Historicity of the Flight Into Egypt Traditions

Many Copts are absolutely convinced the traditions of Christ's travels throughout Egypt as a child is historical truth. They are convinced Jesus Christ indeed visited specific locations in Egypt that can still be visited today. The only first century source we have is the Gospel of Matthew, but Matthew doesn’t mention any specific location in Egypt. Those locations were only mentioned centuries later.

Westerners may call this tradition a legend but it is certainly an old one and one that is of tremendous importance for the Egyptian Copts. It would thus not be correct to brush it away because of lack of any historical and archaeological evidence that Jesus, Mary and Joseph visited specific locations.

Holy Hieromartyr Proterios, Patriarch of Alexandria (+ 457)

St. Proterios of Alexandria (Feast Day - February 28)

Verses

Proterios is slain by reeds,
Who sharply wrote with a reed against error.

Saint Proterius lived in Alexandria during the patriarchal tenure of Dioscorus (444-451), an adherent of the Monophysite heresy of Eutyches. Proterios fearlessly denounced the heretics and confessed the Orthodox faith.

Coptic Christians Fleeing Egypt After Islamist Takeover

President Mohammed Morsi

Tens of thousands of Egyptian Christians are leaving the country in the 

wake of the Egyptian revolution and subsequent Islamist takeover of 

politics, priests and community leaders say.

Richard Spencer

January 13, 2013

The Telegraph

Coptic Christian churches in the United States say they are having to expand to cope with new arrivals, as priests in cities like Cairo and Alexandria talk of a new climate of fear and uncertainty.

"Most of our people are afraid," Father Mina Adel, a priest at the Church of Two Saints in Alexandria said. "Not a few are leaving - for America, Canada and Australia. Dozens of families from this church alone are trying to go too."

Father Mina's church has an important place in the history of the Arab Spring. It was struck by a car bomb on New Year's Eve 2010, Egypt's worst sectarian attack in recent decades, in which 23 people were killed.

After the bombing, liberal Muslim groups staged protests in support of Christians, printing posters showing the cross and the crescent interlinked which then went on to be symbols of inter-faith unity during the Tahrir Square protests three weeks later.

But the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in parliamentary and presidential elections has changed the mood - particularly as the biggest opposition party is the even more hardline Salafist movement which wants strict Sharia law implemented.

"Salafis meet Christian girls in the street and order them to cover their hair," Father Mina said. "Sometimes they hit them when they refuse."

President Mohammed Morsi has promised to respect Christians' rights, and issued a New Year message insisting Egypt was "one homeland for all".

But several Brotherhood leaders and clerics issued thinly veiled threats against them during protests in late 2012, accusing them of being part of a plot to overthrow the government.

The biggest change in attitudes has come since the passing of a new constitution giving Sharia law more prominence.

"With the new constitution, the new laws that are expected, and the majority in parliament I don't believe we can be treated on an equal basis," said a congregation leader in Cairo's Church of St Mary and St John the Baptist.

He said he knew a dozen families who had left already and 40 or 50 more friends who had applied - including, he added, liberal Muslim families who were also unhappy with the prospect of more restrictive laws.

There were 2 Coptic churches in the United States 40 years ago, whereas there are now 200.

The most recent opened in Arlington, outside Washington, last year. "We are trying to accommodate all of the new arrivals," said Atef Yacoub, a member of the area's Coptic community. "People are coming and staying by applying for asylum or seeking employment visas."

The United States, like other countries, does not distinguish visa applications by religion, so there are no absolute figures. One estimate put the number of Coptic emigrants in 2011 at 100,000, of whom more than 40,000 went to the US.

"There is no body counting those who leave the country, neither on the Coptic side nor on the part of our embassies abroad, so it's all just guesswork," said Ahmed el-Qoasni, former assistant foreign minister for Egyptians abroad.

For most Christians, estimated to number between 6-8 million of Egypt's 85 million population, flight is not an option, and many say the fear of Islamist takeover is worse than the reality so far. Most Christians are as poor as other Egyptians, currently afflicted by an economic as well as political crisis.

Nader said things could improve and he could still change his mind. But he added: "As Christians, we are in God's hands, but I have a daughter, and I want her to be safe too."

Read also: Egyptian Court Sentences Christian Family to 15 years for Converting from Islam

Coptic Movie About St. Moses the Ethiopian (video)

Fr. Athanasios Henein - A Coptic Priest's Conversion to Orthodoxy

Fr. Athanasios in his own words:

Many speak of heresy, many write about the condition, but few are those who have tasted the bitterness of heresy, and fewer still those who have lived and shed blood to free themselves from its captivity.

Heresy is a way of life, it is a great prison, it is a mental, as well as physical, illness. I, Athanasios Henein, lived these tragic events as the head of the Coptic community in Athens for fifteen years. Copts divide the person of Christ and abolish His inter-human reality and His realistic presence in the world and in the Church.

But the miracle of my healing and conversion to our Mother, the Orthodox Church, was by the grace of the Triune God and the practical love of His Eminence Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, the Cretan Elder Methodios, and the fathers of the Holy Monastery of the Resurrection.

The words you will read, dear readers, are a confession of faith, and gratitude. But they are also an appeal for us to work together to help ordinary Copts (of which 15 thousand live in Athens) to experience the beauty of Orthodoxy.

To read Fr. Athanasios’ articles in English, French, Arabic or Greek see HERE.

Source

Coptic Christian Student Murdered By Classmates for Wearing a Cross

October 30, 2011
AINA

In mid-October Egyptian media published news of an altercation between Muslim and Christian students over a classroom seat at a school in Mallawi, Minya province. The altercation lead to the murder of a Christian student. The media portrayed the incident as non-sectarian. However, Copts Without Borders, a Coptic news website, refuted this version and was first to report that the Christian student was murdered because he was wearing a crucifix.

Both parents confirmed that Ayman's classmates, who were present during the assault and whom they met at the hospital and during the funeral, said that while Ayman was in the classroom he was told to cover up his tattooed wrist cross. He refused and defiantly got out the second cross which he wore under his shirt. "The teacher nearly chocked my son and some Muslim students joined in the beating," said his mother.

According to Ayman's father, eyewitnesses told him that his son was not beaten up in the school yard as per the official story, but in the classroom. "They beat my son so much in the classroom that he fled to the lavatory on the ground floor, but they followed him and continued their assault. When one of the supervisors took him to his room, Ayman was still breathing. The ambulance transported him from there dead, one hour later."

Read the rest here.

