Coptic Priest Murdered in Cairo in Latest Anti-Christian Sectarian Attack in Egypt

Patrick Poole | 10:12 AM on October 12, 2017

As I’ve reported here at PJ Media, the Coptic Christian community in Egypt — the largest Christian community in the Middle East — has been under siege. It suffered multiple suicide bombings of churches this year on Palm Sunday, and the massacre of a busload of Coptic pilgrims on their way to a monastery just hours before the beginning of Ramadan.

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The random killings of Copts throughout the country, as well as targeted kidnappings, have added fears during the continuing violence. Now comes a report this morning that two Coptic priests have been attacked, with one murdered, earlier today in Cairo:

https://twitter.com/bishop_youssef/status/918449976044408832

Egypt Independent reports:

A Coptic priest affiliated with a church in Upper Egypt’s governorate of Beni Suef was killed on Thursday due to being stabbed by a man in Cairo’s northeastern suburb of El–Marg, state-run newspaper of Akhbar Al Youm reported.

The priest, Samaan Shehta, was in Cairo when a young unemployed man blocked the way in front of the priest’s vehicle and asked him to step down from it. He then hit the priest’s head with cleaver and ran away, a local journalist told Egypt Independent on condition of anonymity.

“It is believed that it is a hate crime that has been executed by an extremist affiliated to IS or Salafism,” he explained.

The Egyptian Coptic Church released a statement asserting that the death of priest Samaan Shehta occurred near El-salam city while he was with another priest, Benjamin Moftah, who was also assaulted. The statement did not provide further details about the second priest.

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Last week, a VBIED was found near a church in Cairo:

The series of attacks targeting the Coptic community over the past year have left more than one hundred victims killed.

In May, I reported on the attack on a busload of Coptic pilgrims headed towards a monastery in Upper Egypt that was stopped by gunmen just hours before the beginning of Ramadan:

ISIS claimed responsibility for that attack:

In April, two suicide bombers targeted churches on Palm Sunday, including one intending to assassinate Coptic Pope Tawadros. Those two blasts killed 49:

As a result of those suicide bombings, Easter Sunday services were cancelled in Upper Egypt for only the third time in 1,600 years:

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Other attacks targeting Coptic churches were thwarted:

Just days after Easter, I was in Cairo visiting the church struck by a suicide bomber in December:

All told, 29 were murdered — all but one were women and girls — in that Advent Sunday bombing, which occurred at a church just yards from the main cathedral of the Coptic Church:

Earlier this year, more than a thousand Copts fled the Sinai Peninsula after a string of sectarian murders and a video threat by ISIS:

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The attacks on the Coptic community have not just come from ISIS:

Just a few weeks ago, there were attacks on Copts by Muslims upset over a Facebook post:

Egyptian Christians are still trying to recover from the terror campaign by the Muslim Brotherhood in August 2013 that saw nearly 70 churches and monasteries torched by Brotherhood supporters.

I reported here on my April 2014 trip into Upper Egypt to view the damage inflicted by that Muslim Brotherhood terror campaign:

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The Egyptian Army is still helping to rebuild those churches:

Just last week it was announced that the bodies of 21 Coptic men who were beheaded by ISIS in Libya in February 2015 had finally been discovered:

Remarkably, the Coptic community thrives in response to these attacks. And yet widespread discrimination, harassment, and targeted kidnappings continue:

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Despite the state of emergency announced by President Sisi after the Palm Sunday bombings and the ongoing efforts to protect the churches, the intensity of attacks is evidence that the suffering and persecution aren’t likely to end any time soon.

But if there’s one thing that the Coptic Church has demonstrated in its long history, it’s the ability to persevere and prosper in the face of persecution.

Patrick Poole
For media inquiries, please contact [email protected]

Patrick Poole is a national security and terrorism correspondent for PJMedia. Follow him on Twitter.
Category: HOMELAND SECURITY
Tags: HOMELAND SECURITY

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