Egypt has been one of the worst places for Christian persecution in recent months. A series of attacks targeting Christians and forced closure of churches have caused Egypt’s Christian population to call on authorities for help.
The Minya Coptic Orthodox Diocese said authorities sealed off two churches in the southern province, citing harassment and attacks by extremists. A third was closed because of fear of attacks. The statement was issued late Saturday.
It said clashes broke out Friday when ultraconservative Muslims tried to attack one of the churches, adding that a Coptic woman was wounded. Later that day, the mob attacked Christian homes, the statement said.
“We have kept quiet for two weeks ... but the situation has worsened. It seems as if prayer is a crime the Copts should be punished for,” the statement said, referring to the repeated closure of the churches.
The diocese urged authorities to end discrimination against Christians and “not to succumb to the fundamentalists.”
According to the International Christian Concern, a separate clash broke out on October 27, when a Muslim mob formed in the village of Exbat, following noontime prayer services and attacked St. George’s Church and other buildings owned by Christians. Security officials responded, thereby, closing the church.
“Following the Friday prayer, many Muslims gathered into a mob and began to attack us,” Sobhi, a Christian resident in Ezbat Zakaria, said in a statement to ICC, which was provided to Fox News. “They threw stones at our homes resulting in breaking the doors and windows of some houses, injuring a Coptic woman ... they set three stables owned by Copts on fire. They then headed to the church (the building services) and tried to attack it, but the security guards who were assigned confronted them and prevented them from approaching the church.”
The recent closures of the churches underscore the recent problems the Coptic Christian community has faced. Historically, most attacks on the Coptic community occurred in northern parts of the country, including the Sinai Peninsula.
“Once again, Christians in Egypt are suffering for no other reason than their faith. As this event illustrates, Egypt’s Christians are not safe whether they are at home or at church,” Claire Evans, regional manager for ICC said in a statement provided to Fox News. “Closing the church does nothing to protect Christians. In fact, the mob wanted to close the church and deny the Christians the ability to exercise their right to religious practice.”
The first nine months of 2017 saw a 67-percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents over the same period in 2016, new data from the Anti-Defamation League has shown.
Those incidents include physical assaults, acts of vandalism, and bomb threats to Jewish institutions, according to the ADL’s Audit of Anti-Semitic incidents, which was released Thursday morning.
A tally found that from January 1 to September 30, there were 703 incidents of harassment, including 162 bomb threats; 584 incidents of vandalism, 52 of them against Jewish institutions; and 12 physical assaults.
Those figures include the more than 2,000 calls made by an 18-year-old US-Israeli teen from Ashkelon who was apprehended by Israeli authorities in April. He allegedly made many of the bomb threats to Jewish institutions throughout the United States and other countries.
The ADL also found anti-Semitic incidents in American schools are surging, with incidents in K-12 grade schools more than doubling compared to the same period in 2016 — vaulting from 130 last year to 269 this year.
“We are deeply troubled by the rising number of anti-Semitic incidents, bullying, and hate in our nation’s schools and we don’t think the statistics paint a full picture of what is happening,” Greenblatt said. “Many school-based incidents still go unreported. As a country, we have to do more to ensure that our schools remain places where students can learn safely without fearing bullying and hate.”
While US President Donald Trump was not named in the report, the ADL and others have accused him of failing to convincingly and consistently denounce white supremacists, who often bill themselves as his supporters.
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