Persecution Sees 100,000 Christians Flee Egypt

Katherine Weber
September 29, 2011
Christian Post

Increased tension between Islam and Christianity has resulted in the emigration of 100,000 Christians from Egypt since March 2011, which commentators are saying will detrimentally affect Egypt’s demographic diversity and economic stability.

The report documenting the emigration, compiled by the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations, contends that the main vein of conflict is between the Egyptian’s Muslim sect, the Salafists, and Egypt’s Christian sect, the Copts.

Christians are also fleeing other areas of the Middle East, including Iraq and Palestine. Lebanon’s Christian population has fallen from 75 percent to 32 percent.

Critics argue that such immense emigration is in large due to the Arab Spring uprisings beginning in December 2010. These protests gave the predominately Islamic nations a confidence boost.

Islam and Christianity have always had a frictional relationship. Politicos contend that because the Islamic world achieved so much political sway in the uprising, they now have more confidence to drive out a religion that they consider a foreign invader in a predominately Muslim land.

Also, many Salafists who were active in the uprising are now holding powerful political office.

According to director of the EUHRO, Naguib Gabriel, the Copts are not leaving voluntarily, but are rather being forced out by Salafist aggressive tactics.

In the report sent to the Egyptian Cabinet and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the EUHRO contended that, “Copts constitute a strong pillar in the economy. Copts who are leaving their homeland are not prompted by their need for work, as they are from the professional and business class, but from fear of the hard line Salafists."

Another force driving Christians out of these Middle Eastern countries is fear instilled by the Salafistas. According to the EUHRO press release, there have been multiple attacks since the January Spring which have contributed greatly to the emigration.

Recent attacks include the killing of nine Christians in the Mokatam Hills in early September, a Coptic church bombing in Alexandria on New Year’s Day, and cutting off the ear of an older Copt in Qena.

Copts have spoken out against the unfair, violent treatment. In May, Copts gathered in Martin Place, shouting “enough is enough,” to rebel the violence.

Many Copts attribute the removal of President Hosni Mubarak as the reason Christian intolerance has escalated.

The predominant area of new settlement is the United States, where the majority of Americans are Christian and the president himself is a Christian. California alone has seen 160,000 Copts settle there since March.

Egypt Court Allows Christian Reconverts To State Religion On ID Cards

Heba Fahmy
July 4, 2011
Daily News Egypt

Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court ruled on Sunday in favor of Christian reconverts, allowing them to be identified as Christians on their national ID cards and birth certificates.

The court stated that the interior ministry must implement the order automatically in similar cases without reverting to the judiciary for individual verdicts, criticizing the ministry for refusing to implement similar verdicts passed previously.

Lawyer Peter El-Naggar said that Copts have been fighting for this verdict in court since 2004, adding that several similar verdicts, issued in 2008, have not been implemented.

The Supreme Administrative Court issued a similar verdict on Feb.12, however, the State Council’s fatwa committee (which is a lesser authority) later issued a contradictory verdict saying that each case must be reviewed individually by the court.

“That is why the Supreme Administrative Court issued another verdict [on Sunday] to overturn the committee’s ruling,” El-Naggar explained.

“The problem with Egypt’s judicial system is that each judge interprets the laws based on biases and personal beliefs,” he said.

El-Naggar was optimistic that this court order would be executed this time, saying that respect for Egypt’s judicial system and its integrity improved following the January 25 Revolution.

However Bishop Filopateer Gamil of the Giza Archbishopric disagreed, saying that he was skeptical that the verdict would be implemented by authorities.

“We’ve always commended our judicial system even before the revolution,” Gamil told Daily News Egypt. “However the problem is with the authorities who refuse to implement the court orders issued in our favor.”

In June, six Christians who had converted to Islam and then back to Christianity filed a complaint to the Prosecutor General against the interior minister and his assistant, the head of the Civil Status Organization, for not implementing a previous court order issued in 2008, allowing them to be identified as Christians on their national ID cards.

El-Naggar said the complaint is currently being investigated.

“Failing to implement a court order without any justifiable reason is a crime,” he said. “If the interior minister and his assistant are proven guilty, they can receive jail time.”

Gamil said there’s a double standard in dealing with conversions in Egypt. “When Christians decide to convert to Islam, they receive support from everyone including the authorities and their ID cards are changed to include their new religion in no time,” he said.

“When it’s the other way round, Christians face obstacles and difficulties that obstruct their freedom of belief and the lifestyle they choose to have,” he added.

Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), echoed Gamil’s concerns, saying that the interior ministry needed to end its “discriminatory policies” against Copts.

El-Naggar filed another complaint to the Prosecutor General last week, demanding the rights of Coptic teenagers, whose fathers converted to Islam, to choose the religion documented on their national ID cards when they turn 16 without a court order.

Children of fathers who convert from Christianity to Islam are automatically registered as Muslims on ID cards upon turning 16.

“Why should Copts be forced to spend two to four years in court to receive a verdict stipulating their basic right to freedom of belief,” he asked. “Not having a national ID card obstructs education opportunities and compromises Copts’ safety,” he added.

El-Naggar said a fatwa from Al-Azhar supports his claim, stating that a person must recite the shehada (basic statement of Islamic faith declaring that there is no God but Allah, and Mohamed is his prophet) in order to be considered a Muslim.

“People who claim that Egypt’s Copts exercise their full freedom of religion and expression are delusional,” Gamil said, adding that Coptic converts have to go through many hardships to receive their simplest right of recognition.

Copts represent 10 percent of Egypt’s population and often complain of discrimination.

Fourth Century Christian Graffiti In Egyptian Temple

The graffiti in question are from the fourth century AD. Here is the abstract (read more here) of the scholarly paper:

Recovering Christian Abydos: Coptic Graffiti from the Temple of Seti I

Jennifer Westerfeld (University of Louisville)

Abstract:

The temple of Seti I at Abydos was the site of intense epigraphic activity from the Late Period into early Islamic times. A significant corpus of late antique graffiti from the temple appears to have been produced by a community of Coptic nuns who periodically visited the site. Although such a collection of epigraphic evidence for female monastic activity is virtually unparalleled in Egypt, this material has never been fully edited or studied. This paper will discuss a newly-proposed research mission to document the Coptic graffiti at the temple of Seti I, considering in particular the circumstances under which the graffiti were produced and the ways in which the Seti temple functioned within the Christianized landscape of late antique Abydos.

Egyptian Armed Forces Fire At Christian Monasteries, 19 Injured

Mary Abdelmassih
February 24, 2011
AINA

For the second time in as many days, Egyptian armed force stormed the 5th century old St. Bishoy monastery in Wadi el-Natroun, 110 kilometers from Cairo. Live ammunition was fired, wounding two monks and six Coptic monastery workers. Several sources confirmed the army's use of RPG ammunition. Four people have been arrested including three monks and a Coptic lawyer who was at the monastery investigating yesterday's army attack.

