Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. These are the words of St. Paul to pave the way before a successful man as described by Pope Tawadros II in his sermon last Wednesday. God is the core of our joy since he grants us the salvation of sin. Jesus Christ is the way to this salvation, thus we should always rejoice in him who blesses our way, health, ministry, work and family. We shouldn’t allow anybody to take away such joy. He called us to become complete in our relationship with the church and its sacraments and ministry. The church is the best way to save our children from the world and fill them with the holy spirit.

As I celebrated my birthday, I thought about the past and traveled through time and space from Los Angeles to Assiut. The older people used to tell the children stories about their great old times where life was so cheap. Our dreams were very simple as computer cell phones and television were not invented yet. Only the rich people had radio at their house. They listened to plays and football matches and the audience shouted with joy or sorrow according to their football affiliation. As children, we were dealing with a currency that does not exist nowadays, but we saved out of it to rent bicycles once a week. We had very simple toys and games for boys and others for girls. Our neighborhood was a narrow road and the houses on both sides consisted often of two floors, and all the families in the street were Christians.

I was surprised by the statement of the Holy Synod last week in which it decided to celebrate martyrs of the Coptic Church in the modern history on February 15th, which marks the martyrdom of 21 Copts by ISIS in Libya. They chose that day since this is the only time Coptic Christies were killed without the involvement of the Egyptian regime. The regime performed air strike on ISIS in Libya and built a church for the martyrs in their home village. Thus, they didn’t chose the anniversary of other sectarian incidents where Copts were killed based on their religious identity such as the Saints Church, Maspero, St. Peter Chapel, St. George Church in Tanta, or the martyrs of St. Samuel terrorist attack. The statement decided to avoid embarrassing the regime of Mubarak and al-Sisi.

The terrorism that we see growing among the Western part of the world is equally heartbreaking and troublesome, but for different reasons that I want to explain here. First off, let s be clear. In Egypt, you have 90% of the population that is Muslim. The other 10% is Christian/Other denominations. The victims, as mentioned previously, are the Christians. The West, on the other hand, is primarily made up of Christians and Atheists. A large amount of the population, I can say maybe 35% is Atheist/Mixed. In this group, I do also include “apathetic” Christians that are not practicing Christians. Christians who do not have the first clue about the teachings of the Church, or of peace etc… The other 55% I can say are Christians and then 5% Muslim. The Muslim population is growing, but is still relatively small. The Western mentality is not that of “Christianity” although that s the foundation for these countries, it s more about, “let everyone just do their own thing and mind your own business”

There is no doubt that what Saudi Arabia is doing with Qatar is not a simple cut for diplomatic relations, but an assassination. Saudi Arabia has prevented Qatar from using airspace, water and borders though it almost share all borders with it. On the other hand, Iran is not a very good alternative since it will be a higher cost of transportation. Therefore, Saudi Arabia has given the worst hit, followed by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. As for the Egyptian decision, it came too late following Egyptian-Saudi agreement during the secret visit by al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister to Egypt, on the night of the Egyptian Gulf turn against Qatar. We still remember what happened in 2015 when Egypt accused Qatar of involvement in the killing of the 21 Christians in Libya, and terrorism in Sinai and Libya. At that time, members of the Gulf Cooperation Council refused the Egyptian statements and forced Egypt to withdraw its accusations.

One day before the holy month of Ramadan started, I wrote that Coptic Christians love this month and share the celebration of this month with Muslims considering it more cultural tradition than a religious one. Yet, the terrorist attack in Minya hours after publishing the article decided to change that. Those terrorists decided to kill 29 innocent people including children who were going to visit St. Samuel monastery that Christians should remember they are the favorite prey of the terrorist groups that kill in the name of Islam. Moreover, it decided to ruin the celebrations of that holy month, just like it did couple of years ago when they killed Egyptian soldiers in Rafah while they were eating their breakfast.

Twenty eight Copts from El Menya died not to talk of those who were wounded and by the way just a quick reminder that the word COPT=EGYPTIAN in a in Greek language mispronounced by non Greek people that are not accustomed to the Greek language!

I m sure by now everyone has heard about the multiple acts of terrorism that have been happening not only over in the U.K, but also in the States and across the world. The enemy is showing their true colours, and Westerners are showing theirs as well. In Egypt, we are faced with many difficulties when it comes to persecution of the Copts. First of all, we are a vulnerable minority. Many will disagree with that statement. We, the Copts are strong! We are fearless! We defend our faith! Before we all jump over each other in protest, I want to clarify, by means of reason, we are a vulnerable minority. We make up 10% of the population. We are faced with 80 million non-Christians. We are vulnerable, why? I don t mean we are not strong in our faith. I mean, whenever there is unsettling, anger, civil unrest, the first ones to suffer are the Copts. How easy is it for an aggravated Muslim to walk into a Church with a bomb nowadays? Families look for any reason to start trouble with their Christian neighbours. This is a fact. Copts have been, and will always be the first target when the Egyptian population is faced with any kind of turmoil.

Twenty eight Copts from El Menya died not to talk of those who were wounded and by the way just a quick reminder that the word COPT=EGYPTIAN in a in Greek language mispronounced by non Greek people that are not accustomed to the Greek language! Those victims were assassinated in a coward terrorist attack 2 days away from the holly Islamic month of Ramadan while a bus was heading to a cathedral near by in Menya!

