Surge in kidnappings of Egypt’s Christians : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• Abductions of Christians near Minya, a city in central Egypt, have surged in the months following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, The Christian Science Monitor reported.
• Nearly 100 area Christians have been kidnapped since the Arab Spring began, with a spike occurring in recent months. Egypt’s Christians have tended to support the ouster of Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader – leading to attacks on dozens of churches and Christian institutions by Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

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Surge in kidnappings of Egypt’s Christians : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Killing Copts for Ransom in Egypt

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• Not only are the churches, monasteries, and institutions of Egypt's Christians under attack by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters--nearly 100 now have been torched, destroyed, ransacked, etc.--but Christians themselves are under attack all throughout Egypt, with practically zero coverage in Western media.
• Days ago, for example, Copts held a funeral for Wahid Jacob, a young Christian deacon who used to serve in St. John the Baptist Church, part of the Qusiya diocese in Asyut, Egypt. He was kidnapped on August 21 by "unknown persons" who demanded an exorbitant ransom from his impoverished family--1,200,000 Egyptian pounds (equivalent to $171,000 USD). Because his family could not raise the sum, he was executed--his body dumped in a field where it was later found. The priest who conducted his funeral service said that the youth's body bore signs of severe torture.

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Killing Copts for Ransom in Egypt

Video From Egypt Shows Muslim Mob Attacking Christian Church, Taking Down Cross

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

• Newly-surfaced video from Egypt shows a Muslim mob storming a Coptic church, setting cars on fire and then toppling a cross atop the steeple, in a shocking attack that Christians say has been played out dozens of times since the ouster of Mohammad Morsi.
• The video, obtained by MidEast Christian News, was shot Aug. 14 from a nearby building overlooking the diocese in the southern Egyptian city of Sohag. In the six-minute video, a crowd, incensed by the eviction of pro-Morsi supporters from camps in Cairo, masses outside the church. Several members of the group scale a wall and attack vehicles in a courtyard, setting several ablaze. The video culminates in the crown exhorting a man high up on the steeple to take down a cross, which he does.
• Dozens of Coptic churches were attacked by members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the wake of the military's move against Morsi, who critics say was turning Egypt into an Islamist state. Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 80 million, but Morsi supporters blamed them for his ouster, according to Coptic leaders.
• Bishop Makarious, a Coptic leader from Minya, accused Muslim Brotherhood leaders of planning attacks on Christian churches, homes and businesses in an effort to divide the embattled nation.

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Video From Egypt Shows Muslim Mob Attacking Christian Church, Taking Down Cross

Coptic Catholic Leader: Egyptian Government is Not Stopping Hate Speech Against Christians

The following excerpts are from AINA:

• Egypt's new interim government is doing nothing to prevent hate speech, which is inciting violence against Christians, a prominent Egyptian Catholic leader has said.
• "The state is paying no attention to sermons coming out of the mosques, which are inciting Muslims against Christians," said Coptic Catholic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sedrak.
• In a statement he said perpetrators involved in a wave of attacks on Christian institutions across the country since early July were not being apprehended, and those involved in the burning and destruction of churches should have been forced to repair them at their own expense and not at the cost of the state.
• He said southern parts of the Minya governorate had seen some of the most severe anti-Christian violence so far, and that "people there are so extreme that they are threatening the Copts with expulsion from their homes".

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Coptic Catholic Leader: Egyptian Government is Not Stopping Hate Speech Against Christians

Middle East, Holy Land Christians Are Suffering Most

The following excerpts are from AINA:

• Minority religious groups face the reality of targeted violence against them in the region
• The leader of the Maronite Catholic Church has said that Christians are suffering the most from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
• Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï said that the situation in the Middle East is worsening, and that 'whenever a conflict breaks out in the Middle East, whenever chaos ensues, Muslim groups attack the minority Christian community, as if they were always the scapegoat.'
• The patriarch, whose church is in full communion with the Vatican, said Christians were 'paying the price' of outside interference in both Egypt and Syria.
• "I have written to the Holy Father twice to describe what is happening. I appeal again to the Holy Father, who only talks about peace and reconciliation," said the Maronite leader, who was made a cardinal in 2012.
• He also accused the international community of 'total silence' over Iraq, where he said 1.5 million Christians had fled in the wake of Saddam Hussein's fall.

