I met with many atheists in the United States of America, and was surprised to find the words "In God We Trust" on its banknotes, which was adopted as the official motto of the United States in 1956. I’ve always wondered which God they mean or accept if many of them don’t really believe in God. Finally, I found it responds to mercy and tolerance rather than any other God or religion. In the Middle East, we have so many religious people that the Egyptian people for example are generally called “religious people”; however, we are losing many beautiful human values and morals including mercy and tolerance, and left those morals and values for the atheists to adopt and apply since they have mercy by nature and apply them away from written commandments.

After ISIS had released a video showing the beheading of the Copts that were kidnapped in Libya, many people denounced the brutality of the extremist group. However, it should be known that the Coptic Church has presented too many martyrs across the history. Coptic years are counted from AD 284, the year Diocletian became Roman Emperor, whose reign was marked by tortures and mass executions of Christians, especially in Egypt. Hence, the Coptic year is identified by the abbreviation A.M. (for Anno Martyrum or "Year of the Martyrs"). The A.M. abbreviation is also used for the unrelated Jewish year (Anno Mundi).

I know that many people all over the world are interested in the Egyptian history and antiquities. However, most of them don’t even know that Christians represent 10 - 15% of the Egyptian population. Therefore, they don’t know to what extent the Copts are being prosecuted in their home country, where they are pretty much ranked as second degree citizens and are discriminated against through writing the religion in the identification card.

Public transportation in Egypt is a good place to chat with people you don’t know, learn more about their lives, and even to fight with them. Couple of days ago, I took the bus. Suddenly, I heard some people arguing about losing Sinai for the