by CFI Field Staff on February 17, 2012
Fear is spreading throughout many regions in Egypt as Christians become the recent victims of numerous kidnappings and attacks by fundamental Muslims.
CFI’s co-worker in the region recently reported that three Christian doctors have been kidnapped in El Minya, and three more doctors have received threats by telephone.
Another report indicates that four Coptic Christians have been kidnapped in the cities of Qena and Nag Hammadi. In Nag Hammadi, the Christians were taken as churchgoers were gathered around the Church of the Archangel Naga Hammadi, after the attackers set fire… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on October 7, 2011
“The Copts, their lives and their churches are in danger.” It was the gist of an urgent message sent days ago to a governmental authority by Dr. Naguib Gabriel, head of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations.
Gabriel had good reason to be alarmed. In the village of Merinab in the Aswan province, the 100-year-old St. George’s Church was being demolished and burned to the ground by thousands of angry Muslims. After setting fire to the church building, which had been in the process of renovation, the crowd proceeded… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on June 1, 2011
Amid increasing sectarian tensions, many Coptic Christians have become concerned about the rise of extremist Islam and its effects on the Christian community throughout Egypt.
Hundreds of Christian citizens, who demonstrated alongside Muslims earlier this year to call for the removal of former president Hosni Mubarak, are now fearful that a conservative Islamic presence in Egypt is ushering in an era of discrimination and violence against the church — one that will become virtually unopposed as it gains strength.
Recent incidents of church burnings and physical attacks against Christians have… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on March 15, 2011
An ill-fated romance between a Coptic man and a Muslim woman has led to a new surge of anti-Christian violence in the village of Soul, Egypt.
According to a recent report from the Assyrian International News Agency, a family controversy began when the woman’s father failed to kill her in order to preserve the family’s honor. On March 5, a mob of nearly 4,000 Muslims attacked local Christians in retaliation for the relationship, terrorizing and forcibly displacing Copts from their homes and setting fire to the St. Mina and St.… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on February 23, 2011
As Egypt’s civil unrest contributes to skyrocketing food and oil prices throughout the world, Christian Freedom International (CFI), a Michigan-based humanitarian organization, is preparing to deliver desperately needed food supplies to Egyptian Christians.
The existing global food shortage has been just one factor at the heart of Egypt’s turmoil that caused thousands of demonstrators, demanding an end to the dictatorial Mubarak regime, to take to the streets in recent weeks. Now, as Egypt faces an uncertain future in a post-Mubarak era, the country must also address the issue of rising… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on February 8, 2011
Two Coptic Christian families have been murdered by Islamists in the village of Sharona, Egypt, near the Maghagha, Minya province, according to a report from the Assyrian International News Agency.
On January 30, the families were in their homes with the doors locked when members of two Islamic groups broke into their houses through the roofs. The attackers killed eleven Christians, including several young children, and wounded four before looting the houses of money and furniture, as well as livestock and grain. The survivors, who were transported to Maghagha General… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on January 20, 2011
Christian Freedom International (CFI), a Michigan-based organization that assists persecuted Christians around the world, has denounced the latest incident of violence carried out against six Christians in Egypt.
Amer Ashour Abdel-Zaher, an Egyptian police officer, opened fire on a passenger train after he boarded in Samalout, a town just south of Cairo, on January 11, 2011. One Coptic Christian, 71-year-old Fathy Ghattas, was killed in the attack, and five other Copts, including Ghattas’ wife, were severely wounded.
While it was not immediately clear whether Abdel-Zaher had deliberately targeted the Christians,… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on January 14, 2011
The recent shooting death of a 71-year-old Christian man in Egypt has ignited a new sense of rage in hundreds of Christians throughout the country, just days after the bombing that killed 21 Coptic Christians who were attending a New Year’s Eve mass in Alexandria.
The incident took place on January 10, when an off-duty police officer who was on his way to work suddenly opened fire on a train, killing the Christian man and injuring his wife. Four other riders, most of whom were also Christians, were wounded in… Read more
by CFI Field Staff on January 11, 2011
The humanitarian organization Christian Freedom International (CFI) has joined the ranks of outspoken critics around the world that have condemned the recent bombing of a church in Alexandria, Egypt — one of the bloodiest attacks against minority Christians in the country’s recent history.
The bomb detonated in a car that was parked in front of Saints Coptic Orthodox Church on December 31, 2010, while hundreds of parishioners were attending the New Year’s Eve Mass. The bomb contained over 100 kilograms of explosives and was strong enough to shatter windowpanes throughout… Read more
