Nearly 4000 Muslims Attack Christian Homes in Egypt, Torch Church

 

 

Assyrian International News Agency  03/05/2011

(McAuley’s World Additions in blue)

(AINA) — A mob of nearly four thousand Muslims has attacked Coptic homes this evening in the village of Soul, Atfif in Helwan Governorate, 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Cairo, and torched the Church of St. Mina and St. George. There are conflicting reports about the whereabouts of the Church pastor Father Yosha and three deacons who were at church; some say they died in the fire and some say they are being held captive by the Muslims inside the church.

Witnesses report the mob prevented the fire brigade from entering the village. The army, which has been stationed for the last two days in the village of Bromil, 7 kilometers from Soul, initially refused to go into Soul, according to the officer in charge. When the army finally sent three tanks to the village, Muslim elders sent them away, saying that

Arson of the Church of St. Mina and St. George, Soul, Atfif, Egypt

 everything was “in order now.”

A curfew has been imposed on the 12,000 Christians in the village.

This incident was triggered by a relationship between 40-year-old Copt Ashraf Iskander and a Muslim woman. Yesterday a “reconciliation” meeting was arranged between the relevant Coptic and Muslim families and together with the Muslim elders it was decided that Ashraf Iskander would have to leave the village because Muslims torched his house.

The father of the Muslim woman was killed by his cousin because he did not kill his daughter to preserve the family’s honor, which led the woman’s brother (the son of the murdered father) to avenge the death of his father by killing the cousin (his father’s murderer). The village Muslims blamed the Christians (for the murders) . (So the 2 murders that led to this attack took place between family members of the Muslim woman – the 1st an honor killing, the 2nd a revenge killing for the honor killing).

The Muslim mob attacked the church, exploding 5-6 gas cylinders inside the church, pulled down the cross and the domes and burnt everything inside. Activist Ramy Kamel of Katibatibia Coptic advocacy called US-based Coptic Hope Sat TV and sent an SOS on behalf of the Copts in Soul village, as they are presently being attacked by the mob. He also said that no one is able to contact the priest and the deacons inside the burning church and there is no answer from their mobile phones.

Coptic activist Wagih Yacoub reported the mob has broken into Coptic homes and has called on Copts to leave the village. “Terrorized Copts have fled and some hid in homes of Muslim neighbors,” he added.

Witnesses said the mob chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) and vowed to conduct their morning prayers on the church plot after razing it. (Thank goodness they were not chanting “democracy Akbar” or “Democracy is great“)

By Mary Abdelmassih

http://www.aina.org/news/20110304222016.htm

Christians Protest Arson of St Minas Church in Cairo

(AINA) — Thousands of Christians have been staging sit-in since March 5 in front of the Egyptian TV building on the Nile Corniche in Cairo, protesting the attack on the church in the village of Soul and the inaction of the Egyptian armed forces in preventing the Muslims from torching and demolishing the church and terrorizing the Christian Copts and forcing them to evacuate the village.

POST SCRIPT 

Shouldn’t President Obama speak out and ask the Muslim world to show more COMPASSSION AND TOLERANCE FOR THEIR CHRISTAIN NEIGHBORS … to ask the Muslim World to speak out against violence and protest in favor of the peaceful resolution of all disputes, religious, political and military …. and to open their minds and hearts and acknowledge a universal right to worship or not worship as each individual determines for themselves …. 

LETS ASK THOSE PROTESTING REPRESENTATIVE KING’S HEARING IF SUCH A STATEMENT ISN’T IN ORDER …

 IF YOU ARE A MUSLIM TODAY AND YOU DON’T WANT TO BE CONFUSED WITH A TERRORIST … CLEAR YOUR THOAT AND SPEAK OUT AGAINST TERRORISM, VIOLENCE AND RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE BY ALL ….  

Life Lessons We Seem To Have Forgotten:

1). Mob rule is always bad 

2). “Change” achieved through street violence never yeilds what it promises ….

 3). A crowd’s size has no meaningful correlation to its “moral authority” …