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.

People may suffer from despair and frustration that leads them to surrender. This could be because of unachieved goals in our lives. However, God will not leave us alone, but will grant us supernatural blessings to help us in the way. Father Peyman El Tahawy, priest of the Church of St. George in Minya, wrote in his article ‘Surrender and Acceptance of Reality’, assured that a person who is full of the grace of our Lord does not know the spirit of failure and surrender, no matter how difficult his life may be. Faithful people start over and never stop by their temporary failure. We remember the prophet Elijah when he felt a great sense of frustration and despair did not see the benefit of continuing his efforts to return the people to the Lord. He was full of negative thoughts, but God didn’t leave him alone.

Recently, the Interior Ministry arrested Abdel Menaam Abou El-Fotuh, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, also the leader and President of the Masr Al-Qawyia Party. Before that the army also arrested Samy Anan, the ex-chief of the military when the military council governing Egypt was forced to retire in 2013, when the Brotherhood was in power. Actually, most of what we call “Liberal Parties” announced its support for Sisi for a second term. They were adamant that this stage in the country requires a strong man like Sisi. It appears they forgot all the principles that the Constitution is built on, such as every party has the right to be in power.

It is interesting to hear news about the establishment of new Coptic churches around the world, which is usually welcomed by officials and public figures and is never refused by fanatics unlike what happens in Egypt. This week, Abba Antonius Morkos, Bishop of African Affairs, laid the foundation stone for the first Coptic church in the state of Malawi. The celebration was attended by a number of Malawian officials and representatives of Christian denominations, and it was widely covered by local media. Representative of the president of Malawi said that his country is honored to have a church that extends back to the first century and was blessed by the visit of the holy family to its land. Egypt is such a big country with great heritage that faced waves of extremism. These waves made many Egyptians unproud they have such heritage! It is amazing that a man can despise what others envy him for.

Terrorism is like a virus that spreads everywhere, and there is constant injection of it by all evil forces that supports terrorism. No doubt that intellectual people and supporters of culture and enlightenment are at the forefront target of the extremists who claim they protect religion, but they spread myths among the simple people. I believe that our cultural and educational institutions have a great deal of work to consolidate illuminating human thought and to create better reality in Egypt supported by war waged by Egyptian army against terrorism. Therefore, we have to define sources of terrorism and extremism that are supported by ignorance what should be faced by culture and a plan of renewal of religious discourse.

The operations that the Egyptian Army announced yesterday, is not that from Turkey. The time and amount of soldiers taking part in this military operation puts forth many questions. Lately, we have all come to know that the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs had mentioned that Turkey will search for gas and oil on the Egyptian Mediterranean border, claiming that they have the right to that area.

So you have heard that it was said to the people long ago..., but I say to you... Jesus Christ cared about teaching the people, and therefore, he was usually addressed as Teacher . Pope Shenouda III in his article Christ the Teacher explained how Jesus Christ cared much about teaching and fixing wrong ideas among Jewish people. For example, they sanctified the Sabbath that they refused even doing good things. Thus, he made several miracles in the Sabbath to teach them that it is permissible to do good In the Sabbath. Jesus was teaching everywhere and at all times, and he didn t have a fixed place to teach. He was very popular and people crowded around him since he had a profound influence on their souls. People were astonished by his teaching. Moreover, Jesus asked his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20) He even gave new teachings to love one s enemies and pray for those who persecute them.

Dr. Nasser Fouad, the first Egyptian deputy lieutenant in UK, is an Egyptian migrant who was assigned as the deputy lord lieutenant of Cheshire, a county in North West England. In the United Kingdom, a Deputy Lieutenant is a Crown appointment and one of several deputies to the Lord Lieutenant of a lieutenancy area: an English ceremonial county,

In his wonderful book Kirialison in the love of the Copts , Hamdi Rizk wrote that his book is a gift for the Copts at the Christmas Day. He said that these are lines of love erupted from the moment of the bombing of the Saints Church in January 2011 until the opening of the new Cathedral in 2018 by President Abdelfattah Al Sisi. As a Coptic citizen, I accept such lovely gifts including his writings and TV program in which he discusses problems of citizenship as a loyal Egyptian citizen. The book also talks about the church and its internal affairs as well as the Pope and the guardians of the faith. It also deals with the relation between the Pope and Sheikh of Al-Azhar as well as the position of the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood. He included dialogues with His Holiness Pope Twadros II, and His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, in addition to a number of meetings with a number of Egypt thinkers.

