Incredibly Touching Picture Of Muslims

[Apotheoun]

But do they see him as we see the Pope, or is it just a title? If it's not simply a title, isn't that a really big issue?

That is hard to say, but I can say that they see Pope Tawadros II as the head of their Church. Moreover, the bishop of Alexandria has been called "pope" for longer than the bishop of Rome.

Edited August 19, 2013 by Apotheoun

[Apotheoun]

I hope that the Egyptian military is able to keep is word:

 

 

Egyptian military chief vows to rebuild Coptic Churches

 

The Egyptian defense minister has ordered the repair and reconstruction of all churches that suffered damage in the country’s violent demonstrations since the Egyptian military removed President Mohamed Morsi from power last month.

 

Defense minister Col. Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi intends to fix the damage to Coptic churches at Rabaa Adaweya and Nahda squares, according to a report by the Mid-East Christian News.

 

Dozens of churches were attacked and burned in riots after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities to demand the end of what they call military rule, following the removal of Morsi on July 3. Many of Morsi's supporters have voiced criticism at Egypt's Christian minority for largely supporting the military's decision to oust him from office.

 

“The Egyptian defense minister ordered the engineering department of the armed forces to swiftly repair all the affected churches, in recognition of the historical and national role played by our Coptic brothers,” read a statement that aired on Egyptian television.

 

Bishop Mousa thanked Sisi for his efforts to repair the damaged churches.

 

Click here to read the rest of the article

 

[Apotheoun]

Here are some pictures of St. George's Coptic Orthodox Church (the Church depicted in the original post) during and after the attack by the Muslim Brotherhood:

 

Picture of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood supporters attacking the Church and setting it on fire.

 

Interior picture of St. George's Church after the attackers had been dispersed and the fire was put out.

[dUSt]

What if the Muslims were forming a ring around the church so the Christians couldn't get in to worship? 

[Era Might]

What if the Muslims were forming a ring around the church so the Christians couldn't get in to worship? 

 

Could be a game of Duck Duck Duck Duck Duck Duck Duck GOOSE! 

[MIKolbe]

fat kids hate that game.. ask dUSt

[Apotheoun]

Below is a video showing the beginnings of the attack on St. George's Coptic Orthodox Church in Sohag Egypt.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev1FAFWSA1o

[Era Might]

Feel free to provide another example of the above anytime hasan.

 

Better to look to history than the limited present. Mob violence is not unique to Egypt, Muslims, or the 21st century. Christians / Muslims / Jews have clashed throughout history, but also have had times / places of coexistence.

 

Massive violent attacks against Jews date back at least to the Crusades such as the Pogrom of 1096 in France and Germany (the first "Christian" pogroms to be officially recorded), as well as the massacres of Jews at London and York in 1189–1190.

During the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, beginning in the 9th century, Islamic Spain was more tolerant towards Jews.^[19] In the 11th century, however, there were several Muslim pogroms against Jews; notably those that occurred in Cordoba in 1011 and inGranada in 1066.^[20] In the 1066 Granada massacre, the first large pogrom on European soil, a Muslim mob crucified the Jewish vizierJoseph ibn Naghrela and massacred about 4,000 Jews^[21] In 1033 about 6,000 Jews were killed in Fez, Morocco, by Muslim mobs.^[22][23] Mobs in Fez murdered thousands of Jews in 1276,^[24] and again, leaving only 11 alive, in 1465.^[24][25]

In Europe in 1348, because of the hysteria surrounding the Black Plague, Jews were massacred by Christians in Chillon, Basle,Stuttgart, Ulm, Speyer, Dresden, and Mainz. By 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been destroyed.^[26] A large number of the surviving Jews fled to Poland, which was very welcoming to Jews at the time and remained a haven for displaced Jews until the Nazi conquest and purge.^[27]

In 1506, after an episode of famine and bad harvests, a pogrom happened in Lisbon, Portugal,^[28] in which more than 500 "New Christian" (forcibly converted Jews) people were slaughtered and/or burnt by an angry Christian mob, in the first night of what became known as the "Lisbon Massacre". The killing occurred from 19 to 21 April, almost eliminating the entire Jewish or Jewish-descendant community residing in that city. Even the Portuguese military and the king himself had difficulty stopping it. The event is today remembered with a monument in S. Domingos' church.

