At the world is celebrating the International Day of Happiness, I decided to write about happiness in the world. Happiness as we know is positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Religions apparently aim to achieve happiness in a way or another and this appears in Nirvana of Buddhism. In Advaita Vedanta of Hinduism, the ultimate goal of life is happiness. Serving God in Judaism is a way of happiness or simcha‎ "worship The Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs," (Psalm 100:2).

Rumors have spread on the social media that a number of bishops are moving against Pope Tawadros aiming to oust him. They explained that a number of bishops and clergy are secretly collecting signatures for that purpose. The murder of Bishop Epiphanius and sentencing 2 monks to death penalty was a strong debate and motivation to such campaign as well as claims that Pope Tawadros II was not elected fairly.

Ali Basha village in Minya is expected to be a witness on great tolerance or massive sectarian strife! Sectarian clashes are expected this time after a Muslim man and his wife who converted into Islam decided to return to the village and dwell in the house next to her family. 7 Coptic families in the village left their homes fearing potential attacks of the extremists, after her conversion was celebrated and praised by the extremists who enjoy taking pride in such conversion and insulted her family and their faith. Today, her father sent a letter to president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi asking him to prevent the return of his daughter, which is expected to ignite serious clashes. It is known that the situation in Upper Egypt and especially in Minya is not that good since we hear every now and then about some clashes between Muslims and Christians. Minya is a place where Coptic homes are attacked over rumors of romantic relationship between a Coptic man and a Muslim woman. Extremists break into houses and destroy them over rumors about turning it into churches. It also witnessed the very first demonstration refusing to appoint a Coptic governor. Now, we can’t expect the people to have such unprecedented tolerance and accept having their daughter staying in the home of a Muslim man agains their will, and reply with a smile on those who try to provoke them and mock them for such sensitive case which is taken as honor issue in that community.

As Egypt bid farewell to 3 martyrs of al-Darb al-Ahmar terrorist attack, 9 terrorists were getting ready to receive death penalty over assassination of Egypt s former public prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, who was assassinated when a car bomb struck his vehicle in 2015. Responding to the news about the execution of the nine men convicted of the attack, several online media campaigns were launched and complained that the trial was unfair. The nine were among 28 men sentenced to death for the killing of the former public prosecutor. Several of the men said they were forcibly disappeared and tortured in order to confess to the killing. Many people started to accuse the government of killing innocent people at the time pro government supporters see it as fair trial and that the terrorists deserved it.

As the whole world is celebrating Valentines Day, I would like to talk today about offering love before gifts. I am talking here about the mature love that is expressed by giving. Yes, one should express his love by giving from his time, efforts, money and etc. This concept extends to love our children, homeland, church, family, friends and spouses. Thus, lets think today about the love that we can offer to those whom we do care about. It is not just about giving more; it is about what we give and how we present it. The gift is valuable no matter how much it costs as long as it is offered with love. A child wanted to give his dad a present at Valentine’s Day, so he offered him the last piece of chocolate that he had and indeed this was very valuable gift since it was wrapped with true love. Lets think about giving more love to those whom we care about. Lets give them a touch of caring, respect and appreciation. Enjoy a happy Valentines Day my dear friends!

A friend of mine suddenly decided to move to Rwanda and invest his savings in that African country assuring it is a great investment opportunity. It was an interesting turn in his life that made me curious to learn more about this country. Rwanda is one of the smallest countries on the African mainland and has suffered from civil war and genocide in which around 1 million people were killed. However, Rwanda has changed dramatically and witnessed great development. Moreover, its economy and health services has witnessed great improvement. Paul Kagame is a Rwandan politician and former military leader. He is currently the President of Rwanda, having taken office in 2000 when his predecessor, Pasteur Bizimungu, resigned. Kagame previously commanded the rebel force that ended the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He was considered Rwanda s de facto leader when he served as Vice President and Minister of Defence from 1994 to 2000. He was re-elected in August 2017 with an official result of nearly 99% in an election criticized for numerous irregularities.He has been described as the "most impressive" and "among the most repressive" African leaders. Kagame has been president of Rwanda for 19 years and though he has made many achievements in several fields, democracy remains not one of them. This may show that there is a big difference between development and democracy.

