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.

Today, is the sixty-ninth anniversary of the setback of the Arabs. The Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian and Egyptian armies joined together against the Israeli army, but they were defeated. The four armies fought against one army for Palestine, but they lost and failed to destroy the Zionist entity as they claimed. Israel won more lands than before the war, and Egypt, without the treaty of 36 with Britain, would have lost the Suez channel to Israel. The Palestine crisis began with the Partition Plan of November 1947, and ended in March 1949, when the last Arab country signed truce agreements with the so-called Zionist enemy and Zionist gangs! The Arabs underestimated the Israeli army and they lost. They were many, but had less efficiency. The Israeli soldiers had participated in the Second World War, as its soldiers were fighters in Allied armies.

Long long time ago El-Sisi requested to review religious speeches and speakers; but we still have glitches every where! What is the hold and where are the glitches no body knows we all see and feel something is still wrong! When we see Al Alazhar leader makes decisions and dismiss speakers or dismiss and prevent some of them you feel we started the correction path but like it or not you see those dismissed guys being guests in several TV talk shows here or there and still spreading their wrong ideologies you must wonder what is WRONG?

Among the turbulence and political instability, I would like to take the time to focus on another aspect of our country, tourism. Only recently, a group of archeology students discovered 17 new mummies in central Egypt. Using radar technology, the students were able to locate the burial chamber of mummies, which they believe go back as far as 1500 years, the time of the Roman Empire. Why is this important? I'm focusing on this, because I read something quite interesting in the news. A writer was discussing the implications of this find, and that perhaps Egypt itself has means to try and lure tourists back to it's natural heritage. The country is basically advertising for itself and trying to get back on the world stage but for different reasons. Currently, all people hear about and speak about is the political instability, the persecution against the Copts, the rising prices and inflation. This is the first positive thing to emerge from Egypt for a long time.

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.