E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Raymond Ibrahim: 'Pray in the Rain!' Muslim Governor Denies Christians a Church Roof
Al Ahram had nothing about this on their site.
[PJMedia] As recently reported, on Dec. 24, 2022, Moslems attacked a church and its Christians in Egypt, after authorities gave the Christians permission to fix their church’s collapsed roof, which had fallen on and hurt several worshippers.(According to strict sharia, churches must never be repaired but left to crumble over time.)

After police arrived and quelled the riots, they temporarily halted roof repairs, though with the promise to the Copts — who had waited for two years to receive formal permission to fix their roof — that they could resume work shortly.

Copts were skeptical because experience taught them that such promises were not to be trusted. But sure enough, and to the Copts’ great relief and surprise, on Dec. 25, they were permitted to resume repairs to the church’s roof, with the added protection of state security forces.

But then, on that same day, the local district governor came to "inspect" and quickly decided that roof repairs must halt, immediately and indefinitely, even though more than one-third of the work had been completed.

When the Christians present at the site complained, indeed pleaded, "How can we pray when the roof is in such a condition, especially when it’s raining?" the (Moslem) governor barked back — "Cover it with a tarp!" In fact, this is not an option as the partial repairs already made make it difficult to erect a tarp.

If they did not comply and continued to work on the roof, the governor angrily threatened that he would completely "demolish" the church.

When asked to explain his decision, or at least tell them what they needed to do to resume repairs, the governor gave no answer and left the site.

All the cement mixers and trucks that the church had hired left on the governor’s orders, resulting in a monetary loss of some EGP 100,000 that the church had paid for them to repair the roof.

And so, as Orthodox Christmas approaches (January 7), the Christians of this community will have to celebrate the Nativity exposed to the elements, with the possibility of rain pouring down on them.

For those unaware, what just transpired is the notorious "good cop, bad cop" routine — Moslem style. The authorities themselves are the ones against repairing this church, but they rely on the Moslem mob to riot, at which point they step in pretending to be the "good guys" who, nonetheless, need to do whatever is necessary — in this case, leave a church in a dilapidated and dangerous condition — to prevent violence and bloodshed from erupting again.

Discussing this incident, Adel Guindy, author of A Sword Over the Nile and former president of Coptic Solidarity, said:

It appears that the "hidden-hand" that orchestrates this kind of ugly incidents wanted to get out of the boring routine, and add some excitement, befitting the season’s festivities and celebrations. In all cases, the message remains unchanged: "Christian Copts need always to be humiliated as a reminder of their dhimmi status."


Remember This Whenever Muslims Demand More 'Rights' in the West

[PJMedia] Egypt’s Ministry of Endowments recently announced a new record: 1,200 new mosques were opened in the year 2022.

Moreover, in the two years between September 2020 and September 2022, a total of 3,116 mosques were opened (2,712 new; 404 renovated).

Since Abdel Fateh al-Sissi became president in 2014, the total number of mosques to be opened, repaired, or replaced — costing Egypt more than ten billion pounds — is 9,600.

What about the religious places of worship that, for centuries before Egypt’s conquest by Moslem Arabs, dotted that nation’s landscape — namely, Christian churches? How fare they?

As is well known, when it comes to any question concerning the indigenous Christians of Egypt, the Copts, and their churches, accurate information — especially by way of numbers — is difficult to ascertain from the official channels.

As such, I contacted and spoke with one of the most astute analysts on the so-called Coptic question, the Egyptian-born Magdi Khalil, an author and public debater (appearing in approximately 1,500 televised debates, including on Al Jazeera) who specializes in citizenship rights, civil society, and the situation of minorities in the Middle East.

During our phone conversation, Khalil offered up the best-known figures he has been able to ascertain, after making clear that, "as you know, there are no absolutely accurate numbers from Egypt that aren’t politicized."

He said there are a total of approximately 5,200 Christian institutions in Egypt, including all churches and monasteries from every denomination. As for Islamic institutions, there are 120,000 mosques and over one million prayer halls in the country.

This disparity alone underscores the extreme discrimination Christians face in Egypt. Considering that Copts of all denominations make up, at the very least, 10% of Egypt’s population of 104 million, there is one mosque or prayer hall for every 83 Moslems, but only one church for every 2,000 Christians.*

In 2016, a new Egyptian law was touted as "easing" restrictions on and helping many more churches to open. Since its implementation, however, human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
 groups have noted that it has only marginally helped. Khalil agreed, and said that at best, the 2016 law has made a "5-10 percent improvement." But, by applying only to churches, as opposed to being a universal law for all religious places of worship, the new law has also formalized the Egyptian government’s divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled...
 approach to its citizens. He is not alone in making this charge; even Human Rights Watch says that the new law ultimately "discriminates against the Christian minority in Egypt."

Along with the ease Egypt grants to the building of mosques, often overlooked is the fact that the government also completely subsidizes a great many, if not most, of Egypt’s mosques. (Over 4 billion Egyptian pounds are paid annually by the state to subsidize the Ministry of Islamic Endowments, which is charged with affairs related to mosques and Islamic da’wa [propaganda]. Moreover, 22 billion Egyptian pounds are annually paid to Al Azhar, which has a parallel educational system, or madrasa, from KG to university, with 2.8 million pupils and students.)

Conversely, not only does Egypt make it immensely hard for Christians to open or maintain churches, but the government does not contribute a "single penny" to their survival, said Khalil. Churches are even required to pay their utility bills, which no mosque in Egypt does, as the government happily picks up their bill.

Aside from the obvious discrimination and legal obstacles the government of Egypt has set up against churches, Khalil and I also spoke a bit about the Moslem mob violence that sporadically rises up against Christian places of worship. According to Khalil, "close to one thousand churches have been attacked or torched by mobs in the last five decades [since the 1970s] in Egypt." This is a much larger number than is commonly assumed.

Khalil closed by saying, "The persecution of Egypt’s Christian Copts is the longest ongoing persecution in the history of mankind, from 642, to today, 2022. Through all this time, maybe 70 years under British occupation were peaceful and good — the "golden era" for Copts in all this duration. Then [during the colonial era] there was much more diversity in the government, including some Coptic ministers, etc. But the overwhelming majority of the time witnessed the Copts’ persecution."

"I know of no group," concluded Khalil, "that has been persecuted for nearly 1400 years — with still no light at the end of the tunnel."
Posted by: trailing wife 2023-01-07
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=654744