Recently, I had the opportunity to celebrate New Years eve and Epiphany in a church that I had not visited in a while. Looking around at the congregation, I found myself wondering, “Is everyone as nervous as I am?” Yes, I am not going to stop going to church just because something might happen. But at the same time, what if something does happen?

The Egyptian state is not able to defend the Copts, a message meant to be sent by unmasked elements of ISIS terrorist group in Al-Arish. The message was not written on papers, but on the dead body of Bassem Shehata Haraz, a 27-year-old Copt from Al-Arish, who was shot dead on January 13rd in his hometown.

Usain Bolt is a retired Jamaican sprinter, who is 32 years old. He is the first person to hold both the 100 metres and 200 metres world records since fully automatic time became mandatory. He also holds the world record as a part of the 4 × 100 metres relay.

The birth of Christ was a reason for progress of all humankind and taught humans to move from pride to humility. Christ the God became man and was born poor to teach us humility.

Egypt s People s Assembly elections in 2015 came after one year after the presidential election, which was won by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi. This happened after the Revolution of June 30 against the Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptians were hoping for a democratic civil state headed by a civil government and an elected parliament that represents several liberal political parties aiming to serve the state and its citizens.

In the coming few months the presidential election will occur and from what we can see that the current regime doesn t have any will to improve the political life or even consider it. For the first time in the history we see people from political parties announce their support to a person outside of this party.

If you read this article, it means that you have survived the potential attacks against Christians at Christmas celebration. The article is written before the Christmas, and I do not know if the terrorists will succeed in attacking some churches or will police be able to prevent such attacks. You may also be a Muslim reader who reads our electronic newspaper. Anyway, I would like to congratulate you on the feast and the survival as well. I would like also to congratulate the police if succeeded and to offer condolences to the victims if they exist. Dear friends, Egypt is experiencing a critical moment and has to finish all the mega projects and try to survive before another terrorist attack occurs and eliminate our peace and the joy of our achievements. We look at the future with worrisome and at the past with anger. I offer my sincere condolences for the pure Egyptian blood that will be shed as the officials dream to eliminate terrorism with many terrorist institutions supporting your back!

We celebrate the Nativity of Christ once a year, but we also celebrate his birth with every new born child. The Virgin traveled with Joseph to register and the prophecies were fulfilled: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel” Thus, the Nativity was linked to a national civil even from its very beginning. And so did the Egyptian churches as they are called Coptic (related to Egypt) before they are called Orthodox, Catholic or Evangelical. Therefore, the Copts rejected all invaders and occupation and participated in all revolutions starting with the revolution of 1804 against the Ottoman occupier and the overthrow of the governor Khurshid Pasha until the revolution of July 30, 2013 against the government of the Muslim Brotherhood.

It was a nice video report about an Islamic school in the United States to teach the children how to be the Islamic icon in the West. The school manager pointed out that students should learn how to be good representatives of Islam and to teach the west that terrorists know nothing about Islam. In fact, most of our Muslim friends in Egypt do hate violence, refuse attacks on Coptic Christians, are keen to congratulate them on their feasts and willing to share moments of both joy and grief with them. However, the real problem is the broad base of fanatics that live in simple and rural areas. The majority of them have received low level of education and are struggling with poverty. Those are the main tool of fanaticism in Egypt.

Any country measures its success by how much control it has on the most aspects of the life starting from the agriculture control to control the rules and laws that could be used in the court. Having said that, I can t see any control to the Egyptian government on any of the mess that Egypt live in right now. Lately, I had chance to visit one of the villages I get used to visit when I was child, the village that was full of green and plants; I was surprised to see it full of ugly building and cement.

Egypt should devote its efforts to strengthen relations of love and respect among all Egyptians, the blood of the Copts is not cheap, what the Copts claim is nothing more than the right to a decent human life with their Muslim brethren based on equality, the destruction of Egypt is targeted by the Egyptian Wahhabbi media, the forced conversion of Coptic girls into Islam indicates the extent of the congenital decline because of the Wahhabi finance… these are few statements of the late engineer Adly Abadir Youssef, which I still remember very well, especially with the rise of the fierce Wahhabbi attack on the Copts inside Egypt to kill them while performing their religious rites or right after they finish their prayers. Such targeting continued when the Copts demonstrate to claim their rights. They were hit by armored vehicles without mercy. Not to mention the multiple forms of emotional and sexual seduction that Coptic minor girls face aiming to convert them into Islam.

Sudan announced lately that it is going to give one of its islands to Turkey for unknown reasons and for unknown time. This Island located at the red sea which means that this action will have a conflict of interest because Egypt also has a long border on the red sea.

In what became more of a fanatic ritual, terrorists replaced congratulating Copts on their feast by attacking the places where they celebrate the feasts. This has became a ritual for years, starting with the big hit in New Year s Eve of 2010 where the Saints church in Alexandria was bombed killing dozens of Copts. This has became more of a ritual since nobody was punished for such attacks, even those who proved to be responsible for some attacks, and recently the attacks extended to reach mosques where Muslims are performing their prayers, and yet nobody is being punished including those who incite hatred in the society!

