(RAMADAN Sep 24 – Oct 23)

Alexandria, Egypt

April 14, Good Friday

Martyr Nushi

Most of the injured were at the Saints Coptic Church

One person has been killed and at least 12 others injured by knife-wielding attackers at three churches in northern Egypt, police have said.

The attacks happened in Coptic Christian churches in Alexandria.

The simultaneous incidents took place during Friday Mass. Police say they have three men in custody.

Witnesses said clashes erupted between Christians and Muslims outside the churches, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Hundreds of Christians had gathered outside the churches in protest at the attacks, the agency said.

According to police reports, two people armed with knives attacked three churches. A third man was prevented from entering another church by security guards.

But the government later said there had been one assailant, who had attacked worshippers in two churches and been stopped from entering a third, AP reported.

According to an interior ministry statement, the number of injured was at least five, the agency said.

An employee at one of the churches told AFP news agency that people inside the church had fought back with sticks, but that the attacker had tried to escape through an underground passage.

Tensions

Most Christians in Egypt are Copts – Christians descended from the ancient Egyptians.

Their church split from the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in 451AD because of a theological dispute over the nature of Christ, but is now, on most issues, doctrinally similar to the Eastern Orthodox church.

Copts make up an estimated 10% of the Egyptian population of about 70 million. They complain of discrimination and harassment, and there have been a series of clashes between Muslims and Copts over the years.

Copts are concerned that new electoral rules are benefiting Islamist parties but not increasing Coptic political representation.

BBC Cairo correspondent Ian Pannell says Alexandria is an area where relations between the two communities are tense.

Three people died and many were injured in Alexandria in October 2005 after Muslim demonstrators attacked a church which had put on a play seen as offensive to Islam.

The police will have to move quickly and carefully to explain what happened this time, our correspondent says.

The funeral procession turned into a protest

Clashes broke out between Muslims and Coptic Christians in Alexandria in Egypt after the funeral of a Coptic worshipper killed in church on Friday.

Police fired tear gas and tried to separate the groups, who threw stones and attacked each other with sticks. Fifteen people were arrested.

The unrest followed the funeral of Nushi Atta Girgis, 78, who died in one of three knife attacks in Alexandria.

Christians have accused the government of failing to protect them.

Mourners shouted anti-government slogans as the funeral procession – attended by an estimated 3,000 people – turned into a protest outside the church where the funeral was held.

At least 15 people were injured and four vehicles were burned out, an interior ministry source said.

The ministry said those arrested were both Copts and Muslims and included “some fanatic extremist elements”.

‘Crushed by Muslims’

The government has said a “deranged” man was arrested for carrying out all the attacks at the three churches, but some Copts believe they were carried out simultaneously as part of an anti-Christian plot by extremist Muslims.

A judge has remanded the arrested man, Mahmoud Salah-Eddin Abdel-Raziq, 25, in custody.

“Certain papers speak of a madman. I don’t believe a word. It is propaganda to silence us and to make us believe it is an individual incident,” said Karim, a 78-year-old Copt at the funeral.

“We have always been peaceful, but we are always crushed by the Muslims,” said 30-year-old Girgis Mina. “If the state does not protect us, we will do it ourselves.”

Egyptian Christians – most of whom are Copts – make up 10% of the population and have complained of harassment and discrimination.

Some Copts argue that previous attacks on them have gone unpunished or have drawn light sentences.

Their church split from the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in 451AD because of a theological dispute over the nature of Christ, but is now, on most issues, doctrinally similar to the Eastern Orthodox church.

———————-

Egypt

June or July

Hani Sarofim (Nasrala)

A New Coptic Martyr – شهيد قبطي جديد

Taken from the site of the Free Copts. In referring to this article, please link to the following page: http://www.freecopts.net/english/content/view/268/9

September 17

Nairobi, Kenya

Sister Leonella Sgorbati

Murdered nun asked forgiveness for killers as she lay dying, colleagues say

The Associated Press
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2006

Sister Leonella, a nun who devoted her life to helping the sick in volatile regions of Africa, used to joke that there was a bullet with her name engraved on it in Somalia. When the bullet came, she used her last breaths to forgive those responsible.

