Ready To Be Martyrs: Coptic Christians in Egypt claim their ancient roots.

Peanut Gallery: Please pray for Coptic Christians in Egypt –

READY TO BE MARTYRS:
Coptic Christians in Egypt claim their ancient roots.

DAVID PINAULT | SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

My sharpest memory from Cairo is what my driver said: al-Masih biygarribna, “Christ is testing us.” I’d hired Sami to drive me around the city. As soon as I saw on his wrist the washma, a faded tattoo in the shape of a cross, I knew he was a Copt, a member of Egypt’s Christian minority, a community that predates the Muslim presence by centuries.

Since the early 1980s I had been to Egypt many times as a student of Arabic, as a researcher and as a tour guide on Nile cruise-boats. But this visit in 2012 was my first time back since the onset of the Arab Spring and Egypt’s “Lotus Revolution.”

As we drove, Sami told me about the persecution Copts endure at the hands of Egyptian Salafists. Salafists are Muslims who want an Islamist government in which the harshest interpretations of Islamic law (shariah) are privileged at the expense of both non-Muslims and progressive-minded Muslims. “Things had been less worse for us under Mubarak,” Sami said. Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s authoritarian ruler until his ouster in the revolution, had suppressed Islamist radicals. But now, said Sami, the Salafists feel bold enough to burn churches, incite anti-Coptic riots and call openly for the expulsion of Christians.

I told him the statistics: in 2011 and 2012, since the revolution’s onset, over 100,000 Copts have fled Egypt. “Well, I’m not going to leave,” Sami insisted. “Christ is testing us. I tell my friends to stay. Christ could end this suffering, this trial, at any time. How will you feel, I tell my friends, if you’re in Canada instead of Egypt when Christ returns?” Continue reading “Ready To Be Martyrs: Coptic Christians in Egypt claim their ancient roots.” →

Please pray for believers in Egypt and Libya

Peanut Gallery: The “Arab Spring” continues to deteriorate in Egypt and Libya as Islamist mobs take to the streets on 9-11. No one is safe… Embassies, Americans and Christians live in constant danger.

Please pray for Libyan and Egyptian believers – for protection, safety, and a lifestyle that bears witness to God’s love in Jesus Christ.

“Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.” 1 Peter 2:11-13 NLT

US Missions in Libya, Egypt Attacked Over Film – Posted September 12th, 2012 at 5:00 am (UTC-4)

Demonstrators angered over an amateur American-made film that insults Islam’s Prophet Muhammad shot at and set fire to the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi Tuesday, killing a State Department officer.

In Egypt, protesters scaled the fortified walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo, tore up an American flag and replaced it with an Islamic banner. The demonstrators there – mainly ultraconservative Islamists – continued their protest action through the early hours of Wednesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirmed that a U.S. official was killed in the Benghazi attack, which she condemned “in the strongest terms.” Continue reading “Please pray for believers in Egypt and Libya” →

The Fight for Egypt’s Future | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Peanut Gallery: Pray for the church in Egypt.

“Are Christians fleeing Egypt? Some, yes. Nearly every church can name a family that has emigrated. Many more families desire to follow suit but cannot.

But the closer one looks, an irony emerges. Coptic leaders report that a significant number of Christians, especially in rural or poor communities, do fear the future. But many of the most ardently Christian—former Muslims who now follow Christ and have the most to lose under an Islamist government—are the most eager to stay. They hold to their love of country—and to their belief in God’s promise in Isaiah 19: “Blessed be Egypt my people.”

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