Bomb Hits Egypt Church At New Year's Mass, 21 Dead

[fides quarens intellectum]

[size="5"][b]Bomb hits Egypt church at New Year's Mass, 21 dead[/b][/size]

[quote] BY MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Maggie Michael, Associated Press – 21 mins ago

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt – A powerful bomb, possibly from a suicide attacker, exploded in front of a Coptic Christian church as a crowd of worshippers emerged from a New Years Mass early Saturday, killing at least 21 people and wounding nearly 80 in an attack that raised suspicions of an al-Qaida role.

The attack came in the wake of threats by al-Qaida militants in Iraq to attack Egypt's Christians. A direct al-Qaida hand in the bombing would be a dramatic development, as the government of President Hosni Mubarak has long denied that the terror network has a significant presence in the country. Al-Qaida in Iraq has already been waging a campaign of violence against Christians in that country.

The bombing enraged Christians, who often complain of discrimination at the hands of Egypt's Muslim majority and accuse the government of covering up attacks on their community. In heavy clashes Saturday afternoon, crowds of Christian youths in the streets outside the church and a neighboring hospital hurled stones at riot police, who opened fire with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Egypt has seen growing tensions between its Muslim majority and Christian minority — and the attack raised a dangerous new worry, that al-Qaida or militants sympathetic to it could be aiming to stoke sectarian anger or exploit it to gain a foothold.

Nearly 1,000 Christians were attending the New Year's Mass at the Saints Church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, said Father Mena Adel, a priest at the church. The service had just ended, and some worshippers were leaving the building when the bomb went off about a half hour after midnight, he said.

"The last thing I heard was a powerful explosion and then my ears went deaf," Marco Boutros, a 17-year-old survivor, said from his hospital bed. "All I could see were body parts scattered all over — legs and bits of flesh."

Blood splattered the facade of the church, as well as a mosque directly across the street. Bodies of many of the dead were collected from the street and kept inside the church overnight before they were taken away Saturday by ambulances for burial.

Some Christians carried white sheets with the sign of the cross emblazoned on them with what appeared to be the blood of the victims.

Health Ministry official Osama Abdel-Moneim said the death toll stood at 21, with 79 wounded. It was not immediately known if all the victims were Christians. It was the deadliest violence involving Christians in Egypt since at least 20 people, mostly Christians, were killed in sectarian clashes in a southern town in 1999.

Police initially said the blast came from an explosives-packed vehicle parked about four meters (yards) from the church.

But the Interior Ministry said later it was likely the blast was detonated by a suicide bomber and that the attack probably involved "foreign elements." It said there was no sign the epicenter of the blast was from a car. Around six severely damaged vehicles remained outside the church, but there was little sign of a crater that major car bombs usually cause. Bits of flesh were stuck to nearby walls.

Alexandria governor Adel Labib immediately blamed al-Qaida, pointing to recent threats by the terror group to attack Christians in Egypt. Both car bombs and suicide attackers are hallmark tactics of al-Qaida.

Whoever was behind it, the blast appeared qualitatively different from past attacks on Christians. Most recent anti-Christian violence has involved less sophisticated means, mainly shootings. Stabbings at three Alexandria churches in 2006 sparked three days of Muslim-Christian riots that left at least four dead.

Egypt faced a wave of Islamic militant violence in the 1990s, that peaked with a 1997 massacre of nearly 60 tourists at a Pharaonic temple in Luxor. But the government suppressed the insurgency with a fierce crackdown.

The last major terror attacks in Egypt were between 2004-2006, when bombings — including some by suicide attackers — hit three tourist resorts in the Sinai peninsula, killing 125 people. Those attacks raised allegations of an al-Qaida role, but the governments strongly denied a connection, blaming them on local extremists.

Hours after the blast, Mubarak went on state TV and vowed to track down those behind the attack, saying "we will cut off the hands of terrorists and those plotting against Egypt's security."

Aiming to prevent sectarian divisions, he said it was attack against "all Egypt" and that "terrorism does not distinguish between Copt and Muslim." Egypt's top Muslim leaders also expressed their condolences and unity with Christians.

But Christians at the church unleashed their fury at authorities they often accuse of failing to protect them. Soon after the explosion, angry Christians clashed with police, chanting, "With our blood and soul, we redeem the cross," witnesses said. Some broke in to the nearby mosque, throwing books into the street and sparking stone- and bottle-throwing clashes with Muslims, an AP photographer at the scene said.

