Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Africa North

Court sentences man to death for murdering Coptic priest in Alexandria

2022-05-19

[AlAhram] An Alexandria criminal court issued on Wednesday a preliminary death sentence

...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
against a 60-year-old man convicted of murdering Coptic priest Arsanios Wadid last month.
Sounds fair enough to me.
Preliminary death sentences are issued pending the non-binding consultative opinion of the country’s Grand Mufti, as per Egypt's penal code.

The 56-year-old victim, a priest at the Church of the Virgin Mary and Mar Boulos, was stabbed to death on the evening of 7 April as he was walking along the Mediterranean corniche in Alexandria’s Sidi Bishr district.

The assailant was apprehended hours later and confessed to the crime.

The defendant later recanted his confession, however, claiming that the knife found in his possession was just for self-defence and that he was not aware of what he was doing on the day of the incident, according to the prosecution.

The prosecution added that a mental health evaluation determined that the man showed no signs of a psychological disorder and was fully cognizant and possessed agency while committing the crime.

The prosecution also said that the weapon found in possession of the defendant had the victim’s DNA on it.
Hard to argue with DNA.
The prosecution also checked surveillance cameras at the scene of the crime and obtained the testimonies of 17 eyewitnesses.

Also, after conducting interviews with the defendant's relatives, the prosecution learned that he had joined bad boy groups. He had also previously served a 20-year prison sentence for joining an outlawed group.
That argues almost as as loud as DNA.
The suspect refused to be defended by a lawyer, and denied the charges against him.
"Nope. Nope. Wudn't me!"
The victim was ordained to the priesthood in 1995 by the late Pope Shenouda III, the former head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Link

Africa North

Pilgrimage trips to Jerusalem resume as 680 Coptic Egyptians fly to Israel

2022-04-22

[AlAhram] EgyptAir carried 680 Egyptian Coptic pilgrims on Thursday evening to visit the holy sites in Jerusalem, after pilgrimage trips had been suspended for two years due to the pandemic, sources at EgyptAir said.

The Coptic pilgrims boarded two Boeing 777 planes, each with a capacity of more than 350 passengers.

EgyptAir will continue to operate its flights from Cairo Airport to Tel Aviv, which started on 17 April, to transport about 3,000 Coptic pilgrims until 24 April (Coptic Easter), according to a statement by the sources on Thursday.

The pilgrimage trip includes visits to several holy places, namely: Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Mount Zion, Via Dolorosa, Jericho, Monastery of Temptation, the Dead Sea and the Mount of Olives.

The trip will cost pilgrims between $990-1150.

Pilgrims must take a PCR test 72 hours before traveling, provided that they have not been vaccinated in six months. Upon arrival at the Israeli airport, pilgrims will be required to take another PCR test.

This time of year, many Copts wish to travel to the Holy Land, and Jerusalem in particular. However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
a papal decree issued in 1979 by the late Pope Shenouda

III prohibits them from travelling there.

The decree was issued to protest to the Israeli occupation of Paleostine.

Since the Camp David Accords signed between Egypt and Israel in 1978 there have been no official travel restrictions between the two countries.

However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
many Coptic Egyptians have defied the decree, choosing to make the pilgrimage.

In early October, a plane branded with the logo of Egypt’s national carrier landed in Israel for the first time. The flight was described as "historic" by the Israel Airport Authority.

Earlier this week, the first direct flight between the Israeli capital of Tel Aviv and Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh kicked off.

In mid-March, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office announced that Egypt and Israel agreed to expand direct flights between the two countries, and that a direct flight route between Tel Aviv and Sharm El-Sheikh would begin operating in April during the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Link

Africa North

Prosecution refers man accused of killing Coptic priest in Alexandria to trial for 'deliberate murder'

2022-04-21

CSI Egypt:

[AlAhram] The Public Prosecution referred on Tuesday the man accused of murdering Coptic priest Arsanios Wadid last week to stand trial on charges of deliberate murder and possesion of a cold weapon, affirming that he was "fully cognizant" of his actions at the time of the incident.

The prosecution has collected evidence and built a case against the defendant based on the testimonies of 17 eyewitnesses and the Ministry of Health and Population’s Regional Mental Health Council’s report on his mental health condition during the time of the crime, the statement read.

The council's report showed that the man was fully cognizant and possessed agency throughout the crime, according to the statement.

