I want to start off by wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope everyone can be with family and friends, and really take time to relax and be thankful among those most important to you. When I think about the birth of our Lord, I can’t help but wonder how far, us, as Christians, have wandered from the example Jesus set for us. The most glorious Being, the King of Kings, our Saviour, was born in a manger. How many times do we hear this same story, and yet it continues to shock me. The One who is our Leader, in all ways, was born in a tiny bed lying on hay. Which, by the way is what cows eat for food, thrown onto the ground left for animals to step on.

The green tent of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was destination of several politicians, sports men and artists. Those guests came from both the smallest tribal in Africa to the senior officials of the White House and the European Union. This tint provided profit for many people who are willing to trade in all kinds of items including the remains of humans. Major companies used Libya and its Gaddafi to enter the continent that has more than half the world's wealth. Gaddafi offered compensation to the families of victims of Lockerbie incident and gave up many of his dreams concerning the nuclear project. He headed to Africa and was called the king of kings of Africa. Yet, he was killed in what was called the Arab Spring.

The TV show of Journalist Ibrahim Eissa was stopped on Al-Kahera Wal-Nas private television on January 1st, 2017. Eissa said that the time is inconvenience for the program. Couple of weeks ago, the Egyptian House of Representatives denounced the show considering it working against the state as claimed by Dr. Ali Abdul Al, head of the Egyptian Parliament. Abdul Al accused Eissa of inciting violence and public disorder after he said that the new draft of the law of building churches states that no crosses should be put on new churches. Abdul Al forgot that the lack of information about the law at that time caused a lot of flounder in media. Abdul Al forgot that transparency of the government is the only way to avoid tribulations and rumors. However, the government should have sent clarification to media, but it hasn’t. The case often is not related to the crosses, but to Eissa and his show since he doesn’t flatter the regime like other shows. Therefore, the government decided to accuse the man of being responsible for its failure, the increasing prices, medicine shortage, and the deteriorating services.

Great people don’t die as their works and ideas stay forever. Among those great people, the great Coptic architect and struggler Adli Abadir Yusuf. Abadir used to give in secret and struggle in public. He exposed negatives in Egypt with courage and unparalleled audacity. His international conference was the first to talk about the Coptic issue on such scale. It was held in Switzerland in October 2004, and cost him a lot of money and effort in order to bring various politicians, thinkers and intellectuals from all over the world. He decided to commemorate this first conference dedicated to the Copts by establishing Copts United website. This site has been working hard since its very beginning to achieve its goals and record the incidents of the nation, community and the church. Its success has lasted since engineer Ezzat Poulos took office as CEO of the website.

With 2016 end I’ll end my series of Egyptian Traditions but this does not mean I’ll stop writing on Egyptian Traditions; I’ll just leave it to the circumstances but first let me with you all a Happy New Year 2017 may all the best come with this new year! May God keep blessing Egypt and Egyptians and his peace be with you all!

I want to congratulate all our readers with the new year. Wishing to be better than the previous year which was full of bad news everywhere in the world. I know that many people may be negative and say that we say the same thing every year. Also might say that every time we wish the next year to be better but it never become better. I want to tell those who think in this way that asl ong as you still have chance to live for the next year, its very good and amazing news. Look around yourself especially with what is happening around the world now days, you should be thankful that you still have chance to improve your life and make it better.

As the people in Egypt are suffering from the financial crisis, many people start storing food and other stuff that they fear will disappear from the markets or its prices are getting higher. Some people add that the increasing prices will cause many people to commit crimes in order to provide for their families. I indeed share such fears with them, but I believe there is much better way to face it. In such hard circumstances, everybody usually think how to sustain the life of his own and his children. People may care about storing food, but they rarely think about other people starving. This is what makes the crises even bigger. Therefore, I suggest that people in Egypt should do more good and help more poor people in order to prevent this evil from reaching their homes.

