More Coptic Christians Murdered the Past Two Months Than Admitted as Refugees During Obama's Presidency

The Coptic Christian community in Egypt is the largest Christian community in the Middle East, representing more than half the Christians in the region.

And much like their counterparts in other Middle Eastern countries, they live embattled lives. The problem has been acute since the New Year’s Day bombing of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria in 2011 and was further inflamed by the fires of the so-called “Arab Spring” and Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt.

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As the Copts faced terror, violence, and discrimination, they also faced the callous indifference of the Obama administration.

In fact, more Coptic Christians have been murdered in the past two months than the Obama administration admitted as refugees during the entirety of Obama’s presidency.

Two months ago I was reporting here at PJ Media about the suicide bombing of one of the churches inside the Coptic cathedral compound in Cairo. Initially, 25 worshipers—almost all women—were killed.

Four more victims have died since:

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This brings the total number of victims killed in the Dec. 11th bombing to 29 souls.

On Jan. 3rd I reported on a Christian storekeeper who was brutally murdered by an Islamist, reportedly because he had sold alcohol.

Since then, four other Coptic Christians have been murdered in what are believed to be sectarian attacks.

So in the period of two months, the Christian community in Egypt saw 34 of its members murdered.

As noted earlier, these attacks targeting Christians are nothing new.

In August 2013, the Coptic community suffered one of its worst shocks in its nearly two thousand year history when a wave of arson attacks targeted churches, monasteries, Christian homes, and businesses throughout the country at the hands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

I reported here at PJ Media on my April 2014 trip into Upper Egypt to survey the damage wrought by these Muslim Brotherhood terror attacks.

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One might think, given all the media coverage of President Trump’s recent executive order immigration pause and how it was excluding Christians and Yazidis—the victims of ISIS’ targeted genocide in Syria and Iraq—that the desperate situation was a cause of concern for the previous Obama administration.

But it wasn’t a cause for concern. In fact, as I noted here in August, the Obama administration actively discriminated against Syrian Christians.

So, too, with the Coptic Christians.

According to data from the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center, only 22 Coptic Christians were admitted during Obama’s entire presidency, which also included one each from Sudan and Eritrea.

As the table below shows, for three years (2011, 2013, 2014) the Obama administration admitted no Coptic Christians at all.

So it’s difficult to understand all the hand-wringing by the media and protests by Democrats about a 90-day pause in immigration from seven countries of concern—countries previously identified by the Obama administration—when they kept silent as the largest community of Christians suffered persecution at home and discrimination by the Obama State Department.

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Testimonies of discrimination at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo are rife in the Coptic community. As I’ve previously reported, I was personally involved in several cases of Copts applying for visas to visit relatives in the U.S., some of whom had letters of support from members of Congress, yet all had their visa applications denied.

As deadly attacks targeting Egypt’s Christian community escalate, it seems entirely appropriate for the new Trump administration to examine the systematic and documented discrimination of the Obama administration, and to correct the wrongs done by their predecessors.

And for the media to do some soul-searching about their hypocrisy.

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