The report also found that the defendant did not suffer from any symptoms of mental or psychological disorder at the time of examination or at the time of committing the crime, thereby making him criminally responsible, the prosecution said.

Additionally, the Public Prosecution said the victim’s autopsy report showed that the DNA extracted from the blood on the knife that was seized from the defendant after he was apprehended matched with the genetic fingerprint of the victim.

The prosecution also decided to move forward with the referral after checking on-site surveillance cameras, inspecting the scene of the crime, and obtaining other evidence, the statement said.

Wadid, 56, the Coptic priest of the Church of the Virgin Mary and Mar Boulos in Alexandria, was stabbed with a knife while walking along the Mediterranean Corniche in the Sidi Bishr District in Alexandria on Friday 8 April in a crime that terrorised witnesses and left the public in a state of shock.

Wadid was transported to Mostafa Kamel Military Hospital in Sidi Gaber, however, he departed this vale of tears.

During interrogation, the defendant confessed to deliberately killing the victim, the prosecution said in a statement last week.

However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
the defendant later recanted his confession, claiming that the knife in his possession was just for self-defence and that he was not aware of what he was doing on the day of the incident until he was arrested.

Wadid, born in 1966, was ordained to priesthood in 1995 by the late Pope Shenouda

III, the former head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Link

Africa North

Egypt police arrest man who reportedly stabbed Coptic priest to death in Alexandria

2022-04-09

[AlAhram] Egyptian security forces have arrested a 60-year-old man who reportedly stabbed a Coptic archpriest to death in the city of Alexandria on Thursday evening.

Arsanios Wadid, the Priest of the Church of the Virgin Mary and Mar Boulos in the Karmouz neighbourhood of the Meharam Bek district, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria said on its Facebook page.

Wadid, 56, was transported to Mostafa Kamel Military Hospital in Sidi Gaber neighbourhood, but he departed this vale of tears, the church said.

Investigations are underway to disclose the stabber’s identity and motives, the church added.

"The church eulogises this blessed father who committed his life to God, and gave his life today to him in an honest martyrdom," it said.

The victim was stabbed with a knife while walking along the Mediterranean Corniche in the Sidi Bishr district, according to statement by the Ministry of Interior.

Wadid, born in 1966, was ordained to the priesthood in 1995 by the late Pope Shenouda

III, the former head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church holds funeral for late priest murdered in Alexandria

[AlAhram] The church held the funeral for the 56-year-old Wadid at Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria.

On Thursday, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb condemned the crime and presented his condolences to the victim's family, the Coptic Orthodox Church and Egyptian Christians.

Link

Africa North

Egypt police arrest man who reportedly stabbed Coptic priest to death in Alexandria

2022-04-08

III, the former head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

4,700 Egyptian Coptic pilgrims to visit Jerusalem during Holy Week 2018: EgyptAir official

2018-04-03

[AlAhram] Despite the decades-long ban by the Egyptian Coptic Church, 4,700 Egyptian Christians are planning to make their way to Jerusalem this year, an official at EgyptAir told Ahram Online on Monday.

"Around 800 pilgrims have already left from Cairo to Tel Aviv on Air Sinai starting from 29 March," the official said.

Each Holy Week and Easter, many of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Christians aim to visit Jerusalem.

However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them...
a papal decree issued in 1979 by the late Pope Shenouda

III forbade Coptic travel to the city in protest of the Israeli occupation.

The EgyptAir official explained that a total of 26 charter flights are planned to travel from Cairo to Tel Aviv over the next week, yet there was no statement on timing of the trips.

During his visit to Cairo in January 2018, Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas

... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
urged Arabs to visit Jerusalem.

"Do not leave us alone. Going to Jerusalem is not going to Israel and supporting Israel. It is supporting Paleostinians," he said at the al-Azhar International Conference in Support of Jerusalem.

"All reservations for this trip are done through the tourism agencies."

There has been a debate on whether travel to Jerusalem ‐ occupied by Israel in 1967 ‐ may divide Christians.

Some believe they should not be barred from the "blessing" of visiting the Holy City, while others see such visits as giving legitimicy to over 50 years of Israeli occupation.

Since the Camp David Accords were signed between Egypt and Israel in 1978, there have been no official travel restrictions, other than the Coptic Orthodox Church's decree.