“I forgive, I forgive,” she whispered in her native Italian just before she died, the Rev. Maloba Wesonga told The Associated Press at the nun’s memorial mass in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Monday.

Sister Leonella’s execution-style murder over the weekend has raised concerns that she and other foreigners who have been killed in Somalia recently are victims of growing Islamic radicalism in the country.

Her slaying was not a random attack and could have been sparked by remarks by Pope Benedict XVI about Muslims that have sparked angry reaction from Muslims around the world, added Willy Huber, regional head of the Austrian-funded hospital where Sister Leonella worked.

The killing has once again turned the spotlight on the lawless Horn of Africa nation where a powerful, radical Islamic group, accused of having ties to al-Qaida, have all but wrested control of the country from the weak and factional Somali government.

With it has come a hard line Taliban-style rule complete with public floggings and executions. Its leaders have pledged to wage holy war against an African peacekeeping force which is supposed to arrive early next month to help stabilize the country.

On Monday a car bombing and a subsequent gun battle killed 11 people in Baidoa, the headquarters of the weak government, 250 kilometers (150 miles) from Mogadishu. No one has claimed responsibility or been blamed for the attack, but the government spokesman said it was meant to kill the president, who escaped unharmed.

While most Somalis said they thought Sister Leonella’s attack was linked by remarks the pope made linking Islam with violence, Abdurahman Mohamed Farah, the deputy leader of the Supreme Islamic Courts Council said the nun’s killing was unrelated to the pope’s speech, blaming it instead on Somali warlords who lost control of Mogadishu in June after intense fighting with the Islamic militia.

In recent months the Islamic group has extended its control over much of southern Somalia, challenging the weak, U.N.-backed government that hasn’t been able to exert any power outside Baidoa.

“We will punish the culprits behind this nasty killing,” he told journalists in the capital. One man has already been arrested in connection with the murder.

The rise of the Islamic militants has coincided with a wave of assassinations of both foreign workers and moderate Somali intellectuals.

Among them were Swedish journalist Martin Adler, who was killed in June during a demonstration in Mogadishu and a prominent Somali peace activist Abdulkadir Yahya Ali, who was murdered a month later. BBC journalist Kate Peyton was shot dead last year.

The United States has accused the Islamic group of sheltering suspects in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, while in recordings attributed to al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, he portrayed Somalia as a battleground in his war on the U.S.

The Islamic militia also replaced its moderate leader with hardline cleric Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, whom the U.S. has linked to al-Qaida. Aweys denies the allegations.

Matt Bryden, a regional analyst, said a renegade Islamic militia or warlords hoping to use the killings to taint the image of the Islamic courts could be behind the killings.

Either way instability and insecurity, which has sparked mass waves of refugees, is a threat to the entire region. “The rest of the world needs to be concerned about Somalia,” he told the AP.

Sister Leonella, whose birth name was Rosa Sgorbati, had lived and worked in Kenya and Somalia for 38 years, her family said.

She was shot as she left the Austrian-run S.O.S. hospital Sunday. Her bodyguard also was slain. The two had been walking the 10 meters (30 feet) from the Mogadishu hospital to the sister’s home, where three other nuns were waiting to have lunch with her.

“She had no chance,” Huber added. “It was like an execution.”

Sister Leonella was aware of the dangers in Somalia and used to joke that there was a bullet with her name engraved on it. “But this never deterred her or discouraged her,” said Wesonga, who is secretary of the archdiocese of Nairobi.

In Mogadishu, Halima Hassan said Sister Leonella was a “kind person who loved mothers and children. We have lost a great person.”

She added she hoped the killing would not lead to curtailed aid to Somalia.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/18/africa/AF_GEN_Somalia_Nun_Killed.php

October 4

(Baghdad, Iraq)

Khither Elias, Isaac Addo Mirza, Fadi Adel, Thamir Georges, Hisam Simon, Safaa, Zayd Farouq, Ghazwan, and Falah Joseph Zara

Bomb Kills 9 Assyrians in Baghdad Christian Neighborhood

Numerous Iraqi civilians were the latest victims of a wave of IED attacks in the mostly Christian district of Camp Sara. On Wednesday October 4th, an improvised explosive device was detonated on the main street of Camp Sara taking the lives of 9 Assyrian Christians, making it the deadliest single IED attack since the start of the war directed at Assyrian Christians.

