Peanut Gallery: Special thanks to Agnus Dei for bringing this video to our attention.
Tag: coptic church
Urgent request to pray for Christians in Egypt
Peanut Gallery: The news out of Egypt is not good. Millions of Egyptians took to the streets demanding that Islamist President Morsi step down. He didn’t… and the Egyptian Army stepped in. Egyptian Christians have generally (although not officially) aligned themselves with the anti-Morsi forces.
But Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood are not finished yet. They have called for a counter-revolution and have taken to the streets. The result has been further chaos with shootings, military arrests and crackdown, accusations, and counter-accusations. A Coptic priest was killed by Islamists in Northern Sinai. Only God knows how it will end.
No matter who wins this current struggle for power, Egypt is a failed state and Coptic Christians live in great peril.
Egypt cannot feed its own people, cannot supply adequate fuel, cannot borrow money (virtually bankrupt), cannot employ its teeming masses, and Egyptian tourism has shrunk to nothing. The vast majority of people live in abject poverty. There is no quick fix and no one seems to have a long range economic plan.
Coptic Christians have been brutalized under the Morsi regime – either by design or neglect. Pope Tawadros II has criticized the regime’s treatment of Christians without much success, i.e. until the current overthrow of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Now Christians are aligned with the anti-Morsi forces and they will be easy targets for Islamist revenge. As mentioned a Coptic priest ( Mina Aboud Sharweem) has already been killed in a sectarian murder.
But Egypt’s problems go way beyond socio-economic and sectarian analysis.
Egypt have serious, wide-spread misogyny problems. It’s not about veils or coverings – it’s about wide-spread gang rape in public spaces, the widespread practice of female genital mutilation at puberty, the kidnapping of young Christian girls by Islamists with forced marriages to older men, the practice of marriage to pre-pubescent girls as young as 8 or 9. There is something fundamentally wrong with a society that treats women (created in the image of God) like that.
Below, please find an earlier post from Open Doors UK requesting urgent prayer. That was a week ago and the situation has changed dramatically for the worse. Christians in Egypt desperately need our prayer. One Coptic brother in Christ write:
Psalm 33 has been one of the very encouraging words and promises for us as a church and we read it publicly many times, especially verses 9-11, ‘For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations’.
“We ask you to join us in praying that His name would be known and glorified in Egypt (Isaiah 19:21).”
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OUT OF EGYPT – Open Doors UK / 2 July 2013
With millions on the streets in Cairo, celebrating the army’s 48 hour ultimatum, Christians have been gathering night after night to pray for peace.
Army ultimatum
An Egyptian Christian brother in Cairo told us, “Last night (July 1), millions rejoiced and shouted in streets and squares until early morning today, celebrating the clear pronouncement directed to President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood ruling party, that the army has again decided to take the side of the people rather than the rulers.”
President Morsi, however, has said the 48 hour army ultimatum ‘may cause confusion’ and vows to stick to his own plans to resolve the political crisis.
10 days of prayer for Egypt
Meanwhile, in a large church in the centre of Cairo, Christians have just concluded 10 days of prayer for Egypt. One church member told us:
“Around 800-1000 gathered every night from 7.00-9.00pm to cry out on behalf of our nation. We prayed mainly for the protection and peace of Egypt. We also prayed for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit and for a revival and great harvest in Egypt. Psalm 33 has been one of the very encouraging words and promises for us as a church and we read it publicly many times, especially verses 9-11, ‘For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations’.
“We ask you to join us in praying that His name would be known and glorified in Egypt (Isaiah 19:21).”
Source: Open Doors; BBC
Urgent call for prayer: Christians in Egypt – World Watch List #25
EGYPT (Wikipedia) – World Watch List#25 (Open Doors UK)
Leader: President Mohammed Morsi
Population: 82.84 million (10 million Christians)
Main Religion: Islam
Government: Republic
Source of Persecution: Islamic extremism
The 2011 revolution that ousted President Mubarak initially brought Muslims and Christians together, but improved relations were short-lived. The Muslim Brotherhood won parliamentary elections in November 2011 and a new Islamist-backed constitution was signed into law in December 2012. Support for both the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi Islam is growing. The government has been unable to impose necessary law and order, to the detriment of the protection of Christians. Persecution is on the rise and massive emigration of Christians is a concern. But the church continues to grow.
