Believe it or not: the Egyptians fast 467 days every year! I do not think there are people in the world who fast as much as the Egyptian people. Egypitan Muslims and Christians fast total of 467 days per year. The fasting days of the Copts are: 55 days for Great Lent, three days for Jonah fasting, 42 prior to Christmas, 40 days for the fast of the Apostles, and 15 days for the fast of the Virgin, which may be increased willingly to 21 days. Moreover, they fast Wednesdays and Fridays most of the year, which raises the total number to 256 days, which may increase optionally to 266 days.

As we celebrate the resurrection and Sham El-Nessim, the Egyptians are looking for joy and fear it at the same time. They think joy may bring bad news after all, but they love jokes and laugh till they cry! Today, the homeland is rising from death of terrorism to joy and peace. We celebrate many feasts around the year including a number of religious and international feasts! We offered many martyrs and our hearts are full of pain, but we are looking forward to the joy of resurrection.

Following the scandal of Zafarana village in Minya, where hundreds of extremists supported by certain agencies or parties prevented some people from holding their prayers. According to article 46 of the Egyptian constitution, many people tired to condemn the victims including bishop Makarious of Minya. Their cheap attempts was supported by an anchor and a statement of the Evangelical Church. Yet, we shouldn t forget about the freedom of worship. This reminded me of what was written by Magdi Mehanna in the site of the civilized dialogue: (The friend Sulaiman Shafiq talks about the liturgy of the protest led by Abba Makarios in the face of the repeated attacks on the Coptic citizens, just for being Copts! The liturgy is worship and prayer, and when they are an expression of protest or objection, we are faced with a work that connects the daily reality with faith and belief, which gives faith its momentum and meaning. The reality is the mirror of faith. It is not strange that Bishop Makarious calls for prayer in protest of the wrong situation supported by the state that allows the criminal to escape even if he is a murderer. This is permitted as long as the victim belongs to the minority!) The truth is that the inability of the Church Building Law to solve the problem has made the Copts in the villages pray in very small houses like Zafarana, or even in the streets like Forn village in Minya. They also had to held funerals in the streets like Dimshaw Hashim. Here I introduced the concept of Liturgical Protest where people protest by praying which appeared years ago in Latin America. Pope Shenoda started it in Egypt when he decided to lock himself in a cell at the monastery. Bihsop Makarious has taken it to the next level when he invited thousands of angry youth to pray to God in a gathering after the murder of Coptic man and his son by policeman. It doesn t make sense that the law is applied only on certain people, but in case of insulting Christianity it disappears! Moreover, the law of building churches should be fixed by adding an article to license churches. Those who issued the bad statement of the Evangelical Church should realize that they caused great damage to their credibility. I salute Bishop Makarious and all Christians who rejected the statement of division. I also salute the people of Zafarana village both Muslims and Christians who will understand that people always have the right to pray. Moreover, the state has to revise its views and methods.

In the past five years, I have written two studies and more than 50 articles on Minya, where media denounce dozens of terrorist and sectarian attack soon before they are forgotten. However, these attacks escalated till two terrorist attacks targeted the Christians near St. Samuel monastery and a corrupt police officer killed two unarmed Copts, a father and a son. Muslims and Christians denounced the unprecedented attacks and showed sympathy with them. Many people describe Minya as governorate of terrorism and extremism, but in fact it is the city of contradictions. It looks very modern from outside, but from inside it looks like Kabul.

"We are not in conflict with the Ministry of interiors or police, but we show support and appreciate their sacrifices. However, we demand accurate and objective statements that show some respect for our minds. We demand an investigation that don t blame the victims for being killed next to St. Samuel monastery. We also expect the Minister of interiors to launch investigation at these statements and information released and to explain how those terrorists managed to repeat the same attack twice with the same vision and elements” This was a post published by the Coptic writer Kamal Zakhir on Facebook. Unfortunately, the statement of the Ministry of the Interior came up to provoke and raise the public anger since they show no respect for our minds. They claimed that the victims didn t take a permit to visit the monastery, or they have taken an insecure shortcut.

There were several attacks this week by people claiming to be real Muslims against the Church of the Virgin and St. Karas in Ezbet Sultan, Minya, and another attack to prevent the use of a church to the house of service next door. This crisis began after the Church attempt to install cameras and doors of the church as per the security instructions, which raised fear of some fanatics that they will appear in media if they want to practice their right to attack the church at any time they want! Police arrested three assailants and other names were reported by the Copts hoping that police will prevent further attacks after the church was attacked thrice in one month!

I am a big fan of Real Madrid football team and this love story began 45 years ago. However, I watched the latest game between Real and Liverpool to watch Mohammed Salah, the Egyptian football star who was unfortunately hit under the auspices of the referee which was horrible. In fact, Salah represents hope for Egyptians, who didn t care last Thursday for their economic problems nor the hot weather. Hey cared much about their hop represented in Salah.

