More Martyrs in Egypt

Christian Persecution Continues Amid Egypt Turmoil
, FoxNews
By Amanda Marshall

Published February 02, 2011

As pro and anti-Mubarak protesters clash in the streets of Egypt, the Christian minority continues to face mounting persecution, largely unbeknownst to the public eye.

Tom Doyle, Middle East director for E3 Partners, a Christian missionary organization that works extensively in Egypt and the surrounding region, and author of “Breakthrough: The Return of Hope to the Middle East,” tells FOX that colleagues on the ground report the murder of 15 more Christians outside Al-Minya, about 150 miles south of Cairo.

“With no police available, no one was willing to help them. Family members are taking turns keeping watch over their homes, as robberies, rape, looting, and car theft are occurring routinely now.”

Under Egypt’s constitutional rights, Christians are free to practice their faith. Persecution, however, has been rampant, as Muslim extremists seek to deny those rights. Twenty-three Christians were murdered and 70 injured as a suicide bomber attacked a Coptic Christian Church at a New Year’s Eve mass in Alexandria. Archbishop Raweis, the top Coptic cleric in Alexandria, denounced what he called a lack of protection.

"There were only three soldiers and an officer in front of the church," he said. "Why did they have so little security at such a sensitive time when there's so many threats coming from Al Qaeda?”

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was recently asked about the onslaught of Christian murders across the Middle East. Gibbs deflected to the State Department, and said, “I have not heard the – an overarching theory” behind the attacks, and “the president is aware.”

Christianity in Egypt dates back to the first century A.D. as Alexandria was an early center of Christianity, and until the Islamic conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, it was predominantly Christian. Today, the Christian minority only makes up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population.

“With the Muslim brotherhood rising up, Christians are very nervous about who might be next in line to take over for Mubarak,” explained Doyle. “Many times it’s been stated that there’s democracy but it’s just been a veil for authoritarianism.”

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in the 1920s, demanded today for Mubarak to step down, as well as Jordan’s new Prime Minister. Among the brotherhood’s graduates, Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 - the Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri -- who was imprisoned for three years on weapons charges following President Sadat's assassination in 1981, as well as Hamas, the terror network behind suicide bombings and rocket attacks in Israel, and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine whose goal is the destruction of Israel.

Walid Phares tells FOX the group is “the mothership for the Jihadi ideologies and thinking, and therefore one can say today's Al-Qaeda and today's many other jihadists are offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Asked today about how the Obama administration would handle Egypt if the Muslim Brotherhood takes control, Gibbs said, “I think we’re getting way ahead of the process. I don’t want to get into hypotheticals about what-if.”

Whether it will be addressed by the White House or not, Egyptian Christians fear what will become of the already persecuted minority should Muslim extremists take control.

Revelation 6: 9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.

God's Goodness in Surprising Ways

When Mel and I visited Egypt in 2000 and stayed at the Princess Palace Hotel, we took one of their tours from Hurghada to Cairo. We saw the pyramids and the sphynx.
(Not my photos - all of my Egypt photo are paper and currently in the States in storage. Click this photo for copyright info. Following photos are from tour agencies.)

And we visited the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities for about 2 hours. TWO HOURS! Barely enough time to get our feet in the door. I think a person could spend 2 years in there and never see it all. It is an amazing place.

We did see King Tut stuff.And a whole bunch of stuff that is just a blur in my mind. It was much better when we took the tour to Luxor and I got to spend 2 or 3 hours in the Temple of Luxor (Mel was ill with a 24 hour virus and at the hotel, but we came back the next day together). And the temple of Karnak. Oh my! Karnak was amazing, simply amazing. I wish I'd been able to stay there for several hours and just wander around.There was so much to see and to learn in Egypt.

We crossed the Nile and saw the temple of Hapshepsut and we even visited the Valley of the Kings and went into a few tombs.
All of these things were in the back of my mind last night while I was reading about what is happening in Egypt right now. Sometime, either when I went in and rested for a few minutes (I am sick with a very nasty headcold) or later after we went to bed - I don't remember, time is rather vague in my head - I wondered about the museum there in Cairo and all of the fire-bombing and destruction that is going on. And in my mind I clearly saw people (men) lined up in front of the museum, keeping protestors and vandals from getting into and damaging artifacts or destroying the history that is there. I saw this clearly - and felt peaceful afterward.