Monk Aksios Ava Bishoy told activist Nader Shoukry of Freecopts the armed forces stormed the main entrance gate to the monastery in the morning using five tanks, armored vehicles and a bulldozer to demolish the fence built by the monastery last month to protect themselves and the monastery from the lawlessness which prevailed in Egypt during the January 25 Uprising.

"When we tried to address them, the army fired live bullets, wounding Father Feltaows in the leg and Father Barnabas in the abdomen," said Monk Ava Bishoy. "Six Coptic workers in the monastery were also injured, some with serious injuries to the chest."

The injured were rushed to the nearby Sadat Hospital, the ones in serious condition were transferred to the Anglo-Egyptian Hospital in Cairo.

Father Hemanot Ava Bishoy said the army fired live ammunition and RPGs continuously for 30 minutes, which hit part of the ancient fence inside the monastery. "The army was shocked to see the monks standing there praying 'Lord have mercy' without running away. This is what really upset them," he said. "As the soldiers were demolishing the gate and the fence they were chanting 'Allahu Akbar' and 'Victory, Victory'."

He also added that the army prevented the monastery's car from taking the injured to hospital.

The army also attacked the Monastery of St. Makarios of Alexandria in Wady el-Rayan, Fayoum, 100 km from Cairo. It stormed the monastery and fired live ammunition on the monks. Father Mina said that one monk was shot and more than ten have injuries caused by being beaten with batons. The army demolished the newly erected fence and one room from the actual monastery and confiscated building materials. The monastery had also built a fence to protect itself after January 25 and after being attacked by armed Arabs and robbers leading to the injury of six monks, including one monk in critical condition who is still hospitalized.

The army had given on February 21 an ultimatum to this monastery that if the fence was not demolished within 48 hours by the monks, the army would remove it themselves (AINA 2-23-2011).

The Egyptian Armed Forces issued a statement on their Facebook page denying that any attack took place on St. Bishoy Monastery in Wady el-Natroun, "Reflecting our belief in the freedom and chastity of places of worship of all Egyptians." The statement went on to say that the army just demolished some fences built on State property and that it has no intention of demolishing the monastery itself (video of army shooting at Monastery).

Father Hedra Ava Bishoy said they are in possession of whole carton of empty bullet shells besides the people who are presently in hospital to prove otherwise.

The army attack came after the monks built a fence for their protection after the police guards left their posts and fled post the January 25th Uprising and after being attacked by prisoners who were at large, having escaped from their prisons during that period.

"We contacted state security and they said there was no police available for protection," said Father Bemwa," So we called the Egyptian TV dozens of times to appeal for help and then we were put in touch with the military personnel who told us to protect ourselves until they reach us." He added that the monks have built a low fence on the borders of one side of the monastery which is vulnerable to attacks, on land which belongs to the monastery, with the monks and monastery laborers keeping watch over it 24 hours a day.

The monks of St. Bishoy are now holding a sit-in in front of monastery in protest against the abuse of the army by using live bullets against civilians

Nearly 7000 Copts staged a peaceful rally in front of the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo, where Pope Shenouda III was giving his weekly lecture (video), after which they marched towards Tahrir Square to protest the armed forces attacks on Coptic monasteries.

Egyptian Armed Forces Demolish Fences Guarding Coptic Monasteries

Mary Abdelmassih
February 23, 2011
AINA

Egyptian armed forces this week demolished fences surrounding ancient Coptic monasteries, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by armed Arabs, robbers and escaped prisoners, who have seized the opportunity of the state of diminished protection by the authorities in Egypt to carry out assaults and thefts.

"Three monasteries have been attacked by outlaws and have asked for protection from the armed forces, but were told to defend themselves." said activist Mark Ebeid. "When the terrified monks built fences to protect themselves, armed forces appeared only then with bulldozers to demolish the fences. It is worth noting that these monasteries are among the most ancient in Egypt, with valuable Coptic icons and manuscripts among others, which are of tremendous value to collectors."

On Sunday February 20, armed forced stormed the 4th century old monastery of St. Boula in the Red Sea area, assaulted three monks and then demolished a small fence supporting a gate leading to the fenceless monastery. "The idea of the erection of the gate was prompted after being attacked at midnight on February 13 by five prisoners who broke out from their prisons," said Father Botros Anba Boula, "and were armed with a pistol and batons. The monks ran after them but they fled to the surrounding mountains except for one who stumbled and was apprehended and held by the monks until the police picked him up three days later."

Father Botros said after this incident they thought the best solution to secure the monastery was to erect a gate with a small fence of 40 meters long at the entrance of a long wiry road leading to the monastery, which would be guarded day and night by the monks, and advised the army of their plan. According to Father Boulos, the army came with armored vehicles to demolish the gate, but it was agreed the monastery itself would undertake the demolition of the gate in stages as army protection is reinstated. "We told the Colonel it would look ugly to the outside world if Egyptian army is demolishing a gate erected for the protection of the unarmed monks under the present absence of security forces. We gave them full hospitality but we had a feeling that they wanted to demolish the gate in a 'devious' way."

On Saturday morning, seeing that only three old monks were guarding the gate, the army returned. "When the army found that very few monks were present the soldiers, who were hiding in military vans, came out," said Father Botros, "bound the three monks, threw them to the ground and confiscated their mobile phones so as not to photograph the incident."

The monks were set free after the gate and the 40 meter fence were demolished." Only four soldiers were left to guard the huge monastery.

"The army was here not to protect the monastery as they claimed, but to carry out their agenda of demolishing the gate" said Father Botros to activist Ramy Kamel of 'Theban Legion' Coptic advocacy. "By removing the gate and the supporting small fence, the army is giving a message of encouragement to any thief or thug to break into the monastery."

On February 21, armed forces demolished the fence surrounding the 5th century old Monastery of St. Bishoy in Wadi al-Natroun in the western desert.

Father Bemwa Anba Bishoy said that after the January 25th Uprising, all the government security forces that were guarding the monastery fled and left the monastery unguarded. He said they were attacked by prisoners who were at large after escaping from prisons during that period.

"We contacted state security and they said there was no police available for protection," Said Father Bemwa,"So we called the Egyptian TV dozens of times to appeal for help and then we were put in touch with the military personnel who told us to protect ourselves until they reach us." He added that the monks have built a low fence on the borders of one side of the monastery which is vulnerable to attacks, on land which belongs to the monastery, with the monks and monastery laborers keeping watch over it 24 hours a day.