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Middle East, Holy Land Christians Are Suffering Most

Egypt's Coptic Christians face unprecedented reprisals from the Muslim Brotherhood - Washington Times

The following excerpts are from The Washington Times:

• Islamist mobs have torched schools and businesses owned by Christians, looted churches and even paraded captive nuns through the streets of a city south of Cairo in a display of rage unseen in Egypt’s recent history.
• The campaign of killing and arson is retaliation for the tiny Christian community’s support of the military coup that ousted President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government.
• “The Muslim Brotherhood were the ones who called for aggression [against Christians]. They are responsible,” said the Rev. Khalil Fawzi, a pastor at Kasr El Dubarrah Evangelical Church, the largest evangelical congregation in the Middle East. “Either they are in control or they burn Egypt.”

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Egypt's Coptic Christians face unprecedented reprisals from the Muslim Brotherhood - Washington Times

Egypt: 2nd day of attacks on churches : News Headlines

The following excerpts are from CWN:

Photo: Nervana Mahmoud

• By the end of a second day of attacks on Christian institutions, homes, and businesses in Egypt, Islamists had burned down over 50 churches, a Coptic Orthodox bishop told CNN.
• The Muslim Brotherhood had declared a "Friday of Anger" to protest the actions, and Islamic militants took to the streets after gathering in mosques for Friday prayers. Their attacks on Christian targets followed police and military action against Muslim Brotherhood protestors who support ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

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Egypt: 2nd day of attacks on churches : News Headlines

AFRICA/EGYPT - The Bishop of Minya: with the lie of the "Coptic plot" Islamists will justify other terror against Christians - Fides News Agency

The following excerpts are from Fides News Agency:

• Western chanceries "have overestimated the real roots of political Islam in the Egyptian people" and now "remain floored and ambiguous before the scenarios opened by the revolution of 30 June", while the Islamists " emphasize the role of Christians in that uprising also to justify the terrorist attacks being prepared against them". This is what the Egyptian bishop Botros Fahim Awad Hanna reports to Fides Agency with regards to two dynamics he understood during the serious moment experienced by the North African country. In past days, blogs close to the Muslim Brotherhood have labeled the new structure found by the country after the overthrow of President Morsi as the "Military Republic of Tawadros", indicating Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II and his Church as the true architects of the popular uprising which led to the end of the Islamist government. "It is obvious" Anba Botros explains to Fides "that the Muslim Brotherhood wants to explain their political failure by resorting to the theory of 'Christian conspiracy'.
• To emphasize the role Christians had in the collapse of the Islamist regime will also serve to justify future terrorism against them. 

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AFRICA/EGYPT - The Bishop of Minya: with the lie of the "Coptic plot" Islamists will justify other terror against Christians - Fides News Agency

Sen. Ted Cruz: Gay ‘marriage’ could lead to Christian beliefs being punished as ‘hate speech’ | LifeSiteNews.com

The following excerpts are from LifeSiteNews.com:

• In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he believes the legalization of same-sex “marriage” may lead to those who express religious objections to homosexuality being prosecuted for hate speech.
• “If you look at other nations that have gone down the road towards gay marriage, that’s the next step of where it gets enforced,” Cruz told CBN host David Brody. “It gets enforced against Christian pastors who decline to perform gay marriages, who speak out and preach biblical truths on marriage, that has been defined elsewhere as hate speech, as inconsistent with the enlightened view of government.”
• In Canada, where gay ‘marriage’ was legalized in 2005, Christian pastors, public officials, educators and business owners have all faced heavy fines and lengthy court battles after speaking critically of the homosexual lifestyle. In one case a pastor was fined $7000 and ordered never again to speak publicly about the issue of homosexuality after he wrote a letter to the editor of a local newspaper criticizing the homosexual agenda in schools.

