Copts Under Siege in Cairo

Last weekend in the suburbs of Cairo, a congregation of Coptic Christians was besieged inside a newly-opened church by thousands of angry Muslims. It seems the Copts had had the temerity to open the church in a converted factory, and, as we all know, Islamic law forbids the establishment of new churches anywhere in Dar al-Islam.

The Muslim mob quickly converted the church into a mosque by praying there, and then went on a rampage against the church and the homes and businesses of Christians.

According to AINA:

20,000 Muslims Attack a Church in Cairo

One thousand Christians were today trapped inside the Coptic Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary in West Ain Shams, Cairo, after more than twenty thousand Muslims attacked them with stones and butane gas cylinders. The Church’s priest Father Antonious said that the situation is extremely dangerous.

The Muslim mob that attacked the church blocked both sides of the street and encircled the church building, broke its doors and demolished its entire first floor. The mob were chanting Jihad verses as well as slogans saying “we will demolish the church” and “We sacrifice our blood and souls, we sacrifice ourselves for you, Islam”, while the entrapped Christians chanted “Lord have mercy”.

The incident started on the occasion of the inauguration of the Church today, when the Muslims hastily established a Mosque in the early hours of this morning, by taking over the first floor of a newly-built building facing the Church and started praying there.

When the security forces tried to disperse the mob, they went to nearby homes and shops owned by Christians, and were armed with sticks, butane, knives and other sharp objects. Witnesses said the mob included children from as young as 8-years old to men of over 50-years old, in addition to women.

The Church building was originally a factory that was adapted into its present state, the matter which took over five years to complete and to get the necessary permissions from the authorities to have a Church established.

Human rights organizations and lawyers were refused entry into the besieged Church.

AINA also has video of the incident.

The Voice of the Copts provides an account of a simultaneous attack at another church:
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Muslims Attack a Coptic Wedding In Cairo

11/26/08 Egypt (Voice of the Copts) Another Muslim attack was carried out Saturday evening on a wedding held in the Coptic Orthodox Church of the Virgin ‘Farid’, in Ezbet El Nakhl, Ain Shams.

During the wedding ceremony a bearded man and a woman went inside the Church and started using profane insults to the people present. When the clash was taken outside the Church to be resolved, a large number of Muslims who were waiting in a shop facing the Church and who were armed with knives and weapons attacked the Coptic wedding guests.

Five Copts were injured, two seriously, one with broken limbs and the other sustained head injuries resulting in concussion. However, in spite of their injuries, the police took them into custody. Mr. Said Fayez, a Coptic defense lawyer said that the injured were charged with causing bodily harm.

It is worth noting that this attack took place at the same time, as the attack which was carried out on The Coptic Church of the Virgin, Ain Shams, and in which 1000 Copts were besieged inside the Church while 10-20,000 Muslims surrounded the Church and threw them with stones and used butane gas cylinders. Lawyer Fayez advised that three Coptic lawyers, who were present in Church during this horrific attack, were charged with causing public disturbance!

Mr. Fayez added that the distance between the two attacked Churches is only a 10 minutes walk, and wonders whether this is a coincidence or some form of a Muslim deliberate and concerted attack on all churches in Ain Shams.

Notice that the injured victims of the attack were arrested for daring to be Christians in a Muslim land.

This is a reminder that all the recent self-congratulatory high-minded nattering about “interfaith dialogue” is meaningless. Islam engages in dialogue with other religions only where it is in the minority. All dialogue ceases when Muslims become a majority. No more time for talking!

Meanwhile, a cardinal at the Vatican is grateful to the Muslims who returning religion to a secular Europe:

Vatican Thanks Muslims for Returning God to Europe

A senior Vatican cardinal has thanked Muslims for bringing God back into the public sphere in Europe and said believers of different faiths had no option but to engage in interreligious dialogue.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Catholic Church’s department for interfaith contacts, said religion was now talked and written about more than ever before in today’s Europe.

“It’s thanks to the Muslims,” he said in a speech printed in Friday’s L’Osservatore Romano, the official daily of the Vatican. “Muslims, having become a significant minority in Europe, were the ones who demanded space for God in society.”

Cardinal Tauran is a bit confused: Muslims are not bringing God to European society; they are bringing Allah, which is not at all the same thing.

Across the Mediterranean things are different. There’s no room for God in Egypt, and there’s especially no room for the followers of Jesus Christ.

In the suburbs of Cairo, interfaith dialogue is conducted with sticks, butane, and knives.


Hat tips: ESW amd Holger Danske.