Although security officials welcomed this step., a fanatical Muslim officer at the district police headquarters named Abdo Ibrahim incited the Muslims in the neighborhood, but when the circumstances were explained to them and that the fence also secures the nearby mosque, they agreed. "Ibrahim then incited the army against us, so they came with heavy equipment and armored vehicles, insulted the monks, demolished the fence and left," said Father Bemwa. "Now the monks are left in the open, vulnerable to attacks from prisoners who are still at large or Muslim fanatics" (video demolished fence).

In a related incident, Father Boulos, a monk at the Monastery of Abu Magar, also called St. Makarios of Alexandria in Wady el-Rayan, Fayoum, said that on February 21 armed forces stormed the monastery and wanted to demolish its fence and gate. He explained that after the security vacuum during the January uprising, the Monastery was attacked by thugs and Arabs armed with automatic weapons, leading to the injury of six monks, including one monk in critical condition who is still hospitalized.

"The perpetrators took advantage of the fact that the monastery is a nature reserve and has no fence for protection. After the incident we have built a fence around the monastery to protect it, but the environmental agency rejected it and sent for the security forces and the army to remove the fence." He added that they were given 48 hours by the authorities to demolish the one-meter high fence, otherwise the army would be back to destroy it.

"If no authority is in a position to protect us," said Father Boulos, "then let us do it ourselves, the way we see fit."

Egyptian Muslims Serve As Human Shields For Copts On Christmas

Muslims turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass Thursday night, offering their bodies, and lives, as “shields” to Egypt’s threatened Christian community.

Yasmine El-Rashidi
January 7, 2011
Ahram Online

Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

“We either live together, or we die together,” was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the “human shield” idea.

Among those shields were movie stars Adel Imam and Yousra, popular preacher Amr Khaled, the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak, and thousands of citizens who have said they consider the attack one on Egypt as a whole.

“This is not about us and them,” said Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly. “We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together.”

In the days following the brutal attack on Saints Church in Alexandria, which left 21 dead on New Year’ eve, solidarity between Muslims and Copts has seen an unprecedented peak. Millions of Egyptians changed their Facebook profile pictures to the image of a cross within a crescent – the symbol of an “Egypt for All”. Around the city, banners went up calling for unity, and depicting mosques and churches, crosses and crescents, together as one.

The attack has rocked a nation that is no stranger to acts of terror, against all of Muslims, Jews and Copts. In January of last year, on the eve of Coptic Christmas, a drive-by shooting in the southern town of Nag Hammadi killed eight Copts as they were leaving Church following mass. In 2004 and 2005, bombings in the Red Sea resorts of Taba and Sharm El-Sheikh claimed over 100 lives, and in the late 90’s, Islamic militants executed a series of bombings and massacres that left dozens dead.

This attack though comes after a series of more recent incidents that have left Egyptians feeling left out in the cold by a government meant to protect them.

Last summer, 28-year-old businessman Khaled Said was beaten to death by police, also in Alexandria, causing a local and international uproar. Around his death, there have been numerous other reports of police brutality, random arrests and torture.

Last year was also witness to a brutal parliamentary election process in which the government’s security apparatus and thugs seemed to spiral out of control. The result, aside from injuries and deaths, was a sweeping win by the ruling party thanks to its own carefully-orchestrated campaign that included vote-rigging, corruption and rife brutality. The opposition was essentially annihilated. And just days before the elections, Copts - who make up 10 percent of the population - were once again the subject of persecution, when a government moratorium on construction of a Christian community centre resulted in clashes between police and protestors. Two people were left dead and over 100 were detained, facing sentences of up to life in jail.

The economic woes of a country that favours the rich have only exacerbated the frustration of a population of 80 million whose majority struggle each day to survive. Accounts of thefts, drugs, and violence have surged in recent years, and the chorus of voices of discontent has continued to grow.

The terror attack that struck the country on New Year’s eve is in many ways a final straw – a breaking point, not just for the Coptic community, but for Muslims as well, who too feel marginalized, persecuted, and overlooked, by a government that fails to address their needs. On this Coptic Christmas eve, the solidarity was not just one of religion, but of a desperate and collective plea for a better life and a government with accountability.

See also: Egypt Muslims to act as "human shields" at Coptic Christmas Eve mass

The New Years Day Suicide Bombing In Egypt Against Copts

January 4, 2011
Reuters

The death toll from a New Year bombing outside a church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria has risen by two to 23, the official news agency MENA said on Tuesday.

Dozens of people were wounded when a presumed suicide bomber detonated a device during a midnight service.

No clear official account has emerged of how the attack was carried out but political analysts point to a small cell, not a large militant group such as those behind an Islamist insurgency that flared more than a decade ago.

A Health Ministry official said 18 bodies had been identified but put the possible number of dead at 22, based on studies of body parts found at the scene.

Billionaire Naguib Sawiris, chairman of Orascom Telecom, one of Egypt's biggest listed companies, has offered 1 million Egyptian pounds ($172,500) for information on those behind the January 1 attack, a state newspaper said on Tuesday.

The Dutch anti-terrorism agency NCTb has urged police to keep an eye on Coptic churches in three Dutch cities after they were included in Internet threats against Coptic churches in Europe, including France and Britain.

The bombing provoked protests and some clashes with police in Alexandria and the capital, Cairo, by young Christians calling for more protection.

Christians account for about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 79 million, which is mostly Muslim. Sectarian violence is rare but disputes on issues from church building to religious conversions and divorce have grown in the past year.

Early last year, a drive-by shooting of six Christians and a Muslim policeman at a church in southern Egypt led to protests.

Egyptian officials have said there are indications "foreign elements" were behind the January 1 blast. An Iraqi group linked to al Qaeda threatened in November to attack Egyptian Christians.

Read also: Anti-Christian Drumbeat Loud Before Egypt Attack


Inside Story - Egypt's Coptic Christians - Al Jazeera

The Miracle at the Virgin Mary Church in Maadi, Egypt in 1976

The site of the present Church of the Virgin Mary is closely associated with the Holy Family when they came to Egypt. After their short stay in Old Cairo, the Holy Family moved in a southerly direction, reaching the modern Cairo suburb of Maadi which, in earliest Pharaonic times was an outlying district of Memphis, the capital of Egypt then. At Maudi, they boarded a sailing-boat which carried them up the Nile towards southern Egypt. The historic church built upon the spot from which they embarked, also dedicated to the Virgin, is further identified by the denominative, 'Al-Adaweya’, the Virgin’s Church 'of the Fen y’. (In fact, the name of that now modem suburb, Maadi, derives from the Arabic word which means 'the Crossing Point’)

The stone steps leading down to the River’s bank, and believed to have been used by the Holy Family, are accessible to pilgrims through the Church courtyard.