After the bombing of St. Peter Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo, a juggler appeared in the church named Hany Girgis claiming prophethood. The man is a deacon in the Coptic Orthodox church. Yet, he claimed that Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him that Copts are going to suffer a lot in the near future, and many of them will be killed and many bishops will be arrested. However he belongs to Suhag governorate, he assured that streets of his governorate will be covered with blood of Christians, and Egypt will witness a civil war like Syria in which Copts will suffer the most and will be slain in the streets. These are few of the terrible prophecies of the deacon who claim to be caught up to heaven. The problem is that he speaks about such prophecies inside Coptic churches in Samalout, and is hosted by some priests to talk about his prophecies that cause only horror and fear.

Dr. Ahmed Darwish, head of Development Zone Authority of Suez Canal area, said that negotiations have been held with the Japanese company Toyota to pump investments in the economic are of Suez Canal. He added that a special port dedicated for cars will be created in East Port Said with the cooperation of many French and Japanese companies. The area will be divided into car factories, storage areas, spare parts and exhibitions.

The interests have made Russia ignore the Turkish attack against its plane just like it ignored the murder of the Russian ambassador to Turkey. If we think about the Russian Turkish relations, we would discover the mutual interests that are more powerful than blood. We would also discover that these interests have started five centuries ago. Russian-Turkish relations began when Ivan III, governor of Russia in 1492 exchanged letters with the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II on maritime trade between the two countries. The Russian embassy was opened in 1701 in Constantinople. The diplomatic relations between Turkey and Russia started in 1991. Turkish-Russian relations are primarily based on economic ties that prevent any degradation, especially with the existence of “the Supreme Council for Turkish-Russian Cooperation” Russia is considered the most important supplier of natural gas to Turkey, as nearly half of Turkish imports of natural gas and 12% of its oil imports come from Russia. Turkey is a very important trade partner with Russia and the most important tourist place for Russian tourism.

In my article Egyptian Traditions – from abroad I did mention that due to satellite receiver problems I was blinded from news in general, but as I love trying to resolve electrical problems so I did test my skills resetting the receiver to its Factory Settings and hora I did it I got back ERT and ERC Channels!

I have recently watched an interview of Dr. Abd El-Moneem Saeed on CBC Tv. He was trying to analyst Egyptian diplomacy, especially since after Egypt voted for the Russian and French resolution at the UN at the same time. Saeed tried to understand and interpret the confusion of Egyptian diplomacy by claiming that Egypt is lacking a strategy to deal with international issues. With my respect to Dr. Saeed, I completely differ with what he was trying to say, as I don’t think that the confusion in Egyptian diplomacy is because of a lacking strategy. I totally believe that you can’t have an independent diplomacy without being independent in your decisions.

Last week I wrote an article entitled Copts between martyrdom and citizenship after the terrorist attack on St. Peter Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo, in which 27 Copts were killed and dozens were severely injured. Today, I decided to write another article entitled “Copts between hatred and citizenship” after an Islamic preacher called Shiekh Mahmoud Lotfy announced that hatred is an Islamic mandatory, especially against Copts and other infidels. He explained that Muslims should hate non-Muslims and their rituals. The statement comes few days after the terrorist attack that targeted a Coptic church, while celebrating the Holy Mass, killing mostly women and children, as if it comes to give strong excuse to the terrorist and encourage others to follow his lead. This should lead Copts to ask questions about equal citizenship in their homeland with many Islamic preachers repeating the same words and inciting hatred against what they consider Christian minority in an Islamic country.

The terrorist bombing that targeted St. Peter Church in Cairo on December 11, 2016, proved once again that it can’t be related to a religion. Such dirty act has nothing to do with humanity, as humans can’t plan to kill women and children and cause massive destruction. Al-Azhar has condemned this cowardly attack, the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and every human being with a sound conscience. Everybody rushed to offer their sincere condolences for families of the victims and the Coptic Church.

As Google was celebrating 104 years of Doria Shafiq’s birthday, the terrorists were celebrating the suicide attack carried out by the 22 years old Mahmoud Shafiq. The huge gap between the two persons lies not only in time, but also in the way of thinking. Shafiq who struggled against the English occupation and strived to liberate women is different from the young boy who came from Upper Egypt. The woman searched, wrote and struggled, while the man carried out a suicide bombing attack to kill many women and children. The one million dollar question is: how did the young Shafiq and his friends took control over Egypt instead of Doria Shafiq?

