Egypt’s Christians In Peril

by Faith J. H. McDonnell
Feb 16th, 2010

Excerpt:
“The Muslims promised us a wonderful Christmas,” one wounded parishioner told the Coptic News Bulletin, “I think the message is received now.” All further Christmas celebrations were cancelled. In a moment’s time, one of the most joyous days of the year for Christians was transformed into a day of horror and carnage. That was as much the goal of the Muslim gunmen as the actual shootings. Christian holy days and holy places are most often targeted. Just seven months before, Muslims in the village of Higaza opened fire on worshippers leaving an Easter Eve service, killing two young men and wounding a woman.

Bishop Kirollos believes he was the intended target of the attack. “I was the one intended to be assassinated by this plot, and when it failed the criminals turned round and started shooting and finishing off the young ones,” Kirollos told MECA. He received death threats over the weeks before Christmas, and told reporters from Free Copts that the Muslims wanted to “dispose of him” because he had criticized the State Security for failing to protect Christians attacked by Muslims in November in several towns within the parish of Nag Hammadi. the rest

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