For the first time, the Egyptian government come out to comment on church attack by fanatics. This time, the government denied the existence of 3 churches that were claimed to be closed by the Copts. I was surprised to know that the three churches were not included on lists of legalization, which raises even more questions about why they were not included!

Egypt was expected recently to be ranked 7th among the world s top 10 economies by 2030. The report, published by Bloomberg, predicted that the Egyptian economy, in terms of its expected size of about $8.2 trillion, would be ahead of Russia, Japan, and Germany. At the same time, the World Bank predicted a growth rate of 1.9 percent in the Middle East and North Africa region, stressing that Egypt is one of the most important countries in the region, which will witness a growth rate in 2019 of 5.6 percent, driven by the economic reforms, increased investment and high private consumption rates.

Today, six people were killed in railway accident in Denmark, and France has been facing violent demonstrations for weeks. We don t consider such news in Egypt and may think we are the only country that faces similar incidents and accidents. But clearly we are not! I believe all countries have their own problems and challenges. Yet, our biggest strength point has become our week point; I mean our core belief in religion.

As the Christmas celebrations approach, many fanatics used to raise questions in Egypt about the possibility of congratulating the infidels on their feasts. The answers varies between yes and no, and some people follow this approach or the other. However, as Egypt is supposed to move forward towards a civil state, some policemen decided to prove fanaticism and hatred is deeply rooted in their system and souls. Therefore, we found policeman wishes a Coptic woman a terrorist attack on her church in order to gloat over their grief! Later, a policeman used his weapon to kill a Coptic father and his son after they had disagreement the day before. It is worth mentioning that this is the very first time in which a policeman assigned to secure a church in Egypt uses his weapon. Yet, it was to kill Copts and not to protect them! The good thing is that the two policemen are currently being investigated on what they did or said. However, they should be punished along with all who decide to express their hatred and say Merry Christmas on their ugly own way.

The scenes on Television from France reminded me of the Egyptian scenario in 2011. However, there may be another factor in common other than violence and burning of police cars. This factor is the existence of the Muslim Brotherhood members. For many years, France has opened it s arms for members of the Muslim Brotherhood though Egypt has declared it a terrorist organization. Does the Muslim Brotherhood organization has something to do with the Yellow Vests protests and how would the government respond to it in that case?

I was glad to hear news about the ordination of a new Coptic priest for the ministry in Hong Kong, which proves the church is extending and reaching new places around the world. However, everywhere we travel around the world we can find Coptic churches, but its services are almost limited to the Coptic congregation. I believe this is about to change with the new churches and priests all over the world. The Coptic Church is a very old one and has many unique characteristics, but evangelism is not clearly one of them. This started many years ago with the persecution of the church and due to several political reasons. Yet, we should always remember the words of Jesus Christ to his disciples saying: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mathew 28: 19)

In his weekly sermon, Pope Tawadros II described the Coptic Church as the mother of martyrs since it has already offered many of them throughout history including the very recent ones at St. Samuel monastery where terrorist shot at least 7 people dead and wounded 20. Pope said that that unity of the Egyptians is the most precious element they have and such terrorist attacks shouldn t change that. The interior minister visited Pope Tawadros after the attack to offer his condolences for the victims of the terrorist attack at St. Samuel monastery, which is the second in two years at the same area and using the same technique! Such visit was followed by similar ones including the Prime Minister and head of the Egyptian Parliament.

As Abba Antonius, Metropolitan of Jerusalem called the whole world to support the Coptic Church in claiming its right in the Coptic monastery of Deir El-Sultan in Jerusalem, many people responded by demonstrating and publishing. However, if we blame the Israeli occupation for seizing the rights of the Copts for political reasons and for attacking peaceful monks, we should also remember our Ethiopian brothers who were received as guests and were turned into occupiers over time. The Ethiopian Church was administratively part of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria from the first half of the 4th century until 1959, when it was granted its own patriarch by Cyril VI, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, but now its monks are seizing a Coptic monastery and refusing to return it back!