Police fired tear gas to break up the clashes. But in the afternoon, new violence erupted in a street between the church and the affiliated Saints Hospital. Some of the young protesters waved kitchen knives. One, his chest bared and a large tattoo of a cross on his arm, was carried into the hospital with several injuries from rubber bullets.

"Now it's between Christians and the government, not between Muslims and Christians," shouted one Christian woman at the hospital.

Many Christians blame violence against their community on Islamic extremists. They accuse the government of blaming attacks on lone renegades or mentally ill people to avoid addressing what they call anti-Christian sentiment among Muslims. The mistrust of the government is so great, that even the ministry's report that a suicide bomber was behind Saturday's blast raised suspicion among some Christians.

Archbishop Raweis, the top Coptic cleric in Alexandria, said police want to blame a suicide bomber instead of a car bomb so they can write it off as a lone attacker. He denounced what he called a lack of protection.

"There were only three soldiers and an officer in front of the church. Why did they have so little security at such a sensitive time when there's so many threats coming from al-Qaida?" he said, speaking to the AP.

Christians, mainly Orthodox Copts, are believed to make up about 10 percent of Egypt's mainly Muslim population of nearly 80 million people, and they have grown increasingly vocal in complaints about discrimination. In November, hundreds of Christians rioted in the capital, Cairo, smashing cars and windows after police violently stopped the construction of a church. The rare outbreak of Christian unrest in the capital left one person dead.

Just before Christmas, al-Qaida in Iraq made its latest threat to attack Christians. The group claims to be waging its anti-Christian campaign in the name of two Egyptian Christian women who reportedly converted to Islam in order to get divorces, which are prohibited by the Coptic Church.

The women have since been secluded by the Church, prompting Islamic hard-liners to hold frequent protests in past months, accusing the Church of imprisoning the women and forcing them to renounce Islam, a claim the Church denies. [/quote]

[url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110101/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_church_attack"]My link[/url]

[dominicansoul]

what a way to start a new year and a new decade....
those poor Christians...

[Sternhauser]

Egypt wouldn't have to be fighting them there if they had invaded and occupied Yemen.

~Sternhauser

[holly.o]

[Ed Normile]

[quote name='Sternhauser' timestamp='1293936539' post='2195837']
Egypt wouldn't have to be fighting them there if they had invaded and occupied Yemen.

~Sternhauser
[/quote]

Huh? Stern calling for invading and occupation of a sovreign country, now I am confuuzzleated?

ed

[Ed Normile]

The article stated that blood from the attack splashed the muslim mosque across the street! That would be the blood of christian martyrs adorning the mosque, I can only pray that good may come from this blood cleansing of that mosque. These poor souls who died deserve our prayers, 21 souls who were martyred for their faith.

ed

[Sternhauser]

[quote name='Ed Normile' timestamp='1294036272' post='2196095']
Huh? Stern calling for invading and occupation of a sovreign country, now I am confuuzzleated?

ed
[/quote]

I was being "ironical."

~Sternhauser

[KnightofChrist]

[b][url="http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/persecution/pch0263.html"]His wrath upon their heads[/url][/b]
[b]FATHER RAYMOND J. DE SOUZA[/b]
[b]The blood of Baghdad screams out to heaven and earth.[/b]
May we now speak of the Muslims who want to kill us? Isn't that way out of line? Surely Islam is a religion of peace, from which we have a lot to learn?

Let's then dispense with the disclaimers: Christians and Muslims have often lived together in peace. Only a minority of Muslims are homicidal fanatics. Terrorism is a corruption of Islam. Fine.

But let us speak frankly of those Islamic jihadists who wish to kill Christians because they are not Muslims. On Oct. 31 in Baghdad, an al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group stormed into the cathedral of the Syriac Catholic Church, Our Lady of Salvation, during the evening Mass. They immediately killed the priest offering the Holy Mass – three priests in all were murdered. They began shooting and held the congregation hostage while security forces surrounded the church. When the police stormed the church, the jihadists began killing those inside; some of them set off suicide bombs on their belts. Dozens of Catholics were killed.

The blood of Abel, the first innocent to be killed, cried out to heaven. The blood of these latest Iraqi martyrs screams out to heaven and Earth. Does the world want to listen?

