The Gateway Pundit
Muslims Hurl Firebombs at Church Dedicated to Coptic Victims of #ISIS
posted by Jim Hoft
Tuesday March 31, 2015
Islamists in Minya, Egypt held Muslim prayers inside three Coptic Churches after they were destroyed by Islamist in August 2013.
Copts pray inside the Church of St. Moses (Moussa), destroyed by Muslim rioters in Minya, Egypt, Aug. 14-15, 2013. (Rotati Caeli)
At least 47 churches and monasteries were burned, robbed, or attacked in the fall of 2013.
International Business Times
Isis: Egyptian Coptic church commemorating beheading victims in Libya attacked
written by Mark Piggott
Monday March 30, 2015
A Coptic church being built to commemorate local victims of Isis in the southern Minya Province has been attacked by scores of young Muslims, some throwing petrol bombs. At least seven people were wounded, three of them seriously, the church and grounds damaged and a car burnt out.
The church was being built in the village of al-Our, where 13 of the 21 victims beheaded by Isis in Libya originated. Coptic citizens had bought suitable land, but the construction of the church was controversial, with some local Muslims objecting to its being built at the entrance to the village.
According to Daily News Egypt, on 27 March scores of Muslims who had attended midday prayers gathered outside the church to protest at its construction, chanting it would never be built. The Muslim protest took place as a mass was being held for those beheaded by Isis.
The men, some of whom were identified as belonging to Muslim Brotherhood, dispersed without incident, but later the same evening some returned with petrol bombs and launched the attack. International Christian Concern alleges some of the attackers fired shots at the church.
The priest at the church Fr. Makar Issa said he informed police an attack was imminent but nothing was done.
"I called the police many times and asked them to come to guard us but they came late and after their arrival they didn't guard the church," said Fr Issa. "They stopped in the entrance of the village. Even still they allowed the cars of the attackers to enter the village and attack us and the church without any intervention from them to protect us."
The day after the attack Minya's governor met Christians and Muslims to resolve the problem and it was agreed the position of the church would be changed.
Minya Province has one of Egypt's highest concentrations of Coptic Christians, who form 10-20 per cent of the country's population in the Muslim-dominated country.
Some Muslims harbour suspicions the Christians helped remove President Morsi from power, an event which caused upheaval and violence across Egypt. Following Morsi's removal and the violent dispersal of the Muslim Brotherhood which supported him at least 42 churches were attacked and in impoverished Minya Province three Christians and one Muslim were killed.
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Daily News, Egypt
written by Mahmoud Mostafa
Sunday March 29, 2015
Almost two years after the removal of the Islamist government of the Muslim Brotherhood, Coptic churches are still facing threats from radical Islamist actions.
On Friday, scores of mostly young Muslims gathered in the Minya governorate after midday prayer, demonstrating in front of a church under construction there. They chanted that there is no way the church would be built.
After a while, the crowd vanished, but later in the night a smaller number of anonymous militants attacked the church with Molotov cocktails. In the attack, seven people were injured, and one car was left burning.
In February, Copts in Minya’s Our Village called for a church to be established in the village honouring 20 Coptic Egyptian workers beheaded in Libya. They died at the hands of Islamic State militants in Libya, according to religious freedoms researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) Ishak Ibrahim.
Thirteen of the beheaded Coptic workers were from the village. Ibrahim told Daily News Egypt that, during their funeral, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb said President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi agreed for the church to be built.
Coptic residents bought land and started the church’s construction, sparking protests from Muslim residents who were angered by the church. The Muslim residents were unhappy at the church’s proposed presence and its position at the entrance to the village.
After the attack on the church, Minya’s governor conducted a meeting on Saturday with Coptic and Muslim residents to solve the issue. An initial agreement was reached to change the church’s position from the village’s entrance, according to Ibrahim.
Egyptian law regulating the building of Coptic houses of worship can be traced back to the Ottoman era, and limits the approval authority for the building of new churches to the president.
New laws decreasing such restrictions have been mulled over since the 25 January Revolution, but have yet to materialise. However, Egypt’s constitution adopted in 2014 states: “Freedom of practicing religious rituals and building worship places for the Abrahamic religions (Islam, Christianity, Judaism) is a right regulated by the law.”
Attacking churches and properties belonging to Christians marked the aftermath of the violent dispersal of pro-Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in August 2013. “Crowds of men attacked at least 42 churches, burning or damaging 37, as well as dozens of other Christian religious institutions” throughout the country in protest against the support of Christians to the military’s power takeover, according to Human Rights Watch.
Months have passed and the Muslim Brotherhood has faded away, but the attacks against churches are still occurring.
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