On October 31, 2017, a Muslim immigrant from Uzbekistan named Saifullah Habibullah carried out a run over accident killing 8 Muslims and shouting Allahu Akbar ! Muslims repeat Allahu Akbar or God is great and Christians chant Glory to God as part of their prayers. Both expressions are similar and aim at glorifying God and offer him thanks. However, some people used the same expressions to spread violence and destruction. I watched a video showing members of ISIS terrorist organization selling and trading little girls while the men were hiding their faces to avoid further prosecution. The terrorists were also shouting Allahu Akbar as they bought the little girls. They were not humans as they were destroying other lives after they conducted their prayers in order to please God!

As I celebrated my birthday, I thought about the past and traveled through time and space from Los Angeles to Assiut. The older people used to tell the children stories about their great old times where life was so cheap. Our dreams were very simple as computer cell phones and television were not invented yet. Only the rich people had radio at their house. They listened to plays and football matches and the audience shouted with joy or sorrow according to their football affiliation. As children, we were dealing with a currency that does not exist nowadays, but we saved out of it to rent bicycles once a week. We had very simple toys and games for boys and others for girls. Our neighborhood was a narrow road and the houses on both sides consisted often of two floors, and all the families in the street were Christians.

What happened to the Copts in Arish should not be surprising for anybody, giving the previous attacks against them for more than five years. ISIS has described the Copts as the "favorite catch", but the state didn’t move until several people lost their lives.

Since Islam entered Egypt in the seventh century; Egypt never had pure civilian rule. It is known that Amr ibn al-Aas did not come to Egypt preaching Islam, but as an invader hoping to seize its wealth. However, religion has been playing a major role in the Egyptian daily life ever since. We can say that imposing the tribute achieved the goals of the invader at that time. Many Copts decided to convert into Islam to get rid of the jizyah, but the governors decided to make them pay less amount of money in order to keep the taxes. For decades, extremism varied in Egypt according to the personality of the ruler. The family of Muhammad Ali Pasha put efficiency above religion in recruitment which led his government towards a civil state. Copts under the Egyptian kingdom were allowed to take senior positions in the cabinet.

Like our fathers, we are very attached to our land. People from many countries traveled to trade when the Egyptians preferred to stay and plant their land. I was born in Assiut in Upper Egypt, a city that boasts Pharaonic origins. My family didn’t like traveling and especially immigrations. They almost held my funeral when I decided to immigrate. Over the years, I couldn’t forget about my home land where my heart stayed. The decision to immigrate was not easy at all, but such decision comes with a divine plan in my life.

St. Paul invited the people in (1 Corinthians 16: 13) to Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Furthermore, it is translated in the Arabic version to be strong as men. This means to be courageous and brave. Such courage disappears several times in hardships. For instance, Adam blamed Eve for eating from the tree.

The prescience of Copts in Egypt is considered a shame by some fanatics. The successive governments of Egypt has refused to declare the real population of Copts in Egypt considering it a national security secret that should be known only for Head of the Central Bureau of Statistics and the president. However, the state used to leak some fake numbers from time to another to declare that numbers of the Copts in Egypt are very little comparing to the majority of the Muslims. Yet, naming them minority didn’t mean they can take rights as minorities including protection.

After each act of terror, we see President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi calling for a renewal of religious discourse. This happened several times in the past couple of years, but we did not hear that his call was appreciated by the sheikhs to whom he was directing his speech. This happened as well after the terrorist attack in Turkey and caused the deaths of more than 40 and wounded nearly 100 at the gate of Ataturk International Air Port. This time, an Islamic state was targeted proving that terror doesn’t differentiate between religions. This time, the president repeated his call (or begging) before the same audience who disappointed him in former speeches. He also tried to convince them by saying that Islamic countries are suffering from retardation and should seek to get rid of the reason behind that. He told them that about 60,000 hadith were deleted for being incorrect. This should lead to the examination of other religious texts that encourage terrorism and there is no justification for their existence.

What happened in Karm villlage in Minya was not a quarrel between two parties that a third party should intervene and reconcile them. It was a major crime against innocent citizens where criminals offended them and distorted their reputation and dignity. An old lady was stripped off in the streets and trailed along on the ground while they were beating her severely. Moreover, innocent people lost their houses after criminals looted them and set them on fire. Such crimes leave no place to hold such customary reconciliation sessions where the weak party is forced to give up his rights in order to live in peace.