"Christians are slaughtered in Iraq, in their homes and churches, and the so-called 'free' world is watching in complete indifference, interested only in responding in a way that is politically correct and economically opportune, but in reality is hypocritical," said Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan after these latest killings.

"There are a few churches and Christian institutions left in Baghdad, not so great a number that it is not unreasonable for them to be protected, security-wise," he continued, noting that the security being provided by the government is "far less than what we have hoped for and requested."

By now the killing of Christians by jihadists has become a regular feature of the landscape in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. Yet a massacre in a church, during the Holy Mass, surely would provoke a thunderous reaction?

"We condemn in the strongest terms those who would conduct such a cowardly, vicious and senseless attack on innocent civilians in a place of worship," said the boilerplate statement from Lawrence Cannon, Canada's foreign minister. No mention of who "those" attackers might be. The Rotary Club? Salvation Army?

The American State Department had no statement at all.

In the Church too, there is often a reluctance to support vigourously Christians under attack, and to call things by name.

"As in the past and still existent today, some imbalances are present in our relations," is how the final statement of the recent Synod of Bishops on the Middle East characterized Christian-Muslim relations. Imbalances? As in the imbalance between the jihadist firing the gun and the Catholic mother being riddled with bullets?

Then there was the statement by Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas, which was utterly astonishing. After simply describing the massacre, he boldly pointed the finger of blame: [indent] "The level of incivility in our national dialogue has reached a crescendo," Farrell wrote. "Catholics in Iraq specifically link the violence against them by Muslim extremists to anti-Muslim demonstrations and threats to burn the Koran in the United States. Our actions have consequences far beyond our control. ... I call upon all Catholics to tone down the level of hatred in their comments and conversations."

[/indent] The blood is still dripping from the walls of the Baghdad cathedral, and Bishop Farrell finds fault with a nutcase nobody pastor who threatened to burn the Koran, but did not do so after the whole world condemned him. Would that the Islamic radicals in Baghdad had only threatened to kill people at Mass. With all respect to the bishop of Dallas, the problem is not with overheated Catholic rhetoric, but with murderous Muslims. A Catholic bishop ought to know the difference. Indeed, a bishop might consider more muscular rhetoric, perhaps giving voice to the blood of Baghdad that screams out to heaven.

"Vengeance is mine says the Lord." So Scripture teaches us, and so it must be for us, leaving vengeance to the Lord, and imploring the grace of reconciliation and mercy. But let us not blanch from raising our voices to the Lord, with righteous anger and hot tears, to visit His vengeance upon those who did this, to bring down His wrath upon their heads, to exact upon them a terrifying price in full measure for their grievous sins.

That's not the language of hatred; it is the language of the shepherd when the flock is being slaughtered.

[Sternhauser]

[quote name='KnightofChrist' timestamp='1294090848' post='2196249']
But let us not blanch from raising our voices to the Lord, with righteous anger and hot tears, to visit His vengeance upon those who did this, to bring down His wrath upon their heads, to exact upon them a terrifying price in full measure for their grievous sins.
[/quote]

From Kim Jong-Il's mouth to God's ears. An [i]alter Christus[/i] saying, "But [i]I [/i]say unto you, and when you pray, pray thus: 'Our Father, who art in heaven, bring down your wrath upon their heads, to exact upon them a terrifying price in full measure for their grievous sins . . . in thy mercy.'" That's pretty foul.

~Sternhauser

[KnightofChrist]

[quote name='Sternhauser' timestamp='1294103140' post='2196322']
From Kim Jong-Il's mouth to God's ears. An [i]alter Christus[/i] saying, "But [i]I [/i]say unto you, and when you pray, pray thus: 'Our Father, who art in heaven, bring down your wrath upon their heads, to exact upon them a terrifying price in full measure for their grievous sins . . . in thy mercy.'" That's pretty foul.

~Sternhauser
[/quote]

Why are you so quick to mock a shepherd when his and his fellow priests flocks are being slaughtered?

Just anger and praying to God for His vengeance can be just and good. Since vengeance is His, and He promises He will avenge.

