U.S. Copts Association

By Ethan Cole|Christian Post Reporter

Egyptian Christian shop owners in the eastern town of Farshoot where a Muslim riot recently occurred refused to reopen their stores until the government compensated them for damages.

Copts - the Christian community in Egypt - said they will not be coerced into overlooking the mass riot that left reportedly 65 Christian shops damaged, as reported by Assyrian International News Agency on Sunday. Instead, they are uniting to make authorities recognize what happened and punish perpetrators.
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By Lisa Jucca and Martin de Sa’Pinto

ZURICH (Reuters) - A Swiss vote to ban new minarets could irk some Muslim investors at a time when Swiss private banks are hoping to replace dwindling growth in European and U.S. assets with fresh funds from emerging markets.

Switzerland has traditionally attracted wealth from the Middle East due to its political stability and proximity to the region. French-speaking Geneva has been the main Swiss hub for Arab clients, bankers say, although no there are no official figures available due to Swiss bank secrecy law.
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Extremism on the street

By Youssef Sidhom
Last week I wrote about the booklets which are distributed to pedestrians or commuters in town free of charge, and which brim with material that strongly promotes fundamentalist, extremist thought. According to the information cited in a sample booklet which I tackled, it was printed in a printshop in Alexandria. I can vouch that the booklet was printed under the eyes and noses of the security officials, since it is a well-known fact of life in Egypt that the security apparatus keeps a very close eye on printshops, avails itself of a copy of whatever is under print, and gives itself the right to confiscate anything it deems threatening to national security or social peace.
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Collective Punishment

By Nader Shukry

The Copts in the town of Farshout in Qena, Upper Egypt were the victims of attacks by a several-hundred strong Muslim mob on Saturday 21 November. Some 30 Coptic-owned shops, five pharmacies, three workshops, and two buses, were broken into, plundered, then burned, while countless Coptic homes were besieged and thrown with stones. At least seven Copts and one Muslim were injured. The attack, which started at 10:00 on Saturday morning, lasted until 11:00pm.
Until late in the evening the security forces could not control the mob and had to call for additional forces from Assiut and Sohag, and resort to tear gas to disperse the angry crowds. A curfew was imposed on the town. Some 30 rioters were detained, and a security cordon was imposed on Farshout, and the neighbouring villages of Shuqeiqi, and Kom al-Ahmar.
Local politicians converged on the town to calm matters down.
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By Nasser Sobhy 

Several decades ago many Coptic families decided to emigrate, setting off a great exodus. Yet although they were scattered all over the world, they never forgot their Church, or its teachings and principles. However, their children grew up with limited information and experience about their parents’ roots. The Coptic Orthodox Church has decided to rectify this by launching a new Internet channel in seven languages to connect young Coptic Christians with their homeland.
The new channel has been launched through the new technology called IPTV (Internet Protocol TV), which broadcasts TV through the Internet, and which is expected to gradually replace the current dish and satellite technologies.
Watani met the head of the channel, Father Bishoi al-Antoni.
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this vedio are appear muslim’s when attack to all of treader in city called farshout in upper egypt . this is exposure of economy breakdown for christian . in last 21 this month all of youth muslim in this city r attack to all of christian shop , gold shop , market shop, combuter shop , all of shop in farshout city and make steal all of thing after that make fire on shop and some christian homes . the police whe are comein are didn’t make anything to the muslim but leave muslims make attack , after that any christian people are movie in street will  encounter muslim and hear alot of swearwords and battery from muslims people . so all of christian didn’t go out from home becuse them are afriad from any battery . losses of value are 5 Million egyptian pound this equal more of 1 million $ but egyptian government didn’t make any thing and didn’t make any save to this christian people .
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Cairo (AINA) — In an effort to cover up the Muslim mob violence against the Copts which broke out last week in the town of Farshoot and neighboring villages (AINA 11-22-2009, 11-23-2009), and in view of the complete news blackout imposed by the Egyptian government, Egyptian State Security has intensified its pressure on the Coptic Church in Nag Hammadi and the victims of the violence into accepting extrajudicial reconciliation with the perpetrators, and opening their businesses without any compensation. Similar State Security scenarios have been experienced by Copts in all sectarian incidents in the past, in which they always come out as losers, having been forced to give up civil and criminal charges, while the criminals get away scot-free.”There will be no reconciliation before full financial compensation has been paid to the Coptic victims, and the criminals are brought to justice, so that safety and security can be restored to the district,” said Bishop Kirollos of the Nag Hammadi Diocese.
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Islamic extremist sermonizing leads to altercation at barbershop in South Waziristan.
LAHORE, Pakistan, November 27 (CDN) - A young Christian man is in hiding in Pakistan from Taliban militants who seek to kill him for “blasphemy” because he defended his faith.