The victims were Khither Elias, Isaac Addo Mirza, Fadi Adel, Thamir Georges, Hisam Simon (music shop owner), Safaa, Zayd Farouq, Ghazwan, Falah Joseph Zara. the number of injured has not been confirmed yet. One of the victims Mr. Georges Zara was an active member of the Assyrian Chaldean Syriac National Council in Baghdad.

Eyewitnesses reported that the attack was similar to last week’s attack on the Assyrian cathedral in Baghdad in that it was made up of two explosions, a small one that causes some damage but aims to gather larger crowds for the second and more deadly IED.

http://www.aina.org/news/20061011104357.htm

(Albasra, Iraq)

Infant Martyr

Fear in Iraq

…Christians like the thousands of frightened Iraqis who face Christmas in the context of escalating anti-Christian violence. In the most shocking report from Iraq we have received, a toddler was kidnapped in Baghdad in October 2006. The mother could not afford to pay the ransom, and so the kidnappers killed the child. They returned the body to the mother. The little child had been beheaded, roasted and was served on a mound of rice.

October 9

(Baghdad, Iraq)

Fr. Paulos Eskandar

» 10/12/2006 10:08
IRAQ

Mosul: priest kidnapped 3 days ago found murdered

This was confirmed by sources of AsiaNews. An enormous ransom had been asked for the release of Fr Paulos Eskandar. The priest is remembered as one of the best the Church of Christ could have hoped for.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) – A priest of Syrian-Orthodox rite who was kidnapped in Mosul on 9 October, Fr Paulos Eskandar, was killed today by unidentified assailants. The motive for the crime is unknown. This was confirmed by AsiaNews sources. The priest’s body was found in the eastern district of Mosul. An enormous ransom had been asked for his release. The identity of his abductors was a mystery.

AsiaNews sources said Fr Eskandar was one of the best priests the Church of Christ had in Mosul, always at the service of all churches in the area, never minding whether they were Orthodox or Catholic.

His death is a clear sign that there is no letup in the terror campaign against Iraqi Christians and priests of all denominations.

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=7454

October 17

(Adi-Ouala, Eritrea)

Immanuel Andergergesh & Kimbrom Firemichel

Christians continue to be arrested for illegal church gatherings and many find themselves severely punished or in custody for extended periods of time. On October 17, two young men, Immanuel Andegergesh, 23, and Kimbrom Firemichel, 30, died from torture wounds and severe dehydration in a military camp outside Adi-Quala. The men had been performing their military service and were arrested with 10 others on October 15 while attending a worship service in the home of a fellow Christian.

http://www.human-rights-and-christian-persecution.org/christian-news-november-2006.html

October 21

(Baquba, Iraq)

Ayad Tariq

14 Year-old Iraqi Christian Boy Beheaded by Fanatic Muslims in Iraq

October 21, 2006

Baquba, northeast Baghdad
Courtesy of www.ankawa.com

Ayad Tariq (14 years young Christian) was the sole provider for his family that consisted of his father, who was old and could not work, mother, five younger brothers and two sisters. He was forced to quit school, work and provide for his family. His job was to turn on and off an electric generator and attend to it while on his 12 hours shift. On Saturday 21, and around 6:00 a.m., while he was just about to enter the premises of his fenced work, a group of Islamist extremists confronted Ayad and asked for his ID. When they discovered that he was a Christian, they began to scream “kafir .

“kafir” (Infidel). They dropped him on the ground, different men held each of his arms and legs and a fifth man held his head, put the knife on his neck and cut his throat while screaming “Allah Akbar . Allah Akbar” (God is Great)

http://www.nineveh.com/Fanatic%20Muslims%20in%20Iraq%20Behead%2014%20years%20old%20Christen%20Kid..html

In another incident a 14-year-old Christian boy was held down by his limbs and beheaded, or, as Iraqi Christians have described it, “crucified”. His Muslim attackers called him a “dirty Christian sinner” and chanted “Allahu akbar” (Allah is great)

http://www.barnabasfund.org/news/archives/article.php?ID_news_items=233

http://www.hyscience.com/archives/2006/11/christian_youth.php