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Egyptian authorities close 1300-member church because it was “upsetting to Muslims”

Aug 26, 2017 8:13 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

The blockading of the church caused Coptic residents of Ezbat Al-Forn Village to write a letter to Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, titled “We were prevented from prayer like criminals.”

President el-Sisi has long been deemed to be the hope of Egypt. His words sent shockwaves throughout the world when he declared over 2 1/2 years ago that “it’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire Islamic world to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world.” El-Sisi proceeded to call for a religious revolution.

It has been three years since el-Sisi came to power and promised to “care for the interests of the people” and solve Egypt’s problems. By now, the world should be wondering why his impassioned words have not yielded any results. Instead, jihad attacks and intimidation are on the rise. Now “authorities in Egypt…closed down a 1,300-member church in the Minya governorate and are preventing Christians from worshiping at another church in the area, according to a report.” The reason given is alarming: the church was upsetting to local Muslims.

A report from the Middle East Monitor noted in January that “Egyptian Sisi regime officials have recently been attempting to reconcile with the Muslim Brotherhood, going behind President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s back in the process.” This paints a troubling picture of Egypt, signifying that el-Sisi is losing or has lost control of the destiny of his nation.

Last year it was reported that Egypt’s Christians were at a breaking point due to persecution; then back in May, jihadis opened fire on a bus transporting Christians to a monastery south of Cairo, killing at least 30 people and wounding 26. The Independent ran a story entitled “How Egypt’s Copts fell out of love with President Sisi,” which addressed the Christian Copts’ disillusionment over Sisi’s “failure to address longstanding injustices.”

Egypt currently ranks as the 21st worst nation in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians, according to Open Doors USA’s 2017 World Watch List.

“Egypt Closes Church Over Muslim Extremist Opposition, Blocks Worship at Another”, by Samuel Smith, Christian Post, August 24, 2017:

Authorities in Egypt have reportedly closed down a 1,300-member church in the Minya governorate and are preventing Christians from worshiping at another church in the area, according to a report.

Morningstar News, a donor-funded news agency that reports on persecuted Christians worldwide, reported that the Virgin Mary and St. Paula Church in Kedwan village was shut down last month by authorities based on the claim that local Muslims objected to the church.

According to the outlet, the church served Christians from three different villages — Kedwan al-Baharyia, Kedwan al-Keblyia, Masaken Kedwan.

Coptic Orthodox Bishop of Minya Anba Makarios pressured government officials for weeks to re-open the church. But as the bishop’s pressure on the government provided no result, Makarios issued a public statement refuting the government’s claim that local Muslims opposed the church.

“The security apparatus has prevented Copts from practicing their rites in Kedwan, Minya, claiming that it was because of objections of some opposing factions in the village, and that it was necessary to be considerate of their feelings,” Makarios was quoted as saying. “However, this means that there is no consideration for the feelings of the Copts and those who do not ask for anything but to pray, as if the decision belonged to the opposing factions and not to a great state such as Egypt, which should have authority and law.”

Makarios stated that the majority of Muslims and Coptic Christians in the area co-exist peacefully and that the only opposition to the church came from a small extremist faction.

“There is actually no disagreements or disputes between the Copts and Muslims,” the bishop stated. “He among them who opposes [opening the church], if any is found, gives the excuse of the necessity to obtain a security clearance. Regardless of whether these may be right in their opposition or not, the authorities instead of responding by pointing out that this is the prerogative of the state institutions, or by stating that allowing prayer is a legal right, affirm prevention of prayer! In doing so, they underscore at the same time that the opposing factions are right in their reasoning.”

Morningstar News noted that the Virgin Mary and St. Paula Church in Kedwan is just one of at least 15 Christian places of worship that has faced closure in Minya.

“We have more than 15 places [of worship] closed on the order of the security apparatus, despite the existence of formal requests that are imprisoned in [desk] drawers,” Makarios said in his statement. “Also, there are 70 villages, farmsteads and hamlets without places for prayers.”

In addition to the closure of the worship centers, security officials this past Sunday prevented Christians from worshiping in a private house church in Minya’s Ezbat Al-Forn village.

A local resident told Morning Star News that authorities claimed that the congregation lacked a permit to allow them to worship in the home. However, Makarios reportedly refuted the claim that a permit is needed.

The blockading of the church caused Coptic residents of Ezbat Al-Forn Village to write a letter to Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, titled “We were prevented from prayer like criminals.”

