In April 2013, the Cathedral of St. Mark in Abbasiya was attacked and 3 Copts were killed and 84 were injured. The perpetrators were likely searching for weapons in the church or Coptic women who have converted into Islam and are still trapped in the church according to many stories spread by fanatics. They were likely searching for a reason to justify their attacks on Christian houses and churches. Ever since, the fascist regime was collapsing and this attack was a step towards overthrowing the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood. During the transitional period from July 2013 to June 2014, Copts were subject to many sectarian attacks as a price to pay by the Copts for supporting President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, and they are still supporting him.

Peace is more important than food for the world and our lives since the bible says: Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife. (Proverbs 17:1) Pope Tawadros in his sermon about peace said that sin makes us lose our peace, and this first happened to Adam and Eve. In the Old Testament, Cain killed Abel and lost his peace. This is the way the world loses peace ever since. Therefore, we have to seek peace in our hearts first and then our homes, churches and community.

Many Egyptian when you ask them how you feel in general about your life in Egypt? most properly his or her answer will not be positive. I cant blame any Egyptian especially the poor and the middle class about any negative answer they will say. Having said that, you will find most of the poor people especially from Upper Egypt, very satisfied and say always thank be to God. I can feel both sides.

The blood of the innocent martyrs of the Egyptian armed forces is so precious, but it is shed in Sinai by the terrorists. The soldiers are willing to sacrifice their souls for their country, but there is a big evil plan targeting them in North Sinai. They face armed militants supported by intelligence of foreign countries and organizations that have taken Sinai as the scene of their battles. The brutal terrorist attack on July 7th, 2017, that targeted our soldiers in North Sinai led to the death and injury of dozens of our brave men. There were about 150 terrorists who used guns and anti-aircraft missiles and explosives. They wore clothes similar to the Egyptian army. I wonder: how did they get all the equipments and how did they cross the border with Gaza? Where did they go after the attack?

The New York Times published information on a secret meeting in June 2016 between Junior Donald Trump, and a Russian lawyer who have strong ties to the Kremlin At the beginning he said the meeting was to discuss adoption of poor orphans, but the New York Times said the meeting was about information that hurt Hillary Clinton in the presidential campaign. Soon, Junior Trump said it was really about Hillary which is justified. The meeting was not useful, he added. Moreover, he published emails between him and the Russian lawyer trying to show his good intentions.

The electronics have invaded our lives and threatened our privacy. Seeking unlimited information, we became addicted to technology and fell like Adam and Eve who lost paradise seeking similar false knowledge away from God. We all lose time before modern technology seeking both information and entertainment. Many dangerous games are among our hands to provoke instincts and violence, and make our minds captive to their logic. Moreover, many people fall in sin thanks to social networks. This addiction has become a case of fall and captivity for thought and heart. Therefore, we lose our motivation to do good and show love to other people. Talking with millions of people on Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and Whatsapp should be accompanied by love. This love that we should receive from God first, but we have no more time to do so just like we don t have time to pray or minister.

Lately the church announced to cancel all trips and visits to monasteries due to security reason as mention in the brief statement released by the church lately. What clear is for me that Copts pay the price of their belief in the peaceful time and in the time that the country suffers from political tension.

On June 12th, the Copts celebrated the feast of the holy apostles. This feast commemorates the martyrdom of St. Paul and St. Peter. It is a liturgical feast in honor of their martyrdom in Rome at the end of the first century. Ever since the Christians have been suffering and murdered in the name of Jesus Christ and the Coptic Christians have been no exception. For 20 centuries, the Copts have suffering from intermittent waves of persecution by the Roman and Muslim rulers. Moreover, they were recently called (the primary target and favorite prey) by ISIS. This explains several terrorist attacks against the Copts most of which ISIS has claimed responsibility of. The group also called on its supporters to continue targeting the Copts.

It was very painful to hear about the 17 years old Algerian student Fatima Gholam who was killed in car accident in her way to participate in the reading competition organized by UAE. The poor girl had spent 18 hours in her way to the Algerian capital but she died before she achieves her goal. Fatima Gholam will be the name called on 10 libraries in the UAE to remember the girl that can be called martyr of the books. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid, governor of Dubai, expressed his great sorrow for such loss. However, I salute the UAE and its government for giving great concern to reading and culture, not only through competition, but rather by honoring its martyrs.