An event of miraculous importance occurred on Friday the 3rd of the Coptic month of Baramhat - the 12th of March - in 1976. A Holy Bible of unknown origin was carried by the lapping ripples of the Nile to the bank below the Church. When found it was open to the page of Isaiah 19:25 in which is declared: "Blessed be Egypt My People". Inside their is an icon of the Holy Family as well as of the Nativity. There is also a map inside of the locations visited by the Holy Family in Egypt.

The Bible is now behind glass in the Sanctuary of the Virgin in the Church for all to see.

Egypt Christians Say Intolerance Grows

Sarah Mikhail
October 7, 2010
Reuters

Minarets and church towers mingle on Cairo's skyline, but tensions mar Egypt's record of religious coexistence and a perception of growing intolerance is leading some Christians to shun their Muslim compatriots.

Amira Helmy, from a middle-class area of the capital, was brought up by a Muslim neighbour after her mother died and attended a state school alongside Muslim children.

"Most of my friends were Muslims. We used to go on outings together and some would call to me from below my house so we could walk to school," recalls Helmy with a smile.

Now a housewife in her 40s, she sends her daughter Christine and son Kirollos to a private Christian school and forbids them from mingling with Muslim children to protect them from insults.

"I do this out of fear for my child. Not because she's a girl. Kirollos is also prohibited from going out with Muslims."

Helmy said she had stopped speaking to most of her Muslim neighbours after one of them called her housekeeper the daughter of a 'blue bone', a pejorative name for Coptic Christians.

Around a tenth of Egypt's 78 million people are Christians, mostly Orthodox Copts -- descendents of Christian communities that founded monasticism in the early centuries after Jesus.

Christians are found in all social strata, from rubbish collectors living in old Cairo graveyards to top businessmen, doctors and government ministers, although Copts say they are under-represented in the security forces and public office.

Official rhetoric after independence in 1952 called for religious unity around the national cause, shown in the slogan "The Crescent and The Cross" often chanted at patriotic events.

"We did not hear of this 'Muslim-Christian' labelling until 15 or 20 years ago when religious slogans arose for political reasons," said Helmy's husband Salah Shafiq, a gold worker.

GRIEVANCES

Christian and Muslim clerics stress sectarian harmony, but communal tensions can erupt into criminality and violence, usually sparked by land disputes or cross-faith relationships.

Such spats could multiply if the state ignores Christian grievances on issues such as an Islam-focused school curriculum and laws making it easier to build mosques than churches.

Some Egyptians blame sectarian intolerance on the media for sensationalising trivial incidents involving religion.

In July, when a 26-year-old Christian from Upper Egypt fled her priest husband, an image of her veiled like a Muslim woman appeared on the Internet, prompting a fevered media debate over whether she had converted to Islam.

Last month, Pope Shenouda, head of Egypt's Orthodox Church, said on television he regretted any hurt to Muslims over remarks by a Coptic archbishop that some took as an attack on the Koran.

The killing of six Christians in southern Egypt on Coptic Christmas Eve in January may have fuelled fears of religious strife. The persecution of Iraqi Christians by Muslim militants after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq also provoked unease here.

Yet deaths from religious violence in Egypt remain extremely rare. Most Egyptian Christians say their biggest concerns are discrimination and occasional teasing and insults from Muslim neighbours, especially in poorer neighbourhoods.

"In the streets, I do feel discrimination when a Christian walks by and then a Muslim person says 'May God forgive me' (for the sin I see before me)," said Helmy's daughter Christine.

Shafiq blamed what he called growing Muslim intolerance on economic hardship that prompts its victims to seek a scapegoat. Despite an economic growth rate of near 6 percent, many Egyptians complain the benefits are not trickling down.

"So far, moderate Muslims seem to be the majority but may God protect us because economic conditions are worsening and the fundamentalists are offering people money to join them."

Egyptian Security Forces Storm Monastery, Assault Monks

Mary Abdelmassih
September 10, 2010
AINA

On Tuesday, September 7, at 8 PM a 300-man security force, backed by a large number of cars and armored vehicles, attacked the Monastery of St. Macarius of Alexandria in Wadi Rayan, Fayoum province, 150 KM south of Cairo. The monks in the monastery were assaulted with tear gas, batons and stones. Three monks were seriously wounded.

The security forces prevented the delivery of limestone bricks to be used for the construction of cells for the monks within the grounds of the ancient Monastery. The forces also attempted to confiscate bricks already delivered but the monks sat on the bricks and refused to move.

The authorities claim that Wadi Rayan is a conservation area, while the monks say they are building cells within the grounds of the Monastery, which was built before the area was designated for conservation.

Security forced surrounded the Monastery until 12 AM the following day, but withdrew "after seeing the insistence of monks to assert their rights," said Father Boulos elMakkary, one of the 85 monks living in the monastery. "They left with the commander promising to be back soon."

Monk Mina elMakkary said the security forces surrounded the Monastery as "if we were terrorists. We are monks who left everything behind to come and worship God, and they come to attack unarmed monks."

The monks believe that the government wants to prevent any construction on the premises to prevent any increase in the number of monks living there, "though cells for the monks are badly needed," said Father Boulos. Presently 5-8 monks share one cell, when each should be living alone.

Gerges Bouchra of Copts-United said the incident started when the head of the police in Fayoum was passing by in his car when he saw three trucks loaded with limestone bricks, which had been sent as a donation to the monastery. He protested and removed the registration plates from the trucks. Later he sent a force and took away the trucks with their cargo and drivers. "I told the officer-in-charge, Islam Moawad, that we understand our rights and that he was breaking the law as he had no warrant supporting his actions," Father Boulos said. "Apparently this was not enough, so the forces came on Tuesday evening to confiscate what bricks we had offloaded."

Father Boulos said the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency has built a big rest house for its staff with a swimming pool within the Monastery grounds, under the pretext of watching rare birds, but more likely "to watch us," and the swimming pool is "just for conserving water" we were told. He added that two months ago the Agency had given permission to a private investor, Hany Zaky, to build a tourist attraction within the conservation area, 5 KM away from the Monastery, and he had stipulated that monks should not build there.

The Monastery of St. Macarius, also called the "Buried Monastery" as most of its cells are caves in the mountain, has been uninhabited for a long time due to desert conditions and being without electricity or water. Monks have, however, lived there from time to time until 1996, when they decided to remain there permanently and obtained permission from the Minister of Environment to live there.