The church continues to renew its committment to the 1979 decree with statements against the Israeli occupation of Paleostine.

The number of religious pilgrims to Jerusalem has increased over the last few years.

Link

Africa North

Morsi to meet Pope of Orthodox Church in Ethiopia

2012-07-16

[Al Ahram] Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will meet the Pope of the Orthodox Church
Pope Shenouda died a few months ago. I wasn't aware they'd selected a successor yet. If they have it's not on the Coptic Church's website. I'm guessing he'll meet with the senior bishop.
in Ethiopia Monday at Egypt's embassy in Addis Ababa. Morsi will also meet Egyptian expats in Ethiopia, also at the embassy.

The president is in Ethiopia along with other African leaders to participate in the African Union Summit which started Sunday.

Link

Africa North

Egypt Sends Christian Student To Jail For Insulting Islam

2012-04-05

CAIRO - An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a 17-year-old Christian boy to three years in jail for publishing cartoons on his Facebook page that mocked Islam and the Prophet Mohammad, actions that sparked sectarian violence.

Gamal Abdou Massoud was also accused of distributing some of his cartoons to his school friends in a village in the southern city of Assiut, home to a large Christian population and the hometown of the late Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda.

"Assiut child's court ordered the jailing of Gamal Abdou Massoud ... for three years after he insulted Islam and published and distributed pictures that insulted Islam and its Prophet," the court said in a statement seen by Rooters.

The cartoons, published by Massoud in December, prompted some Mohammedans to attack Christians. Several Christian houses were burned and several Christians were maimed in the violence.

Link

Africa North

Thousands gather for funeral of Egypts Pope

2012-03-21

CAIRO: Thousands of mourners dressed in black gathered in Cairo on Tuesday for the funeral of Egypts Orthodox Christian Pope Shenouda, who spent his final years trying to comfort a disturbed community.

Shenouda, who died on Saturday aged 88, promoted religious harmony, winning respect among the Muslim majority, but his last years witnessed a growth in sectarian tension that worsened with the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak last year.

I cant tell you how much sorrow I have inside me. This was a great, great man and it will be hard to find anyone like him again, said Ivon Mosaed, a 52-year-old Christian Copt who heads an educational institute offering foreign languages courses.

Religious figures from several countries including a Catholic delegation from the Vatican and foreign ambassadors massed in the Orthodox Cathedral as long-bearded Coptic priests wearing bulbous black mitres prayed over Shenoudas body lying in an open coffin, a golden mitre upon his head and a gold-tipped staff in his hand.

A delegation from the ruling military council and several candidates for Egypts upcoming presidential elections attended the funeral. Security was tight, with dozens of police and army trucks scattered around the cathedral and plainclothes police posted on bridges and in streets nearby.

The prayers were led by Bishop Bakhomious, head of the church of Bahaira, a district in the Nile Delta north of Cairo, who will temporally hold the post of pope for two months until a new leader is elected.

I am so sad of course and many of my Muslim relatives are sad as well, said Muslim university student Iman, who was dressed in black and wearing a black veil. He was a decent Egyptian man who was also known for being very wise.

Egypt has seen less of the religious violence and discrimination that prompted members of ancient Christian communities to migrate from Iraq and other Arab countries. But Coptic Christians, who comprise about a tenth of Egypts 80 million people, have long complained of discrimination and in the past year stepped up protests, which included calls for new rules that would make it as easy to build a church as a mosque.

Thousands have paid their respects at the cathedral since he died. For much of the time, Shenoudas body was put in a seated position on a ceremonial throne dressed in gold and red embroidered vestments.

On Sunday, the cathedral had to close its doors several times in an attempt to contain the crowds. Two mourners died killed in the crush, medical sources said.

The burial is expected to take place at the Wadi el Natrun monastery in the desert northwest of Cairo, where the late pope had requested he be interred.

One of Shenoudas oft-repeated sayings, also cited in newspapers, was: Egypt is not a nation we live in, rather it is a nation that lives in us.

Link

Africa North

Pope of Egypt's Coptic Christians dies

2012-03-17

Pope Shenouda III, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church who led Egypt's Christian minority for 40 years during a time of increasing tensions with Muslims, has died. He was 88.

The state news agency MENA said Shenouda died yesterday after battling liver and lung problems for several years. A Coptic Church TV station ran a picture of the pope, with a running feed reading, "The Coptic Church prays to God that he rest in peace between the arms of saints."

