least die fighting.
The Copts in Egypt are a tiny minority to the Muslim population. In the Muslim book of right and wrong, that means that the Copts are to be used like animals in whatever manner is OK with the Muslim majority. The Copts only imagine that they have human rights in Egypt. However, the Muslims are smart. They would hesitate to do anything harsh to the Copts and possibly decrease tourism dollars.