On the occasion of opening of Naguib Mahfouz Museum in Al-Azhar district, I remembered the day 14 October 1994 in the Nile Street in Agouza and under the giant eucalyptus tree, where a friend of the great writer Naguib Mahfouz was waiting to pick him up in order to take him to the weekly seminar at the Casino of the Palace of the Nile. At five o’clock, Mahfouz leaves his office and meets with his friend. Suddenly, a man holding a knife attacks Mahfouz inside the car and stab him in the neck trying to slain him before the assailant flees. Mahfouz was moved quickly to the police hospital very close to his house. Two days later, the police arrested the perpetrator Mohammed Naji, who said he tried to kill Mahfouz because he defamed Islamic religion in the novel ‘The children of our neighborhood’. He added that he doesn’t regret doing this. Mahfouz said commenting on the success of the police in arresting the offender: "The police may have won a battle ... but I am afraid that the entire society has lost the war." I will visit the museum with my family since the novels of Naguib Mahfouz are stories of the Egyptian society and its longing for justice and freedom and its struggle against tyranny and backwardness.

Another attack by followers of ISIS in Minya in a village that was originally inhabited by Coptic monks, just like Egypt was inhabited once by Copts. The village of Koum al-Raheb my have had several churches, but now it has only one that was shut down though it used to serve Copts from 7 other villages. Just imagine their suffering now after this church was also shut down. Furthermore, the fanatics decided to gather and set some properties of the Copts on fire and intimidate them. When can such persecution, hatred, intolerance and racism come to an end? Such rejection and intimidation comes in the name of God! The constitution and law are ignored and the funerals of the Copts are held in the streets. They claim that Omar refused to pray in a church to prevent Muslims from taking over it, but none of them show us Omar s behavior and good deeds. We demand the reopen of the church and build other churches in the other villages, since Egypt is not your own property. We demand our right in building churches in a villages full of mosques and other Islamic service buildings. Our demands are supported by the Egyptian constitution and law. We don t hate you, even though you may not hesitate to kill our children. We have taken too much, but let s hope we will finally see justice.

The Algerian team won the African Nations Cup in football after beating Senegal 1-0. The match was played last Friday evening at the Cairo International Stadium in the final of the championship which was organized by Egypt from June 21 to July 19. Despite the loss of the Egyptian team and its early exit from the tournament, Egypt was able to achieve several important victories and proved before the whole world its ability to host such big events. It is worth mentioning that after the withdrawal of Cameroon, which was due to host it, Egypt decided to take the challenge and enter the competition to organize the tournament in a record time. Egypt has come under great challenge and has taken on the huge responsibility of organizing this great African tournament from the first moment, after gaining the confidence of the African Union s executive office on January 8 this year, the third biggest tournament in the world. The Egyptian political leadership was keen to provide all the factors of success for the championship, both from the infrastructure of roads, stadiums and hotels as well as security, media and public. This led to the presence of the Arab and African fans in stadiums to follow up the African teams. Egypt has been able to leave a good image through the wonderful organization of the tournament, to assure the world of its capabilities, infrastructure and security. The whole world praised the Egyptian success and the testimony of the President of the International Federation of Football (FIFA) and the African Union proves such good impact. The African Football Confederation decided to hold the annual celebration of the selection of the best player and African team in Hurghada, Egypt, in January 2020, which reflects the confidence in Egypt s ability to host international sporting eventss.

Recently the IMF announced that Egypt might be qualified for another loan from the IMF. It s very well known that any loan will cause more hurt to the people because these kinds of loans has conditions and these conditions is to cancel all kinds of financial support to Egyptians. Egyptians already suffer from inflation and living tight because of these loans and it seems that the regime don t care about how does the Egyptian feel about such loans.

I am not a big fan of football, but since the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) is hosted in Egypt, football has become one of my favorite topics. There are many facts concerning the event some of them look good like the decent organization of the event and some may look bad like Egypt s shock elimination from its 1-0 defeat against South Africa at AFCON.

The Bible is like a crown on our heads for its valuable commandments and heavenly wisdom. Staying close brings life and staying away is death. In his article "The Holy Bible in the Coptic Church", Pope Shenouda III explained to us the importance of the Bible and its great impact on our lives. The prophet David says that the commandments of the Lord kept him alive and gives him heavenly wisdom”.

In the matter of atheism, the Minister of Awqaf says: Religion is the pillar of life since life without religion lacks values and morals. He added that religion is the backbone to control the course of mankind on the right path. Traditions and laws can t control the movement of man in the universe unless this man has a close connection to his Creator. Once a wise man said: It is difficult and even impossible to assign a policeman or a guard to each person in order to guard him and such guard may also need another guard to watch over him. Pope Tawadros believes that the main reason for atheism is the lack of dialogue in society and not spending enough time with the family. He added that atheism is the greatest danger facing our society even with a little number of atheists. Pope said that man wants to rebel against the authority of God, and there are philosophies that emerged 100 years ago and paved the way for atheism. Such rebel appeared even within ones life when people fail to accept oneself and has to escape to addiction or crime.