The patriarch, known in Arabic as Baba Shenouda, headed one of the most ancient churches in the world, which traced it founding to St Mark, who is said to have brought Christianity to Egypt in the 1st Century during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero.

For Egypt's estimated 10 million Coptic Christians, he was a religious thinker and a charismatic leader, known for his sense of humour - his smiling portrait was hung in many Coptic homes and shops. Above all, many Copts saw him as the guardian of their minority living amid a majority Muslim population in this country of more than 80 million people.

Shenouda sought to do so by striking a conservative balance. During the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, he gave strong support to his government, while avoiding pressing Coptic demands too vocally in public to prevent a backlash from Muslim conservatives.

After Mubarak's fall a year ago, Christians grew increasingly worried over the rising power of Muslim conservatives.

Link

Africa North

Pope Shenouda III Accuses 'Infiltrators' of Being behind Egypt Riots

2011-10-11

The festivities that erupted Sunday between Coptic Christians and Egyptian security forces have raised fears that sectarian and political tensions in the country will increase given that Egypt is passing through a transition period following the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
Egypt's ruling military council on Monday ordered a speedy probe into festivities which killed 25 people as the cabinet held crisis talks amid fears of widespread sectarian unrest.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) "tasked the government with quickly forming a fact finding committee to determine what happened," in a statement read on state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
It called for "all measures against all those proven to have been involved, either directly or by incitement."

Both the ruling council and the cabinet held crisis talks, a day after the festivities in Cairo that left 25 dead, mostly Coptic Christians, and more than 300 people injured, according to health ministry figures.

Military prosecutors began questioning 25 people accused of involvement in the festivities, MENA said, after a security official said 40 people were set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock overnight.

Copts had been holding a demonstration against an attack earlier this month on a church in the southern city of Aswan when the violence broke out. Fighting also later took place near the hospital that caused more casualties.

Egypt's Coptic Orthodox church led by Pope Shenouda

III accused "infiltrators" among the demonstrators of having triggered the battle in streets on the Nile waterfront.

"The Christian faith denounces violence. Strangers infiltrated the demonstration and committed the crimes for which the Copts have been blamed," it said after Shenuda held a meeting with 70 church leaders.

"Copts have suffered repeated problems without accountability for the aggressors," it said in a statement, calling on authorities to "solve the root causes of the problems."

The festivities rattled the Cairo stock exchange, which shed 5.15% within minutes of opening.

On the international scene, European leaders who were gathered for talks in Luxembourg, where the bloodshed in Cairo suddenly took center-stage, expressed alarm at the festivities.

A curfew was imposed overnight in parts of the Egyptian capital following the violence.

In a late-night address, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf appealed to Egyptians "not to give in to sedition" and warned that the country was "in danger."

At least five of the dead were mown down by a speeding army vehicle which swerved to hit protesters, a Coptic priest said, while an AFP correspondent saw bodies with gunshot wounds at the hospital.

The grand imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Tayyeb, the Sunni religious head, called for crisis talks between Mohammedan and Christian leaders later on Monday "in a bid to contain the crisis." state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said.

Some commentators warned of civil strife between Egypt's Mohammedans and minority Christians.

Others said the festivities were fuelled not only by sectarian strife but also by anger towards the security services and the military council which succeeded Mubarak.

Government-backed provocation was also blamed.

Users of social networking sites such as Twitter said the initial festivities outside the state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
building on the Nile were provoked by "thugs" at the scene, while the television was accused of fanning anti-Coptic sentiment.

On Monday, Egyptian authorities announced the hanging of a man sentenced to death for shooting six Copts last year.

The protesters in Cairo clashed with anti-riot police and soldiers guarding the state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
building, after thousands took part in a protest march from the Shobra district.

A standoff degenerated as the demonstrators started hurling stones and set fire to two cars, an AFP correspondent said. The television channel said an army vehicle was burnt.

"Down with the marshal," the thousands of demonstrators chanted on the march to Maspero, referring to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads the military council.

State television reported that three soldiers were rubbed out and dozens of their comrades maimed.

Copts complain of systematic discrimination, but since Mubarak's fall, tensions have also mounted between the military -- initially hailed for not siding with Mubarak -- and groups which spearheaded the revolt.

