As the Coptic church is still celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we will talk about a verse that reveals the deep relationship between Christians and Jesus Christ. The bible says: “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10) Father Benjamin Muharraqi in his book "I know the power of His resurrection” said that we should know God and develop such knowledge every single day with our faith.

The Coptic Orthodox church celebrates the entry of the Holy Family to the land of Egypt on June first. In the past, the celebration was held in Egypt in Nile Cruises accompanied by hymns and praises and Coptic melodies. Therefore, the Coptic Church in Germany headed by Abba Demian decided to hold similar celebration on Weser river because the Coptic monastery in the city of Höxter is located on the river.

I would like to congratulate His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint St. Mark See, and his Eminence Abba Moussa, Bishop of Youth, for celebrating the 36th anniversary of its inception and the enthronement of Abba Moussa in 1980 by his Holiness Pope Shenouda III. There was no diocese in the Diaspora and there were only few dioceses in Egypt. HG Bishop Moussa worked hard to develop this bishopric to become very strong and so beautiful. Pope Shenouda said that a church without young people has no future. Bishop Moussa ordained some priests to keep pace with the increasing ministry. He established the Deaconess Phoebe House in 1981 to train and graduate some consecrated deaconesses according to the regulation of consecration set by the Holy Synod to help in the women service sector.

Commenting on the conflict between police and the people in Ashi village in Luxor I said that we destroy our country with our own hands. Such destruction will put an end to Egypt by the Egyptians. This became crystal clear in all aspects of our life. Let me criticize our exaggeration in worshipping while we don’t respect it. We don’t love one another and disrespect our homeland. Our morals were known among the nations, but now we seek deviation and hatred. We even forgot about our civilization and heritage.

The recent escalation against Journalists Syndicate leading police to storming the Syndicate last Sunday in order to arrest two journalists, which is considered the first incident in 75 years. The police have violated the law of the Syndicate, which states that the inspection of the Journalists Syndicate is only permissible for a member of the public prosecutor in the presence of journalists’ Chairman or his representative (Article 70).

On the occasion of Easter that Copts are celebrating next Sunday, I call the president to have mercy on the Copts who were wronged by the Egyptian Judiciary in order to please fanatics even if against justice. I call him to issue presidential amnesty. This call comes also by several organizations in order to achieve justice for those Copts. Here I mention several names of those Copts including Girgis Baromi who is impotent but sentenced to prison for raping a child! There are several names in the same list including the children of Beni Mazar who were sentenced to prison on charges of contempt of Islam and Teacher Demiana Abdul Nour and many others.

I was astonished by a group of Egyptians who demonstrated to demand to put the Red Sea islands of Sanafir and Tiran — long considered Egyptian possessions — within Saudi territorial waters. I think they are very stupid to demand so as the Egyptian people really appreciate their land. The demonstrators claimed that they out of faithfulness, Egypt should hand the islands to the Saudi Arabia. Yet, they know nothing about faithfulness since you have been stealing money of the Egyptian people for years. This is what have been claimed by the strong man who worked with the Egyptian inelegance chief Omar Suleiman. I mean Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, director of the Office of Omar Suleiman.

There were several condemnations of US, European Union and UN against Egypt after Egyptian police have been investigating a number of local human rights organizations on charges of receiving money from abroad, which is known in the Egyptian media as «foreign funding case». Moreover, Egyptian police is suffering from many accusations after the torture and killing of the Italian student Julio Regina. They failed to convince the public opinion due to its loss of credibility and bad reputation.

There are certain groups of people that always ruin the life in Egypt at all ages. They have been stealing treasures of Egypt and destroyed all morals after they worshipped all governors and kings that came in power. Such groups worshipped King Farouk and his family, wives and even his mistresses. History tells us that those people flattered the governors till the end.

Jesus Christ out of his love said that we should bless those who curse us, but he is just and lover of mankind at the same time. He was crucified to achieve such justice. Therefore, Christians should know that they should be brave and claim their rights. I know two examples to those Christians who claimed their rights and refused to surrender and eat their tongues.

Monasticism in Egypt has origins and traditions practiced throughout its long history. It has always been sponsored by the Church and enriched her. Pope Tawadros said that church honored monasticism since its very beginning in Egypt during the third and fourth centuries. Monks dedicated their time for prayers and helping the people. Monasticism is based on obedience and repentance. It knows nothing about conflicts, wars and violence. Monks seek quiet life and poverty. It has nothing to do with pride, media shows and resist the authorities.

