Libya court sentences 23 to death for Islamic State campaign
Misrata, Libya Reuters A Libyan court sentenced 23 people to death and another 14 to life in prison on Monday for their role in a deadly Islamic State militant campaign that included beheading a group of Egyptian Christians and seizing the city of Sirte in 2015. The Attorney General’s office said in a statement that […]
Sudan’s increased fighting empties Christian clerics from the capital Khartoum
Nairobi, KenyaRNS An attack on a Coptic Christian church during Mass on Sunday in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum is drawing attention to the plight of Christians in the north-eastern African country, where a raging civil war is forcing out Christian clerics. The attack on the Coptic Mar Girgis (St George) Church in Omdurman, across […]
Pope urges countries to manage migrant waves, expand legal channels; recognises 21 Copts beheaded by Islamic State as martyrs
Vatican CityReuters Pope Francis appealed to countries on Thursday to manage waves of migrants as best they can and to expand channels for their safe and regular movement, as the United States grapples with a surge of new arrivals at its southern border. Pope Francis and Pope Tawadros II, the 118th Pope of the Coptic […]
Orthodox celebrate Christmas in shadow of conflict
Moscow, Russia AP Orthodox Christians packed churches on Friday evening for Christmas Eve services, a holiday darkened for many by the conflict raging between Orthodox neighbours Russia and Ukraine. Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, the world’s largest Orthodox denomination, led elaborate services at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, with dozens of priests […]
Updated: Fire at Cairo Coptic church kills 41, including at least 15 children
Last updated: 8:30am, 15th August, 2022Cairo, Egypt Reuters A fire ripped through a packed Coptic Orthodox church during morning services in Egypt’s capital on Sunday, quickly filling it with thick black smoke and killing 41 worshippers, including at least 15 children. Several trapped congregants jumped from upper floors of the Martyr Abu Sefein church to […]
Essay: The killing of Father Arsanious Wadid is a reminder more needs to be done to ensure religious equality
ELLIS HEASLEY, of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, says the killing of a Coptic Orthodox priests in Alexandria earlier this month is “just the latest reminder of the continuing persecution of Egypt’s Coptic Christian community”…
Egypt names first-ever Christian head of country’s top court
Cairo, EgyptAP Egypt’s President on Wednesday swore in the first-ever Coptic Christian to head the country’s highest court. Judge Boulos Fahmy is the 19th person to preside over the Supreme Constitutional Court since it was established in 1969. President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi picked the 65-year-old Fahmy from among the court’s five oldest of 15 sitting […]
Three militants involved in Christian’s slaying killed in Egypt
Cairo, EgyptAP Police in Egypt killed three suspected militants allegedly involved in the slaying of a Coptic Christian man kidnapped more than five months ago in a restive part of Sinai Peninsula, the Interior Ministry said Monday. Security forces exchanged fire with Islamic State group militants while chasing them in the Abtal area of North […]
Egyptian court acquits men accused of abusing Coptic woman
\ Cairo, EgyptAP An Egyptian criminal court acquitted three Muslim men accused of stripping naked an elderly Coptic Christian woman and parading her through the streets of a village in southern Egypt in 2016, the state’s official news agency reported. The three had been sentenced to 10 years in absentia in January, before they were […]
EGYPT: COPTIC COMMUNITY RIGHTS ACTIVIST ARRESTED AMID HEIGHTENED SURVEILLANCE MEASURES
MINA NADER and JACOB WIRTSCHAFTER, of Religion News Service, report…