Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

The Good Shepherd channel, patronized by Bishop Maximus, who broke away from the Coptic Orthodox Church and founded a new Orthodox Christian community, is back again after a hiatus of more than one year.

The channel is now transmitted on the NileSat after it was showing only on the European satellite HotBird broadcast satellite. [Author Not Mentioned, Rose al-Yūsuf magazine, Feb. 4, p. 53] Read text in Arabic

Mr. Mamdūh Ismā‘īl, Egyptian Bar Association, filed a report to Councillor ‘Abd al-Majīd Maḥmūd, against Dr. ‘Alī Jum‘ah, muftī of the republic of Egypt, for inciting against citizens of Egypt from a foreign state.

Watani reports that the Holy Virgin was said to have appeared in a building belongs to the Bishopric of Giza in the Omrania district, Cairo. The building Watani mentions is the church of the Holy Virgin and Archangel Surial church. Abuna Mikhail of the church says the Holy Virgin appeared in the form of a light with both her hands down. About 2000 people saw her, wrote down what they saw and signed it.

I have been shocked when I read an article in Sawt Al-Umma’s November 1 issue by Mustafa Abd Al-Latif Darwish under the title Archpriest Zakaria Butros’s play. The article seems to be refuting what the Archpriest has said in an interview in the Al-Hayat channel, but actually it is all about attacking the Bible and Christian beliefs.

A Pakistani journalist interviewed Usama Bin Laden who said that if America used chemical or nuclear weapons against his group, they may retort with chemical and nuclear weapons. He added that the Pakistani president would be punished by the Pakistani people and Allah for cooperating with America.

Dr. John Watson, a consultant to the Archbishop of Canterbury on Coptic affairs, said that there are very few people, in the West, who know a lot about Islam. People in the West usually say that al-Islambuli murdered Sadat and that sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman is Islam. Dr. Watson said he taught Muslims Islam in Britain. Dr. Watson considers some emigrant Copts to be extremists who do not differ much from extremist Muslims.

In the past the Muslims of America and Europe were not allowed to found Islamic associations or practice Islamic rituals openly. This status has changed during the last quarter of a century.

Dr. Nasr Abu Zayd delivered this lecture upon accepting the prestigious Cleveringa professorial chair at Leiden University in The Netherlands with the request to teach justice, freedom and responsibility and especially the freedom of religion and liberty of conscience. The lecture discussed the nature of the Qur’an and explains the reason for
internal political, social, ideological and intellectual conflict in most of the Muslim countries which is almost everywhere polarized between the secularists and the Islamists.