While celebrating the feast, they suddenly closed their eyes and opened it to see a wondrous light leading to the face of God. I am talking here about the martyrs of the Churches of St. George in Tanta and St. Mark in Alexandria. They were killed on Palm Sunday to celebrate the Easter in heaven. In these days, we celebrate the joyful resurrection of Jesus Christ which was a turning point in the history of mankind. However, evil terrorism has used this wonderful occasion to kill and demolish in the name of God. Several terrorist attacks against Coptic Churches have tried to incite hatred, sectarianism and extremism between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. Yet, Christ faced such evil saying: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven”

Death has always been the end of life. Thus, many people fear it as evil and hateful destiny. Those who love the earth hate death above all. Jesus Christ gave us many marks of the end of earth and said: “So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near”. (Luke 21: 31) Here we must emphasize that trials and tribulations increase the faith of Christians. I remember here the terrible scene of slaying Coptic martyrs in Libya in 2015, which came after a series of torture in order to force them to change their faith. They were forced to carry heavy sand bags and walk for long time after being stripped off under the heat of the sun. They believed the words of Jesus Christ when he said: “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! (Luke 12:4-5)

The blood of Coptic martyrs in Tanta and Alexandria colored the branches of palm that were prepared for the celebration of the feast last Sunday. There is a serious security failure by the security services in Gharbia and Alexandria as they did not intensify the security measures and take all precautionary measures to secure the churches during such Christian celebration, especially at the church in Tanta where an explosive device was dismantled couple of days before the attack. Moreover, one week earlier, another terrorist attack occurred in Tanta at a police training camp, which proves there is a serious security negligence.

Salafis and some scholars of Al-Azhar used to attack Christians and their beliefs without accountability. The state has not taken most reports against those fanatics seriously. The president has called several times about renewal of religious discourse, but the government has cooperated with the fanatics and let them manipulate minds of the people and call the Copts infidels. In fact, the president has to remove the Sheikh of Al-Azhar since the current curricula produced suicide bombers who believe they do the right thing by killing themselves to murder innocent people.

What happened to Egypt, which was the first to know and teach civilization? This country was the first to liberate slaves, abolish slavery and the tribute created by the invading Arabs. Egypt has lost its moderation after the defeat of 1967, which was accompanied by the migration of Egyptian labor to the Saudi Arabia to learn Wahhabism. After Sadat came in power, he called himself the faithful president and promised to destroy Christianity in Egypt. He collaborated with extremists who spread fanaticism in Egypt and converted Islam into racist and sectarian religion that hates the others and persecute them. Such sectarianism expanded to call all different Muslims infidels as long as they are not Wahhabi. The truth is that terrorism all over the world is related to Wahhabism. Yet, the same ideology is taught to students in Al-Azhar University.

Groups of Muslims in Luxor demonstrated demanding a Coptic family to hand over their daughter claiming she converted into Islam and got married to a Muslim young man. On the other hand, Copts say the Muslim young man is trying to force their daughter to convert into Islam and marry him. Yet, the Muslims insist she has already converted into Islam and her family is hiding her. However, the Muslims don’t have any prove or documents she married this man or converted into Islam.

I read an article about the Great Lent by Abba Benjamin, Bishop of Menoufia, in which he addressed the issue of fasting that leads to partnership with God. The article entitled "True Fasting" told us about the plan of true fasting according to the second psalm that says: “Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling”. It is a good chance to pray in house and in churches with daily masses. Fasting is a good chance to do good remembering the verse: But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Hebrew 13:16).

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been calling for nearly three years on Al-Azhar Sheikhs to develop the religious discourse, but they didn’t. In fact, Sheikh of Al-Azhar is responsible for Al-Azhar religious and educational institutions. Therefore, he is responsible for developing and changing education curriculum that incites violence and terrorism. Changing the wrong concepts of the graduates of Al-Azhar who work in all state institutions, especially the Ministry of Education, Interior and Justice.

A German philosopher once said that Asian people have the future pointing out that they were going to progress soon, which already happened to South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. Korea has large industrial progress, while Hong Kong has very good average per capita income comparing to other countries. Taiwan depends on small industries.

As we celebrated the valentine’s day we should remember that God is the one who deserves our love. I’m talking here about the holy trinity and all attributes of the loving God for mankind. People usually show their love by working for the beloved. In fact, love is great as it belongs to heaven. It unites people and makes difference. Let’s rejoice in that day and send our best wishes to our relatives and friends even in heaven. Love increases by giving. So, let’s give generously, especially for those who have nobody to care for. Let’s offer our love to the needy, street children and the lowly.