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Sen. Ted Cruz: Gay ‘marriage’ could lead to Christian beliefs being punished as ‘hate speech’ | LifeSiteNews.com

Cardinal decries rape of Orissa nun, low status of women in India : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai (Bombay), the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, has condemned the recent rape of a nun in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.
• “I condemn this gang rape of this young nun in the strongest possible terms,” he said. “This gang rape is physical and emotional terrorism.”

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Cardinal decries rape of Orissa nun, low status of women in India : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Homosexuality an area of ‘special protection’ to UK govt’, police: UK barrister | LifeSiteNews.com

The following excerpts are from LifeSiteNews.com:

• For hundreds of years, Evangelical street preachers have been a normal part of the English cultural scene, but in recent years, a new feature of the political and legal scene has been their frequent arrests whenever they have dared to contradict the sexual zeitgeist and reiterate the Biblical and moral injunctions against homosexuality. British barrister and chairman of the Catholic Union of Great Britain, James Bogle spoke with LifeSiteNews.com this week, saying that the phenomenon is a sign of a deeper problem with British authorities undermining the rule of law and civil liberties.
• Bogle said that it is more a matter of policy “at all levels of government” that homosexuality is “a special area” deserving of special protections and treatment. 
• “But why this particular area, and not other areas?” he said. “Why don’t pro-lifers rate this special protection? Why don’t Evangelical Christians get the same protection?” 
• In response to the large number of arrests in recent years of Christians under the notorious Section 5 of the Public Order Act, Bogle said, “Particularly in relation to homosexuality, where anybody who criticises homosexual acts or homosexual ‘marriage’ or relationships, there appears to be a police policy to treat this as what is called a ‘hate crime,’ but there isn’t such a thing in English law as a hate crime. There are crimes that might come under a very broad umbrella, but it’s the use of that very broad umbrella that is causing people to have fears about civil liberties.” 

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Homosexuality an area of ‘special protection’ to UK govt’, police: UK barrister | LifeSiteNews.com

Nearly 80% of Italian doctors refuse abortion; MPs attack conscience rights | LifeSiteNews.com

The following excerpts are from LifeSiteNews.com:

• A report by the Italian government has found that more than 80 per cent of gynecologists – in some areas it is believed to be as much as 91 per cent – and over 50 per cent of anesthesiologists and nurses refuse to participate in abortions, and the number is growing.
• In response, a group of parliamentarians on the left from various parties have attacked the right to conscientious objection, saying that the government must put quotas into place for recruiting doctors willing to abort babies. One deputy alleged that the refusal of so many doctors and other staff to participate has resulted in an increase in the number of “clandestine” illegal abortions and in the number of Italian women going overseas to abort their children. 
• Monsignore Igancio Barreiro, head of the Rome office of Human Life International said pro-life activists “have to be ready to defend the rights of conscience and we know that the proponents of the Culture of Death are ready to attack the right to refuse to do abortions.” 
• “We must be vigilant and concerned because this is not something new,” he added. “We have to reaffirm it. It’s a basic human right.” 

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Nearly 80% of Italian doctors refuse abortion; MPs attack conscience rights | LifeSiteNews.com

Nigerian churches burned; Boko Haram suspected : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic World News:

• Four Christian churches in northern Nigeria were bombed and burned over the weekend, in attacks attributed to the terrorist group Boko Haram.

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Nigerian churches burned; Boko Haram suspected : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Pakistan: mob burns shops, cars in Christian neighborhood : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• A Muslim mob burned shops and cars and threw stones at a church in a Christian neighborhood in Gujranwala, a city of 2.7 million in northeastern Pakistan that was the site of anti-Christian violence in 2011. Six were wounded in the latest incident; calm was restored following police intervention.
• “The spark that ignited the violence was a dispute between young Muslims and Christians which degenerated into a fight,” said Samson Salamat, director of the Centre for Human Rights Education, who told the Fides news agency that “an imam of the mosque instigated the Muslims to attack Christians.”

