In hard times, it is very hard to find peace or to be thankful. This is true when it comes to medical or financial hardships. However, the bible tells us to be thankful in all circumstances. This is a wonderful way to enjoy life, even in the time of tribulation. It is indeed a matter of faith to seek peace in such hard time. St. Paul invites us in Colossians 3:15-17: And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I was in Alexandria at the time of the terrorist bombings that targeted the Church of St. George in Tanta and St. Mark Cathedral in Alexandria on Palm Sunday. I was with my wife on our way to the Cathedral of St. Mark to deliver a letter to His Holiness Pope Tawadros in order to hold an interview with him for Fountain of Love magazine on the occasion of his visit to Australia in August. We were only a few meters away from the terrorists when we heard the sound of a loud explosion accompanied by the sound of broken glass and people screaming. The place was full of chaos as police were evacuating the area.

Many times did the media, intellectuals and clerics repeated the phrase “Terrorism has no religion”. The truth is: “Terrorism has an ideology made from wrong interpretation of religious texts. Many people claim that terrorism has no religion and forget about its religious origin that enables the terrorists to kill police men and soldiers who protect this country in addition to innocent Coptic citizens. Nowadays, terrorism all over the world decided to have certain rules and ideology. Terrorists depend on religious texts and mix them with extremism and hatred to make new religion. We are now witnessing bloody terrorism and political violence confined to a great ideology. Intellectual terrorism and bloody terrorism are two sides of one coin that is sweeping the world. Therefore, we have to search for the reasons for such phenomena.

Christians of Egypt owe their steadfast faith to one of the youngest apostles of Jesus Christ, the Saint Mark the Apostle who came from faraway lands to Alexandria until his shoes were dilapidated. As the Egyptian cobbler was fixing St. Mark’s shoes, he was injured and called on the one God to save him. St. Mark decided to introduce him to Christian faith. St. Mark started to spread Christianity in Alexandria to face the wrath of the pagans and the Romans.

Yes we are at war but where is the enemy? We all know Egypt is at war on TERROR, However, we on the title does not just refer to Egypt the referee here includes Syria, Iraq,, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia Kingdom, Yemen, Libya, and the middle East in General this area is at a continuous war since ever! Great we identified who are the “We” but wars in general need an enemy so who is that ENEMY? Watching the news for a few moments will immediately suggest the Enemy is none other than Israel! But R.I.P Sadat, Begin and Carter in Camp David agreed that 1973 war was the last war which means Israel can not be the enemy any more! For the negotiations leading to the 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty, see Camp David Accords. For the summit in 2000, see 2000 Camp David Summit.

It seems that we will keep talking about the Egyptian Economy for long time. Lately the Central bank of Egypt has decided to raise the interest rate again for the third time in a row. The president of the central bank and its committee seems insisting in not listening to any advice from the economists except from international monetary fund. The measurements that the central bank tries to take, I believe will lead Egypt to declare Bankruptcy sooner or later. It’s impossible and insane to increase the interest rate to curb the inflation, while you don’t have any other source of foreign currency after tourism stopped and the productions decreased.

Copts are Christians, and Christians should follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. God indeed calls his people to live in unity with one another, so it is important to make every effort to live together in harmony with other fellow believers. This is the truth mentioned in the holy bible. “Let us, then, be guided by the teachings and the example of the Apostle Paul, who writes: “[Make] every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph 4:3-6). These verses were quoted in the last paragraph of the joint statement issued by Pope Tawadros and Pope Francis in which they stated that they would not hold baptisms for members of one church wishing to join the other.

I would like to thank Mr. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for inviting His Holiness Pope Francis of Rome to bless the land of Egypt and its people. I also thank His Holiness Pope Francis for his visit. Moreover, I would like to thank those who contributed to the success of this event, especially the organizers and the Egyptian armed forces and police. The Egyptian people have welcomed the Pope and attended the divine Liturgy. Millions of Egyptians and people around the world watched the visit and the speech of the Pope that was full of love and tolerance, calling for peace and renouncing the violence and terrorism.

I ask everyone to be careful and not to follow the rumors concerning the joint statement of Catholic and Orthodox Churches. We should trust our leaders whom cling to the right faith and shall change nothing in that account. We should also realize that we have so much in common. This joint statement of Catholic and Orthodox Churches was written carefully to express the teachings of the holy bible, and those who attack the statement have not read it carefully. We should appreciate such efforts that lead to the unity of the church, the body of Jesus Christ as the strength of the church comes with love, peace and good news for all.

Dr. Sahar Nasr, Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, said that Upper Egypt is one of the most important areas that will have investment incentive in Egypt. She added that several meetings were held with the investors to monitor their needs. Moreover, a mega project will be held in Upper Egypt funded by a World Bank loan of $ 500 million. The first installment will be 125 million dollars to improve the living conditions of Upper Egypt.

This last week was full of events I had loads of comments but time had run out and not going to miss this week article because I was unable to decide which most important event should be reflected in my weekly article? Not gone a miss my meeting with my readers -if any- even if I had to make my shortest weekly article! First comes First We started the week with the 4th youth annual convention and they had shown -the youth- so much awareness of almost all events but they are still youth which by default means lack of education knowledge and expertise! It shows clearly in 1st day when first questions or comments or demands to the president-you name it as you like- were about clearance to pass from unsafe zones to safer one and the president did not properly understand its hidden meanings his response was just an apology which is not the correct response! We need first to remind the readers or people in general :- WE ARE AT WAR!

