(AINA) -- A Coptic Christian woman in Egypt named Camelia Shehata has unwittingly become the focal point in the clash of Islam with Christianity. The Al-Qaeda group operating in Iraq, which calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), stormed Our Lady of Deliverance Assyrian Catholic church in Baghdad on Sunday, October 31, and killed 58 Christians before being killed and blowing themselves up. In the phone call they made to Iraqi authorities ISI members demanded the release of Camelia Shehata, among others, whom they believe has converted to Islam but is being held against her will in a monastery by the Coptic church of Egypt.

(AINA) -- The attack by Islamic terrorists on the congregation of the Assyrian Our Lady of Deliverance Catholic church in central Baghdad, on October 31, resulted in killing of 52 catholic Assyrians, including two priests, 5 policemen, and wounding 75. 5 terrorists died either by detonating their explosive belts or being killed by the Iraqi security. The Martyrs Brigade of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), a Sunni militant umbrella group affiliated with al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack.

(AINA) -- The majority of Coptic Christians and liberal Muslims in Egypt believe that Fundamentalist sheikhs and their mass media have played a vital role in the latest wave of incitement against the Coptic Church, orchestrated by Egyptian State Security.

(AINA) -- The recent mounting attack by Muslim fundamentalists on the Coptic Church and its head Pope Shenouda III, accusing him of causing sectarian tensions and calling for his "disposal", is seen by some as a sign that matters "got out of hand" and that Egypt is heading towards a catastrophe, while others see the "steady hand of the State Security agents" directing all players like marionettes in a play written and directed by them, to target the Christian minority and achieve political gains for the Regime at the same time.

(AINA) -- Coptic Solidarity, a worldwide Coptic Human Rights Organization, issued a statement on October 14, warning that the alarming upsurge of significant anti-Coptic activities over the recent weeks could eventually "degenerate into wholesale violence against the Copts and their spiritual leaders" in the upcoming volatile period of political changes in Egypt.

(AINA) -- Bishop Bishoy, secretary of the Coptic Church's Holy Synod and the second highest authority in the church, caused a Muslim furor last week when the media published excerpts from a lecture he was due to give later to the clergy during the "Coptic Faith" Seminar held in Fayoum, south of Cairo on September 23.

(AINA) -- A new wave of defamation by Islamists against Coptic Pope Shenouda III and the Coptic Church is seen by many observers as a serious provocation to sectarian violence against the Copts, and the possibility of Egypt being dragged into civil war.

(AINA) -- Since the Christmas Eve Massacre on January 6,2010, when six Copts were killed and nine seriously injured by Muslims in a drive-by shooting outside a church in Nag Hammadi (AINA 1-7-2010), the Coptic Patriarchate in Cairo has become a Mecca for oppressed Copts from all over Egypt.

(AINA) -- On the occasion of Egyptian President Mubarak's visit to Washington this week to attend the Mideast talks, Coptic Christians in the US and Canada staged a peaceful rally on September 2nd outside the White House to protest the persecution of Copts in Egypt. The Motto of the rally was "President Mubarak Make Peace in Your Country First."

(AINA) -- Egyptians, Muslims and Christians alike, are closely watching the controversy associated with the Ground Zero Mosque project, though for different reasons. The Egyptian media is giving this issue full coverage with articles mostly accusing Americans of Islamophobia, and supporting Muslims to hold on to their rights to build a mosque anywhere as guaranteed by the US constitution, regardless of what Americans think.

On August 13 Sheikh Tobah, Imam of the village of Shimi 170 KM south of Giza, called during Muslim Friday prayers for Jihad against Christians living there. As a result the Christian Copts living in the village were assaulted over two consecutive days. Eleven Copts were hospitalized and many Coptic youths were arrested.

(AINA) -- The unexplained disappearance of a Coptic priest's wife in Upper Egypt has led today a sit-in staged by thousands of Copts at the Coptic Patriarchate in Cairo, to protest what they consider "collusion by the state security services." There are rumors that Islamists have abducted her. They promised to continue with their sit-in until the state security divulges her whereabouts.

The role played by Muslim women in the abduction and forced Islamization of Christian females in Egypt is on the rise, with continuously changing methods of deception. Victims are mostly minor Christian girls, however, one of the most recent abductions was a Coptic Christian family.

The high profile criminal trial of Christian Copt poultry vendor Girgis Baroumi, accused of allegedly having sexually assaulted a Muslim minor, has reconvened on July 12, 2010, under a new judicial body and another district criminal court in Qena. The defendant's legal team had applied in April 2010, to change the previous court due to being prevented from meeting with their client, attending closed sessions or cross-examining witnesses.

The latest in a string of failed attempts by Muslim fanatics on the life of Egyptian Muslim-born Maher el-Gowhary who publicly converted to Christianity in 2008, took place on Sunday July 5, 2010. As 57-year-old Maher left his secret lodging, somewhere in metropolitan Cairo with his lawyer, two unknown men on a motorbike, attacked him with daggers. "They were aiming at my neck to behead me," said Maher in an interview with the newly launched US-based Hope Coptic TV Channel. "Something inspired me to turn and give them my shoulder, instead of facing them, which was lucky."

After Failed Attempt of Forced Islamization Egyptian Christian Family Under Siege One of the most explosive issues in the relations between Christians and Muslims of Egypt is the abduction of Christian Coptic minor girls, to force them to embraced Islam, after humiliating and demeaning them psychologically and morally.

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.

(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."

(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.

(AINA) -- In Egypt an often used defense by Muslims accused of killing Christians is insanity. According to said Coptic activist Maged Bishay, "Islamist investigators, judges and psychiatrists are only too willing to go with this pretext, to allow their fellow Muslims to 'get away with murder' based on the Islamic law 'Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one.'"

(AINA) -- Nearly 2000 Christian Copts staged a sit-in on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 inside the grounds of St. Marks Cathedral in Cairo during the weekly lecture of his HH Pope Shenouda III, protesting against what they termed as the procrastination of the judiciary in the Nag Hammadi Christmas Eve Massacre case, and their fear that it will have the same fate as the previous cases where in the end the Muslim killers were acquitted.