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Cairo’s Mugamma’ al-Adyan Complex: A Message of Peace for Egyptians and Beyond
Author: Amro Selim
Publication Date: 7/1/2021
Source: Fikra Forum
The sayings “religion is for God and the nation is for all,” and “God created us to worship Him and cultivate the land” are ones we hear often in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. These statements are meant to indicate that the nation belongs to all without exception, whether Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, and that religion is the worship of God. However, it remains a question whether this expression applies to reality.
In approaching the question of Egypt’s interfaith history and culture, I did not want to present a political, religious, historical narrative. I am not a religious scholar, nor a specialist in history. If the discussion turns into politics, it will lose its simple significance. Rather, I want to simply and honestly present an international audience with a living picture of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Egypt, one too often hidden by reports of tensions and a loss of Egypt’s historical richness, still visible in the country’s architecture and great cultural figures.
Understanding Coptic history: Understanding Egyptian history
Author: Dina Ezzat
Publication Date: 5/1/2021
Source: Ahram Online
It is impossible to subtract the history of Egypt’s Coptic Christians from mainstream Egyptian history, historian Mohamed Afifi explains in an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly.
It is not a particularly festive Christmas that the Copts of Egypt are celebrating today, notably because of the restrictions resulting from the winter surge in Covid-19. However, Christmas this year has been marked, as has been the case over the past five years, with an announcement of the restoration of several churches and the registration of others under construction nationwide.
For Egypt’s Coptic Church, and perhaps for the overwhelming majority of Copts, this is no small thing. It is a gesture that is as celebrated as the tradition of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to attend Christmas Mass in Cairo, started in January 2015 only six months after he became president.
Ibrahim Issa calls for Christian history to be taught in schools, dreams of bright 2021
Publication Date: 4/1/2021
Source: Egypt Independent
Egyptian journalist and media personality Ibrahim Issa has called for Christian history and culture to be included as part of the nation’s educational curricula, both in social studies and within Arabic language classes.
During his talk show “Hadith al-Qahira” (Cairo Talk) on the “al-Qahira wal Nas” (Cairo and the People) channel on Friday, Issa explained that Egypt’s education curricula does not contain enough references to Coptic history.
The most that gets mentioned is usually monasticism, monasteries, and their participation in the 1919 revolution, he said.
Acquittal in assault of Christian woman casts pall over Christmas for Egypt's Coptic community
Author: Shahira Amin
Publication Date: 28/12/2020
Source: Al-Monitor
A controversial court ruling acquitting three defendants — a father and his two sons — who had stripped naked and dragged an elderly Coptic Christian woman through the streets of an Upper Egyptian village four years ago, has sparked an outcry from rights groups and the country's Christian community.
The three men who had been sentenced to 10 years each in absentia by the Minya Criminal Court in January were acquitted Dec. 17 after turning themselves in. Over the course of the last 11 months, several judges had recused themselves from the case for unclear reasons.
Refusal of the word persecution to qualify the situation in Egypt on the part of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch
Publication Date: 8/1/2021
Source: Agenzia Fides
"When I meet the leaders of the world, they always ask me questions about the persecution that is affecting us in Egypt, and I answer that there is no persecution, clearly rejecting this expression to qualify our condition in our country". This is how Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II described his reaction to foreign representatives - including political leaders and Heads of State - who, when they meet him, evoke in their conversation formulas and schemes with which the Coptic Christians of Egypt in the "mainstream" media representation , and in general the Christian communities in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East, are systematically labeled as "persecuted minorities".
The statue of the Virgin Mary placed on the tower of the Catholic Church in Qaraqosh
Publication Date: 15/1/2021
Source: Agenzia Fides
When Pope Francis visits the city of Qaraqosh as part of his visit to Iraq, he will also see the large statue of Mary on the bell tower of the church in the sanctuary "al Tahira" .
Are Egypt's Christians Persecuted? Why Some Copts Say No
Author: Paul Marshall
Publication Date: 15/1/2021
Source: Hudson Institute
The religious freedom of and even the number of Christians in Egypt is highly contested.
Last year the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) removed Egypt from its recommended category of “Countries of Particular Concern (CPC),” its list of the world’s worst religious persecutors, but recommended that it be added to the State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL). The SWL list is countries whose governments tolerate or engage in severe religious freedom violations, but do not rise to the CPC standard of “systematic, ongoing, and egregious.”
Chaldean Christian woman elected mayor of strategic town in Kurdistan Region
Author: Halgurd Sherwani
Publication Date: 10/1/2021
Source: Kurdistan24
A Chaldean-Christian woman was recently inaugurated as the mayor of Ibrahim Khalil, a strategic town in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province, making her the first female and Christian person to take the post.
Egypt’s culture min. congratulates Copts, all Egyptians on the occasion of Christmas
Publication Date: 6/1/2021
Source: Egypt Today
Egypt’s Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem congratulated the Copts and all Egyptians on the occasion of Christmas.
She said that Egypt remains a model of tolerance and coexistence and a unique example of the unity of the national fabric over the years.
On this occasion, the Ministry of Culture celebrates on its YouTube channel. On January 7, the movie "Salt of the Earth" will be broadcast. The movie is from the graduation projects of the students of the Higher Institute of Cinema at the Academy of Arts, directed by Bishoy Ashraf, on the story of the monastery of Anba Antonius.
Mosul a sign that Christians and Muslims can cooperate in Iraq
Author: Inés San Martín
Publication Date: 9/1/2021
Source: Crux Now
Dominican Father Olivier Poquillon is currently working in Mosul, Iraq, after serving as the General Secretary of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the EU (COMECE).
