The Copts are the indigenous people of Egypt, the true descendants of the Pharaohs. Tradition has it that St Mark the Evangelist (also known as John Mark, a contemporary of Apostles Paul and Barnabas; Acts 12-15) took the Gospel (or Good News) to Egypt. History shows that the Copts have been Christian since the early centuries of the Common Era.
Arab armies invaded Egypt in the 7th Century. Today, Egypt’s Copts live as a subjugated, persecuted and perpetually imperilled ethnic and religious minority under an increasingly radicalised (Wahhabised) Arab Muslim majority.
Condemned to generational poverty on account of systematic discrimination, the Copts also suffer gross insecurity on account of Islamic terrorism, and violent persecution at the hands of hostile local Muslims.
The most serious persecution includes:
The abduction of Coptic girls for forced marriage to Muslim men. It is well documented that Islamic fundamentalist gangs, operate with the complicity of local police and authorities, to traffic Coptic girls across religious lines. Once married to Muslim men, these Christian girls will produce Muslim babies for the benefit of Islam. Most Coptic families who lose a daughter this way, never see their daughters again.
Charges of blasphemy (a criminal offence) for criticising, mocking or even just discussing Islam.
Islamic pogroms in which Copts are assaulted, humiliated and murdered, while their homes and businesses are vandalised, looted and torched. Such pogroms are routine in Upper Egypt and wherever the Muslim Brotherhood has a foothold. They are usually triggered by mere rumours, including of blasphemy, or of being in a relationship that Islam deems haram (forbidden: e.g. a Christian man with a Muslim woman); or that Christians are praying in a house (thereby supposedly establishing a church).
The routine bombing of churches during worship, and massacre of Coptic pilgrims as they travel on desert roads en route to visit ancient monasteries. Such attacks are mostly committed by Islamic jihadists/militants, especially those aligned with Islamic State.
The February 2017 ethnic-religious cleansing of Copts from the Sinai Peninsula, at the hands of Islamic State (IS-Sinai).
Image: NY Times.
Justice Egyptian Style
Because Islamic Sharia Law does not permit infidels to press charges against Muslims in a court of law, Egypt has (since early 2007) http://elizabethkendal.blogspot.com/2007/05/egypt-keeping-copts-subjugated.html been forcing Coptic victims of Islamic violence into “reconciliation sessions” wherein the Copts must agree not to press charges (of looting, rape, assault, arson etc), in exchange for which the Muslims must agree to end the cycle of violence (no compensation, no justice, no deterrence). To force Coptic victims of Islamic violence to accept such unjust terms, police routinely arrest Coptic youths for use as bargaining chips.
With “justice” like this it is no wonder that persecution with impunity has become the order of the day.
Image: Oath of God Ministry.
