Egipto: uma manifestação de cristãos coptas degenera em violência

Une manifestation de Coptes a dégénéré au Caire, dimanche 9 octobre, provoquant la mort de trois policiers selon la télévision publique, et d'au moins seize manifestants selon l'AFP. Les Coptes, qui représentent 10 % de la population égyptienne, accusent des islamistes radicaux d'avoir partiellement démoli une église dans la province d'Assouan la semaine dernière. Ils ont manifesté pour demander le renvoi du gouverneur à qui ils reprochent de n'avoir pas su protéger leur lieu de culte. [...]

Ver notícia no Le Monde

Cartoon do Mickey com barba causa turbulência no Egipto

An Egyptian Christian telecom mogul has angered Islamic hard-liners by posting an online cartoon of Mickey Mouse with a beard and Minnie in a face veil.
The ultraconservative Islamists, known as Salafis, called the cartoon posted by Naguib Sawiris on Twitter a mockery of Islam. They launched an online campaign calling on Muslims in Egypt to boycott Sawiris' mobile phone company Mobinil. Shares of Mobilnil and Orascom Telecom, which Sawiris founded, both fell Monday on the Egyptian stock exchange.
Sawiris, who is also a politician, promotes a secular Egypt. He owns media companies and after Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, he launched a political party that calls for separation of state and religion.
After the cartoon posted a few days ago stirred complaints on Twitter, Sawiris tweeted an apology on Friday and claimed he was joking.
"I apologize for those who don't take this as a joke; I just thought it was a funny picture; no disrespect meant. I am sorry," he tweeted.
But new Facebook groups cropped and quickly gained more than 60,000 followers, calling for a boycott of his widely used cell phone company.
Named "We are joking Sawiris," the Facebook group said: "If you are really a Muslim, and you love your religion, boycott his projects. We have to cut out the tongue of any person who attacks our religion."
At least 15 Salafi lawyers have filed lawsuits accusing Sawiris of religious contempt, an official at the prosecutor general office said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Ver notícia no LaCrosseTribune

Confrontos entre cristãos e muçulmanos no Cairo fazem dez mortos e uma centena de feridos

A violência entre os dois grupos religiosos lançou o caos durante a noite no densamente populado bairro de Imbaba, na capital, após o ataque de muçulmanos a uma igreja, depois de se ter sabido que uma mulher cristã que queria converter-se ao islão teria sido ali encerrada.
O primeiro-ministro Essam Charaf adiou a visita que tinha marcada para os Emirados Árabes Unidos e Bahrain, segundo está a avançar a televisão estatal egípcia. Os confrontos levaram a que o exército e a polícia anti-motim tivesse de actuar, tendo sido confirmado já que 190 pessoas vão ser julgadas em tribunal militar devido a estes confrontos.
"O Conselho Supremo Militar [que exerce provisoriamente o poder no país, desde a deposição de Hosni Mubarak, a 11 de Fevereiro] decidiu enviar para julgamento no Tribunal Supremo Militar todos aqueles que foram detidos durante os incidentes de ontem, ou seja, 190 pessoas", foi anunciado pelo organismo na sua página na rede social Facebook.
Também no mesmo bairro de Imbaba uma outra igreja foi incendiada  [...].


Ver notícia no Público

Cristãos coptas do Egipto sofrem mais ataques

Copts in Egypt are begging for Egyptian Armed Forces protection today after a Muslim mob of several thousand attacked their church in the village of Soul, about 30 kilometers from Cairo, last night. The Church of St. Mina and St. George was torched, and its clergy are unaccounted for. The fire department and security forces failed to respond to Coptic pleas for help during the arson attack.

According to a report from the Washington-based Coptic American Friendship Association, the mob, chanting “Allahu Akbar,” pulled down the church’s cross and detonated a handful of gas cylinders inside the structure. The ensuing fire destroyed the church and all its contents, including the sacred relics of centuries-old saints. It is reported that a romantic relationship between a Christian man and a Muslim woman, which sharia forbids, and the refusal of the woman’s father to kill her to restore the community’s “honor,” aroused the Muslim ire. An account of this incident is here. (I also received a message from a Coptic friend that this week members of the Muslim Brotherhood, shouting “Allahu Akbar,” stormed a Christian school on Thabit Street in downtown Asyut and attempted to take it over. Egyptian security forces, including an army unit, intervened and routed out the Brotherhood members. The school had been built by Presbyterian missionaries in the early 1900s, and is now directed by Presbyterian Pastor Naji. Christian leaders from this southern area expressed a deepening sense of insecurity as the Muslim Brotherhood emerges from the underground.) [...]

Ver notícia no National Review Online

O Egipto silencia a minoria cristã

Los cristianos juran que la policía de Mubarak irrumpió en la iglesia a medio construir de Omraneya al grito de «Allah uk akbar» (Alá es el más grande), ese que solo usan «cuando van a por los terroristas y en la guerra». Les atacaron, cuentan, «de una forma inhumana», disparando a bocajarro pelotas de goma, gases lacrimógenos, piedras y las balas que mataron a en el acto a Makarios Gad, de 19 años. Hubo 13 agentes y 80 ciudadanos heridos, dos de ellos también han muerto. Luego «se llevaron a todo el mundo, a 156 hombres, mujeres y niños que estaban dentro del edificio», y desde entonces, dicen, «la caza no ha terminado».
La Unión Egipcia para los Derechos Humanos asegura que hay 400 detenciones más, que las fuerzas de seguridad les sacan por las noches de sus casas y que esta semana pararon un autobús en la calle «y agarraron, —explica Ezzar Ibrahim—, a los que tenían escrito en el carné la religión equivocada: cristianos». En el gobierno local de Giza, dirigido por el oficialista Sayyed Abdel Aziz, niegan toda esta versión «cínica y maliciosamente distorsionada» y advierten que los agredidos fueron los policías, cuando trataban de disolver a 3.000 cristianos «vándalos» que protestaban porque el Estado les ha suspendido las obras de esa «iglesia ilegal» en la que se atrincheraban. Y ya saben que no tienen ningún derecho a manifestarse.[...].

Ver notícia no ABC

Cristãos ‘são agora alvos legítimos‘ no Iraque

A Al-Qaida no Iraque advertiu hoje que os cristãos são agora "alvos legítimos", depois de expirado o ultimato dado à Igreja Copta no Egipto para libertar duas mulheres, segundo o centro norte-americano de vigilância de sites islamistas (SITE).
O Estado Islâmico do Iraque (ISI), grupo ligado à rede terrorista Al-Qaida, reivindicou, no domingo, o ataque a uma igreja siríaca católica, em Bagdad, e deu 48 horas à Igreja Copta do Egipto para libertar duas cristãs que se converteram ao Islão e estão "detidas em mosteiros" no Egipto.
"O ultimato acordado à Igreja copta no Egipto muçulmano para libertar as nossas irmãs expirou", refere um comunicado da al-Qaida no Iraque. [...]

Ver notícia no MSN News 

Cristãos coptas perseguidos no Egipto

Making up about 10% of the population in Egypt, most Egyptian Christians are Coptic Christians. The Coptic branch of Christianity is one of the oldest surviving branches of Christianity. The Coptic Church bears similarities to the Eastern Orthodox. Some of the oldest extant Christian texts come from the Coptic religion. Despite their crucial importance to Christian discourse and religious ideas, the suffering this branch of Christianity experiences in Egypt is not well documented or publicized.

Late at night on Christmas Eve Mass in Naj Hammadi southern Egypt on January 7^th there was a vicious drive-by shooting which resulted in the deaths of six church goers and one security official. [...]

Ver notícia no The Sop