[quote]Psalm 94:1-2 [url="http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drb&bk=21&ch=93&l=1#x"][1][/url] The Lord is the God to whom revenge belongeth: the God of revenge hath acted freely. [url="http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drb&bk=21&ch=93&l=2#x"][2][/url] Lift up thyself, thou that judgest the earth: render a reward to the proud.[/quote]

[Sternhauser]

[quote name='KnightofChrist' timestamp='1294104536' post='2196341']
Why are you so quick to mock a shepherd when his and his fellow priests flocks are being slaughtered?[/quote]

I'm not mocking a shepherd in his role as shepherd, I'm mocking how he speaks like a wolf. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, not "blessed are those who want to call down fire from heaven upon their town," as the Sons of Thunder wanted to do, before Christ rebuked them. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

~Sternhauser

Edited January 4, 2011 by Sternhauser

[KnightofChrist]

[quote name='Sternhauser' timestamp='1294105362' post='2196346']
I'm not mocking a shepherd in his role as shepherd, I'm mocking how he speaks like a wolf. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, not "blessed are those who want to call down fire from heaven upon their town," as the Sons of Thunder wanted to do, before Christ rebuked them. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

~Sternhauser
[/quote]

He does not speak as a wolf. The blood of martyrs cries up to God for vengeance, and like a good Shepard he hears their cry and cries with them. Yet you insult and mock. He does just what he should do with righteous anger he asks God to avenge His people, he is not stating anywhere that he will avenge himself.

""Vengeance is mine says the Lord." So Scripture teaches us, and [b]so it must be for us, leaving vengeance to the Lord, and imploring the grace of reconciliation and mercy.[/b] But let us not blanch from raising our voices to the Lord, with righteous anger and hot tears, to visit His vengeance upon those who did this, to bring down His wrath upon their heads, to exact upon them a terrifying price in full measure for their grievous sins.
[b]
That's not the language of hatred; it is the language of the shepherd when the flock is being slaughtered.[/b]"

[Sternhauser]

Catholics call down God's mercy, not wrath, upon the heads of their enemies.

~Sternhauser

[ThePenciledOne]

[quote name='Sternhauser' timestamp='1294108436' post='2196377']
Catholics call down God's mercy, not wrath, upon the heads of their enemies.

~Sternhauser
[/quote]

I can drink to that!

God rest their souls and God have mercy on those involved.

[KnightofChrist]

[quote name='Sternhauser' timestamp='1294108436' post='2196377']
Catholics call down God's mercy, not wrath, upon the heads of their enemies.

~Sternhauser
[/quote]

Catholics may call for Justice and ask God to avenge the slain. As the Church does so in her prayers of the Divine Office.

"[b]THE Lord is the God to whom revenge belongeth: the God of revenge hath acted freely. 2 [color="#ff0000"]Lift up thyself, thou that judgest the earth: [u]render a reward to the proud.[/u][/color][/b] 3 How long shall sinners, O Lord: how long shall sinners glory? 4 Shall they utter, and speak iniquity: shall all speak who work injustice? 5 Thy people, O Lord, they have brought low: and they have afflicted thy inheritance. 6 They have slain the widow and the stranger: and they have murdered the fatherless. 7 And they have said: The Lord shall not see: neither shall the God of Jacob understand. 8 Understand, ye senseless among the people: and, you geniuses, be wise at last. 9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? or he that formed the eye, doth he not consider? 10 He that chastiseth nations, shall he not rebuke: he that teacheth man knowledge? 11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men, that they are vain. 12 Blessed is the man whom thou shalt instruct, O Lord: and shalt teach him out of thy law. 13 That thou mayst give him rest from the evil days: till a pit be dug for the wicked. 14 For the Lord will not cast off his people: neither will he forsake his own inheritance. 15 Until justice be turned into judgment: and they that are near it are all the upright in heart. 16 [b]Who shall rise up for me against the evildoers? or who shall stand with me against the workers of iniquity? 17 Unless the Lord had been my helper, my soul had almost dwelt in hell.[/b] 18 If I said: My foot is moved: thy mercy, O Lord, assisted me. 19 According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, thy comforts have given joy to my soul. 20 Doth the seat of iniquity stick to thee, who framest labour in commandment? 21 [b]They will hunt after the soul of the just, and will condemn innocent blood. 22 But the Lord is my refuge: and my God the help of my hope. 23 And he will render them their iniquity: and in their malice he will destroy them: the Lord our God will destroy them."[/b]