U.S. Copts Association

Fathya el-Dakhakhni

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Saturday accused the Egyptian authorities of failing to adhere to international standards of border protection on the Israeli border and demanded that immediate measures be taken to ensure that force is not used against unarmed migrants and those seeking asylum.

In a statement, Amnesty said that in the bloodiest event on the border since September 2009, border guards opened fire on migrants trying to cross the Egyptian border into Israel killing four people of different nationalities. This brings the total number of migrants killed this year to five, after an earlier shooting on 8 January.
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By Saeed Nafea

Minya– About 1000 girls from eight villages in Minya Governorate participated yesterday in a demonstration against female genital mutilation (FGM) that was organized by the rights group Al-Haya Al-Afdal (Better Life).
The march coincided with the United Nations’ International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation.

During the protest, girls repeated anti-circumcision slogans and called for the implementation of law 126/2008, which criminalizes FGM. Protesters also called for the activation of child rescue hotline 16000, which is supervised by the The National Council on Childhood and Motherhood. The march passed through the streets of Manshiyat Sawada, east of the Nile River.
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By Nader Shukry

Some 120 demonstrators gathered in front of the Egyptian Parliament building in Cairo at noon last Wednesday to protest the official reluctance in confronting sectarian strife and the rising number of attacks against Copts. The demonstration was triggered by the most recent attack in Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt, in which the Copts were targeted in a drive-by shooting as they left church following Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve—Copts celebrate Christmas on 7 January. Six Copts and one Muslim died and nine Copts were injured.
The Wednesday demonstration was organised by the independent National Commission for Confronting Sectarian Violence. The demonstrators came from all over the Egyptian political spectrum. Rights activists, political party members, and NGO members took part, in addition to several members of the families of the Nag Hammadi victims.
The commission is a young movement which was launched on 4 January 2010. Its membership includes 44 rights movements in Egypt and 140 independent members.
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Youssef Sidhom remembers a staunch friend and a great man
Adli Abadir was one of the most brilliant and talented personalities one might encounter in life. Yet the general atmosphere prevailing in Egypt was too stifling to tolerate such a great personality.
Abadir’s emigration was not a bolt from the blue. Although the regime of the 1952 Revolution placed a host of obstacles in his way and confiscated a great deal of his fortune, he was strong enough to show ingenious resistance against those who sought to ruin him.
A turning point in his life came one day in February 1986 when he was falsely accused of offering bribes. Although he learnt of this when he was abroad, and could have stayed where he was, his courage and resolution made him directly fly back to Egypt. He was arrested at the airport. It was one of the most difficult moments in his life when in April 1986, less than three months after his arrest, his mother died. He was allowed to leave prison for a few hours to attend the funeral.
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By Nader Shukry

The palace of Heshmat Pasha, which was owned by the Upper Egyptian Coptic, landowning Abadir family, lies in Deir Mawwas, Minya, in Upper Egypt, some 250kms south of Cairo. It sprawls over some 22 qirats (approximately 3,850sq.m) of land. Father Wissa Sobhy of Deir Mawwas bishopric told Watani that until 1988 Deir Mawwas was part of the parish of Dairut, but the growing congregation and parish duties led Pope Shenouda III to establish Deir Mawwas as a separate parish. Anba Aghabius was ordained as bishop of Deir Mawwas, and the Abadir family decided to donate their palace to the newly-formed bishopric, to be the seat of the bishop.
At that time Egypt was going through an increased wave of violence at the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), whose members were attacking Copts and their property. During this time of unrest, and before Anba Aghabius was seated, the MB attempted to seize the palace. One Friday in 1989 following noon prayers, a Muslim group attacked the premises, stealing antiquities and silver pieces. Some of them endeavoured to turn the palace into a mosque with one of them climbing up the roof dome to call for prayers (azan). However, police were alerted to the danger and fired tear gas. Their attempts to repel the attackers failed, but the one on the roof was killed.
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Confounding the Coptic issue

By Youssef Sidhom

In his recent meeting with the delegation of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Minister of Religious Endowments Hamdi Zaqzouq said that the bill for a unified law for building places of worship would be placed on the agenda of the Egyptian Parliament in its next round. Dr Zaqzouq’s declaration was highly applauded by the Shura Council (the upper house of Egypt’s Parliament) members, but the question which begged an answer was why the delay till the next round, even though the current parliamentary round extends till next July. Five months to go should be ample time to debate the bill, so why the procrastination—given that the bill has been with Parliament for five years now?
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By Pakinam Amer

A policeman who was convicted of raping and torturing a microbus driver while a fellow officer took video with his mobile phone has been returned to the police force. The reason, according to the Ministry of Interior, was that the officer “wasn’t convicted for a moral issue.” According to human rights activists and law experts, this officer’s situation is not unusual. Moreover, these experts say, as long as there are no changes to the law, police officers convicted of crimes–even torture and abuse–will continue to return to the force.

