Banhā / Qalyubia

Islamist political powers rejected presidential candidates' talk about the possibility of appointing a Christian VP and considered it as irrelevant "electoral publicity stunts," adding the candidates will not be able to fulfill their pledges simply because the majority would not remain silent over this. [Hind Ahmad, al-Misryūn, March 10, p. 4] Read text in Arabic

The article includes an interview with Rif‘at Fathī, a priest, who tended to study Arabic at college. He expressed his love of Arabic and asserted the importance of the Arabic and Christian heritages as he described his subtle experience.

Drs. Hulsman discusses his trip to Mallawi, and his concerns regarding the effect that misinformation is having on grassroots Muslim-Christian relations.

Arab-West Report presented a text for Wikipedia on the background of Abu Fana.

A conflict between two families over installing an irrigation water pipe through the land of al-Barbarī developed to a horrible massacre where children, women and people of all ages were shot and burnt.

A statement from the Ministry of Interior said that Hasan Ra’fat Bashandī, who carried out the suicide bombing of Jawhar al-Qā’id Street in the al-Azhar area, was just a member of a four-man terrorist cell. That cell recruited and trained him and prepared the home-made explosive device used in the attack that claimed the lives of two French and American tourists and wounded many others.

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies [CIHRS] has sent an appeal to the president of the republic and the speakers of both houses of Parliament called to amend article two of the Constitution that states that Islam is the religion of the state and Islamic Sharī‘ah is the main source of legislation.

Reflections on the life of Abouna Matta El Meskeen and his influence on ecumenical monastic traditions.

An obituary of Father Matta al-Miskeen, the abbot of Anba Maqar Monastery in Wadi al-Natroun.

The father of a Christian girl who disappeared from her home with a Muslim boy states that

he will accept her marriage or conversion, if she has chosen of her own free will, but he believes that she

may

have been brainwashed.