I advised the high school students not to enter the media colleges as I see no bright future for such colleges with the information revolution. Many people told me it is a crisis that will end thinking it is a matter of personnels or curricula. In fact, the colleges of media were established in the pre-revolution communications, and the methods were determined mostly in the light of the industrial revolution. I am talking here about press, radio and television. At that time, there was clear visions and forms of media and press. Now, the whole vision has changed with the social media and we moved to the electronic press. Today, the cash is disappearing and multinational companies are taking responsibility of the markets. Even nationalities became commodity that are sold and bought. In our backward societies, media became more of a religious media.”

Unfortunately, the Egyptian get out of the African cup from round 16 while all Egyptian are so sad not only because their team was kicked out of the tournament so early but also because of the performance of the team all in all. I didn t like how the team played and I didn t feel that the coach has a clear plan in the court. Historically we can admit that the national coach with more successful with our national team more than any foreign coach. We all remember Hassan Shehata and how was the national team performance and the results as well. With Hassan Shehata we the Egyptian team won three cups in a row. I don t say that because I want Hassan Shehata to be the coach again. I believe that an Egyptian coach will be the solution at this time for our Egyptian team. We have tried two foreign coaches and none of them did what Egyptian are looking for.

Germany is the fourth largest economy in the world, but such rank was only achieved after rebuilding the country torn by wars and divisions. Such development was achieved during the past few decades, during which the culture has changed. German women in the past used to take the responsibility of the so-called four Ks in the German language: Kinder (children), Kirche (church), Küche (kitchen), and Kleider (clothes). They were not allowed to vote and basically had no rights or roles other than breeding children. By the end of World War II, German women was assigned new roles by taking care of the wounded and burying the dead. They participated in the hard task of rebuilding war-torn Germany by simply clearing away the rubble and ruins of war.

The strength of the disease did not prevent him from continuing to preach, but he continued to serve with all vigor and activity until the last breath. He is our teacher Paul the Apostle who considered illness at his young age a blessing for his life. Father John Nassif, Priest of the Church of the Virgin in Chicago, said in his article thorn in the flesh told us about the blessings of the disease as mentioned by St. Paul the Apostle.

We talked repeatedly about the Islamization of girls, and everyone knows that most of them have willingly converted to Islam, and I don t write this article about those girls, but about the role of the family and the church in such cases. In our community, girls can t talk openly about their romantic relations to their families, but they can talk to their father of confession if they can trust them, which is rare these days. This is such a big problem in our community and our churches. At the end, it is a matter of love that should be offered inside our families and churches.

With the 100-year anniversary of reaching the moon is close, I still can witness a lot of people doubting that anyone went to the moon. This doubt exists everywhere, west east , north, south. I think the far the event happens from the current moment, people like to dent and tend to believe it didn t happen.

The Holy Spirit came down on the disciples as they gathered in the attic and gave them power to make miracles and heal diseases and unclean spirits. HG Bishop Moussa of Youth in his article "Behold, I am, sent me." Explained the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. First, He gave them power to preach in the name of Jesus Christ to change empires as well as the face of history. Second, they walked in obedience and accepted pain in the ministry offering their lives and love.

Every now and then, talks about the conflict between modernity and ecclesial traditions at the Coptic Orthodox Church appear, but such talks doesn t bring any results for many reasons. Yet, I believe that such topic has to be discussed to improve the effectiveness of the Ministry. It is worth noting that the Coptic Orthodox Church is one of the most important safety valves for the preservation of the Christian faith in the whole world and its history attests to this.

All cases of disappearance of Coptic women who have recently disappeared have been linked to a romantic relationship first and then Islamization. We have never heard about a woman who was convinced by the Islamic Sharia and had the courage to declare their conviction in public. But the whole subject of Islamization of minor girls can t be accepted since they are too young to understand even their own religion, not to mention another religion full of contradicting explanations. Moreover, older women are usually involved in romantic relationship with a Muslim man and I believe those usually suffer in their new life, which is very different in life style, and the way of thinking.

After Iranian downed the American drone and claiming some parts of the downed American drone were recovered from Iranian territorial waters near the Kooh Mubarak area. Trump announced yesterday that he ordered to stop strike on Iran in the last minute on Friday, he claimed that the strike was going to result on killing about 150 persons and that s why he decided to stop the strike.

After Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had lost in the municipal elections three of the most important cities of his country, he refused to accept such loss in the capital. Thus, he repeated the elections to lose for the second time. This time, he acknowledged his loss and has not fraud the elections. He puts thousands of his opponents and journalists in jail, but he refuses to rig the elections or cheat. This could have happened in order to save his dignity before the world with all his repressive practices against his opponents. This could have happened with many people defending their rights to vote.

Our Coptic Church is the secret of the joy of our lives because it is the House of God and the residence of the Angels. Thus, David the Prophet said: I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Bishop Pachomius, former acting Patriarch, said in his article the Church is the place of joy that the church offers us the ways to ensure our gladness and joy.