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Pakistan: mob burns shops, cars in Christian neighborhood : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Italian bishop confined to home by homosexual demonstration : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from the Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• An Italian archbishop has revealed that he was confined to his home, forced to remain inside his “besieged” residence, when homosexual activists staged a protest there earlier this month, and warned that gay-rights campaigners aim to prosecute all who oppose their agenda.
• Archbishop Giampaolo Crepaldi of Trieste was the target of a demonstration organized by ArciGay on January 12. Italian media outlets ignored the incident, and city officials in Trieste showed their support for the protest. Two members of the local city council reportedly participated in the demonstration.

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Italian bishop confined to home by homosexual demonstration : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

From The Dignitatis Humanae Institute: Egypt's Embattled Christians Fear Exclusion Under New Islamist Constitution

Note: The following is a press release from The Dignitatis Humanae Institute

  London, 23 November 2012

As the Western media shift attention from crisis to crisis in the Middle East, one continuing, omnipresent tragedy goes wilfully ignored, the violent persecution of the regions' remaining Christians.  Nowhere is this more evident than Egypt, where the new government, dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, press on with the drafting of a new constitution with Sharia Law it is core and little tolerance for Christians.

As Syria and Gaza dominate the headlines, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has quickly gone about shaping what was once a relatively moderate nation into an Islamist republic.  The Arab Spring's ambitious hopes for pluralist democracies has quickly faded, only to be supplemented with theocratic regimes potentially worse than those which preceded them.

The Christians of Egypt, amounting to approximately 10% of the population, have expressed growing despondency as to the nature of the draft constitution.  Church leaders have found themselves repeatedly shut out of dialogue by the nations' Salafis who are determined to enshrine their dominance into law.  While the future constitution looks bleak for religious minorities, the persecution of the Coptic community continues each day.  Since President Morsi and the Muslim brotherhood gained power dozens of Christians have been murdered in addition to increased attacks on Christian property and the burning of Churches.  Kidnappings are not uncommon as well as reports of qualified Christians being turned away from employment.

Speaking from his office in Westminster to the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, Lord Alton, Honorary President of the British Coptic Association and Chairman of the Cross-Party Working Group on Human Dignity, appealed to the Egyptian government to remain true to their election assurances: 

"Mohammed Morsi swept to power on the promise that he would rule for all Egyptians, including the Christian community.  As the future constitution is drafted and the next chapter of Egyptian history determined, President Morsi must be held accountable to his solemn pledge to bring peace and tolerance to the marginalised communities of Egypt.  The Coptic community have shown remarkable forbearance in these past five months, I sincerely hope their patience with the new government will not be betrayed through further degradation."

The Dignitatis Humanae Institute aims to uphold human dignity based on the anthropological truth that man is born in the image and likeness of God and therefore has an innate human dignity of infinite worth to be upheld. The Institute promotes this understanding by supporting Christians in public life, assisting them to present effective and coherent responses to increasing efforts to silence the Christian voice in the public square.

POPE BENEDICT XVI APPEALS FOR AN END TO ATTACKS IN NIGERIA

Vatican City, 20 June 2012 (VIS) - At the end of today's general audience, after having delivered greetings in various languages, Benedict XVI launched an appeal for an end to attacks which have taken place recently in Nigeria, and which have been particularly aimed against the Christian community there. "I appeal to leaders for an immediate end to the killing of so many innocents", he said. "It is my hope that the various components of Nigerian society will collaborate so as not to start down the path of revenge, and that all citizens will cooperate in building a peaceful and reconciled society, in which everyone's right freely to profess their faith is fully protected".

You can find more information at: www.visnews.org

The news items contained in the Vatican Information Service may be used, in part or in their entirety, by quoting the source:

V.I.S. -Vatican Information Service.

