HH Pope Shenouda 3rd has not died. He has merely lied down. He has lied down in the hope of the resurrection. He closed his eyes for the last time and his soul took off to heaven on the happiest and most beautiful journey he has ever taken after the many recent journeys for medical treatment and after the patriarchal visits he has made to the diaspora. HH Pope Shenouda 3rd

A lot of people use the term “State of MB General Guide” in their writings and conversations, either to make jokes about the religious state that Islamists dream of, or to warn people about that state. Others use this expression to indicate the principle of blind obedience, which every member of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is adhered to.

We, Orthodox Christians and many other denominations, have a strong belief that the church is leaded and sponsored by the Lord himself. As it is the body of Him, and the Patriarch is the head of priesthood service not the head of priesthood.

Resuming my weekly articles about Copts = Egyptians As we are in the process of building our new constitution and as a fact I say: I like to point out a simple fact that is Egyptians are not just Christians or Muslims there are : Jews Christians – Orthodox Christians – Catholics Christians – Protestants or Evangelic and many more Muslims – Souna Muslims –Shia Muslims – and many more Muslims Bahai that Muslims in general do not acknowledge as Muslims Atheists and who used to be classified as communists in the Nasser era Any other one who is Egyptian but not any of the above categories or classes and can not be counted within them.

It was written in "History of the Wahhabis" by the Ottoman naval commander Ayoub Sabri: Saud bin Abdul Aziz sent his conditions to the people of Medina upon surrounding their city in the early eighteenth century, saying: Article I: worshipping God should be according to the provisions and beliefs of the Wahhabi religion. Article IV: Wahhabi religion and its provisions should be embraced instead of the religion of your forefathers which should be abandoned.

I understand very well why some people are thinking about the division of Egypt, though I don’t agree with them. After many terroristic attacks on Copts which have increased alarmingly during the previous decades, Many Copts have lost their hope in coexistence with Muslims in Egypt. They now believe that the only solution is separation. But, is it really the solution for the Coptic problem in Egypt?

I do have to interrupt my series of Proudly I am A Copt; as an unexpected event took place last week Pope Shenouda III died; He fought illness more than once, in the States and Germany and last time I saw his weekly teaching was so week and he had to interrupt his broadcast… I felt it was serious and very strong feelings I see him for the last time. Actually it was he apologized from the next session and before the following become due he was not with us any more!

Saturday, March 17th, at 5.00 PM, the Pope Shenouda III died. A great march of love for his great personality and his national role has started: massive crowds heading at St. Mark cathedral in Abbasia to pay the last respect for him, as well as the media talking about him for hours, mourning for his death and meditating his life.

We waited long for “the train” of the People's Assembly and Shura Council to take us forward where prosperity is achieved, the law is respected, freedom of speech, non-discrimination, economic progress and equality of women and men. We waited for it to take us forward, but we found it stops for little paper work, and an MP forgot where he is and stood up calling for prayers! After that, the train has moved quickly... backwards! What is happening and where are we going?

Pope Shenouda III has departed and his soul has rested in heaven. Egypt is mourning for her great son. A widow grieving for her wise man, the Church turned out to be. Orphans have become the Copts, for their father and leader has departed. For forty years and during a very hard time of the recent history, he was the patriarch, but he bound up the bruises and comforted his children, making his church flourish all over the world; neither to glorify himself nor to make himself famous, but as he said, to obey God’s will and make His name always glorified by his children all over the world; east and west. He was a great teacher with great knowledge who taught many all over the world. He was responsible with vivid consciousness that no ruler could break his spirit, or sickness was to put him to bed, or to prevent him from sacrificing himself wisely with patience to strengthen the faith and spread courage and confidence. He was always looking for the everlasting kingdom within his people doing and saying.

Now having understood what the word Copt means we can understand that Copts United means Egyptians United does not by any mean means Christian Egyptians so the call it to unify the power of Egyptians regardless of religion or colours only ETHNIC EGYPTIANS which are called Copts. And if you recall on January 25 they were UNITED and forced a 30 years old Tiran out of his sit! Unity means force, do you recall the famous story of that old father of 3 sons who was about to die and gave his last lesson to his sons giving a peace of wood asking his younger son to break it that he easily did he then then he gave him 2 pieces and three until being the youngest and weakest could not break it so he asked him on his failure to pass it on to the elder son and kept adding pieces until the second and stronger than the youngest son could not break it so he finally asked him to pass on this pack of woods to his elder and strongest son and he almost succeeded to break it but soon he too was unable to break the pack as it got thicker and thicker then the father gave him sons his last lesson …. When you are not united you are like these broken woods easily broken up, you and you brothers are a family you need to be united like this pack of wood very hard to be broken in the unity there is always extreme force!!