AN URGENT CALL FOR PRAYER
+ For Muslims and Christians, that no lives would be lost
+ For the witness of Christians to remain a clear light in the middle of such darkness
+ For divine love to fill the hearts of Christians for their persecutors and for the joy of the Lord to be their strength in these coming tough days.
+ For an end to violent unrest and for true freedom and democracy to be established
+ That the new Coptic Pope, Tawadros II, will continue to unite the denominations in Egypt so that the church is united in sharing the gospel
PERSECUTION DYNAMICS:
In response to the call for nationwide protests against President Morsi, planned to take place at the end of June, Egyptian Christians are making an impassioned plea for worldwide prayer.
“We, Christians of Egypt, who love our country and seek God’s redemption for every soul, are urging our dear brothers and sisters in the extended body of Christ all over the world, to lift our country up before the throne and to create together a shield of prayers to stand against the great evil that is threatening to fall on Egypt in the coming few days.
Nationwide protests
“In response to the call for nationwide protests against President Morsi, planned to take place on 30 June, multitudes of Egyptians are planning to go down to the streets in every city, town or village, one year after Morsi had sworn the oath into office on 30 June 2012.
“The opposition movement has managed, through an army of volunteers, to collect 15 million signed forms of Egyptians who proclaim their rebellion against, and rejection of, President Morsi and his regime, calling for early presidential elections.
“In return, the Muslim Brotherhood Party and its supporters have also claimed to have been collecting millions of signatures to support President Morsi. They have also called their followers to fill all major squares of Egypt on the 28June.
“Please stay by our side”
“No one in Egypt today speaks about anything but the expected scenarios of the very likely confrontation between the two sides of the split nation. There is a gloomy spirit of anticipating that the worst is most likely going to happen. Please stay by our side and join us in prayer.”
BACKGROUND:
Egypt is home to around 10 million Christians but Islam is the state religion and the population is predominantly Muslim. Massive emigration is a concern and persecution is on the rise. The country made headlines in October 2011 with the Maspero massacre in which 26 Coptic Christians were killed.
The Muslim Brotherhood won the parliamentary elections on 25 November 2011 and is now in control of the country’s legislative and executive power, making Islam more visible. No political answers have been given to the problems of poverty and unemployment faced by the country so the people seek refuge in religion and are vulnerable to radical expressions of Islam. Support for both the Muslim Brotherhood and strict Salafi Islam is growing. However, the church is also growing slowly.
Egypt’s future will largely be determined by politics. A new constitution could drastically reshape the country. However, a scenario in which the church is confined to a situation of dhimmitude is more likely in light of recent developments.
Egypt’s Christians vs “the Lions” – Raymond Ibrahim Re-Blog
U.S. ASKS EGYPT’S CHRISTIANS NOT TO OPPOSE MORSI
By: Raymond Ibrahim 6/26/2013
As Egyptians of all factions prepare to demonstrate in mass against the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi’s rule on June 30, the latter has been trying to reduce their numbers, which some predict will be in the millions and eclipse the Tahrir protests that earlier ousted Mubarak.
Among other influential Egyptians, Morsi recently called on Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to urge his flock, Egypt’s millions of Christians, not to join the June 30 protests.
While that may be expected, more troubling is that the U.S. ambassador to Egypt is also trying to prevent Egyptians from protesting—including the Copts. The June 18th edition of Sadi al-Balad reports that lawyer Ramses Naggar, the Coptic Church’s legal counsel, said that during Patterson’s June 17 meeting with Pope Tawadros, she “asked him to urge the Copts not to participate” in the demonstrations against Morsi and the Brotherhood.