Problems with the authorities started with the increase in the number of monks and the need for cells. Two years ago newly built cells were demolished on orders from the Environmental Affairs Agency. "We got fined 2 million Egyptian pounds for supplying the monastery with water, we went to court and won through reconciliation," monk Mina said. "Police in Fayoum, State Security and the Agency collude against the Monastery and they do not give us any permits. They want us to get a Presidential decree from President Mobarak," he added.

Father Boulos said that State Security might import Arabs to the area to get rid of them as they did in Abu Fana in the Minya province. "During a meeting with a top State Security one of our priests official in Fayoum was threatened and told the monastery might be destroyed, and people would be sent to the monastery to harm the monks."

Speaking on behalf of the monks, Father Boulos said that they are not afraid as they do not care about their lives. "We are ready for martyrdom. Maybe if we die now, the next generation can live in peace."

The Relics of Saint Moses the Ethiopian in Nitria

The Paromeos Monastery, also known as Baramos Monastery, is a Coptic Orthodox monastery located in the Nitrian Desert. It is the most northern monastery among the four current monasteries of Scetes, about 4 km north of the Monastery of Saint Pishoy. The name Paromeos is derived from the Coptic Pa-Romeos, which means that of the Romans. Ecclesiastically, the monastery is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and carries her name. It was founded c. 335 A.D. by Saint Macarius the Great.

Beside Saint Macarius the Great and Saint Arsenius, other saints of the fourth and fifth century resided in the Paromeos Monastery, such as Saint Isidore, and Saint Moses the Ethiopian who was martyred at the raid of 407 A.D. During the first half of the fifteenth century, the historian Al-Maqrizi visited the monastery and was responsible for identifying it as that of Saint Moses the Ethiopian. At that time, he found it to have only a few monks.


Today, the monastery still preserves much of its ancient character. It has five churches. The oldest church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and contains the relics of Saint Moses the Black (photo above). It is considered the oldest church in Scetes still in existence, dating back to the sixth century. In the desert about the monastery there are also several caves that apparently continue to be inhabited by hermits.

This monastery is significant in that it was founded on a site in front (south) of the Old Baramus monastery, discovered by archaeologists in 1994, which some say was incorrectly known as "the Monastery of Moses the Black". Others believe that Deir Anba Musa al-Aswad, or the Monastery of Saint Moses the Black, under the leadership of St. Isidore the Hegumen, was the original name. The older monastery probably dates to as early as 340 AD. It should be noted that there exists some confusion in regard to the current monastery's history in relationship to the old monastery. It is very possible that both existed concurrently at some point, with the former monastery known as Deir al-Baramus, and the current monastery known as the Monastery of the Virgin of Baramus, Hence, the history we have of the modern monastery certain encompasses that of both.

Today the relics of St. Moses in the Church of the Holy Virgin continue to work many miracles, especially for those battling with their passions such as drunkenness. He is also known to heal the demon possessed and many exorcisms take place before his relics. For example, a young man possessed by demons was healed, and after the prayer service there could be seen on his shirt the name of Saint Moses together with a cross. A photo of this shirt is placed next to the relics of Saint Moses as a testimony to his miraculous power.

Read more here and here.

Russian Sees Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia

“The Ark of the Covenant was taken out and it was shown to me. An Ethiopian operator was at the scene and filmed the event.”

by Mikhail Aristov
August 26, 2010
Brown Condor

The famous Russian traveler Fyodor Konyukhov has become the first European to see with his own eyes the legendary Ark of the Covenant that preserved the tablets received by Moses on Mount Sinai.

This is the holiest relic of Coptic Christianity. It has never been shown to any non-consecrated person. Most likely, this may be the reason that led to many theories about the place where it is being preserved. At a chapel in the ancient capital of Ethiopia, Aksum (Axum), the Ethiopian priests showed the Ark of the Covenant to Fyodor Konyukhov who has recently been ordained deacon by the Russian Orthodox Church, and is preparing for an African expedition with the blessings of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Kyrill. Sharing his impression Fyodor Konyukhov has this to say.

“I did not expect it, but the Ethiopians showed me the Ark of the Covenant,” says Fyodor Konyukhov. “It was four O’ clock, and I was with priests at the service. I was standing near the keeper of the relic and I looked into his eyes. I have never seen such a person. Light was emitting from his eyes. He could not talk to me, because priests do not talk during Lent. The Ark of the Covenant was taken out and it was shown to me. An Ethiopian operator was at the scene and filmed the event,” Fyodor Konyukhov said.

Fyodor Konyukhov has made six solo expeditions around the world aboard a yacht, climbed all the highest peaks, including Mount Everest, travelled to the North and South Poles, and sailed around the Antarctic. He plans to launch an expedition to the African deserts. He is now preparing for this. He is in Moscow from Addis Ababa for only two days, but decided to share his impression with our listeners.

The Russian traveler has agreed with the Ethiopian authorities on the construction of a Russian Orthodox chapel in Addis Ababa. It will be St. George chapel, says Fyodor Konyukhov.

“We met with the builders and Ethiopian workers. Our embassy helped us. I hope to install a cross at the site before I leave for the expedition in February,” Fyodor Konyukhov said.

An expedition to the hot African desert will start on February 20th and will run for 35 days. We will use camels during the expedition, says Fyodor Konyukhov.

“Our group will consist of seven people, two herdsmen, two guards, one translator, a cook and me. I am the only one from Russia and I wish to have a Russian operator to cover the expedition,” Fyodor Konyukhov.

The famous traveler arrived in Ethiopia in response to a request by its government that hopes he can lay interesting and comfortable routs for tourists. In short, we will be able to see interesting places in the country in the near future.

Meanwhile, a cupola for the St. George chapel is being made in Sofrino near Moscow. Fyodor Konyukhov will shortly leave for Africa to prepare for the expedition.

The Relics of Saint Paisios the Great

St. Paisios the Great (Feast Day - June 19)

Saint Paisios the Great was born in Egypt about the year 300 and was consecrated to God as a monk at a young age. He together with Saint John the Short (Nov. 9) was trained in the ascetical life in Scete by the great Abba Pambo (July 18). He practiced extreme fasting and vigil beyond the limits of human strength, and received many revelations of mysteries. The Saviour often appeared to him; once He appeared to him with two Angels, as He had to Abraham, and allowed him to wash His immaculate feet. When he was asked which virtue was the highest of all, he would answer, "That which is done in secret."