Whoever thinks that the real threat to the Egyptian national security was in targeting Al-Arish airport is missing. The terrorists tried to assassinate the ministers of defense and the interior and they know when the ministers would arrive, but the real threat was in Atfih where the naive accept having dirty streets and corruption in all aspects of their live, but hate to see a cross on a church or hear its bell ring. The real Cornet was not launched in Al-Arish, but rather in the heart of the capital to hit the heart of the homeland. It was launched by negligent officials and lazy clergy who allow extremism and encourage it. I rejoiced when I saw a bridge named after the Christian martyr Abanoub, but my joy was not completed as the mobs attacked the church. The martyr Abanoub sacrificed his life for the homeland as other people incite hatred and destroy that homeland. The real disaster is that such attacks on Coptic Christians and their churches became accepted and supported by customary reconciliation sessions of shame.

In the context of the celebrations of the glorious Christmas, extra security measures have been taken by police and army to secure the celebrations. Egyptian government presented the biggest cathedral in the Middle East, just like President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi promised last year. Coptic Christians are going to celebrate Christmas Mass in the new cathedral. But the waves of conspiracy didn t stop against Egypt. Therefore, the Egyptian President called the Egyptians to unite against all attempts to destroy the national unity. Some hardliners mobilized hundred of extremists to attack a church in Kafr Waslin village in Atfih. They cursed the church and attacked the church and filmed the attack to arouse the anger of the Copts and incite a sectarian sedition.

Nothing has changed Atfih since 2011. The attacks against the Copts and their churches that continued ever since! The Coptic Church of Seoul village, Atfih, was attacked in 2011, and no one has been punished. Only few sessions of fake reconciliation were held to free the perpetrators and deprive the Copts of their rights. The same scenario was repeated on December 22, 2017 when hundreds of Muslims demonstrated after performing their prayers and attacked the church and the Copts based on rumors that a bill and a cross will be fixed in the church that have neither a dome nor a bell tower!

The last sectarian events happened in Atfeeh, showed without any doubt that we will far away from being state of law or for coptic to be a real citizen. The culture of hatred still dominating the egyptian scene because Egypt still water the plants with the same source of water which make the thoughts and the ideas polluted against the coptis.

Egyptian medical researchers affiliated to the Nile Delta s Mansoura University recently developed a new way of targeting breast cancer cells using silver nano-particles. This came in newspapers days after Eng. Ibrahim Mahlab, Assistant to the Egyptian President for National and Strategic Projects, announced the invention of a new Egyptian technology for water treatment, which was reached by the Egyptian scientist Dr. Nabil Al Maraghi. Reading the news, I resorted back to Sustainable Development Strategy book: Egypt s vision 2030 And Planning Reform wrote by Nihal El-Megharbel, PhD Deputy to the Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Administrative Reform full of positive thoughts. The book mentions that Egypt targets to be among the top 40 countries of quality of scientific research institutions by 2030. Will such inventions be taking Egypt towards fulfilling this dream in 12 years to come? In fact, scientific research is the way to the future and having real development.

People expressed their anger over the decision of President Trump to declare Jerusalem as capital of Israel. This decision was issued 1995 by the Congress, but was avoided for 22 years by three former US presidents: Clinton, Bush and Obama. In Egypt, newspapers headlines reflected such anger and wrath accusing Trump of giving another Balfour Declaration and Demonstrators erupted to burn US and Israeli flags and effigies of Trump. We have to realize our reality if we in the Arab World are serious about becoming doers rather than mere responders to what others does. The masses can do nothing but expressing their anger, but the governments and ruling regimes must do more than denounce or reject the US decision, or export news of their people s angry protest against it. They should instead adopt political stances and decisions that would demonstrate to the US and its President the magnitude of their wrongdoing. We must realize that the US is driven by its strategic interests and national security; this was what made three former US presidents persuade Congress to put off the 1995 decision going into force, in order to avoid anticipated escalation in the Middle East crisis. The three former presidents chose to stabilize the peace process befo

Fasting is a sign of love for God and His commandments by humans. It becomes a powerful means to deepen the love of God in the heart of man. This is how Abba Benjamin, Bishop of Menoufia, told us in his article Fasting and purity explaining the relationship between fasting and purity. Through fasting, the body is purified of instincts and materialistic tendencies. Saints added praises and spiritual practices to fasting in order to receive the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul says, I oppress my body and enslave it . Repression means submission to the leadership of God through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul also says: If you live according to the flesh, you will die Sin comes from the inside the good man from the treasure of his good heart brings out good deeds and the wicked man from the treasure of his evil heart brings out evils Therefore, Christians should sustain spiritual jihad and fasting that purifies our hearts.