In February Jehanzaib Asher, 22, was working in a barbershop his family jointly owns with his cousin in Wana, South Waziristan - a Taliban stronghold in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan’s northwest - when the Islamic militants showed up to try to convert him to Islam.
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By Charles Boyd|Christian Today Reporter

A Catholic Archbishop in India’s Orissa state has appealed to the worldwide church to pray this Christmas for victims of the anti-Christian violence that struck parts of India in 2007 and 2008.

Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar has issued a prayer for the season in which he asks for God’s mercy upon the perpetrators of the attacks and comfort for the victims.
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David Charter in Brussels

The UK Independence Party is set to head in a fresh direction, fighting radical Islam, with the election today of a replacement for Nigel Farage as its national leader.

The two favourites to take over from Mr Farage are committed to adding the battle against Islamic fundamentalism to the party’s main goal of withdrawing Britain from the European Union.
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The New York Times

Charges Detail Road to Terror for 20 in U.S.

With eight new suspects charged Monday, the authorities have implicated 14 people in the case, one of the most extensive domestic terrorism investigations since the Sept. 11 attacks. Some of them have been arrested; others are at large, including several believed to be still fighting with the Somali group, Al Shabab. ¼br> Read the rest…

by Jack Shenker   

The Guardian

The tribalistic violence that followed the World Cup defeat to Algeria was fuelled by a genuine set of grievances.

The chauvinistic brand of nationalism that swept across Egypt last week - the violent fringe of which saw riots outside the Algerian embassy in Cairo - really isn’t about the football, despite what Joseph Mayton says in his Cif article yesterday.

The spark was a football match, certainly, but Mayton’s contention that depressed Egyptians were simply “unable to deal with the fact that even on the football pitch, they cannot achieve success” does not tell the whole story.
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Washington — A hearing was recently held on Religious Freedom in the Middle East which exposed the failure of the State Department and President Obama to address Human Rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

On November 18, Chairman, Gary L. Ackerman (D-NY), as well as other congress representatives, questioned the Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Michael H. Posner, on the State of Political and Religious Freedom in the Middle East. It was evident that Egypt and Saudi Arabia, both close allies of the US, have not been pressured into compliance with international human rights laws.
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Upper Egypt (AINA) — On Monday November 23, 2009 Muslim rioters looted and burned Coptic Christian businesses in the village of Abou Shousha, which lies 25 KM from Farshoot. The terrorized Coptic inhabitants of Abou Shusha have stayed indoors, their shops are closed and their children are being kept away from school. They fear a repeat in their village of the Muslim violence which engulfed the town of Farshoot less than 36 hours earlier (AINA 11-22-2009).

The Middle East Christian Association (MECA) reported that at least three large Coptic stores and a pharmacy were looted and burnt in Abou Shusha and that the fire brigade arrived one hour late, although their headquarters is only 8 KM away from the village. “They gave the pretext of being busy in Farshoot, which is untrue, as Farshoot had a quiet night,” said Wagih Yacoub of MECA. “Coptic and Muslim neighbors tried to put the fire out.” A video posted by Free Copts shows the Abou Shusha fires.
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By Ethan Cole|Christian Post Reporter

Hundreds of angry Muslims, and by some accounts thousands, attacked Coptic Christians in a southern Egyptian town this past Saturday over an allegation that a Christian man kidnapped and raped a Muslim girl.
The mob looted and burned Christian owned stores in Farshoot, which is located about 300 miles south of Cairo, causing an estimated six million Egyptian pounds (over one million dollars) in damage, according to the Coptic American Friendship Association. Witnesses also reported that the mob made wooden crosses and burned them on the streets.
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