Captain Islam Nabih’s sodomy of Emad el-Kebir became one of the most notorious cases of police abuse in Egypt’s recent history. The case first came to light when the video, filmed in the Bulaq el-Dakrour police station by Corporal Reda Fathy, appeared on the blog of Mohamed Khaled, also known by his alias Demagh Mak. The video, which graphically depicted Nabih beating and sodomizing el-Kebir, spread like wildfire throughout blogs and social media networks, and was later picked up by mainstream news outlets. Human rights groups in Egypt and around the world decried the brutality. El-Kebir was sentenced to three months in prison for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.
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By Katya Adler
BBC News, Jerusalem

“I like to travel and when I travel, I like to have a guide book. Here in Jerusalem, that guide book is the Tanah, the Bible.”

This is how guide Asher Altshul likes to start his tours at the expansive City of David archaeological site in Jerusalem.

The site stretches along and down one of Jerusalem’s hills, just outside the Old City.

Hundreds of tourists gather. Most are Jewish people from countries all over the world, like the Schneider family from Los Angeles.

The father, Avshalom, says coming here was a must.
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Police detains publisher of ‘The Leader Cuts His Hair’ for ‘insulting’ Libyan leader.

CAIRO - Egyptian police briefly detained a publisher and confiscated copies of a book that criticised Libyan leader Moamer Gathafi from his office, a rights group said on Thursday.

Idris Ali, the Egyptian author of the book “The Leader Cuts His Hair,” was also told he was wanted for questioning, said Gamal Eid, director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.
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Today I would like to discuss with you the photos we are exhibiting below of Cairo University graduates over the course of this era. There are the 1959 and 1978 photos compared to the 1995 and 2004 photos.

These pictures tell quite a story. Radical Islam has taken over even the minds of educated women in the Muslim world.

Since you’re from Egypt, I would like to get your take on this phenomenon. What’s going on here? One would think that people yearn for freedom rather than enslavement, but I guess life experience and human history tells us otherwise – when it comes to certain cultures. Being from Russia, I’m not too surprised with many Russians’ adoration of a thug despot like Putin and even their pining for Joseph Stalin.
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by TIM SEBASTIAN

CAIRO — Grand larceny is alive and well at my multi-starred hotel.

“Your taxi will cost $150 — the journey is 45 minutes.” The concierge raises his hands to the sky as if the price has been determined by a higher authority.

I don’t travel to have arguments, but sometimes it would be rude to resist. After a blunt exchange with the Guest Services Manager, we agree that the taxi in question will manage the journey for roughly a third of the original asking price.

The manager refuses to be embarrassed by the shakedown — and I refuse to gloat, especially since I know the city will now be gunning for me.
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JAKARTA, Indonesia (Compass Direct News) – Local governments have ordered the closure of two churches on Indonesia’s Java island.

Under pressure from Islamist groups, authorities ordered Christian Baptist Church in Sepatan, Tangerang district, Banten Province to cease services. In Pondok Timur, near Bekasi in West Java, officials abruptly closed the Huria Christian Protestant Batak Church (HKBP) after delaying a building permit for four years.

Tangerang district authorities issued a decree on Jan. 21 ordering all worship activities to cease at the Baptist church. At a meeting in the district offices, officials pressured church officials to sign a statement that they would stop all worship activities, but they refused.
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Amal Meseha, the mother of Abanoub Atef, one of the 6 Copts who was killed on Jan. 6 during a bloody Coptic Christmas Eve attack in the southern town of Nag Hamadi, grieves as she waves her son’s posters during a protest in front of the Egyptian Parliament in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Nasser Nouri) (NASSER NOURI, AP / February 3, 2010)

Egyptian Parliament in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Nasser Nouri) (NASSER NOURI, AP / February 3, 2010) CAIRO (AP) - Egyptian activists have protested in front of parliament and called for legislation giving Christians equal rights as Muslims to build houses of worship. The demonstrators, both Muslim and Christian, were also protesting Wednesday against the sectarian strains in the country, particularly in light of a Christmas Eve slaying of six Copts and a Muslim guard outside a church in southern Egypt.
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by Benjamin Balint   

“Egypt resembles an iceberg,” the late Coptic-Egyptian writer Louis Awad once wrote. “One-eighth is above sea level. Seven-eighths are submerged in the depths. One-eighth of our lives takes place in the light of the 20th century, seven-eighths in medieval darkness.”

There is no surer measure of Egypt’s transforming identity over the last half century than its treatment of its Coptic Christian minority, which comprises about 10 percent of the country’s 80 million citizens. As Egypt becomes less Arab and more Islamic, removing itself ever farther from former president Gamal Abdel Nasser’s brand of left-leaning secular nationalism (not to speak of the liberal cosmopolitanism that prevailed from the 1920s through the revolution of 1952), the latest signs from the banks of the Nile are anything but auspicious.
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by Ray Nothstine   

Protection and justice for the Egyptian Coptic community is an issue that is very close to my heart. That is a major reason that this week’s Acton commentary highlights the grave difficulty of their situation.

The inspiring news is that the international Coptic community has united to peacefully magnify their outrage of the violent shooting that took place on January 6; the date Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas Eve. I’d like to point out to our Powerblog readers one especially moving video by John Abiskaron called called Coptic Justice. The short film chronicles the peaceful protests in Los Angeles on January 10.
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