A small chapel lies next to the Great Cathedral of St. Mark in Abbasia district was attacked by a suicide bomber. The historic church is more than 100 years old and was chosen to kill dozens of innocent worshipers most of which are women and children.

Well I missed you last week for personal reasons but you all know – my readers if there is any one – I love talking to you all not too sure if I do have any followers or readers but in my imagination I feel like talking to you not writing an article! My comment of the News I got of Egypt You all know I'm not in Egypt since some time back and due to TV receiver problems I have no Egyptian channels EMTV or CBC or and broadcasting from Egypt the only channel I follow is RIK 1 TV a Cyprus related channel that brings new of Aleppo in Syria -حلب فى سوريا- or Peter's cathedral bombing and I see afterwards Egyptians' reactions on Facebook, and on this issue I would like to say:- Remember we are fighting and in war with terrorists and terror, do not let the issue get out of proportions; When a TV presenter reads the news he might not be a terrorist himself, or the one who wrote the news or the director of that channel they are just doing their job and are not supposed to think ahead how we would receive the news, we clam dead of the bombing are Martyrs others see them victims and many more they just see a dead person, nominations is not the issue but using your sorrows on those victims, martyrs dead or what so ever nomination is to ignite vengeance and revenge forgetting that Christianity calls for redemption and forgiveness!

Egyptians have been asking the same question for a long time now. This question is: why can't the lower class feel or see any improvements despite the economic reform that all governments have been proclaiming to adopt to improve poverty and the middle class. I can assure you, that Egyptians will never feel any imporvement either short term or long term if economic reforms are not adopted, and fair tax systems not imposed. It is widely known that the exact same taxes are collected from rich people, as they are collected from the poor and middle classes. However, this should not be the same percentage, because it is only making the poor more poor, and the middle class move towards being poor as well. Having said that, we can see that the Egyptian tax system is now based on an unfair tax system. We can see that the most heavily taxed people are the government employees and the public sector employees as well. At the same time, we can see that the richest people pay the same percentage as the poor people. Furthermore, they try to create their own ways to escape and report unreal facts about their profits so they can pay less taxes. In conclusion, I want to advise that the only way the government will see a real change in Egyptian life, they will have to adopt a different approach to the their tax system.

Copts have been raised on the idea of accepting martyrdom as martyrs enjoy superior rank in their church. Therefore, the Coptic Church has offered thousands of martyrs throughout its history. Those martyrs were simply victims of tyranny or fanatics who don’t like their faith and want to get rid of it forever. Copts refused to abandon their faith and therefore they were brutally tortured and killed. Copts have always accepted such suffering remembering the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Holy Bible in which he said: “yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service”

The Arab countries are facing waves of conspiracies and threats including those by Iran and threats to their oil industry. Yet, the thirty-seventh session of the summit of the leaders of the six Gulf states was held under the supervision of Great Britain and in the presence of its Prime Minister Theresa May who declared that the security of the Gulf states is security of Britain. The Arab leaders should not forget about years of occupation by the British Empire when they rush to meet with the British Prime Minister and talking her presence with excessive pride. Such interest comes by the Saudi Kingdom after America has changed its policy toward the kingdom and issued Justice against Sponsors of Terrorism Act that considers the Saudi Kingdom a sponsor of terrorism that should compensate the victims of terrorism billions of dollars. This coincides with the new policy embraced by Donald Trump that will not be very friendly with them. The Muslim Brotherhood will be considered a terrorist group and the Iranian threat against the Saudi Arabia led the kingdom and several Gulf countries to ask for help from Israel and took the British ally that still supports the Muslim Brotherhood. In return, Britain will gain a lot of money from the Gulf countries that will also purchase military defense systems. This is their alternative to the agreement of joint Arab force sponsored by Egypt knowing its importance to the Arab security. However, Saudi Arabia prefers it English - Israeli.

First, I offer my sincere condolences to the martyrs who shed their pure blood as a result of the vicious terrorist act that targeted the Petrine Church in Cairo.