An old Egyptian custom we inherited from our ancestors, the ancient Egyptians, is that we don t remember the important people in our lives until they depart by death and be buried in great pyramids in our memories. The Egyptian idiom says: Remember the good deed of the dead people. Thus, we only remember the good people after they die, but I decided to break that rule and remember some good people in my life as they are still among us. Abba Makarios, Bishop of Minya, is an old style monk who loves everybody; even those who hate him. I learned love, modesty and forgiveness from him.

We celebrate the Nativity of Christ once a year, but we also celebrate his birth with every new born child. The Virgin traveled with Joseph to register and the prophecies were fulfilled: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel” Thus, the Nativity was linked to a national civil even from its very beginning. And so did the Egyptian churches as they are called Coptic (related to Egypt) before they are called Orthodox, Catholic or Evangelical. Therefore, the Copts rejected all invaders and occupation and participated in all revolutions starting with the revolution of 1804 against the Ottoman occupier and the overthrow of the governor Khurshid Pasha until the revolution of July 30, 2013 against the government of the Muslim Brotherhood.

It was not a good surprised to watch the interview between the Egyptian media reporter Imad Adeeb and the Libyan terrorist Abdel Rahim Mohammed Abdullah Al-Massmari, who killed Egyptian people. The terrorist explained that Prophet Mohammed killed his uncles, and therefore, he doesn t feel bad for killing those infidels! This story made Brigadier General Khalid Okasha, security expert, say that the terrorist organization benefited a lot from this interview. I wonder how come media reporter and a decent television network takes such decision. What are the morals related to such decision?

I spent my life until 1978 defending the working class and the hardworking. From 1987 to 1987, I studied the culture of minorities in the Arab region and wandered among minorities in almost 24 countries, Kurds, Shiites, Amazighs, Nubians, Armenians, Maronites, etc. I realized the suffering of those peoples and returned back to Egypt. I was working then with Abdul Rahim Ali, the famous journalist, to expose the extremist groups all over Egypt. We have reported several massacres of Ezbet Nassarah and of Muharraq monastery, in which 320 people were killed on their Christian identity. It should be mentioned that we were risking our lives then. In 1992, I met with Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim and participated in the establishment of the Ibn Khaldun Center. We also participated in the drafting of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Minorities. I was the first coordinator of the minorities unit in the Arab region. In 1994, we held the Minorities Conference in Egypt and wrote an Encyclopedia of minorities in the region and dedicated a special chapter on the Copts with a respected group of thinkers, including Dr. Mona Makram Ebeid, Dr. Mostafa El Feki, Samir Morcos, Dr. Aly El Din Halal, and others.

The public opinion in Egypt was surprised by the message from Mahmoud al-Alayli, head of the Free Egyptians Party, in which he told a story about a judge who refused to hear a Christian witness and demanded the lawyer to bring a Muslim witness instead.Can a citizen be deprived of one of his civil rights because of his religion? If this is the position of the judiciary against a Christian citizen, how can we complain of the fanatics and extremists among the public! Moreover, how can such fanatic judge issue ruling in other cases related to sectarian strife, building a church or other Christian complaints! I see that the subject is more dangerous than burning churches and blowing them up. It is more important than targeting Christian citizens and preventing them from praying, and it is more important than preventing Christians from taking senior jobs in the state. The issue is about extracting a basic civil right before the judiciary based on one s religion. It should be known that several cases in four where a Christian mother was deprived from custody to her children because their father changed his religion to Islam, which is considered by Egyptian law: the best religion! This is clear in the Islamic books and has been practiced by Egyptian courts for years.

Some people began issuing strange statements in an attempt to escape the crisis of Copts right to pray in Upper Egypt. They accused Bishop Makarios of being responsible for the crisis since he defends his children as if he should have encouraged his children to accept persecution and discrimination no matter what happens! In fact, those people should have called instead to apply the law by officials. 50 years ago, there were only few Christian families in small villages. Yet, those small villages now have hundreds of Christians who need to pray. Those have agreed with Muslims to pray in a house or a hall every week and preventing them was the odd action. Now, with the new law of building houses of worship, it is almost impossible for them to get licensed churches as most of the lands are owned by the state.

It is a crime against Egypt and Coptic relics that made silence no longer possible. Some people who are part of the regime are full of corruption and fanaticism that they threaten the alliance of June 30 not caring about the homeland, the religion or even our history. The Monastery of Abu Al-Daraj dates back to the 4th century. It has several monuments including the well of Abu al-Daraj, which is used by the pilgrimages to Jerusalem. These monuments were documented by the Jesuit Father Maurice Martin after the discoveries of the French archeology mission in 1963 to 2005, which were published by the French Scientific Institute of Oriental Antiquities of the French Ministry of Culture.

One of the sheikhs of Al-Azhar issued a Fatwa that saluting the Copts is a moral impurity. He cited a verse of Quran saying: O you who believe, the idolaters are surely unclean, so they shall not approach the Sacred Mosque after this year of theirs. (Al-Tawba Verse No:28). I decided to research the meaning of "moral impurity" and found that impurity is two kinds: the sensual impurity like all what was prohibited by Islamic Sharia, and moral impurity including lechery, infidelity and idolatry.