Imagine my shock this afternoon when checking out EuroNews I came across this headline:
Egyptians form human shield to protect museum
One Cairo building that has been spared so far in the anti-government protests is the Egyptian Museum, despite a fire raging at the ruling National Democratic Party office nearby.

Locals were determined to protect national treasures.

“We are Egyptians and this is the Egyptian Museum,” said one man.

“We are standing here and calling for the army to come as soon as possible and we will not leave until the army arrives.”

The museum houses pharaonic treasures including the death mask of Tutankhamun.

The walls of the building were daubed with grafitti reading “down with the dog Mubarak.”

Copyright © 2011 euronews

You know, God is good to me in so many ways. Ways that I usually just take for granted. But here is an example. I was concerned about that museum and what it contains and the civil unrest that is going on all around it (remembering what happened in Baghdad) and God gave me a picture in my mind of what was really happening, and a sense of peace along with it.

Thank you, Father!

My Heart's Cry Tonight

I read the news coming out of Egypt, I watch FoxNews video coming out of Egypt.

And I weep. Tears fall from my eyes.

I weep for my brothers and sisters in Christ who live in Egypt.

I weep for the future of Egypt and what is coming for them as a country.

Once again I wish I could open the book and read what happened tomorrow and next week and wonder in amazement at what God did. Instead, we will live each day as it comes and see with our own eyes what God does and is doing even in this very moment that I write.

We are living in days that people have thought about and prayed for for millenia.

I am sick tonight, sneezing and nose like a faucet turned on full blast. I don't feel well. And I am tired. I want to pray and all that runs through my mind is "hold us in the palm of your hand, Lord, give us strength to endure, give us peace and security in the knowledge that we are your children. Watch over my family, bring my grandchildren to faith - oh Lord! May they be chosen by you, loved by you! With every ounce of my being I pray this. In the Name of Your Son, Jesus Christ."

I think of all the people all over the world who have no idea as to what is coming. I'm not sure which is best - ignorance or knowledge at this point.

I know a few things for certain - God is sovereign. God is holy. God is patient. But there will come a time when the cup of his wrath is full and he will bring judgement on this earth that is unimaginable.

Egypt! Why am I so concerned over what is happening in Egypt? I do not know for certain.

I told Mel earlier tonight (I've said this before, I'm sure he's tired of hearing it) that something "changed" in 2008. I remember when it happened, when I felt the change the very first time. Sitting here in our livingroom, talking with him about something - and it was like someone flipped a switch. There was the before and now there is the after. I wish I had written it down, explored it fully at that point (I need to go back and reread my blog posts at that time and see if I did write something, I don't remember doing so, but who knows?)

I am disturbed by the fact that I find no joy in what I see God doing. One of the sermons from Revelation that I listened to said that as Christians we should/will rejoice to see God punish and destroy evil on this earth. People - evil people. The preacher said we think we are better than God, more compassionate than He is, and so we get upset when we think of Him destroying evil people, the evil in this world. Yet, I do not think I am more compassionate than God. In many ways I think I have very little compassion for anyone other then myself and my closest family and that bothers me greatly. But I weep for Egypt and I weep for my Christian brothers and sisters there now who are and will be facing the wrath of their enemy, Satan, and his followers to an even greater degree once the "shield" of the current dictatorship is removed and the radicals are given freedom to act as they desire. Maybe that is where so much of my sorrow comes from - I see the growth of evil billowing and billowing and billowing, out of control (to human eyes). And yet - to think of God destroying it all ... what an internal battle I have going on! Do I love the world more than Him? In my heart of hearts I know the answer to that is yes, and that terrifies me. I fall on my knees and ask the Spirit to pray on my behalf because I do not know how to pray! Do I love God? Do I love Jesus Christ? Do I love the Holy Spirit? Oh, what frightening questions - simply because I know what a sinner I am, even though I am a child of God, and that I will never on this earth be able to love him as I should. I want to fall on my face and thank him and praise him for calling me and loving me and dying for me - ME! - when I know even only a little bit of how unrighteous I am!