Saint Paisios the Great is known as Saint Pishoy or Bishoy by the Coptic Church. Having passed away in the early fifth century, Saint Isidore of Pelusium had his relics along with those of Saint Paul of Tammah, a companion of Saint Paisios, transferred to the Monastery of Saint Pishoy at Deir El Barsha, which still exists today near Mallawi. On December 13, 841 AD, the Coptic Pope Joseph I and moved the body of Saint Pishoy as well as that of Saint Paul of Tammah to the Monastery of Saint Pishoy in the wilderness of Scetes. It is said that they first attempted to move the body of Saint Pishoy only, but when they carried it to the boat on the Nile, the boat would not move until they brought in the body of Saint Paul of Tammah as well. Today, the two bodies lie in the main church of the Coptic Monastery of Saint Pishoy in the Nitrian Desert.

The Monastery of Saint Pishoy at Scetes, Egypt, is the most famous Coptic monastery named after Saint Pishoy. It is the most eastern monastery among the four current monasteries of the Nitrian Desert. Today, the Monastery of Saint Pishoy contains the relics of Saint Pishoy, Saint Paul of Tammah, as well as the relics of other saints. Eyewitnesses recount that the body of Saint Pishoy remains in incorruption until the present day.

On the feast of Saint Pishoy's departure on July 15 (according to the Copts) of each year, the Coptic Pope leads the celebrations in honor of the great Saint and to join the monks of the monastery in their joy for the feast. Thousands of visitors come over a period of 10 days (July 5-15) to join in the celebration and to receive the blessing and intercession of the great Saint.

Read more here.

Life of a Christian Convert in Egypt

Egyptian Convert Endures Life at a Standstill – on the Run

Compass Direct News
May 25, 2010

Cairo, Egypt - From the mosque across the street, words blasting from minaret megaphones reverberate throughout the tiny apartment where Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary is forced to hide. Immediately following afternoon prayers, the Friday sermon is, in part, on how to deal with Christians.

“Do not shake their hands. Do not go into their homes. Do not eat their food,” an imam shouts as El-Gohary, a convert to Christianity from Islam, looks through his window toward the mosque, shakes his head and grimaces.

“I hope one day to live in a place where there are no mosques,” he says. “How many megaphones do they need?”

For nearly two years, El-Gohary and his teenage daughter have been living in hiding because he abandoned Islam and embraced Christianity. During this time he has been beaten and forcibly detained, and his daughter has been attacked. He has had to endure death threats, poverty and crushing boredom.

Asked what gets him through the constant pressure of living on the run, El-Gohary said he wants to show the world how Christians are treated in Egypt.

“My main driving force is I want to prove to people the amount of persecution that Muslim converts and Christians face here, and that the persecution has been going on for 1,400 years,” he said.

When asked the same question, his 16-year-old daughter, Dina Maher Ahmad Mo’otahssem, pushed back tears and said one word.

“God.”

Hiding

El-Gohary, 57, and his daughter were forced into hiding shortly after August 2008, when he sued the national government to allow him to change the religion listed on his state-issued ID from Islam to Christianity.

El-Gohary followed in the footsteps of Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy, 27, also a convert from Islam, in filing an ID case because he didn’t want his daughter to be forced to take Islamic education classes or have her declared an “apostate” by Egyptian Islamic authorities if she decided to stay a Christian into adulthood. Dina is required by law to possess an ID card. The ID card is used for everything from opening a bank account to receiving medical care. The identification also determines whether Egyptians are subject to Islamic civil courts.

Dina is the daughter of El-Gohary and his first wife, who is a Muslim. El-Gohary said that before he got married, he told his future wife that one day he would be baptized as a Christian. He said he now thinks she was convinced that he would eventually turn back to Islam. Over time, she grew tired of his refusal go back on his faith and complained to El-Gohary’s family, demanding a divorce.

“She started crying. She went to my parents and my brother and said, ‘This is not going to work out, I thought that he was going to change his mind. I didn’t think he was that serious about it,’” El-Gohary said. “She started talking about it to other people to the point where they started calling me from the loudspeakers of the local mosque, asking me what I was doing and ordering me to come back and pray.”

Eventually El-Gohary married another Muslim, and over the years she became a Christian. She has fled Egypt and lives in the United States; El-Gohary hasn’t seen her since March 2009.

On April 11, 2009, El-Gohary’s lawyers presented a conversion certificate from the Coptic Church in court. He obtained the certificate under court directions after going to Cyprus, at great expense, to obtain a baptismal certificate. The next month, the State Council, a consultative body of Egypt’s Administrative Court, provided the court with a report stating that El-Gohary’s change of faith violated Islamic law. They instructed that he should be subject to the death penalty.

In February 2009, lawyers opposing El-Gohary’s case advocated that he be sentenced to death for apostasy. On June 13, 2009, a Cairo judge rejected El-Gohary’s suit.

On Sept. 17, 2009, authorities at Cairo International Airport seized his passport. He was trying to travel to China with the eventual hope of going to the United States. On March 9, 2010, the Egyptian State Council Court in Giza, an administrative court, refused to return his passport. He has another hearing about the passport on June 29.

“I think it’s a kind of punishment, to set an example to other Muslims who want to convert,” El-Gohary said. “They want me to stay here and suffer to show other converts to be afraid. They are also afraid that if they let me go, then I will get out and start talking about what is happening in Egypt about the persecution and the injustice. We are trapped in our own country without even the rights that animals have.”

Conditions

As recently as last week, El-Gohary and his daughter were living in a small, two-bedroom apartment across the street from a mosque on the outskirts of an undisclosed city in Egypt. The floor was littered with grime and bits of trash. Clumps of dust and used water bottles were everywhere.

El-Gohary had taped over the locks, as well as taped shut the inside of windows and doors, to guard against eavesdroppers and intruders. He had taped over all the drain holes of the sinks to keep anyone from pumping in natural gas at night.

Even the shower drain was taped over.

The yellow walls were faded, scuffed and barren, save for a single picture, a holographic portrait of Jesus, taped up in what qualified as a living room. El-Gohary motioned through a door to a porch outside. Rocks and pebbles thrown by area residents who recently learned that he lived there covered the porch.

“I would open the window, but I don’t want the rocks to start coming in,” he said.

El-Gohary has an old television set and a laptop with limited access to the Internet. Dina said she spends her time reading the Bible, talking to her father or drawing the occasional dress in preparation for obtaining her dream job, designing clothes.

Even the simple task of leaving El-Gohary’s apartment is fraught with risk. Every time he leaves, he places a padlock on the door, wraps it with a small plastic bag and melts the bag to the lock with a match.

El-Gohary cannot work and has to rely on the kindness of other Christians. People bring him food and water and the occasional donation. When the food runs out, he has to brave going outside.