“We were surprised to find police forces surrounding and entering the village to prevent the Egyptian Copts from prayer and were prevented from going out of our homes,” the letter explains, according to Morning Star News. “We were attacked with inappropriate words … As if we are criminals or outlaws and wanted for justice, accused of performing religious rituals. And is performing religious rituals a crime?”

Egypt currently ranks as the 21st worst nation in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians, according to Open Doors USA’s 2017 World Watch List…..

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Filed Under: Coptic Christians, Featured, Islamic bigotry and intolerance, mosques, Muslim persecution of Christians, Switzerland Tagged With: Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, Kedwan, Minya governorate, Virgin Mary and St. Paula Church


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Comments

  1. PATRICIA FRANCES KOENIG says

    Aug 26, 2017 at 8:45 am

    Islam is being promoted by the elite Globalist powers. Why? The Shriners, 32 degree Freemasons, swear their blood-oaths on the Koran! The Globalists are using Islam to persecute Christianity.

    • ElderlyZionist says

      Aug 26, 2017 at 10:20 am

    • katherine says

      Aug 26, 2017 at 5:35 pm

      Wish it were that simple. No – they have actually realized many years ago that the Islamic Doctrine is the perfect tool for consolidating a Totalitarian form of government that needs no logical justification for its existence. Sharia laws cannot be questioned ; leaders’ edicts cannot be discussed ; murders and rapes, larceny, appropriation, slavery and bestiality can all be legalized as Allah’s will.

      Neither Fascists nor Communists have anything that powerful – an Almighty reference that needs no explanation.

      • Lydia says

        Aug 28, 2017 at 8:44 pm

        Actually…. yes! But all of the above and more.

        It goes deep and most of it is hidden.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 3, 2017 at 7:44 pm

      PATRICIA FRANCES KOENIG wrote:

      Islam is being promoted by the elite Globalist powers. Why? The Shriners, 32 degree Freemasons, swear their blood-oaths on the Koran
      ……………………

      I’m sorry–this is just silly.

  2. WorkingClassPost says

    Aug 26, 2017 at 9:17 am

    The Copts obviously need lessons from the Pope on kissing/washing feet, that’ll sort this out.

  3. Michael Casmer says

    Aug 26, 2017 at 10:29 am

    Where is “Amnisty International”?

    • Karen says

      Aug 27, 2017 at 5:47 pm

      Yawning, and changing the channel, no doubt.

  4. jack grandville says

    Aug 26, 2017 at 10:32 am

    In short, all the political bleating, among other things, that there is no reason to worry about the intent of the Muslim religion is done as a distraction from the truth. They believe that if they keep it up and use their status as a badge, the general public will believe them. They apparently are unaware that the same disgusting attitude is what brought about the massive political change in America. In the simplest of language, they are so imbued with their self-serving mentality that reality escapes them, even while they are facing it. Pretty sad.

  5. Japetto Donatelli says

    Aug 26, 2017 at 10:36 am

    I’ve grown sick of hearing how muslims are offended. It’s like the entire non-muslim world has become enablers for these chronic cry babies that can’t control their urge to kill, rape, or discriminate, but who have the audacity to whine when their victims complain! It blows my mind that muslims who live according to the worlds most intolerant and insensitive ideology expect the utmost courtesy and tolerance from others! We’re constantly told about the so-called peaceful muslims. But that’s a false argument, every single muslim that commits violence was peaceful some time in their life. It isn’t until they decide to kill or terrorize as their god commands that we’re told he/she doesn’t represent islam.

    If we allow islam to spread in our nation we will no doubt be seeing the same kind of bigotry we’re seeing in Egypt against Christians and “infidels.” You can’t overcome this kind of ignorant hate with fawning respect and grovelling concessions, such behavior only encourages more of the same. We need to ask ourselves, do we want to allow the dissemination of a political-based religion that threatens the most valued principles of our free society? and, do we want to allow the spread of a radical ideology that condones and glorifies violence as an act of religious devotion? If you answered “yes” to either of those questions then please check yourself into the nearest hospital, because you are surely in need of medical care of the psychological kind. If you answered “no,” then you harbor within yourself a humanity and intelligence that benefits us all.

    I know I’m right about this because I’m an average decent, moral person. I’m not highly intellectual, not super religious, nor even “spiritual.” I’m simply a realist who has enough compassion for humanity to say the right thing. I don’t deserve to be censored for that. FB, Google, and Paypal, please take note.