So there is the up and down, the back and forth - the knowledge and love of God, the knowledge and fear because I know how unworthy I truly am. The seeing what is happening and the wishing that I lived in ignorance and that it was 1958 all over again and I was a child who did not know.

I remember the words to a song - "hide me in the cleft of the Rock". Hide me, Lord, as your wrath begins to be revealed. Hide my family in the cleft of the Rock. Hide my brothers and sisters. Help us to rejoice in your righteousness.

Oh Father. Your peace is not of this world, that is for sure. Yet, as I pray, I feel it and am comforted. I praise you and thank you.

Rock of Ages
by Augustus M. Toplady, 1740-1778
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee;
let the water and the blood,
from thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure;
save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law's commands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
when mine eyes shall close in death,
when I soar to worlds unknown,
see thee on thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee.

Christian in Egypt: ‘They Try to Kill Us’

January 26, 2010 - 11:41 AM | by: Dana Lewis

Egyptian Maher El-Gowhary and his 15 year old daughter Dina never pray twice at the same church, never stay longer than a month in any one apartment. They are constantly under threat, always on the run because they converted to Christianity in a largely Muslim country.

Maher and Dina nervously agreed to meet us at a Church in Cairo. The priest at the Church said he feared problems from the Egyptian authorities and while he agreed to have us watch his Sunday mass, the Priest declined to speak to us about what is happening in Egypt and to the El-Gowhary's.

They tell their story out of fear and desperation. Born Muslims they chose to convert to the Christian Church after both claim they had religious visions.

Now Maher says "Muslims try to kill us, and will kill us if they find us."

Several religious fatwas have been issued for "spilling his blood" after Maher asked an Egyptian Court to legally recognize his conversion, so he can one day be buried as a Christian and so his daughter won't be forced into a marriage by her Muslim mother.

The court ruled a legal conversion to Christianity would threaten public order. His lawyer told us it's a dangerous double standard because in Egypt a Christian can convert to the Muslim faith in a week, but a Muslim cannot convert to the Christian faith.

Ten percent of Egypt is Christian, largely the Coptic Christians who increasingly say they face daunting discrimination and even death.

We had to hide our camera as we followed the El-Gowhary's because we were told if the authorities discovered we were preparing our story we would be arrested.

Religious tensions are running high in Egypt.

On January 6th, the Coptic Christmas eve, three Muslim men sprayed gunfire at a Church in Upper Egypt killing six Christians and wounding up to a dozen more. Christians rioted the next day and the area is still closed to outsiders including the press.

Human rights activist Hussein Bahjet say's Egypt has the potential to become like Lebanon because of growing sectarian violence.

"Civil strife that could engulf the country" Bahjet says.

The U.S. State Department reports respect of religious freedom in Egypt is declining, Christians are denied Government jobs, Priests are threatened and harassed, Christians are increasingly attacks in what State describes as "a climate of impunity that encourages violence."

In some cases authorities turn a blind eye to attacks on Christians, in other cases there is evidence police sparked the attacks.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been largely silent about the problem, but this week he spoke out saying Egyptians must up-root "fanaticism and sectarianism, which threatens the unit of our nation."

Dina has written a letter to President Obama which has been published on Christian websites. She has been pulled out of school. She has only a blue jean jacket to stay warm and little food to eat. Her letter was a desperate plea. "I wrote that we are a minority Christian Community treated very badly and I want to tell President Obama to tell the Egyptian Government to treat us well."

Her father Mayer says he can't stay in Egypt anymore. He and his daughter are in such grave danger we can't report where they are in Egypt now, or where they are planning on moving tomorrow.

In recent days the two met with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in Cairo. They asked for refugee status to get out of Egypt.

A source at the Commission say's its a complicated matter because Dina has a Muslim mother and there are legal issues, but their request is being considered.

The Commission source also says because of religious discrimination in Egypt, last year the State Department down graded Egypt to being on a watch list. This year it could potentially be downgraded further to a Country of particular concern. That means the U.S. might even consider sanctions against a Country which receives some 2 billion dollars in U.S. aid every year.

As I write this Dina and her father are packing, moving to another area of Egypt. Out of money. And running of out hope.