Coptic divorcee Hani Wasfi has raised a lawsuit against the Coptic Church’s refusal to allow him to remarry. Wasfi won a court ruling earlier from a lower court, which the church appealed but lost last week, said Egypt's Paper almasri alyoum

Coptic divorcee Hani Wasfi has raised a lawsuit against the Coptic Church’s refusal to allow him to remarry. Wasfi won a court ruling earlier from a lower court, which the church appealed but lost last week, said Egypt's Paper almasri alyoum

Cairo (AINA) -- Thousands of Christian Copts from all over Egypt rallied on Wednesday within the grounds of St. Mark Cathedral in Cairo during Pope Shenouda's weekly sermon, to protest a recent court ruling ordering the Church to issue re-marriage permits for divorcees, a ruling deemed inconsistent with the doctrine of the Coptic Orthodox Church (AINA 5-30-2010). The Coptic Church does not allow re-marriage except in very limited circumstances of adultery (to the non-guilty partner only) and conversion of one partner to another faith.

A majority of people in Britain associate Islam with terrorism and the repression of women, a poll has shown. The survey coincided with the launch of an advertising campaign aimed at combating negative perceptions of Muslims.

A campaign to improve the image of Islam has been launched after an opinion poll found that more than half of British people associate the religion with extremism and terrorism.

(AINA) -- The head of the Coptic Church in Egypt has rejected a court ruling (AINA 5-30-20) that orders the church to allow divorced Copts to remarry in the church. In a press conference held on Tuesday June 8, Pope Shenouda, reading from the statement issued by the Holy Synod's 91 Bishops including himself said "The Coptic Church respects the law, but does not accept rulings which are against the Bible and against its religious freedom which is guaranteed by the Constitution." He went on to say "the recent ruling is not acceptable to our conscience, and we can not implement it."

A working paper released during Pope Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to Cyprus to prepare for a crisis summit of Middle East bishops in Rome in October also cites the "extremist current" unleashed by the rise of "political Islam" as a threat to Christians.

A Cairo court on Saturday upheld a ruling to strip Egyptian men married to Israeli women of their citizenship in a case that has highlighted national sentiment towards Israel.

Early indications point to a landslide victory for the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) in elections for the Shura Council (the upper house of parliament), in which it is expected to win 52 contested seats and another 14 uncontested seats.

In this special edition of Frontpage Symposium, we have invited two distinguished guests to discuss the question: When does a religion become an ideology? Our guests today are: Tawfik Hamid, an Islamic thinker and reformer who is the author of Inside Jihad: Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam. A one-time Islamic extremist from Egypt, he was a member of Jemaah

CAIRO: Mohamed ElBaradei visited religious sites in Old Cairo Sunday, the third such visit since he launched his campaign for democratic change.

(AINA) -- An Egyptian court issued a controversial ruling on Saturday, May 29, which deprived the head of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church of the control over matters of divorce and marriage, giving the civil courts the authority to oversee affairs which the Church considers are in its core religious competencies.

Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party will nominate incumbent President Hosni Mubarak to re-run in the Presidential poll scheduled for next year, a top party leader has said on Saturday .

The Higher Administrative Court Saturday ordered Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church to allow divorced Christians to remarry, confirming that it is unconstitutional and against the law to prevent second marriage for Egyptian Copts.

CAIRO, Egypt, May 25 (CDN) — CAIRO, Egypt, May 25 (Compass Direct News) – From the mosque across the street, words blasting from minaret megaphones reverberate throughout the tiny apartment where Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary is forced to hide. Immediately following afternoon prayers, the Friday sermon is, in part, on how to deal with Christians.

State Security Investigations Service arrested in Agami, Alexandria 13 evangelical Christians for proselitizing. The arrests were made at a meeting with Father Antonios of the Orthodox Church

" Gibraeel, in a sharp phone call with a senior chief of the state security service, condemning what happened to the young men from the Anglican Church, "Is amending the Penal Code with a new article punishing proselytism, or we don't know!!.

Full Muslim face veils could become the next divisive religious issue to take centre stage in Switzerland, where voters last November approved a measure banning the construction of new minarets. The Swiss federal government said in February it saw no need for a “burqa ban.” Politicians at the national level say there’s no “burqa problem” in Switzerland. But few thought there was a “minaret problem” either, until the question was put to a national referendum and the minaret ban campaigners won.

The French cabinet has approved a bill making it illegal to wear in public clothes designed to hide the face. The legislation amounts to a ban on the full-face Muslim veil. Women wearing the veil in public could be fined, and men judged to have forced them to do so could be imprisoned. Parliament needs to approve the bill and France's top legal advisory body has warned it may be unenforcable.

CAIRO: The Emergency State Security Criminal Court in Qena on Tuesday adjourned to June 19 the trial of the Naga Hammadi drive-by shooting case, which left six Copts and a Muslim guard dead on Jan. 6.

Two Moroccan terrorist suspects deported from Italy last month were allegedly plotting to kill Pope Benedict XVI, Italian weekly Panorama claims in its latest issue to be released on Friday. Mohammed Hlal and Errahmouni Ahmed were students at the University of Perugia until their repatriation to Morocco on 29 April.