Copyright © Vatican Information Service 00120 Vatican City

More Oppression and Attacks Against Christians By Muslims

Below are some excerpts of stories from around the world. More proof that the "peaceful religion of Islam" is about everything except peace. Click the bold, links to read the entire articles:

From Catholic Culture - Egyptian Christians face constant proselytism, discrimination :

• Discussing the situation of Christians in various Middle Eastern nations, Father Samir Khalil Samir describes the barrage of Muslim proselytism that Egyptian Christians regularly face.
• “The whole day and during the whole year, you are bombarded with Islamic propaganda starting at five in the morning,” says the Jesuit historian and Islamic studies professor. “They start their preaching using megaphones and this is five times a day.”

Also from Catholic Culture - Terrorist victims were martyrs, Nigerian bishop tells mourners :

• Bishop John Namanzah Niyiring of Kano, Nigeria, said that Catholics who were killed during a terrorist attack on April 29 should be recognized as martyrs.

From AsiaNews.It - Indonesia: Extremist threats in Aceh as authorities close three churches

• The ongoing protests by a Muslim extremist fringe has led to the closure of three Christian places of worship in the province of Aceh, the only province in Indonesia where Shariah (Islamic law) is enacted. According to the radical movement the churches were illegal and they have demanded - under threat - the intervention of the authorities. The local administration used the pretext of an alleged lack of building permits, to seal up the buildings. One of the three is a small - historical - Catholic chapel, open for almost 40 years and full of faithful during celebrations. Although an overwhelmingly Muslim area, the province of Aceh has always been characterized by a "spirit of tolerance" and this is the "first case" of an intervention by authorities against places of worship of the Christian minority.

The Anti-God Book by 'God' - Brent Bozell - Townhall Conservative

Below are a couple of excerpts from Townhall.com columnist Brent Bozell's article reviewing a blasphemous book by David Javerbaum. The excerpts follow:

• Those prestigious publishers at Simon and Schuster selected All Saints Day to unleash the book world's latest attempt at mocking Christianity. It's called "The Last Testament, by God."

• The author is David Javerbaum, a top writer for 11 years for "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central, perhaps America's leading religion-hating TV network. Is it any surprise that the critics love it?

Click the link below to read the entire article:

The Anti-God Book by 'God' - Brent Bozell - Townhall Conservative

Will the Senate Quietly Kill the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom? - By Nina Shea - The Corner - National Review Online

This article appears at “National Review Online”. An excerpt follows:

• Religious persecution around the world threatens many minority groups — Egyptian Copts, Pakistani Ahmadiyas, Saudi Ismaili Shiites, Baha’is in Iran, and Chinese Sunni Uighurs, Catholics, and Tibetan Buddhists. Despite the presence of American troops, Iraq is in its seventh year of a “religious cleansing” against its native Christian, Yizidi, and Mandean populations, while its handful of remaining Jews are now desperately trying to flee after being identified by Wikileaks. Those who do not conform to prevailing religious orthodoxies are also targeted individually: For example, in Iran, apostasy charges threaten the life of a Christian pastor. This year, Pakistan’s minister of minorities and the governor of Punjab were separately gunned down for defending those imprisoned under a harsh blasphemy law.
• It is this moment that the U.S. Senate has chosen to quietly shut down the independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
• USCIRF’s mandate was to expire at the end of last month, but it was given a short reprieve through the continuing resolution on the budget. Meanwhile, on September 15, the House of Representatives, in a 391–21 vote, overwhelmingly passed H.R. 2867 to reauthorize USCIRF for two more years. In the Senate, H.R. 2867 was poised to pass under a unanimous consent agreement when a single senator anonymously called it back for undisclosed reasons. If that secret hold is not lifted by November 18, the Senate will not be able to act and USCIRF will go out of existence.

Click the link below to read the entire article:

Will the Senate Quietly Kill the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom? - By Nina Shea - The Corner - National Review Online