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.

The biggest thing has captured my thinking lately is what will happen after the president Sis finish his 2 terms as president? As you can see I already assumed that President Sisi would be in power for a second term because I don t have any doubt about that. In fact, When I ask this question this doesn t mean that Egypt doesn t have anyone can be president but because as we can see that the political life is dead and we can see no one that he can shoulder the responsibility in this hard condition that Egypt has.

In fairy tales we usually hear about good or bad people. However, it became really hard to make such differentiation or classification in the real life because good people do bad things and bad people do good things. People are not angels or devils, as they are simply human being. This fact forces us sometime to revise all the facts that we take for granted and to reconsider all the people and things in our safe zone.

I did not understand the logic of those who wanted to assure that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri decided to stay in the Saudi Arabia by his own will, since the television programs never denies or proves anything. Remember that many people are kidnapped in several countries by their governors and still vote for them. Egyptians have done so for 60 years! Mr. Hariri s appearance on television proves nothing since he is in the hands of the Saudis. If he asks for help on air, would he be safe after all? The situation would be more complicated, and the man realizes that the Saudis will show no mercy even with their dearest friends and family members.

On October 31, 2017, a Muslim immigrant from Uzbekistan named Saifullah Habibullah carried out a run over accident killing 8 Muslims and shouting Allahu Akbar ! Muslims repeat Allahu Akbar or God is great and Christians chant Glory to God as part of their prayers. Both expressions are similar and aim at glorifying God and offer him thanks. However, some people used the same expressions to spread violence and destruction. I watched a video showing members of ISIS terrorist organization selling and trading little girls while the men were hiding their faces to avoid further prosecution. The terrorists were also shouting Allahu Akbar as they bought the little girls. They were not humans as they were destroying other lives after they conducted their prayers in order to please God!

Some of our Coptic Church people have recently experienced some pitfalls, especially the youth of the Diaspora who were affected by the actions of some of their bishops and priests, who impose their control over the deacons of the Church, specifically when a new priest is appointed to their churches. In the terms of reference of churches financial and administrative committees. I wrote two articles about the regulation to select the priests and deacons council in 2013 when the Holy Synod issued regulation of the selection of the priest, which was ignored by many bishops later as they ordain general priests and assign them later to certain churches.

We live our life in this world while we are surrounded with rules and regulations, we try as much as we can to follow the rules and obey the regulation; however, sometimes we feel that some rules or regulation are unfair and needs to be reconsidered. We always need to remember that people like us make these rules and the regulation and we always need to listen to other people opinion about these rules and regulation simply because if the rules and the regulation didnt make peoples life better so we need to change it.

I have just returned from a 3 weeks journey to the Netherlands; this wonderful country where you can smell the aroma of freedom and system. However, I saw it by my Egyptian eye that sought all potential opportunities to dream for a better future for the homeland. I saw a system that respects everyone and policemen whom you don’t feel their presence until the system or the rules are broken. They respect bicycles and bicyclist above all, and I found this one of the decent means of transportation that saves both money and health! Yet, bicycles enjoy special routes and laws in order to protect the bicyclist from cars and encourage the people to ride them.

I have spoken extensively in many dialogues, meetings and articles for more than 11 years on the need to activate the General Council of the Coptic Orthodox church to carry out the financial and administrative work through elected specialists, Politicians, judges, lawyers, doctors, financiers, businessmen, accountants, etc. This should enable the clergy to serve one master just like Jesus Christ said: no one can serve two masters. The Holy Synod should be primarily concerned with the discussion of the legislative, priestly and theological situations. It should have nothing to do with financial and earthly matters. However, it is currently occupied with public relations and crises committees!

On the occasion of the new instructions issued by some bishops to prevent girls and women from wearing certain clothes inside churches, I would like to present this story in a short way, which was published in the photographer s magazine on August 26, 1927. The magazine reads: "A delegation of Italian women met with His Holiness Pope of the Vatican asking for his blessing and support in their fight against indecent fashion considering it corrupted taste. Head of the delegation said that women should spread awareness and awaken their conciseness. For his part, Pope said in a very brief speech that such act is part of the role of women in the society.