In what is present-day Israel, the 1517 Safed pogrom had mass-murder, theft, and beatings against Jews.

Tens of thousands of Jews were massacred by Cossacks in Ukraine during the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648–1657,^[29] and thousands more during the Koliyivshchyna in 1768–1769.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogrom

[Apotheoun]

Of course the Coptic Church has been persecuted in Egypt for centuries. So no, the recent events are not "new" for them.

 

Have the Copts persecuted other people? I don't know, but I do know that they have suffered for a long time, and the recent events are - as one article I read put it - their Krystallnacht.

[Apotheoun]

A picture of two Coptic Christian boys praying in the burned out remains of St. George's Church:

 

[Era Might]

Of course the Coptic Church has been persecuted in Egypt for centuries. So no, the recent events are not "new" for them.

 

Have the Copts persecuted other people? I don't know, but I do know that they have suffered for a long time, and the recent events are - as one article I read put it - their Krystallnacht.

 

Except for the small fact that Kristallnacht was carried out by the government, and had nothing to do with a coup or a revolution 2 years old.

Edited August 19, 2013 by Era Might

[Apotheoun]

Except for the small fact that Kristallnacht was carried out by the government, and had nothing to do with a coup or a revolution 2 years old.

And this was carried out by the organization that was just removed from power, but which is doing all it can to get power back.

 

Era, can you just for once empathize with the Coptic Christians? Or must you always argue that there is an excuse for the violence perpetrated against them?

Edited August 19, 2013 by Apotheoun

[Apotheoun]

H.G. Bishop Makrious praying with his congregation in a damaged Church in Minya Egypt:

 

[Era Might]

And this was carried out by the organization that was just removed from power, but which is doing all it can to get power back.

 

Era, can you just for once empathize with the Coptic Christians? Or must you always argue that there is an excuse for the violence perpetrated against them?

 

I'm not sure what you mean, "empathize." Meaning what, express emotional hysterics on the Internet and invoke unrelated history to create a political narrative around their suffering? I don't like historical manipulation for emotional purposes. It's terrible that terrible things happen all over the world every day to people of Christian faith, non-Christian faith, and no faith. I wish nobody had to suffer, but I am not God, and I don't think inserting their suffering into an emotional religious ideology does anything to change the complicated facts of how human society works. Mobs hurt people. Majorities oppress minorities. That goes on in ANY society, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist. I'm all for empathy and justice, but not to the detriment of clear-headed thinking about social phenomena. Unfortunately, history is a great tool for emotional manipulation. You don't need to think critically when you have an easy enemy and an emotionally satisfying narrative based on religion, emotion, whatever.

 

Edited August 19, 2013 by Era Might

[Apotheoun]

 

 

I'm not sure what you mean, "empathize." Meaning what, express emotional hysterics on the Internet and invoke unrelated history to create a political narrative around their suffering? I don't like historical manipulation for emotional purposes. It's terrible that terrible things happen all over the world every day to people of Christian faith, non-Christian faith, and no faith. I wish nobody had to suffer, but I am not God, and I don't think inserting their suffering into an emotional religious ideology does anything to change the complicated facts of how human society works. Mobs hurt people. Majorities oppress minorities. That goes on in ANY society, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist. I'm all for empathy and justice, but not to the detriment of clear-headed thinking about social phenomena. Unfortunately, history is a great tool for emotional manipulation. You don't need to think critically when you have an easy enemy and an emotionally satisfying narrative based on religion, emotion, whatever.

 

Just what I expected from you, i.e., the deflection of moving from the particular event under consideration to the general. God bless you, and may you gain a heart.

Edited August 19, 2013 by Apotheoun