We can’t ignore the visit of Pope Francis without pausing and thinking about the implications of this visit, and what this visit could do for Egypt in general, and more specifically for the Christians around the world. We can’t deny that this visit will open many doors that were closed before. One of these doors, is “hope.” I consider hope the most important door for Egyptians and for everyone around the world. When I say hope, I mean the hope for living in peace, not clashing between civilizations as Samuel Huntington was trying to portray in his book by the same name, “Clash of Civilizations.”

As Al-Azhar peace conference is held in Cairo this week, several times did the Islamic scholar Islam Buheiry appear in Egyptian media explaining how does Al-Azhar, the great Islamic institution that was founded more than 1000 years ago, supports the Islamic State terrorist organization and its activities instead of facing it by refusing to call it infidel and teach its ideology in its universities. This comes months after Egypt’s president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi called for “revamping religious speech in accordance with the tolerant Islamic religion. The Egyptian president called on the Awqaf Ministry and Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni authority in the country, to do more to combat extremist ideology and promote a moderate understanding of Islam.

As Pope of the Vatican will visit Egypt on April 28-29, he will meet with Sheikh of Al-Azhar and Pope Tawadros in Cairo. On that occasion, heads of the Muslim Sunnis and the Catholic and Orthodox Churches will meet, and I find this a great opportunity to announce a major humanitarian initiative of coexistence. The three of them can declare a mutual code of ethics, humanity and respect.

During the visit of an Italian delegation to the city of Sharm el-Sheikh to provide digital solutions for the development of the city, and to inspect the security of the airport, Governor of South Sinai Khalid Fouda stressed the importance of restoring Italian tourism to Sharm El-Sheikh to be the majority of tourists in the city of peace.

I couldn’t write this article right after the terrorist attack against two Coptic churches in Alexandria and Tanta on Palm Sunday. The palm on that feast was covered with blood of the martyrs among the congregation as well as police forces who were doing their job by securing the place. I can tell you that this attack comes as part of a greater conspiracy to destroy the Egyptian state just like Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya. However, Egypt is different as it dates back to thousands of years ago when the first government and the first organized army were formed on its land. The Egyptian intelligence has also played an important role in the past few years to prevent the success of such evil schemes in Egypt during what was called “the Arab Spring”.

Three circles Egypt and Egyptians were put in by whom? By the Enemies of Egypt ! 1. Arabs 2. Islam 3. Neutral As or neutral countries invented by Tito, Nehru & Nasser it was meant then not being part of the Warsaw party or the Ne-to party, for those who do not know Ne-to demolished Iraq under the pretext that Saddam Hussein had mass destruction weapons! True Tony Blair apologized for being miss-lead by intelligence, but what does this apology gives the Iraqi people who lost their country, freedom and security? That circle of NUTRALITY had been broken since Czechoslovakia become the Czech republic and Yugoslavia disappeared from the European map!

Tomorrow President Sisi will be going to Saudi Arabia for an official visit, after along time of tension between the two countries, especially after the Egyptian situation that occured with the UN by supporting the Russian and French Revolution relating to the Syrian War. The question we need to answer here is as follows: Are there any benefits from the Saudi Arabia - Egypt relationship? It's difficult to say that the relationship between Egypt and Saudi Arabia has reached to a level we can call "strategic". Basically, Saudi Arabia wants to have Egypt as a support system in case any other country attacks. It is well-known that the Egyptian Army is the only army tha remains now among all the Arab countries.They are the only force that we can consider organized enough, and ready enough, to participate in any war that may occur in the region.

American actor Morgan Freeman said in his interview at “Scoop with Raya” TV show that he visited Egypt several times, and he remembers the most that many cars didn’t have side mirrors. He may be right as many cars do not have side mirrors in Egypt as part of many other negative sides to poverty and retardation in Egypt which I don’t deny in my developing country. Here is another interesting thing: Couple of years ago, Freeman was part of an advertising campaign to promote tourism in Egypt and he has visited several monumental places and unique sightseeing that he could not remember about Egypt. He could only remember the broken side mirrors of Cars! However, I don’t blame him for this as we should promote our strength points and touristic places better than this, not only abroad, but also for the tourists who visit our country.

While celebrating the feast, they suddenly closed their eyes and opened it to see a wondrous light leading to the face of God. I am talking here about the martyrs of the Churches of St. George in Tanta and St. Mark in Alexandria. They were killed on Palm Sunday to celebrate the Easter in heaven. In these days, we celebrate the joyful resurrection of Jesus Christ which was a turning point in the history of mankind. However, evil terrorism has used this wonderful occasion to kill and demolish in the name of God. Several terrorist attacks against Coptic Churches have tried to incite hatred, sectarianism and extremism between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. Yet, Christ faced such evil saying: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven”

Death has always been the end of life. Thus, many people fear it as evil and hateful destiny. Those who love the earth hate death above all. Jesus Christ gave us many marks of the end of earth and said: “So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near”. (Luke 21: 31) Here we must emphasize that trials and tribulations increase the faith of Christians. I remember here the terrible scene of slaying Coptic martyrs in Libya in 2015, which came after a series of torture in order to force them to change their faith. They were forced to carry heavy sand bags and walk for long time after being stripped off under the heat of the sun. They believed the words of Jesus Christ when he said: “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! (Luke 12:4-5)