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Egypt: Christians still denied churches while government opens 10 mosques every week

Dec 19, 2016 7:41 am By Raymond Ibrahim

One week before the bombing of St. Peter’s cathedral chapel which left at least 25 Christians dead, hostility for Christian churches was being shown in the usual, less spectacular way. Egyptian authorities and politicians held a meeting sponsored by Al Azhar, the nation’s topmost authority on Islam, in the village of Naghameesh, Sohag. Those present included leading authorities, such the governor of Sohag and the security service.

The topic of discussion was the latest round of attacks on the Coptic Christian minorities of the village—who were beat and their properties looted and burned—because they were “illegally” praying and worshipping in a building that they had long used as the Church of St. George, before authorities shut it down.

As usual, the meeting highlighted the “brotherhood of all Egyptians”—Christians and Muslims—the need for them to get along, etc. But when it came to the question of giving their fellow Christian brothers the same right to worship that Egypt’s Muslims enjoy—especially now, when Coptic Christians are looking forward to celebrating Christmas mass—the majority of Muslim leaders and family members staunchly refused to permit the local Christians to assemble, pray and worship in the building, which must remain shut down.

They cited the well-known law of Islam that forbids the building and even renovation of churches wherever Islam holds sway. As usual, the governor of Sohag and other leading authorities did nothing to support the Christians and acquiesced.

One local Christian explained how they had been “using this building to pray in and offer charitable services for some time,” and how they had submitted all the necessary paperwork to register the building as a church, “but instead they illegally shut it down.” Wondered the unnamed Christian: “We don’t understand what is so dangerous about the Copts praying and exercising their legal rights in this matter.”

The Copts of Naghameesh are just one of many Christians who face countless legal restrictions and red tape bureaucracy designed to deny them the right to build a church to pray in. And on those very rare occasions when they do get the necessary paperwork signed off, Muslim mobs riot and attack Christians and burn their homes, which local authorities cite as reason to revoke the permit and keep peace in the village.

Soon after the meeting, Egyptian governmental figures boasted of how they are opening 10 new mosques every week; that 3,200 mosques are closed and in need of renovation and the government is currently working on 1,300 of them; that it will take about 60 million Egyptian pounds to renovate them and the government has allotted ten times as much, although a total of 3 billion will eventually be needed; and that the Egyptian government is dedicated to spending that much—for “whoever abuses public funds [which should be used for Islamic worship], enters a war with Allah,” in the words of Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar Gom‘a, Minister of Awqaf, or endowments.

But when the nation’s more than 10 million Christian minority seeks to build a church to worship in—and pay for it from their own pockets—all is woe in Egypt.

It should be remembered: the animus that always causes large Muslim mobs to form and torch buildings on the mere rumor that they are being used as churches, is the same animus that causes more “pious” Muslims to bomb churches.

Such is the plight of Egypt’s Christians.

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Filed Under: Coptic Christians, Egypt, Muslim persecution of Christians Tagged With: Al Azhar, Sohag


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Comments

  1. t. says

    Dec 19, 2016 at 10:44 am

    Dear Raymond, as important as this news item about flagrant injustice to the basic human rights of Christians in Egypt is, I doubt that it will even vibrate a single hair on the skin of many westerners that I meet and talk to every day!

    For example when I talked to people around me here, about that vicious suicide bombing the other day, of a Christian church in Cairo, I discovered that hardly anyone heard about it.

    • A Harris USA says

      Dec 20, 2016 at 12:22 pm

      t this ignoring the plight of Christians in the ME are the result of having a Muslim in the white hut!!! Soon, not soon enough, we will have a POUS that WILL call it what it is. ISLAMIC TERROR!!! This is the result of having a Muslim as “leader” of the Western world!! Christians in Egypt have suffered as much as Christians in Syria, and other ME nations!! Remember the beheading of the Coptic men on the beach? I do! Hearing a Coptic Arch Bishop, say that letting Christians immigrate into the west is far far below the number of Muslims allowed into the US and the Europe. Now the price of ignoring our Christian brothers and sisters is being paid, in spades!! Germany, and this morning hearing that Austria is hunting down planners of another attack, Paris, Nice, London, Madrid, Greece, and even the USA, is the result of not helping those who are not violent and have the same value system we do.. Where is Jan. 20th, no matter how stupid the Dems are, Trump WILL be our leader, and hopefully work with the west, and the east, who are fed up with Islamic terror, and work to quickly destroy all this..

      • t. says

        Dec 20, 2016 at 3:40 pm

        ” Now the price of ignoring our Christian brothers and sisters is being paid,” ” Now the price of ignoring our Christian brothers and sisters is being paid,”

        A Harris USA, your above quoted words indicate that you really have a precise understanding of Islam’s threat, not only to the west, but the entire world, and you also clearly see the fatal error of the west’s apathy to the plight of Christians in Muslim countries.

        I hope that millions or billions of others, in the entire world, would start having this clear vision about Islam’s threat to humanity, soon enough, before it’s too late!

        • Angemon says

          Dec 20, 2016 at 3:54 pm

          t. posted:

          “west’s apathy to the plight of Christians in Muslim countries.”

          Why is it that the buck always stops in “the West”? For example, Russians are empowering a suicidal, genocidal Iran that routinely persecutes its non-muslim citizens. Where’s your outcry against that?

      • t. says

        Dec 20, 2016 at 3:48 pm

        ” is the result of not helping those who are not violent and have the same value system ”

        The above was supposed to be my second quote of your words in my above comment, instead of simply repeating the same quote twice, which is due to a typo in the copying and pasting process.

  2. Mac-101 says

    Dec 19, 2016 at 11:32 am

    Hopefully Trump will stand firm and allow no Muslim Immigration from any country that does NOT have Freedom of Religion and the right to build churches!

    • A Harris USA says

      Dec 20, 2016 at 12:24 pm

      AMEN

  3. joeygoest says

    Dec 19, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    Thank you, as always, Mr. Ibrahim, for sharing this information with your readers. Sadly, the genocide against these ancient Christian communities continues to be ignored by the mainstream media. Hopefully, the new administration will not turn away from the atrocities.

  4. Angemon says

    Dec 19, 2016 at 8:44 pm

    As usual, the meeting highlighted the “brotherhood of all Egyptians”—Christians and Muslims—the need for them to get along, etc.

    Seemingly a callback to pan-arabism…

  5. Eternal Vigilance says

    Dec 20, 2016 at 4:50 pm

    Yes, indeed, Muslim Islamic states set the standard for tolerance and love of fellow man What better way to show it than to burn a few Christian churches and slaughter Christian followers. Mosque construction in Egypt 100%. Christian church construction 0% As Obama would put it, Islam is indeed a “Religion of Peace! Maybe not so much on that tolerance thing!”

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