Forces of Israeli occupation didn t hesitate to attack a number of peaceful monks at the Coptic monastery of Deir El-Sultan in Jerusalem and arrested one of them before he was released later. The members of the Deir El-Sultan clergy had been peacefully sitting-in to protest an Israeli move to forcibly seize the monastery which is located within the walls of the Old City of East Jerusalem.. The importance of the Monastery of the Sultan to the Copts is that it is their direct route from the Monastery of St. Anthony to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This monastery is the seat of the Egyptian Patriarchate and the Coptic Church in Jerusalem. The occupation forces took over the monastery without right and gave it to the Ethiopian Church on 25 April 1970. Ever since, the Egyptian Church has been doing its best to recover it. Ownership of the monastery has been always to the Coptic orthodox church that had all the documents to prove so, and had a decision of the high Israeli court which said that the monastery known by the locals as Deir al sultan must back to the hand of the Coptic church the soley owner of it.

This week, the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi returned home following an official visit to Russia during which he held talks with his Russian counterpart Valdimir Putin on several regional issues and signed a comprehensive partnership agreement between the two countries. They announced their determination to boost bilateral cooperation in the economic, industrial, investment, educational and cultural fields with the aim of elevating bilateral relations to new heights. During his visit, president al-Sisi stressed the importance of finding ways of boosting bilateral economic ties. This appeared in his meetings with the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and in his speech before Russia s Federation Council.

For years, killers and persecutors of the Copts used to receive no punishment for their crimes. They were called unknown or insane before they are acquitted and this had greatly encouraged other extremists and criminals to repeat attacking them. Yesterday, seventeen people have been sentenced to death by an Egyptian military court over their involvement in bomb attacks on Coptic Christian churches.

Coptic social media was grieving over the death of a young Coptic anchor Noha Adly who was killed by Cancer. The lady was quite polite and prominent in Aghapy channel and was known as the daughter of Pope Shenouda III. Other news about the death of a monk from St. Makkar monastery called Father Zinon al-Maqari was suspicious and initial investigations said he might have committed suicide to be named by media the second monk from the same monastery to commit suicide in one month. The incident brought the woes of one of the world s oldest churches back under the spotlight couple of weeks after head of his monastery was killed.

As many people denounced the call of Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of St. Mark See, to Copts in America to welcome president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and support him during his upcoming visit to the states, an Egyptian newspaper published a letter by the late Pope Shenouda III, in which he calls Copts in America to welcome present Hosni Mubarak in the states in 1985. such call could be considered a national call with a political touch. Therefore, many people may don t like such political role for the Coptic church. Yet, it should be understood in its context and its goal should be supporting Egypt abroad.

Once again, the Egyptians celebrated two feasts at the same day. One feast for the Muslims and the other for the Christians. Adha feast coincided this year with the feast of The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Copts and Muslims in Egypt may have several differences in belief, but every now and then feasts come together to assure the unity of the people. Not only the feasts unite the Egyptians, but also problems and even calamites that they suffer from without differentiation based on religion. I wish all Egyptians realize that religion is a relationship with God, while the homeland is a relationship with other Egyptians.

As the Coptic Church was working on a heavy spiritual schedule during the fast of the St. Mary, it received news that made their hearts heavy as well. News about a murderer monk was assured and fears of the Coptic congregation that murderer of the bishop will be found among the monks of St. Makar monastery became a reality. The crime came at a very critical time, which is one of the most reverend fasts in the Coptic Church; the fast of St. Mary. At the same time, a dispute comes about a group called protectors of the faith led by Abba Aghathon, Bishop of Maghagha, that don t like decisions of the Pope especially related to unity between Catholic and Orthodox churches. I think Pope Tawadros II is getting one of his hardest times and we should pray that God may support him in that time to be given heavenly wisdom and grace.