Arab people shouldn’t be happy to have very bad relations with America, Russia and the West. In fact, we should have been seeking friendship and cooperation with these countries. However, we should hate them for inciting disagreement between Arab countries. We lose and they make a lot of money. Indeed, we should blame ourselves for giving them a chance to do so. They are like hungry lions and we are the stupid bulls. We were lost when we allowed the lion to eat one of us. We were lost when we were divided according to identity and religion.

On the anniversary of the departure of Pope Cyril VI, I would like to share this miracle that happened to me by Pope Cyril. It should be known first that millions of Copts had similar miracles done through the intersession of Pope Cyril. In 2000, I had strong pain in the abdominal area that used to last for hours. I visited the doctor who assured me I have several Gallstones. I had to undergo a surgical operation. I was listening to hymns and praises dedicated to Pope Cyril all the time. I took a nap, and all of a sudden, I had a dream that Pope Cyril is sitting next to the doctor. He asked me: “Is that the doctor who is going to perform the surgery?” “No, another doctor since this one is very busy”, I said.

I was so sad to hear about the crisis of Minya children who were sentenced to five years in prison on charges of contempt of Islam. However, it showed that the state institutions know that Christian children are born men! Egypt sees them more adult than other intellectuals like Islam Behairy and Fatima Naaot since the children were sentenced to more years in prison than those intellectuals! The judge must find such ruling fair according the constitutional and law. Moreover, Christian girls are treated the same way before the same institutions since they are allowed to convert to Islam at any age considering them children no more!

Days ago, an Egyptian court sentenced a group of Egyptian Christian children in Minya to five years because of a 40 seconds video clip in which they imitate the slaughter of 21 Copts in Libya by ISIS. This means that they will be imprisoned 45 days for each second. I said in a previous article that the contempt of religion law has become a sword hanging over the necks of the Copts. A mistaken “like” or “share” on Facebook may send you to prison in no time. Copts in general refuse insulting Islam or any religion by all means. However, this law can only see defamation of Islam and ignore all defamation of Christianity.

What has happened recently by some policemen in Egypt including sexually harassing a girl who was going out of a church, beating doctors at a hospital and killing a taxi driver for dispute over fare, can’t be attributed to a conspiracy of the Muslim Brotherhood or increasing arrogance of policemen! In fact, Egyptian policemen forgot everything about dignity of Egyptian citizens 40 years ago. They got used to hit the people inside police stations and even arrest innocent relatives of people wanted by police.

Police will always remain faithful and loyal, while the people are the sinners, criminals and traitors that don’t deserve protection of the police. This is how media always talk when it comes to comparison between police and the people. Police defend the people and the nation while the people are the one who gives up his dignity and even threatens the nation. Policemen are said in media to sacrifice their souls for the sake of the nation, while the people have never offered similar sacrifice for the nation.

The third Gulf War became at hand, which reminds us of the second Gulf War and the end of Sadam Hussein. Such end that destroyed Iraq and divided its people and turned it to pastureland for the terrorists and led the Americans to occupy the gulf countries and its treasures. Kings of Wahhabism enslaved their people for years and imposed the Wahhabi identity on them. They used the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice gangs to ensure the loyalty of their people. They thought they will be able to buy the people.

God wants us to worship him with the spirit rather than words. Marriage in Christianity is based on unity among God, man and wife. However, committing adulatory may break such bond of marriage. Spiritual adulatory is considered by the church another reason to permit divorce which is converting to another religion. Other reasons to permit divorce are cheating and impotence. Jesus Christ, head of the church, put laws of love and mercy and gave the church the authority to follow that spirit. Prohibition of divorce may protect families and children from dispersion. Yet, divorce is a must in many cases like a spouse is drug addict or perverted and sexually harasses his daughters!

Egypt has always been under the control of a superpower. Muhammad Ali in the early nineteenth century admired the western civilization and decided to make Cairo like France. Khedive Ismail even named Cairo "France of the East". His successors followed this rule for a while until Egypt was occupied by Britain and became an English colony.

After the Coptic Orthodox Church in Minya refused to pray for the bodies of a Coptic bride and groom who died of gas leakage in Minya governorate, northern Cairo, many people attacked the church accusing her of hatred for other Christians. I believe that there is no intercession for the dead by such prayers, but only offering condolences to the family of the dead person. The people accusing the church of hatred for this reason know that the church has rules and traditions. Those people are willing to incite against the church by all means.