Nova Scotia Scott

Children with dual Egyptian-Israeli citizenship threaten national security, don’t cha know.

US President Barack Obama has chosen Egypt as the site of his promised major speech to the Muslim world.  Christian Freedom International (CFI) hopes he will not overlook Egypt’s atrocious record of trampling on the religious liberties of Christians. According to [CFI President Jim] Jacobson, “When it comes to human rights and the treatment of [...]

Horrific news of an outrageous incident of official persecution against Christians in Egypt has arrived from Assyrian International News Agency. On the morning of Sunday, 26 April, hundreds of Egyptian State Security officers demolished a service building belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church.  When news of the attack was disseminated to local Christians, people gathered [...]

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak issued a letter of greeting to the Coptic Diaspora on the occasion of Easter, which Eastern Christians celebrated on 19 April. Voice of the Copts says President Mubarak’s letter contains Taquiah—dissimulation or falsehood permitted by Islam under certain conditions. (The word is also spelled “Taqiyya” in English.) In last week’s letter, [...]

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) today condemned the continued detention of Christian blogger Hani Nazeer, who was arrested by State Security last October.  His arrest was prompted by complaints from Muslims over material posted at his blog. ANHRI also alleges that the arrest “occurred with the collaboration of the Church in [his [...]

An Egyptian woman who converted from Islam to Christianity has been arrested for marrying a Christian man, even though that is not illegal under Egypt’s penal code. (It is, however, illegal under sharia law.) What’s more, the police carried out the arrest even though they don’t have a copy of the marriage contract. Christian convert [...]

The Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt has for the first time issued a certificate of conversion to a Muslim-born Christian. Maher al-Gohari, who is seeking to change his religion on his official documents from Muslim to Christian was asked by a court to provide a conversion certificate from the Egyptian church. […] It is only [...]

Muslim-born Christian convert Maher Mu’Tasim—whose Christian name is now Peter Athanasius—has sued to force Egyptian authorities officially to recognise the change of religion for himself and his 14-year-old daughter Dina (at right).  During a court session in February, a state lawyer made the ludicrous claim that Christianity mandates killing of apostates. Last week in court, [...]

A Coptic Christian couple in Egypt recently accused the country’s Civil Registry of fraud for registering their two children as Muslims, even though they were born to two Christian parents and had never converted. Now the mother Mrs Suhair Abdo has been arrested by security agents and charged with forgery for claiming to be a [...]

Egyptian author and Islamic philosophy scholar Youssef Ziedan has been awarded the second annual International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his historical novel Azazeel (“Beelzebub”, or “Lord of the Flies”). Set in 5th-century Egypt, the book focuses on violent conflicts and divisions among Christians over the nature of Jesus Christ and sympathises with those who [...]

An Egyptian Islamic scholar has issued a fatwa encouraging people to monitor the condition of their neighbours’ marriages. If evidence of irreconcilable differences is found, he says, bring it to court. A fatwa or religious edict issued by a senior Egyptian cleric invites people to end their neighbours’ marriages if they can prove they are [...]

An Egyptian Muslim accused of killing a Coptic Christian doesn’t seem to understand what’s involved in a murder trial. During yesterday’s first session in the trial of the Aswan murderer Ahmed Abu-elroos, he shouted from inside his cage “Get the Infidels Out of the Courtroom, they are looking at me” The defendant meant the victim’s [...]

For the second time in a week, a Coptic Christian man has been murdered in Egypt over rumours of illicit involvement with a Muslim woman. The man’s body was found floating in the Nile. He had been abducted and tortured for nine days before being killed. Police Investigations confirmed that the victim was lured to [...]

Egyptian Muslim Yasser Ahmed Qassem is under arrest after he set fire to Ramy Sabry Shehata, a 25-year-old Coptic man, and stabbed to death the man’s father. Qassem went on a rampage after he heard a rumour that his sister had a relationship with the young Copt. A 60-year-old Christian man has been stabbed to [...]

Immediately after his inauguration, President Barack Obama appealed to the Muslim world to “initiate a new partnership” with the United States “based on mutual respect and mutual interest”. So, how’s that going so far?  Not well, as Charles Colson points out. Egyptians were wildly supportive of Obama’s victory, seeing him as a symbol of justice. [...]