With the state of political partisanship and intellectual dependency on the Egyptian arena, many people despise the revolution of January 25 and accuse it of causing many destruction and losses. However, this was not the case in the first days of the revolution when everybody was happy in the streets hoping for better future for Egypt. The regime was retard back then to understand the new state since it was only thinking about making deals with the terrorist organization. At that time, the Muslim Brotherhood was allowed to have 88 chairs in the Parliament in order to support sectarian strife in the Egyptian society. Egypt's youth came out rejecting such chaos and mixing between politics and religion. They refused guardianship of the Church and Al-Azhar in the political matter and demonstrated against their recommendation. Those youth raised national slogans and sang the old songs of Egyptian rebels in 1919 and 1952. Furthermore, they wrote new songs and drew graffiti to express their revolution, but this graffiti is being erased by the government hoping to erase all memories related to it.

Christ had heart of gold. His heart was full of love for everybody. He cared for righteous and sinners, children and adults, the hungry, the sick people, the needy and those who are in captivity. The late Pope Shenouda III told us about Jesus Christ and how he was always working for the convenience of all. Jesus said "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". He healed the sick and those were oppressed of the devil. He felt compassion for the sinner and lead them to repentance. He announced that "healthy people do not need a physician, but the sick, he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance".

The heinous crime of slaughtering Youssef Lamie by a Salafi terrorist in Alexandria affected the Egyptian public opinion after millions of people have watched the movie of the crime while the criminal was shouting God is great. This comes with calls of the Egyptian president and many intellectuals to renew the religious discourse.

The terrorist bombing that targeted St. Peter Church in Cairo on December 11, 2016, proved once again that it can’t be related to a religion. Such dirty act has nothing to do with humanity, as humans can’t plan to kill women and children and cause massive destruction. Al-Azhar has condemned this cowardly attack, the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and every human being with a sound conscience. Everybody rushed to offer their sincere condolences for families of the victims and the Coptic Church.

A small chapel lies next to the Great Cathedral of St. Mark in Abbasia district was attacked by a suicide bomber. The historic church is more than 100 years old and was chosen to kill dozens of innocent worshipers most of which are women and children.

First, I offer my sincere condolences to the martyrs who shed their pure blood as a result of the vicious terrorist act that targeted the Petrine Church in Cairo.

The Egyptian people are very familiar with torture and insulting for thousands of years. They were occupied by several countries, ruled by kings who were overthrown in the revolution of July 23. For years, security services tortured the people decided to reject such insult and torture in the revolution of January 25, 2011. The regime was overthrown but the people couldn’t be very optimistic as human rights in general as well as the rights of the minorities were violated as usual. Once again people are tortured and insulted in police stations even if they are innocent!

During the days of Mubarak, police used to leak images of torture and abuse of defendants in police stations in order to create a state of panic among the citizens and fear the police. They were able to create a psychological barrier between the people and the police that many of them preferred not to walk near police stations to avoid getting in troubles. The peak of their tyranny was reached few months before the revolution of January 25th, and many videos and photos were published by social media activists for similar attacks. Now, I wonder if the killing of Magdy McCain is repeating such practices and building such psychological barrier. This idea may be supported by the arrest of head of the Journalists Syndicate in Egypt as well.

The Egyptian citizen Magdy McCain was killed by people who were supposed to protect the rights and dignity of the Egyptians. The social media proved the negligence of normal media that refused to show the case to cover up for the regime especially after the killing of the Italian citizen Rogini. The case of McCain proved that the Ministry of Interior returned to its practices before the revolution of January 25 by torturing the poor citizens and even killing them. Media, sponsored by businessmen, attacked the family of the victim and spread false information about him in order to save the police officer.

His Holiness Pope Tawadros has started a project to train 1000 church leaders in order to empower them to teach and lead the congregation. They were trained to use the Bible, liturgy, church history, the writings of church fathers and church laws. The training included topics like Coptic identity and Coptic art. The project is divided into three levels to be implemented over three years ending in 2019. The first level started at Mary Land in Shorouk city from September 23 to October 14, 2016. Five groups from all over Egypt received training over topics like the Holy Trinity, Church unity, the priesthood, and the Coptic identity.

I took a taxi in Alexandria and the driver was talking very proudly about Mona, the lady of Alexandria who was recently honored by the president for her struggle to provide for her family. The driver told me that people in Alexandria love Mona and talk about her hard work and struggle. She carries bags of food and delivers them to shops. She is an example of great Egyptian women.