Many people think that the reason behind the Qatari crisis is Tamim and his mother, but those don’t consider the economic basis of this country. It is almost the objective equivalent of Israel in the region. It is even more dangerous than Israel since it is able to collect three extreme conflicting parties on its land. It has a military base for America, and another for Turkey, in addition to the experts from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. In short, Qatar has collected what the devil can’t collect by himself! The four Arab states leading the boycott against Qatar have issued a list of demands to Doha, including severing diplomatic ties with Iran and closing down the Turkish military base. Moreover, they demanded the closure of Al Jazeera, the reduction of the Iranian diplomatic representation and the expulsion of members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in addition to stop financing terrorism and terrorist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda and ISIS. However, months have passed and nothing happened.

The terrorist groups backed by the intelligence of Arab, regional and international countries are fighting a war to make Egypt fail by military confrontations with the armed forces, especially in North Sinai, successive assassinations of soldiers and police officers, systematic targeting of Egyptian Christian citizens. Not to mention the attempts to create chaos and incite sedition through the fifth column of militants and the remnants of the Muslim Brotherhood. The question is whether terrorism targets the Copts mainly for their national positions concerning June 30 revolution or for their religious identity. I don t believe there is much of separation between nationality and faith. The Egyptian churches were named Coptic before they carried the name of its denomination. However, the successive terrorist attacks against Copts revealed they are targeted for their faith. Governor of Minya said the terrorists tried to make the Copts declare they believe in Islam before they were shot dead after they refused to convert into Islam. Copts between national and church deprivation, this was the title of a research published 25 years ago. It tells how Egyptian Copts struggled for the homeland, but got no rights in return. This happened through all political revolutions in Egypt starting with 1804 to the revolution of June 30, 2013.

God has never said that faith will be easy, but he has mentioned the difficult conditions and expensive costs to follow him. He also invited us to calculate the maintenance. To be both believer and patriot, this has its impact on the relation between the Coptic church and nation. At the events of Omrania in 2010, the Cairo police assaulted peaceful protesters who were seeking to protect a church under construction, and killed two of the protesters. Demonstrations erupted in front of the administrative building and 154 Coptic Christian citizens were arrested. At that moment, the Coptic youth went out of the churches for the first time in modern history. After the church of the saints were bombed in 2011, demonstrations erupted against Mubarak and his government. On January 25, the first Coptic man who was injured was called Mina Nagy and the first Coptic martyrs in January 28th, Mina Daniel, even before the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood joined the revolution against Mubarak’s regime.

In January 1977, Ahmed Bahaa Eddin wrote an Arab editorial about the critical situation after the glorious victory of October 1973. He warned against several threats that he saw a revolution at hand. The regime clashed with the people and Sadat had to visit Jerusalem following the American Administration to become a basis in our foreign policy and democracy became a fake play in our country. On the other hand, Saddam Hussein led the Arabs to fight against Iran and then occupied Kuwait to face his destiny and get his army destroyed and his country divided. Iraq ever since became a land for civil war and destruction. Then we had our war against terrorism after the Muslim Brotherhood took office in Egypt. The revolution of June 30 came to remove them from power and to demand the Minister of Defense Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to run for presidency and fix the situation.

I was surprised by the statement of the Holy Synod last week in which it decided to celebrate martyrs of the Coptic Church in the modern history on February 15th, which marks the martyrdom of 21 Copts by ISIS in Libya. They chose that day since this is the only time Coptic Christies were killed without the involvement of the Egyptian regime. The regime performed air strike on ISIS in Libya and built a church for the martyrs in their home village. Thus, they didn’t chose the anniversary of other sectarian incidents where Copts were killed based on their religious identity such as the Saints Church, Maspero, St. Peter Chapel, St. George Church in Tanta, or the martyrs of St. Samuel terrorist attack. The statement decided to avoid embarrassing the regime of Mubarak and al-Sisi.

Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt brought seeds of unity and love, but Christians decided to refuse the decisions of unity between Catholic and Coptic Orthodox Churches. Moreover, the dark forces in Egypt decided to beat all the results of this visit by declaring Christianity a corrupt doctrine and declaring Christians as infidels. Statements of Sheikh Salem Abdul Jalil violate the successive constitutions of Egypt starting with 1923 till the current one since they state that Egyptians are equal before the law and enjoy equal civil and political rights. Unfortunately, Sheikh Salem and his supporters didn’t start such attitude, as other Sheikhs like Yasser Bohamy used to issue fatwas that are documented on the official website of the Salafist Call. Yet, the great disaster is that such explanations come out from Sheikh Salem, who was a member of the committees to renew the religious discourse, and Sheikh Abdullah Rushdie, Secretary of Religious Affairs in the Future Party, who have strong ties with the regime, which shows that the attitude of calling the Copts infidels is taking an official form.