    • Donald R Laster Jr says

      Aug 26, 2017 at 11:10 am

      This is why all Islamics have to be considered sleep cells waiting to be activated. The war Mohammad started in the 600s in Arabia has been going on for 1400 years and the theocracy he created has maintained it. No Islamic can ever be trusted and no Islamic has fealty to non-Islamic country.

      • eduardo odraude says

        Aug 26, 2017 at 11:47 am

        Politically it’s of course impossible, but it might be good if the non-Muslim governments could start funding non-Muslim insurgencies in every Muslim-majority country that does not respect freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Part of that would be authorizing and funding assassinations of Muslim leaders and clerics who enforce or advocate the death penalty for apostasy and for blasphemy. Islam would collapse quickly, I think. The main task is education — of Muslims and non-Muslims about why Islam is false and utterly destructive to humanity. If we cannot build a broader consensus on that, then other measures — legislation, insurgencies, etc., will be politically impossible. So we need to keep educating ourselves and others.

        • Donald R Laster Jr says

          Aug 26, 2017 at 1:57 pm

          Which is why one must always point out the facts related to Islam. Islam has managed to advance itself using lies and deception for centuries by pretending to be a religion.

        • gravenimage says

          Sep 3, 2017 at 7:56 pm

          There are no non-Muslim insurgencies in most Muslim countries–the non-Muslims are too downtrodden, and in most cases there are too few of them.

    • TruthWFree says

      Sep 3, 2017 at 2:59 pm

      Good post. Islam is a cancer on mankind. It needs to be eradicated. At first I thought that a mall amount of Islam would inoculate the country against it like a bacteria or virus. However, I know associate it with a an ever growing cancer that if left unchecked will kill its host. I am Christian, have studied Islam since 9/11/2001 including reading the Quran and over 30 books on the subject, several by Robert Spencer, and have come to the conclusion Islam was revealed to Muhammad by Satan, not the angel Gabriel he later claimed after first thing he was possessed by a demon. He was right the first time. Islam is Satan’s religion. No doubt in my mind.

      • Donald R Laster Jr says

        Sep 3, 2017 at 7:34 pm

        Satan would not need to be involved. Mohammad, based upon what he wrote and his dedication to Hubal (Baal) the moon god, was a depraved individual. And Islam reflects his depravity. Remember, the work “allah” means “the god”, it is not a name.

  6. Tom says

    Aug 26, 2017 at 10:59 am

    Those in muslim majority countries have no problem in oppressing and killing worshipers of other faiths, usually because muslims’ feelings are upset.

    Our western civilization and culture was born of a philosophy of love and respect for others. Of course there have been conflicts in the name of Christianity, but there has also been a reformation.

    The legacy of that reformation has been societies that have developed a sense of fairness in dealing with others. Nowhere has this been more pronounced than in western Europe.

    THAT sense of fair play has become the Achilles Heel of our society and the lack of caring for others has become a great weapon for muslims in their onslaught of non believers and their jihad on the west.

    If we are to win in this, the greatest challenge to our way of life since the middle ages, we must compromise our sense of fair play and wage war with a similar lack of empathy as is clear in Islam.

    We must adapt and overcome or we shall be forced to capitulate to the most regressive of political and religious ideologies.

  7. Samer Ibrahim says

    Aug 26, 2017 at 11:07 am

    The good news is Pr. Trump has decided recently to withhold half of the financial aid given to Eygpt by US. I think that Pr. Trump must stop the American aid to Egypt altogether, unless there’s a real improvement of human rights in Eygpt, especially the rights of Christian’s and other religious minorities.

    • Robeaver says

      Aug 26, 2017 at 1:00 pm

      He has business interests there and just phoned the president of he jypped me. Nothing will happens about Christian persecution. THEE onlt reason trump was going to be any good was his fight against Islam. He has been a miserable disappointment. And Spence would take us back to the dark ages, as the attorney general is doing. The US no longer leads the world in any category: education norms of students, life expectancy, child birth deaths, .freedom from religion: m, freedom of speech, homegrown PHD’S in any American University; wait… perhaps leading the world in superstition.. we are number one!!! And racial tension and violence, and gun related crime, and putting people in prison. We are number one. 1111111 yahhhh! And not entering world wars on time. And pedophile priests. (maybey just Boston and major cities??…….naw) and nuclear waste. Given the best physical place on planet earth and have screwed the pooch. And number one on letting big business and big oil screw the American middle class.
      Shame.

