The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

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Thursday, August 15, 2013

The Al Qaeda Flag Flies High Above Christian Churches

by Raymond Ibrahim

Originally published by Gatestone Institute.Days ago, al-Qaeda’s Egyptian leader, Ayman Zawahiri, portrayed the
overthrow of Muhammad Morsi and the Brotherhood as a “Crusader”
campaign led by Coptic Pope Tawadros II who, according to Zawahiri and
other terrorists, is trying to create a Coptic state in Egypt.

Since then, not only are Egypt’s Christians and churches now being
attacked in ways unprecedented in the modern era, but new reports
indicate that al-Qaeda’s black flag has been raised on some of them,
specifically St. George Church
in Sohag. Considering that it was al-Qaeda linked terrorists who
initiated one of the bloodiest church attacks in recent history, the
2010 Baghdad church attack where nearly 60 Christians were slaughtered (click here for graphic images), that al-Qaeda is singling out Egypt’s Christians bodes ill.

The Islamic terrorist organization’s incitements against the Copts
are just the latest to emanate from Islamists—from the top of the
Brotherhood leadership to the bottom of the “Muslim street”—creating
something of an “open season” on Egypt’s Christians.

Days after the overthrow of Morsi, the supreme leader of the Muslim
Brotherhood, Muhammad Badie, was first to attack by name Coptic Pope
Tawadros for supporting the popular June 30 Revolution, which saw tens
of millions of Egyptians take to the streets. After Badie’s
demonization of the Copts, assaults on Christians began in earnest.
Many churches were attacked and burned and several Christians were
murdered in Upper Egypt; over in the Sinai, a young Coptic priest was shot dead,
while the body of Magdy Lam‘i Habib, a Christian, was found mutilated
and beheaded. Due to the many death threats to Pope Tawadros, he has
left the papal residence at the St. Mark Cathedral—which was earlier savagely attacked, when Morsi was still president.

This anti-Christian fury is far from sated and has taken on genocidal
proportions. While Al Jazeera was covering (and distorting) events in
Egypt, a Libyan man named Tamar Rashad called in
and said “I want to offer the good news to [Pope] Tawadros that, Allah
willing, the day is coming when no Copt will ever again tread the ground
of Egypt—and no churches. We will no longer allow churches to exist.”
When the TV host appeared to protest, Rashad interrupted him saying,
“It’s already decided, take your cameras and go to the churches and
you’ll see what’s going to happen soon, Allah willing.”

To make matters worse, Sheikh Yusif al-Qaradawi, one of the Islamic
world’s leading preachers and spiritual father of the Muslim
Brotherhood, has given his formal stamp of approval to persecute Copts,
recently posting a video saying that “Christians” and others “were
recruited [by Egypt’s military] to kill innocent Muslims.”

As expected, all these incitements against the Copts issued by
several top Islamist leaders have so upped anti-Copt sentiment that it
has become difficult in the last few days to keep up with the attacks on
them—so many and nonstop are the reports emanating from Egypt. All
throughout Upper Egypt—in Minya, Asyut, Sohag—Christians and their
churches are under attack; dozens of Coptic homes and businesses have
been set on fire. Due to the risk to Christian lives, many churches are
no longer holding regular worship services.

The situation has gotten so dire that Ibrahim Eissa,
a popular Egyptian journalist and TV personality, apparently unable to
keep silent over the plight of the Copts, recently said on live TV: “The
Christians have suffered in Egypt, over the course of 2 ½ years. Their
churches have been burned, their children killed. The Maspero Massacre
occurred, where several Copts were slain. Catastrophic fatwas
appeared, calling them infidels and inciting against them…. No one has
suffered as much as they. Today, if any Christian attempts to join a
protest, he does so at the risk of defying dozens of fatwas calling for
his death and decapitation and the burning of churches, especially in
Upper Egypt.”

Beheaded in Sinai for being Christian: remains of Magdy Lam‘i HabibWith the ouster of Muhammad Morsi, Egypt’s Islamists have finally
gotten the pretext they need to cleanse the nation of its Christian
minority, the Copt’s—ironically, Egypt’s most native sons.

The unprecedented hate currently being visited on them is fueled by Islam’s “How Dare You?” phenomenon: As conquered non-Muslims, Christians must live as dhimmis,
that is, according to traditional Islamic teaching, barely tolerated
“infidels” who must be humble and submissive—to the point that they are
not permitted to raise their hands to Muslims even when attacked.

Far from assuming their “proper place,” Egypt’s Christians supported the June 30 Revolution against the will and threats of the Brotherhood.
Thus, to Egypt’s disenfranchised and bitter Brotherhood and its
supporters, Egypt’s Christians, beginning with their pope, are all now
free game.