Egyptian Christians Under Renewed Attacks

The Telegraph reports on new attacks on the Coptic Church in Egypt. So much for 'democracy'. Is it time to bring back the pharoh? In the 21st century, it isn't "let my people go". It's "leave my people alone for goodness sake!"

'Armed troops and riot police guarded the streets around St Mena's church and nearby burned-out shops and apartment blocks in the impoverished, crumbling Cairo suburb of Imbaba.

Inside, Father Cherubim Awad said a conspiracy was the only possible explanation for the violence that had engulfed relations between Christians and Muslims in recent weeks.

"Five churches were attacked on the same night," he said. "From the beginning of this year we have had all these attacks in a short space of time. There is some hidden hand behind this, whether from inside the country or outside it."

The street battles, which began on Saturday evening outside his church, demonstrated the breakdown in law and order in parts of Egypt that began during the uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in February.

The police failed to intervene, while Fr Cherubim said that, after several hours, the army moved in to protect the church but not the surrounding buildings, and refused to try to break up the warring sides.

Sectarian violence has increased in Egypt. It began with a church bombing in Alexandria before the uprising began, but has worsened since.

A large gang of Salafi Muslims – followers of a purist sect to which most Islamist terrorist groups are aligned – led the attack on St Mena's, claiming a Christian woman who had converted to Islam to marry a Muslim was being held inside against her will.

"They performed evening prayer 200 metres from the church and after they finished they started shouting 'We want you to leave', meaning the Copts," Fr Cherubim said. "They were shouting 'Islamiya, Islamiya, Islamiya, with our souls and blood we sacrifice ourselves for the crescent'. "Are we not citizens? Are we foreigners? Should we leave this country now and go away?"'

For the full article click here.



Meanwhile, Prison Planet hosts an article from a blog called The American Dream, highlighting the burning of Churches taking place in various parts of the World, suggesting that we only hear the big stories in the big media.