      • gravenimage says

        Sep 3, 2017 at 8:02 pm

        “Trump Administration Cuts Military Aid To Egypt”

        http://www.npr.org/2017/08/23/545616921/trump-administration-cuts-military-aid-to-egypt

        “President Trump has had a friendly relationship with Egypt’s leader but this week the administration surprisingly cut some military aid over Egypt’s worsening human rights record…”

  8. Donald R Laster Jr says

    Aug 26, 2017 at 11:08 am

    The Coptics are the actual Egyptians and they have been there since before the Islamic took over the area via invasion on in the 700s. This is just the standard attack on Christian and Jews to silence them by Islamics. Until the government of Islam is eliminated no one will be safe from this theocracy.

  9. Jack Holan says

    Aug 26, 2017 at 1:59 pm

    Just remember that Pope Francis the weak link causing a ripple affect (North American Bishops) No Christians being murdered for being Christians in the ME. Suddenly the Pope is building a Fortress Vatican.

  10. Irene Brekelmans says

    Aug 26, 2017 at 3:52 pm

    What a marvellous change for the pope to show “his” people that he is a true Christian. The Vatican and Castel San Angelo have a lot of room for muslims and refugees, and all the cardinals can help them and the Jesuits too, and all will be solved. Give up your beautiful robes, people can create beautiful clothes from it. And share your food and apartments, that will make you Vatican people true Christians.
    And then see, and experience who your “good friends are” Good luck, if you can pull it of.

  11. Irene Brekelmans says

    Aug 26, 2017 at 3:56 pm

    Do you know, Egypt how upsetting Muslims are to us,? Are you closing the mosques too for that reason?
    Thank you.

  12. John Forbes says

    Aug 27, 2017 at 5:41 am

    CHRISTIANITY is being systematically destroyed from within & by the WEST as well & also faces endless attacks from ISLAM.
    Hard to understand or point to a single reason or cause but the continual abuse scandals certainly do not help !
    Child abuse still seems rampant & Church attendance has fallen through the floor !
    AFRICA & CHINA on the other hand buck the trend & the Churches seem leaderless in relation to being able to deal with scandals !
    One of the most determined attackers are the EDUCATORS who continually demand Cross Removals & Bible removals & Statue removals !
    It is as though the RELIGION & IDEOLOGY of CHRIST & the REFORMATIONS that have given our SOCIETY so much in relation to Freedom & Tolerance & Educational Freedoms & at least in modern times protection for Women & Children no longer matter or count for anything !
    In My VIEW a very DANGEROUS & FOOLISH STANCE !!

  13. UNCLE VLADDI says

    Aug 27, 2017 at 6:56 pm

    Copts are cucks anyway. I’ve given up on them because, even after having visited Egypt with one of my Coptic friends and stayed at his parents’ home in Alexandria a few years back, and attended major ceremonies at his ex-pat churches here in North America, I found he and most of them still regard islam as a valid religion and still hate the Jews. From long habituation and acclimatization, being surrounded by muslims and having to pretend to go along with them in order to survive for so long, they are basically the same as muslims. I wouldn’t trust any of them to defend them selves, much less work to help the rest of us to destroy islam. In this way, they are like Robert’s own Melkite Christian sect from the Middle East: cucks!

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 3, 2017 at 8:06 pm

      UNCLE VLADDI wrote:

      Copts are cucks anyway.
      …………………….

      Copts and other dhimmis under the Muslim heel have *had* to engage in appeasement in order to survive. This is not pretty, but it is understandable.

      What is really disgusting is those Westerners fawning all over Islam who are not compelled to do so.

  14. Lydia says

    Aug 28, 2017 at 8:49 pm

    They should close all the mosques because they are offending Christians, and the one true God; the God of the Bible. And, they should open more churches too of course.

    Then let them go home and whine about ‘oppression.’ Typical, the oppressors are oppressing the rest but claiming to be victims of oppression. Of course they don’t respect religious liberty. Then we should do the same here in the US and close all the mosques too because it offends us.

  15. gravenimage says

    Sep 3, 2017 at 7:42 pm

    Egyptian authorities close 1300-member church because it was “upsetting to Muslims”
    …………………

    And remember, this is Egypt under Sisi, which even some here have claimed are “protecting” Christians.

    He is not himself mass slaughtering Christians–but that is about as good as it gets in Muslim Egypt for Christians.

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