The former US President Jimmy Carter said that America did not invent human rights, the opposite is true, that human rights invented America. Human rights may remind us of democracy. For long time, the American society glorified democracy as reason for its progress of civilization and economy. Democracy and human rights in America helped many people to restore their creativity and hard working for their own benefit as well as the American society. Therefore, democracy became the religion of leaders of America that they preach all over the world. However, the American experience with the Middle East changed their point of view concerning exporting American democracy abroad.

In 1862,Victor Hugo wrote his novel "the miserable", which represents the French society after the ouster of Nabolion when corruption and injustice spread. One of the characters mentioned in the novel is Jan Valgan who was sent to jail for stealing a loaf of bread to eat. Valgan was sentenced to five years in prison, which was extended to 19 for Several attempts to escape.

The parliamentary elections at hand, but how can we prevent the Islamists from dominating this parliament? How can we prevent those who have no royalty to Egypt or respect to its flag and national anthem? They indeed fooled us once. Yet the idiom says: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. The history of the Muslim Brotherhood since its very beginning in 1928 is full of violence and blood, and so does many other Islamic groups.

Coptic identity has been annoying the authorities in Egypt. Therefore, since the Islamic invasion to Egypt, it tried hard to completely eliminate the Coptic language, culture, history and religion if possible. On the other hand, the Copts resorted to a defensive mechanism for peaceful co-existence by using common names for their children and words that they can live in peace without being persecuted by the Muslim majority.

In the past few days, I experienced two different situations concerning relationship between America and Egypt. First, an Egyptian writer visited America asking the Coptic Diaspora in America and Europe to make some pressure on their governments to help the Egyptian economy. Later, another Egyptian writer wrote an article to complain about American insult to Egypt, describing it as impudent insult.

The presidential election is over and al-Sisi has become the new president. However, I believe he will face great challenges and there is not time to waste. All people have to work and work in order to salvage the bad situation. The “To do” list is huge and includes: economy, security, food, education, health, housing, transportation, and etc. On top of that we will find the religious discourse. Egyptian people are religious by nature and always turn to God asking for help in such difficult circumstances. Yet some people trade on religion and deceive the needy Egyptian people making use of their needs.

Since the revolution of January 25, 2011, the Egyptian people have been suffering from confusion between the reality and their high expectations. We are suffering from a state of blurriness that we can't see the difference between available and impossible expectations. Such gap should last for long time as long as we don't have an effective mechanism to turn our dreams into reality.

The Muslim Brotherhood has offered recently to reconcile with the Egyptian people. Once again it tries to fool decive the people after it failed many times to achieve such reconciliation. Do you know why? Simply because this group consists of a punch of killers who should be arrested and stand trial for their many crimes.

On January 14 and 15, 2014, the Egyptian people came out to cast their votes on Egypt 's new constitution, which is the first step of the road map. 19.9 million Egyptians voted yes (98.1 % ). This was an unprecedented results in an unprecedented elections. Many people saw senior citizens as well as people with special needs coming to vote “yes” for this pretty much consensual constitution.

Just like every year, the congregation of the Saints Church in Alexandria went to attend the church at the last day of 2010 in order to receive the new year while praying inside the house of God hoping for a good year. As they were praying minutes after midnight, a massive explosion was heard that shook the building and shattered pieces of glass on their heads. People started to scream, and the bloods were everywhere. Suddenly, the priest said calmly: “Don’t feel afraid”. I believe this was the shortest and greatest sermon delivered by him ever. This is the most important message they needed to hear at that moment.

The second Article of the Egyptian constitution cites that Islam is the religion of the state, Arabic is the official language, and the principles of Islamic Sharia law are the main source of legislation. This article has always been a controversial one since its very beginning. However, it was used to make some balance or deals with the Islamists, and at the same time declare that it won’t make a difference to non-Muslims.

Talking about the next president of Egypt, I said once that the Egyptian people can’t yet feel safe or practice democracy. Thus, they need a trusted leader and not just a president. They are new to democracy like a weak little boy who needs protection and love till he becomes a man.