Egypt's Copts in Danger--Again

The Times of Israel reports that for the first time in 1600 years a Coptic Church has been forced to cancel Sunday Mass.

After the invasion of the Arab Muslims around the middle of the seventh century AD, the church suffered a slow decline but around the middle of the twentieth century, it experienced an unprecedented revival. This spiritual renaissance had its start in the forties and fifties in the Coptic Sunday School movements in Cairo, Giza and Asyut. Inspired by the challenges they experienced in the Sunday School classes, young men consecrated their lives to God and joined the desert fathers. Today, many of the church leaders grew from that spirited revival. The Copts continue to have active youth groups that emphasize religious education as well as providing social interaction. Although called Sunday schools, these gatherings usually held on Fridays, are considered to be a very important religious element to all the Coptic families. Their children usually join at an early age and continue to participate in them throughout their adolescence. They involve diverse activities, both on the spiritual level as well as on the social side of their lives.

In May of 1844, Nativist groups began spreading rumors that the Catholic Church was planning on removing the bible from schools. This rumor fueled the anti-catholic tensions that were the result of the growing population of Irish immigrants. The tension broke and riots erupted at a Nativist rally on May 6th. The violence caused the destruction of two Catholic churches, the burning of many homes and buildings the deaths of fourteen people and the injury of 50 more.insert quote here

In keeping with its origins in the Leo Frank lynching, the reorganized Klan had a new anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, and anti-immigrant slant. This was consistent with the new Klan's greater success at recruiting in the U.S. Midwest than in the South.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s crime statistics for 2011 showed 68 anti-Catholic hate crimes took place in the U.S. last year.

In 2011, there were 68 anti-Catholic criminal offenses and 21 known offenders, with 84 victims. Offenses included three simple assaults, three acts of intimidation, four burglaries, 11 acts of larceny-theft, one arson attack and 46 acts of destruction, damage or vandalism

The group that “renounced violence” in an effort to gain political power is engaged in a full-scale campaign of terror against Egypt’s Christian minority. Brotherhood leaders have incited their followers to attack Christian homes, shops, schools and churches throughout the country. Samuel Tadros, an Egyptian scholar with the Hudson Institute, told me these attacks are the worst violence against the Coptic Church since the 14th century.

The news coming out of Egypt is staggering. USA Today reports that “forty churches have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged” in one week. According to the Coptic Orthodox and Catholic churches in Egypt, 160 Christian-owned buildings have also been attacked.

In one town, Islamists paraded three nuns on the streets like prisoners of war after burning their Franciscan school. The attackers tore a cross off the gate of the school and replaced it with an Islamist flag. The New York Times described hundreds of Islamists in one attack, “lashing out so ferociously that marble altars were left in broken heaps on the floor.”

Two security guards working on a tour boat owned by Christians were burned alive. An orphanage was burned down. The Catholic Bishop of Luxor told the Vatican news agency Tuesday that he has been trapped in his home for 20 days by Islamist mobs chanting “Death to the Christians!” “People who reside in the villages of the area that have nothing because food supplies are running out and people are afraid to leave the house,” he said.