Shubrā al-Khaymah / Qalyubia

The cave of the Holy Family in Mustorod is being restored and receives a new image. The church is in the possession of a miracle icon which brings healing for ailments.

It is not easy to defy the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III - and get away with it - as the family of one dead clergyman has learned. No one - including some of the pope’s most reliable allies - had anticipated the kind of revenge Pope Shenouda had arranged for Father Ibrahim Abdel Said, the former parish priest of the Mar Girgis Church in Maadi, until his tragic death on August 30.

The article is an attack on the Coptic Orthodox refusal to accept the baptism of the Coptic Catholic and Coptic Evangelical churches in Egypt. However, claims are made that Orthodox priests say are factually not true. Some Orthodox priests were consulted and their comments are found in the footnotes of this article.

Since the issue of the Ottoman decree known as the Hamayouni law in 1856 that concerns the building of churches, Christians have disagreed on whether this law is a blessing or a curse. The building of churches at that time equated mosque building with church building on condition that approval is received from the Sultan.

I am one of thousands of Christians peacefully living in Egypt with their Muslim brothers. In the village where I grew up and at the school where I received my education, I never felt the differences between Muslims and Christians. However, after graduation when I was looking for a job, I started to feel these differences.