The terrorist groups backed by the intelligence of Arab, regional and international countries are fighting a war to make Egypt fail by military confrontations with the armed forces, especially in North Sinai, successive assassinations of soldiers and police officers, systematic targeting of Egyptian Christian citizens. Not to mention the attempts to create chaos and incite sedition through the fifth column of militants and the remnants of the Muslim Brotherhood. The question is whether terrorism targets the Copts mainly for their national positions concerning June 30 revolution or for their religious identity. I don t believe there is much of separation between nationality and faith. The Egyptian churches were named Coptic before they carried the name of its denomination. However, the successive terrorist attacks against Copts revealed they are targeted for their faith. Governor of Minya said the terrorists tried to make the Copts declare they believe in Islam before they were shot dead after they refused to convert into Islam. Copts between national and church deprivation, this was the title of a research published 25 years ago. It tells how Egyptian Copts struggled for the homeland, but got no rights in return. This happened through all political revolutions in Egypt starting with 1804 to the revolution of June 30, 2013.

Hamas claims that its members love and appreciate the suit of the Egyptian army. Therefore, they wear it and keep it in their lockers. this should have nothing to do with the murders of our soldiers and officers who are killed in Sinai every now and then. Yes, they offered us their condolonces that we didn t accept as we don t believe their intentions even if claimed to be good. Their terrorism activities can t be denied in Egypt after several terrorist attacks against the Copts since the overthrown of the Muslim Brotherhood supported by Qatar.

After the government raised recently the prices of the gas and the electricity, the only thing everyone ask who should take care of the poor people in Egypt? Everyone understand that Egypt face a tremendous Economic problems but at the same time there are many direction the political regime take to improve the poor people life not to increase the burden and increase the poverty of Egyptian. We can see president Sisi impose only one policy to improve the Egyptian economic which is lifting the subsidies on everything which could be a step from many to improve the economy.

Gas prices went up this week in Egypt along with the temperature, and led the suffering of the citizens to increase as well. The new raise in gas prices led all prices to increase and the Egyptians just accepted this and continued their lives. I was surprised to hear a poor Egyptian citizen praising the recent decisions considering them helpful to the poor. I dont understand how raising the prices of everything including electricity bills and imposing new taxes may help the poor. Moreover, I dont understand how can the poor think this positive way and ignore their suffering!

The Egyptian elite and some misguided TV presenters along with some of Egyptian youth became mad at the government after the recent economic reform measures on the eve of the fourth anniversary of what I believe the greatest revolution in history. They forgot that this revolution brought President Sisi to take over the responsibility and confront the conspiracy and destruction against our country. He started by working on several security issues and developed the Egyptian armed forces. Now, after Egypt succeeded in solving many security problems, it started to work on fixing the economy that has been destroyed since 1952 when the government with poor resources provided free services and material in addition to subsidies for food and fuel.

The Church is not a political institution, and will never be. It is the kingdom of God and its righteousness and salvation in peoples. It works to start the Kingdom of heaven on earth. God is its ruler and owner, which is more important than any Caesar on earth. Yet, may God be obeyed above all men and let him be honest and every man a liar. As we are celibate citizens invited to live according to the Gospel of Christ, we share the concerns of this world and work for its peace and progress without isolation. We shouldn’t be enslaved to the world, but we give what is Caesar’s to Caesar; and what is God’s is God. Christ invited us to be patriot for our homeland since it doesn’t contradict with our faith. Therefore, the mission of the church through history has been to declare the truth, but such declaration can’t be declared without involvement of Christians in their community. Christianity has not formed a state yet, since Christ’s kingdom is not from this world. However, he ordered Christians to be honest, righteous, and do good to all. It is a message of goodness to all those who love His appearance.

While we are close to June 30th, we still have the same argument about this date and if it was revolution or military coup and because I don’t want to go further in this argument I want to focus in more deep thoughts related to both terms. For those who consider it as revolution, I want to ask them many question, are we better than before? Is our economic, social and political life is better than before, Did Egyptian get what they demonstrate against?, did we achieve any progress during 3 years from June 30th until now?

For years, prices in Egypt are going up and never stop increasing. This is indeed very hard if you think about it. But the real problem is that about 30 percent of Egypt’s population lives below the poverty line and the increasing prices make them suffer more and more. Yesterday, the government announced that there is no intention to raise the prices of gasoline, diesel and butane gas. Yet, today the Council of Ministers of Egypt approved petrol new price list imposed on gasoline, diesel and butane gas.

God has never said that faith will be easy, but he has mentioned the difficult conditions and expensive costs to follow him. He also invited us to calculate the maintenance. To be both believer and patriot, this has its impact on the relation between the Coptic church and nation. At the events of Omrania in 2010, the Cairo police assaulted peaceful protesters who were seeking to protect a church under construction, and killed two of the protesters. Demonstrations erupted in front of the administrative building and 154 Coptic Christian citizens were arrested. At that moment, the Coptic youth went out of the churches for the first time in modern history. After the church of the saints were bombed in 2011, demonstrations erupted against Mubarak and his government. On January 25, the first Coptic man who was injured was called Mina Nagy and the first Coptic martyrs in January 28th, Mina Daniel, even before the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood joined the revolution against Mubarak’s regime.