“Our life is extremely, extremely hard. It’s hard for us to attend a church more than once because people will know it is us,” he said. “We can’t go to a supermarket more than once because we are going to be killed.”

Girl, Interrupted

Possibly the worst part for El-Gohary is watching his daughter suffer. A reflective youth with a gentle demeanor, Dina is quick to smile. But at a time when her life should be filled with friends, freedom and self-discovery, she is instead confined between four walls.

Even going to school, normally a simple thing, is fraught with dangerous possibilities. Dina hasn’t gone to school in about a year. She said that the last time she did, other students ridiculed her mercilessly, and a teacher hit her when she tried to attend religious classes for Christians instead of Muslims.

Now she and her father fear she could be beaten, kidnapped and forcibly converted, or simply killed. She can’t even go to church, she said.

“I don’t understand why I am being treated this way,” she said. “I believe in something, Christianity – I chose the religion because I love it. So why should I be treated this way?”

Dina was a little girl when she starting hearing about Jesus. Her father used to sit with her and tell her stories from the Bible, and he also told her about his conversion experience. Like her father, she cites a supernatural experience as a defining event in her faith.

One night, she said, she had a dream in which an enormous image of Jesus smiling appeared in a garden. She said the image became bigger and bigger until it touched the ground and became a golden church. She told her father about the dream, and since then she has believed in Christ.

Under Islamic law, Dina is considered a Muslim because her father was born as one. Because, like her father, Dina has decided to follow Christ, she is considered an “apostate” under most interpretations of Islamic law.

She gained national prominence in November 2009, when she wrote a letter, through a Coptic website, to U.S. President Barack Obama. She told the president that Muslims in the United States are treated much better than Copts in Egypt and asked why this was the case. She hopes the president will pressure the Egyptian government to ensure religious rights or let her and her father immigrate to the United States.

One afternoon last month, Dina was walking to a market with her father. As the two walked, El-Gohary noticed smoke and vapors coming off Dina’s jacket. The canvas was sizzling and dissolving. Someone had poured acid over the jacket. El-Gohary ripped it off her and threw it away.

“I asked people if they saw what happened and everyone said, ‘No, we didn’t see anything,’” El-Gohary said.

Luckily, Dina was not physically injured in the attack, but since then she has been terrified to go outside.

“I am very, very scared,” she said. “I haven’t gone outside since the attack happened.”

Change of Faith

El-Gohary, also known as Peter Athanasius, became a Christian 36 years ago while attending an academy for police trainees. During his second year of school, he became good friends with his roommate, a Copt and the only Christian in the academy. After watching cadets harass his roommate for praying, El-Gohary asked him why the others had ridiculed him.

“For me, it was the first time I had heard something like that,” El-Gohary said. “I didn’t have any Christian friends before, and I didn’t know about the level of persecution that takes place against Christians.”

Eventually, El-Gohary asked his friend for a Bible and took it home. His family tried to dissuade him from reading it.

“No, you can’t read the Bible,” his father told him. “It’s a really bad book.”

Undeterred, El-Gohary began reading the Bible in the privacy of his room. In the beginning, he said, the Bible was difficult to understand. But El-Gohary concentrated his efforts on the New Testament, and for the first time in his life, he said, he felt like God was speaking to him.

El-Gohary read the account of Jesus meeting the woman caught committing adultery, and the level of mercy that Jesus showed her transformed him, he said.

“Jesus said, ‘If anyone among you is without sin, then let him throw the first stone.’ The amount of forgiveness and love in this story really opened my eyes to the nature of Christianity,” El-Gohary said. “The main law that Jesus talked about was loving God ‘with all your heart, soul and mind.’ The basis of Christianity is love and forgiveness, unlike Islam, where it is based on revenge, fighting and war.”

Also, El-Gohary said, when he compared the two religions’ versions of heaven, he found that the Islamic version was about physical pleasure, whereas for Christians it was about being released from the physical world to be with God.

El-Gohary said his decision to follow Christ was final after he had a brilliant vision of light in his bedroom at his parents’ home, accompanied by the presence of “the peace of God.” El-Gohary said at first he thought he was seeing things, but then his father knocked on the door and demanded to know why the light was on. He told his father he was looking for something.

Persecution Begins

As a budding Christian convert, El-Gohary went back to the police academy and learned as much as he could about Christ and the Bible from his roommate. Persecution wasn’t long in coming.

One day an upperclassman spotted El-Gohary absent-mindedly drawing a cross on a notebook. The cadet sent El-Gohary to a superior for questioning.

El-Gohary avoided telling academy officials that his roommate had taught him about Christianity, but a captain at the school was able to piece together the evidence. The captain called El-Gohary’s father, a high-ranking officer at the academy, who in turn told the captain to make the young convert’s life “hell.”

Officials were imaginative in their attempts to break El-Gohary. He had to wake up before all the other students. He was ordered to carry his mattress around buildings and up and down flights of stairs. They exercised El-Gohary until he was about to pass out. Then they forced him to clean bathroom facilities with a toothbrush.

El-Gohary was not swayed from Christ, but he decided he couldn’t stay in what he said is the agency that “is the center of persecution against Christians” in Egypt. He tried numerous times to resign, but officials wouldn’t let him. Then he tried to get kicked out. Eventually, officials suspended the police cadet and sent him home for two weeks. At home, his family had a surprise waiting; they had hired an Islamic scholar to bring him back to Islam.

The scholar started by yelling Islamic teachings into El-Gohary’s ears, then moved on to write Quranic verses on his arms. El-Gohary remained seated and bore the humiliation in silence. Suddenly El-Gohary stood up, pinned the man against a wall and started yelling at him; the convert had caught the distinct smell of burning flesh – when he looked down at his arms, El-Gohary saw the scholar burning his hands with thin, smoldering iron rods.

“I said, ‘Enough! I have tolerated all of your talk. I have listened to all you have said, but this has gone too far,’” El-Gohary recalled. “The man said I had a ‘Christian demon’ inside me.”

Hope

As bad as things have been for El-Gohary and his daughter, their dedication seems rock-solid. They said they have never regretted their decisions to become Christians.

El-Gohary said that eventually, he will triumph.

“By law, my circumstance will have to change,” he said. “I have done nothing illegal.”

Dina is not so sure; she said she doesn’t feel like she has a future in Egypt, and she hopes to move to a place where she can get an education.

Whatever happens, both El-Gohary and his daughter said they are prepared to live in hiding indefinitely.

“There are days that I break down and cry, but I am not giving up,” Dina said. “I am still not going back to Islam.”