The Pope politely informed her that his spiritual authority over the Copts does not extend to political matters.
Regardless, many Egyptian activists are condemning Patterson for flagrantly behaving like the Muslim Brotherhood’s stooge. Leading opposition activist Shady el-Ghazali Harb said Patterson showed “blatant bias” in favor of Morsi and the Brotherhood, adding that her remarks had earned the U.S. administration “the enmity of the Egyptian people.” Coptic activists like George Ishaq openly told Patterson to “shut up and mind your own business.” And Christian business tycoon Naguib Sawiris—no stranger to Islamist hostility—posted a message on his Twitter account addressed to the ambassador saying “Bless us with your silence.”
Indeed, the U.S. ambassador’s position as the Brotherhood’s lackey is disturbing—and revealing—on several levels. First, all throughout the Middle East, the U.S. has been supporting anyone and everyone opposing their leaders—in Libya against Gaddafi, in Egypt itself against 30-year U.S. ally Mubarak, and now in Syria against Assad. In all these cases, the U.S. has presented its support in the name of the human rights and freedoms of the people against dictatorial leaders.
So why is the Obama administration now asking Christians not to oppose their rulers—in this case, Islamists—who have daily proven themselves corrupt and worse, to the point that millions of Egyptians, most of them Muslims, are trying to oust them?
What’s worse is that the human rights abuses Egypt’s Coptic Christians have been suffering under Muslim Brotherhood rule are significantly worse than the human rights abuses that the average Egyptian suffered under Mubarak—making the Copts’ right to protest even more legitimate, and, if anything, more worthy of U.S support.
Among other things, under Morsi’s rule, the persecution of Copts has practically been legalized, as unprecedented numbers of Christians—men, women, and children—have been arrested, often receiving more than double the maximum prison sentence, under the accusation that they “blasphemed” Islam and/or its prophet.
It was also under Morsi’s reign that another unprecedented scandal occurred: the St. Mark Cathedral—holiest site of Coptic Christianity and headquarters to the Pope Tawadros himself—was besieged in broad daylight by Islamic rioters. When security came, they too joined in the attack on the cathedral. And the targeting of Christian children—for abduction, ransom, rape, and/or forced conversion—has also reached unprecedented levels under Morsi.
(For more on the plight of the Copts under Morsi’s rule, see my new book Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians.)
Yet despite the fact that if anyone in Egypt has a legitimate human rights concern against the current Egyptian government, it most certainly is the Christian Copts, here is the U.S., in the person of Ms. Patterson, asking them not to join the planned protests.
In other words, and consistent with Obama administration’s doctrine, when Islamists—including rapists and cannibals—wage jihad on secular leaders, the U.S. supports them; when Christians protest Islamist rulers who are making their lives a living hell, the administration asks them to “know their place” and behave like dhimmis, Islam’s appellation for non-Muslim “infidels” who must live as third class “citizens” and never complain about their inferior status.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians. He is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Will Coptic Christians Share in the Arab Spring While Morsi Is President of Egypt? – Re-Blog
By Michael Terheyden / 6/22/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
Is it really a Spring at all, or a frightening return of an worse Winter?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnhh9Vt2xwE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
As the one year anniversary of the election of Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi approaches, tensions are high. Tens of thousands of Islamists have begun pouring into Cairo in anticipation of anti-Morsi demonstrations planned for June 30, 2013, by opponents of the new government.
KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) – As the one year anniversary of the election of Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi approaches, tensions are high. Tens of thousands of Islamists have begun pouring into Cairo in anticipation of anti-Morsi demonstrations planned for June 30, 2013, by opponents of the new government.
According to France 24, an international news site, Islamists carrying Egyptian flags and pictures of Morsi held a demonstration on Friday, June 21. It was led by the Muslim Brotherhood, and its aim was to show that Morsi and his government had the support of the Egyptian people. But the Egyptian people are clearly divided.
