Egypt’s PM approves 168 new church and worship buildings – CSW
Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has approved the legalisation of 168 churches and worship buildings, religious freedom advocacy CSW has reported. The UK organisation said the decision was made during a meeting of the ministerial committee overseeing issues relating to building and renovating churches and worship buildings. Some 126 of the buildings belong to the Coptic Orthodox […]
Egypt bus attack survivors ask “how could this happen again?”
World Watch Monitor Egypt’s Copts are still reeling from a second bus attack in two years on the desert road to a monastery in Minya and asking why there was no protection for them. It should have been a joyful day. On Friday, 2nd November, a Coptic family had celebrated the baptisms of two little boys, four-month-old Emile and […]
At least seven dead as Coptic pilgrims targeted in another bus attack in Egypt
At least seven people have been killed and 14 more been injured in another attack on a bus of Coptic Christians travelling back from a monastery in Egypt on Friday. The victims were on their way home after visiting the St Samuel the Confessor monastery in the governorate of Minya in Upper Egypt – reportedly […]
Seventeen people sentenced to death for Coptic church bomb attacks in Egypt
World Watch Monitor Egypt’s military court has handed death sentences to 17 people accused of bomb attacks on Coptic churches in 2016 and 2017, the BBC reports. The 17 people sentenced to death in Egypt were involved in bomb attacks on Coptic churches in Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta in 2016 and 2017. PICTURE: World Watch Monitor. […]
Perpetrators of Minya bus attack and the beheading of Coptic Christians captured in Libya
World Watch Monitor One of the “most wanted” Islamic extremists who is suspected of participating in the gun attack on a bus convoy of Coptic Christian pilgrims in May, 2017, has been captured by Libyan security forces, the BBC reports. The attack killed 28 people, including two children. Twenty-five others were injured. Hisham Ashmawi is the leader of the militant […]
Egypt’s Copts celebrate first mass in new church, seven years since last church’s closure
World Watch Monitor Seven years after their previous church was closed by local authorities because of “security reasons”, the Coptic community in the Egyptian village of Kom El-Loufy, 250 kilometres south of Cairo, held a first mass in their new church on Sunday. Copts in Kom El-Loufy celebrate the first mass in their new church. PICTURE: World Watch Monitor. The 1,600 Copts […]
Mob attack on church in Egypt encouraged by police promise, say sources
World Watch Monitor A mob attacked a church in Minya, Egypt, on 13th July protesting against its legalisation and received a police officer’s approval, World Watch Monitor has learnt from local sources. The only church in Ezbet Sultan Pasha village, where about 20 per cent of the population is Christian, was built in September, 2016. Apart from […]
Copts attacked in Egypt after Facebook post showing ‘contempt of Islam’
An attack by a Muslim mob on Copts in a village in the Egyptian governorate of Minya on Monday has left the Coptic community holed up in their houses, while security forces patrol the streets. A local source told World Watch Monitor the situation is still very tense in the village of Menbal, 225 kilometres […]
Families of beheaded Copts finally reunited with remains of loved ones in Egypt
World Watch Monitor After a three-year wait and a number of broken promises, the Egyptian Coptic families of 20 men beheaded by the so-called Islamic State in Libya in 2015 have finally received their loved ones’ remains. The leader of the Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, accompanied by several bishops, priests and deacons, welcomed the […]
New promise that bodies of 21 beheaded Christians will be returned to families
World Watch Monitor For the third time since February, the families of the 20 Egyptian Copts and one Ghanaian Christian beheaded three years ago in Libya by the so-called Islamic State have been promised the imminent return of their loved ones’ remains. The head of investigations at the Libyan Attorney General’s Office, Siddiq Assour, ordered […]