One of the most important lessons of life is that life is a journey that will eventually come to an end. Thus, we need to enjoy everything of it including the bad things as they teach us something. The next time you suffer some difficulties; don t let them hinder you for a long time. Instead, get over them and always put a smile on your face. Life deserves better than being wasted because of bad relationship or relatives. Always look at the bright side and enjoy your life appreciating what you have instead of thinking of what you don t.

In his last speech, Sisi tried to warn Egyptians from what he called, “The evil.” Sisi confirmed and emphasized that he will prevent any corrupted person from sitting on the Chair of Presidency. Sisi was speaking as if he was a dictator who can allow and prevent whoever he wants from becoming President. I was hoping that Sisi would rely on the law and courts to prevent any corrupted people from electing themselves as a President. However, it appears that Sisi is relying only on himself, much like Dictators would.

At the time many extremists think that religion aims mainly at ruining others lives in order to force them to embrace their extremists ideas, some people call to develop the understanding of religion, which may be called renewal of religious discourse as well. Those developers may do so thinking religion aims basically at offering a better life for human beings and following the rule: Islam is the Religion of Ease. One of those developers is Sheikh Mostafa Rashid, Mufti of Australia and New Zealand, president of the World Union of Islamic Scholars for Peace, who issued a new book entitled (a correction to the old jurisprudence), which was presented at the Cairo International Book Fair. In the book he explained that many ideas embraced by Muslims around the world are not true including Hijab and niqab.

A group of Egyptian youth decided to take good care of the Egyptian city of Shalatin. 35 of fine arts students took their tools and traveled south to clean and decorate the kiosks of Halayeb and Shalateen. The Egyptian male and female students decided to show their love for the homeland by decorating a dear, yet far part of it. Greetings to those true Egyptians who proved their love by hard working. They dedicated their time and money to produce wonderful artworks that made the beautiful town even more beautiful.

A presidential amnesty was issued on January 25, 2018 by president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, but there is a number of Copts whose names were not included in that list. The first name is Gergis Baroumi who was accused of raping a girl from Farshout, but the medical report confirmed that the girl was not raped and that the accused suffers from a lack of sexual ability!

Those who study the political scene in Egypt find an absence of a political reason, especially concerning the choices of candidates of the parliamentary elections. The candidates during the previous elections didn t have election program or objectivity. Unfortunately, this randomness appeared clearly in several meetings in the Council that were held to discuss important laws as the political education starts at the parties, which have disappeared long time ago. The parties now can only fight over elections without having a political vision.

I have talked in the last article about the danger of leaving the political life empty especially that during the last four years of Sisi period, we didn t see any try to refresh the political life. What does this mean? In my opinion that means that Sisi wants to run for more than 2 periods and that for sure requires to amend the constitution and that what we can see and feel from the last statement by the chief of the parliament.

As the presidential race has started in Egypt, it became clear that President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi will win another round in the presidency of Egypt. This raises questions about challenges he will face in the second round. The list is too long, but the economic situation and financial difficulties comes above all right next to fighting terrorism and security situation. Many projects have been carried out in Egypt, but the citizens are suffering under high inflation rates and increasing prices.

We have talked before about the Marathon of Luxor, and today we are talking about the preparations of Karnak to receive people with special needs, in the framework of an integrated plan prepared by the governor Mohammed Badr and one of the institutions caring for people with special needs and sponsored by a telecommunications company. This plan aims to qualify Luxor to be a Handicapped-Tourist-Friendly city. This development started with Karnak, Luxor and the Luxor Museum by providing them with accessible designs to help people with disabilities during their visit. The plan aims to extend the project to the whole city of Luxor in order to be soon the first Handicapped-Tourist-Friendly city in Egypt. Greetings to the respected governor of Luxor who innovate and carry out such great projects.

When do the series of assaults on the Copts come to an end? I mean those assaults where the assailants are never punished and the Copts have to pay for some forms of intolerance, ignorance, deterioration of education, widespread illiteracy, and hatred of the others. Some Copts were attacked in the village of Dawar, Behira governorate as one Coptic worker decided to claim his right after he did some work worth 300 EGP! The Muslim party claimed the Coptic worker has harassed his wife and therefore houses of several Copts were attacked. Some angry mobs decided to to disrupt public order and endanger the safety and security of society and the damage to national unity and social peace. They gave themselves the right to intimidate and destroy properties of the Copts. Those are criminals and should be punished according to the law.

The Coptic Christians are used to eat taro and reeds at the feast of Epiphany, which commemorates the baptizing of Jesus Christ in Jordan River.