Activists charge the army has been reluctant to carry out genuine reforms.

Link

Africa North

Qaeda accuses Copts of inciting tensions in Egypt

2011-02-26

[Al Arabiya] The deputy to Osama bin Laden issued al-Qaeda's second message since the Egyptian uprising, accusing the nation's Christian leadership of inciting interfaith tensions and denying that the terror network was behind last month's bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria that killed 21 and sparked protests.

Perish the thought!

The message Friday from Ayman al-Zawahri, the No. 2 leader of the terror network, comes amid renewed Mohammedan-Christian tension over the slaying of a Coptic priest and a dispute involving a monastery.

I imagine that's the monastery the Egyptian army has been attacking, after knocking down the front gate. They like to shout, "Allahu akhbar!"

But the pro-democracy tone of the protests, led by secular liberals, contrasted greatly with the Islamic state al-Qaeda envisions.

Qaeda denies bombing
In the latest video, al-Zawahri devoted much of the time to the Mohammedan-Christian divide. But he denied that his group was behind the Alexandria bombing, according to a transcript by the SITE Intel group, a U.S. group that monitors cut-thoat messages.

Ahead of the bombing, thug Islamic websites affiliated with al-Qaeda circulated lists of Coptic churches in Egypt and Europe - including one that was hit on New Year's - along with instructions on how to attack them.

"To start, I want to explain that al-Qaeda has no connection with the kaboom that happened in the church in Alexandria," he said.

"The first among those who are responsible for setting the situation ablaze is the leadership of the Coptic Orthodox Church under the leadership of the one called Pope Shenouda

III," he said.

Of course. Had the Copts not been there, allowing themselves to be led by that man, the church need not have been attacked. Thus it is that they are at fault.

He blamed the church leader for spreading "belief that the Mohammedans have occupied Egypt and they must be driven out as they were kicked out of Spain" in the 15th century.

As if the Copts would dare so much as think such a thing!

Al-Zawahri accused the Copts of trying to establish an independent state in Egypt.

Does anyone actually believe such arrant nonsense?

On Tuesday, a Coptic priest was killed in southern Egypt, triggering street demonstrations by several thousand Christians. The priest was found dead in his home with several stab wounds.

About 3,000 protesters scuffled with Mohammedan shop owners Tuesday night and smashed the windows of a police car in the city of Assiut.

The next day, around 2,000 Copts gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest reports that an Egyptian army unit had attacked a desert monastery earlier on Wednesday. The protesters said that a military unit using armored vehicles had demolished newly-built fences surrounding the old monastery. They claimed that the soldiers fired live bullets at monks.

Egypt's military council, which has been ruling the country since the Feb. 11 ouster of Mubarak, said the soldiers were removing "some walls that had been illegally built on the road and on land owned by the state."

Calls for more attacks
"If we are not able to produce weapons equal to the weapons of the Crusader West, we can sabotage their complex economic and industrial systems and drain their powers, which fight without a cause, until they run away fleeing," Zawahiri said in the audio message, according to the US-based SITE monitoring service.

He complained that the Mohammedan world trails behind the West in technological know-how and military weaponry.

That's not all the Mohammedan world trails behind.

"Therefore, the mujahideen (holy warriors) must invent new ways, ways that never dawned on the minds of the West," Zawahiri continued. "An example of this brave and courageous thinking is the use of airplanes as a mighty weapon, as happened in the blessed invasions in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania."

Good luck with that. Except for the American airplanes (once) and the London trains (once), the rest seem to have been painful or embarrassing fizzles. It doesn't seem as though your Allah likes you very much.

The 9/11 attacks left nearly 3,000 people dead when Al-Qaeda Death Eaters slammed airliners into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

According to AP, Zawahiri's first message, delivered Feb. 18, made no mention of the protests or Hosni Mubarak's fall from power. Al-Qaeda had advocated for the destruction of Mubarak's regime - and al-Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor, was part of a failed cut-throat uprising against the former president in the 1990s.

Meanwhile,
...back at the ranch...
according to AFP, Zawahiri's first message last week addressed the popular uprising that led Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to step down after three decades in power. Al-Qaeda has long advocated that violence is the only way to overthrow regimes.

But a handful of countries across the Middle East and North Africa are now roiled by popular revolts against longtime autocratic rulers.

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