There are a few flowers that have been known to be very hardy. Hardy means that it can survive many different conditions. Cold or extreme hot climate, drought, being cut down. No matter what happens to these flowers, for example, the daisy, they keep growing and becoming stronger. What any gardener will tell you is this: if you cut the beautiful flowers that daisies produce, a new one will grow in its place. You may even see more blooms by cutting the flowers off. Since we are in the heat of summer, and flowers are beginning to grow and take place, I can’t help but think about what happened to our poor little flowers that were killed on the bus from the St. Samuel Monastery recently. You hear about innocent lives being taken by acts of terrorism and murderers, and wonder when will this end? How many more lives have to be lost before this world changes? I’ve mentioned before that in order for us to see peace in this country, and among the people, we need to grow a new culture, a new understanding, a new respect for each other. It only takes 1 Sheikh to tell a Mosque that to make “Allah” happy, go an slaughter innocent Christian children. 1 Sheikh is all it takes to infect the minds of hundreds of people.

Muslims will start fasting the holy month of Ramadan tomorrow. This is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Prophet Muhammad according to Islamic belief. However, in Egypt Muslims and Christians share the celebration of this month and consider it more cultural tradition than a religious one. Copts enjoy this month and share such festival including the charitable giving and many times fasting during the day, most of the Copts only drink water and abstain from food during the day.

I send this message to the Copts of Egypt who face at the moment the same prosecution experienced by our fathers the saints of the first church. Dear brothers, you have been baptized which means you have died with Christ, buried, and resurrected with him. “Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:12). Therefore, we can’t fear death since we already died with Christ and shall live with him forever. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

The summit currently held in the Saudi Arabia can’t be called the Islamic American summit as not all Muslims are represented in it. The absence of Iran despite the victory of Rohani of the reformist movement makes the summit more of a Sunni. The absent of Iraq and Syria that has strong relations with Iran and its Shiite doctrine proves it is a Sunni summit. Iraq has a Sunni and Shiite government which raises questions about the loyalty of Iraq in case of a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are two countries with a Shiite people, which makes a war with Iran very confusing for those people who will have to choose between belonging to their homeland or their doctrine? There should be no absolute conflict between the homeland and the sect, but the warlords are trading on this.

The New capital for Terror Fighting was nominated by Donald Trump Saudi Arabia Kingdom in his very first visit to this country! In fact new president Trump intends to fight back terrorists in their very own firstly created terror attack by Osman Bin Laden of Saudi Arabia royal origin! The Word Trade Center attack -WCT attack- 0n 9/11 was by Al Kaeda created by Bin Laden to defend Afghanistan from Soviet attack then after Afghanistan become an all time Soviet Solders grave yard they spread to other objects and targets one of them was WTC! True Barack Obama claimed he did kill Bin Laden and due to his origin he classified Saudi Arabia Kingdom a wrong classification that Tramp's visit tries to restore the very original agreement signed by King Abd Allah 1st ever King of Saudi Arabia Kingdom!

Couple of days ago, Egypt was breathing love and tolerance during the visit of Pope Francis. Yet, this week the smell of hatred and contempt of religion came out with statement of former deputy of Al-Azhar who announced that Christians are infidels and Christianity is a corrupt doctrine. Salafist Call and several extremists in Egypt supported statements of Sheikh Salem Abdul Jalil assuring that it is impossible to explain Islam without talking about Christianity, which means they have to attack it in order to explain Islam. Christians from one hand have the right to believe in God the way they want as long as they don’t hurt other people. On the other hand, Muslim extremists believe they have the right to believe in God the way they want even if they hurt Christians, violate the constitution and divide the community. They say it is a matter of faith, not relationship.

Education in Egypt needs to be amended sooner than later. Sisi always keep asking to renew the religious speech but never mentioned to renew the education method and approaches. Education for Egypt should be the first priority not the last one. Sisi started to spent Billions of Egyptian pounds in building the new capital and different projects and forget that to build a new society you have to start with building their brain.

Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt brought seeds of unity and love, but Christians decided to refuse the decisions of unity between Catholic and Coptic Orthodox Churches. Moreover, the dark forces in Egypt decided to beat all the results of this visit by declaring Christianity a corrupt doctrine and declaring Christians as infidels. Statements of Sheikh Salem Abdul Jalil violate the successive constitutions of Egypt starting with 1923 till the current one since they state that Egyptians are equal before the law and enjoy equal civil and political rights. Unfortunately, Sheikh Salem and his supporters didn’t start such attitude, as other Sheikhs like Yasser Bohamy used to issue fatwas that are documented on the official website of the Salafist Call. Yet, the great disaster is that such explanations come out from Sheikh Salem, who was a member of the committees to renew the religious discourse, and Sheikh Abdullah Rushdie, Secretary of Religious Affairs in the Future Party, who have strong ties with the regime, which shows that the attitude of calling the Copts infidels is taking an official form.

I know that there is still a controversy over the statements of Sheikh Salem Abdul Jalil, especially after he confirmed today on CNN that he did not apologize for saying that the Christian faith is corrupt. I suffered from depression and grief, not only because my faith was insulted, but because I cannot bear to hear more explosions of terrorist attacks against more churches. God indeed has chosen the righteous people to be His martyrs. Few years ago, I watched Professor called Ahmed Abdo Maher attacking our faith, but today he denounces hatred and sedition. Therefore, I feel God hand is working.