The retiree Egyptians after long life of hard working are the most people in need and suffers nowadays. Having a look on the average pension for a person in Egypt, we will find it is roughly 1500 Egyptian pound. And no one can deny that this amount of money before the last wave of the inflation could help the person to live and manage his life even it was little bit tight. Having said that, this amount for the current time barely can be enough for utilities and medicine the old people have to get in that age.

Despite the diplomatic and military efforts the complicated situation in the Middle East still is a big threat for the stability of the countries and ISIS terrorist group is in the core of the process. Some analysts claim that ISIS once was described as an “undefeated” force is weakening and disappearing in the Middle East and moving toward the South East Asia. Conflicts specialist and commentator Michel Hanna Haj commented Eurasia Diary s questions in regard to this matter. Michel Hanna Haj - Political analyst, conflicts specialist and commentator. Author of several books: "The New Middle-East – Policies and Strategies", "War to liquidate Daesh or to dismantle Al-Qaida", "The Lone Wolves – another facet of ISIS". He was awarded the title of the distinguished Journalist of the year by the United Arab Media Council (UAMC) in 2017

Sexual harassment in Egypt is worse than the economic crisis that hit Egypt in the last 6 years, and I will talk about the reasons behind this Phenomenon, however, none of these reasons should be an interpretation to the harasser. Before talking about the reasons, I Want to assure that sexual harassment is everywhere including the developed country not only Egypt, but the only problem we face is the increase of this Phenomenon among Egyptian.

The last terrorist attack happened lately which lead to more than 20-st soldiers killed and dozens injured showed without any doubt that Egypt faces a real enemy. Before going to the details of this horrible attack, I want to introduce my condolence to the families and the friends of the soldier and to all Egyptian.

Unfortunately, there is a Coptic priest killed yesterday in a series of persecution against Copts and physically and emotionally. And shame on the media which tried to cover on the accident by saying that the person who killed the priest is crazy one. In fact, we in all our problems in Egypt we try to cover it until it be a mountain you cant reach and no one can reach, instead of facing the problem and trying to understand why the fanaticism increased in Egypt lately, we try to just say “ the person who killed the priest was crazy”

A new Coptic Christian man was killed today to join the martyrs of the Coptic Church. This time he is a Coptic priest called Father Samaan Shehata, priest of St. Julius Al-Akfahsi Church in Baba Al-Fashn diocese. As the officials started to give their usual description to the murderer as mentally retarded, I searched the dictionary to find out more about that disease that gives professional murderers such motivation to commit their crimes. A mentally retarded person is partly outdated and often no longer considered polite) intellectually disabled, medically defined as having an IQ (intelligence quotient) below 70 in addition to deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors (which means having problems with basic functional skills that affect every day, general living.

One man was standing on crutches, dancing with one foot with much joy at the victory of Egyptian football team, and the other was crying after the opposing team has scored in his country. They are Egyptians who have not received as much privileges in their country as other citizens in developed countries, but they have another thing in common which is the love of their country. Their slogan is Egypt in the heart. They don’t think about special privileges offered to some Egyptian businessmen that helps them to monopolize the market for a number of strategic goods and enables them to raise their prices and make the people suffer more and more.

I spent my life until 1978 defending the working class and the hardworking. From 1987 to 1987, I studied the culture of minorities in the Arab region and wandered among minorities in almost 24 countries, Kurds, Shiites, Amazighs, Nubians, Armenians, Maronites, etc. I realized the suffering of those peoples and returned back to Egypt. I was working then with Abdul Rahim Ali, the famous journalist, to expose the extremist groups all over Egypt. We have reported several massacres of Ezbet Nassarah and of Muharraq monastery, in which 320 people were killed on their Christian identity. It should be mentioned that we were risking our lives then. In 1992, I met with Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim and participated in the establishment of the Ibn Khaldun Center. We also participated in the drafting of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Minorities. I was the first coordinator of the minorities unit in the Arab region. In 1994, we held the Minorities Conference in Egypt and wrote an Encyclopedia of minorities in the region and dedicated a special chapter on the Copts with a respected group of thinkers, including Dr. Mona Makram Ebeid, Dr. Mostafa El Feki, Samir Morcos, Dr. Aly El Din Halal, and others.