Morsi was elected one year ago, after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February of 2011. Morsi promised to be the President of all Egyptians, including the Coptic Christian community. He said the Copts would be given full equal rights. At one point Morsi said, “I will not be biased against any son of Egypt.” But this is not what has happened.
Instead, it appears that Morsi has used every opportunity to turn Egypt into an Islamist state since he became president. This past November, President Morsi issued a declaration giving himself sweeping dictatorial-style power over the drafting of Egypt’s new constitution. The President’s actions unleashed a firestorm.
A group of judges said, “The state of law is at stake.” The Vice-President of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Tahani al-Gebali, said that Morsi was now an “illegitimate president.” And Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said, “Morsi today usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt’s new pharaoh.”
Protestors marched on the presidential palace in Cairo and clashed with supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. At one point, an estimated 200,000 anti-Morsi protestors flooded into Cairo’s famous Tahrir Square.
President Morsi seemingly backed down, but the final Constitution was drafted by a committee dominated by Islamists who used the Constitution to strengthen sharia law. Sharia law highly discriminates against non-Muslims and women.
Since taking office, Morsi has also had run-ins with the national judiciary, the media and the police. More recently, Morsi appointed seven members of the Muslim Brotherhood as provincial governors. He also gave the Luxor governorship to a member of the militant Islamist group responsible for the massacre of 58 foreign tourists in 1997. These appointments led to several clashes between Morsi’s supporters and his opponents.
According to his opponents, Morsi is “giving the Islamists a monopoly over public institutions.” However, the president’s supporters claim he is merely cleaning up corrupt institutions from the days of Mubarak.
Yet, organizers of the June 30 demonstration say they have collected 15 million signatures on a petition which demands the resignation of Morsi. Nevertheless, Ahmed Aqila, a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood Freedom and Justice Party, does not believe it can happen. He said, “Those who say ‘President Morsi will be toppled on June 30’ live in an illusion they must give up.”
The Coptic Christian community has been concerned that the Morsi government is allowing Islamists to act more aggressively toward non-Muslims. Heba Morayef, a director for Regional Human Rights Watch, says that some Muslims are using more discriminatory language on television. He says, “It’s very scary because of the sudden uptick in violence, compounded by the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood has in no way tried to reign it back and has at times participated.”
For instance, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Safwat Hegazi, recalling demonstrations last December which turned violent, told the Copts, “You share this country with us, but there are red lines, and one red line is the legitimacy of Dr. Morsi. Whoever splashes water on that, we will spill his blood.” Hegazi has since been appointed to the National Council on Human Rights in Egypt.
Consequently, some people are nervous about the upcoming demonstration scheduled at the end of this month and with good reason. There is much at stake. Coptic Christians and women have the most to lose, but so too do all Muslims, especially more moderate and secular Muslims.
While spokesmen from both sides are rightly calling for calm, they also realize that people have a right to address the Morsi government. Although he did not officially endorse the upcoming demonstration, according to one source, Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church said, “Members of Egypt’s Christian minority are free to express their opinions on the streets, just as they were to vote for whomever candidate they supported in the past presidential elections.”
That is the way it should be in a true democracy, and President Morsi knows it. After one of the demonstrations last year, he said, “I will protect for my brothers in the opposition all their rights so they can exercise their role.” Now Morsi needs to prove it. Is Egypt a true democracy or not? Will Egypt’s Coptic Christians ever share in the Arab Spring, or was it a lie? We shall find out at the end of the month.
Let us pray for the safety of our brave brethren who will be demonstrating on June 30, and for a free Egypt where all Egyptians can live in peace. They are not alone. They are merely on the front lines of a battle that is threatening to engulf Christians throughout the world.
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Michael Terheyden was born into a Catholic family, but that is not why he is a Catholic. He is a Catholic because he believes that truth is real, that it is beautiful and good, and that the fullness of truth is in the Catholic Church. However, he knows that God’s grace operating throughout his life is the main reason he is a Catholic. He is greatly blessed to share his faith and his life with his beautiful wife, Dorothy. They have four grown children and three grandchildren.
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