I do not know why the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) insists on washing their hands of recently releasing the Americans accused in the foreign funding crisis, after American government announced their role and thanked both the MB and the ruling military council of Egypt! At the same time many people are still insisting on making of their MB leaders or other Islamic movements, references in religion, as if they know more than other Muslims about Islam and faith! Truth should be valued, whether in religion or politics. I know politics are subject to adjustments and it is based on deception, while religions are holy and should take their supreme position.

Everybody is playing tug of war on the Constitution. Signs of selfishness appeared when they talked about choosing the committee that will draft the Constitution; religious parties are demanding that it should be from the People’s Assembly and Shoura Council members (as Islamists represent the majority of it), women want to represent 50 % of it, Copts want 15%, and so do other minorities, unions, and etc.

"No to the second article of Constitution”: You might think such call is a kind of hallucination, but I tell you: It can turn into reality! It’s like a blank cartridge that has no effect but the noise, you tell. I whisper: but it can scare the heck out of many! We even reject such dream, and dreams are forgotten by time... We want to have it as a hope that we can work to achieve. I know church has accepted it with some modifications, but we, the Christians of Egypt, reject such idea completely and refuse its existence in the new constitution. It’s not our problem whether the committee of drafting the constitution will take our opinion into consideration or not... We should declare our freedom of speech, as we want a country of real citizenship, not a fake one! Let’s make our history tell we had rejected such article. Let’s write our rejection also in the Egyptian history, not only in the Coptic one.

It nauseated me to read this morning in the newspapers a story about one of the Islamic candidates for the presidency, which upon asking him about his platform and why should people vote for him, he answered saying that he had asked scientists and sheiks for setting a schedule for applying the Islamic law!

Few days back I watched a stormy discussion on TV about Copt United call for a political party under that name, and lots of opinions and words that hit my brains and after I had decided to write my next article about the passivity of lots of Egyptians in Egypt decided to dedicate this article to Copts and as I am a Copt and proud to be one I need to clarify point I think lots of people are confused in it for no apparent reason but the luck of Education and culture, if we all get educated and learn how to read and write, principals of physics, chemistry, mathematics, poetry and all what we learn in schools however culture is not within this and sophistication we earn it in every day life if we are willing to learn.

I'm Not a Politician Never Believed in them Since my early youth I learnt one thing NO Politician can be trusted... My life was scattered between Egypt, my beloved country Greece my mother's country, France, Antigua -a small small Island nowhere in the Atlas but exists- the States and finally UK. In each and every country I saw elections, parliamentarians, presidents, governors you name it...with all and each elections new hope was there old fighters defended their sits by all means, newcomers won, policies changed new faces, new promises....

No creature has suffered from discrimination since the beginning like woman, since she was created from the ribs of Adam, according to what’s mentioned in the religious books, and till now, the Egyptian woman is very neglected. Having many children, especially males, is more important than who she is! When she is famous, she is mainly a bitch or a slut. Thus, woman became a symbol for discrimination!

Topics like “the future of Egypt as a state” may seem weird to Copts. Many people think that the future of Egypt under the rule of the Islamists is in danger, especially the status of Copts under this political current. However, it seems to me and to others who care for Egypt, that the problem of Egypt is not brand new, and that the rule of the Islamists will not be worse than Mubarak's. The issue is no longer related to persons, but to deep regulations and systems that cannot be changed by changing individuals or

When youth protests started in January 25th, 2011, it was aiming at improving the conditions of the Egyptians with its slogan Bread... Freedom Social Justice Human Dignity. Soon, the protestors discovered that it was impossible to achieve such demands in the presence of the former corrupted regime. So, they demanded the change of the system and the main slogan became "Everyone wants to overthrow the regime. Sit-ins succeeded in overthrowing President Mubarak in February 11th, 2012, passing the authority to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which wasn’t better than its predecessor, and then voices started calling for the Supreme Council to hand the power over. With the slogan, "Down ... Down... Military rule"

After the elections of the People's Assembly and Shura Council, come the election of a new president and the selection of the founding committee for the Constitution, then the referendum, followed by accepting the Constitution. Yet, I cant discuss the Constitution in this article: Mainly because its not the choice of us, the weak minority, and whether it has happened intentional by "Elbeshry" and his Committee or stupidly and ignorantly, there is nothing left to do. What we have now is the election of the president and setting the constitution. But before we discuss what Copts are going to do, we should think about all what happened to Copts to set it clear before everyone that these events is planned carefully, especially before electing the president and writing the Constitution. So, What happens to the Copts?