Last Sunday, President al-Sisi attended the Coptic Christmas service in the Egyptian capital as he has done for the past six years. Against a background of rising tension in the Middle East, President al-Sisi held up the importance of tolerance
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10/09/2019 Egypt (International Christian Concern) – A Muslim-background believer (MBB) living in Egypt, Hussein Mohammed, was killed on Sunday after his family discovered that he had converted from Islam to Christianity. The MBB, who preferred to be called by his baptismal
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08/22/2019 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – Social media is often present during the best of times — and the worst of times. In Egypt, where only 40% of its nearly 100 million population have access to social media, the situation is flammable.
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Emerging trend leverages blasphemy laws Facebook posts may be a new persecution tactic that Islamic extremists are using against Christians, says Open Doors Middle East Director. He just returned from Egypt when he learned about several incidents involving blasphemous Facebook
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12/18/2018 Washington D.C. ICC – Isolation. For many Muslim-background believers, also known as MBBs, this is one of the first feelings they experience when their faith becomes public. Ostracization from their family is swift and their lives are at risk. Finding a new
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It should have been a joyful day. On Friday 2 November a Coptic family had celebrated the baptisms of two little boys, four-month-old Emile and 5-month-old Noufir, which had taken place in the morning at St Samuel’s monastery. In a cheerful
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A total of 3,510 Egyptian church buildings are still awaiting confirmation of official registrationfrom authorities nearly two years after the government passed a landmark law which abolished draconian Ottoman-era restrictions on Christian places of worship. In 2016, the Egyptian parliament approved
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Muslims in the village of Sultan Basha uprooted Christians’ crops on 24 August after police intervened to stop demonstrators opposing the granting of legal status to a church building in the village. On 24 August, Muslim villagers gathered outside the church building
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Samiha can neither hear, smell, nor see on the right side of her face. It’s been 18 months since Coptic Christian Samiha Tawfiq was badly injured in the bomb attack on Cairo’s St. Peter and Paul church, which claimed 27
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For the first time since ISIS drove all the Christians from Iraq’s Nineveh Plain in 2014, the Christian town of Qaraqosh celebrates Easter after many of its families returned. During this week leading to Easter, we visit Qaraqosh to meet
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