Day: August 24, 2009
Egyptian Coptic Priest Banned From Village, Under Death Threat — Rev. Estefanos Shehata
Egyptian Coptic Priest Banned From Village, Under Death Threat
AINA reports:
— “On August 14 Rev. Estefanos Shehata, a Coptic priest, sent a letter to the Middle East Christian Association (MECA) stating the Muslim elders of his village have issued a death Fatwa (religious edict) against him, and have banned him from entering his village because he wants to convert part of his family home into a hall where he can carry out funeral rites and marriage ceremonies. The village of Upper Ezbet Dawoud Yousef is 200 kilometers south of Cairo, in the Minya Governorate, and has no church; religious functions for the 800 Coptic Christians are performed on the street.”
— “Rev. Estefanos said that after converting the 100 square meter room in his family’s home in the village into a prayer hall two years ago, he went to the state security to get the necessary permit, but has not been given an answer nor the permit.”
— “‘I finally went to the state security to get a definite answer to the permit application. They told me I need to obtain ‘permission’ of the village Muslims, as they (state security) want no problems in the village,’ Father Estefanos told Waguih Yacoub of MECA, ‘I told them that I see no problems in getting this permission as we have always had good relations with the village Muslims and we love and consider them as our brothers.'”
— “When he informed the Muslim villagers of his plan, they called for a meeting with the elders of the neighboring villages. ‘They were extremely angry at my proposal and instead of giving their permission, they issued a Fatwa calling for my death. They told the Copts in the village that it takes just one bullet to get rid of me since there is no ‘blood money’ for killing a Christian. I have been banned from my village for over a month now, I cannot even go my mother.'”
— “In a video interview with Free Copts, a Coptic advocacy group, Rev. Estefanos said ‘Enough humiliation and persecution of the Copts, I do not fear death and issuing a Fatwa to spill my blood is an honor for me.’ The interview is available on” YouTube.com.
— “The International Organization for Human Rights, based in Frankfurt, Germany issued a press release condemning the fatwa.”
Somalia — Christian Shot Dead near Kenya Border
Somalia — Christian Shot Dead near Kenya Border
— COMPASS reports: “Muslim extremists seeking evidence that a Somali man had converted from Islam to Christianity shot him dead Tuesday morning (Aug. 18) near the Somali border with Kenya, according to underground Christians in the war-torn nation.”
— “Al Shabaab rebels killed 41-year-old Ahmed Matan in Bulahawa, Somalia, according to Abdikadir Abdi Ismael, a former leader of a secret Christian fellowship in Somalia to which Matan belonged. Matan had been a member of the underground church since 2001. The early morning shooting comes at a time when Islamist groups led by al Shabaab are hunting down converts to Christianity as they seek to establish sharia (Islamic law) throughout Somalia. Ismael, who fled the area in 2005, said he received a telephone call from Matan two weeks ago in which the convert told him that monitoring by the extremists kept him from leaving his home and carrying out his small-trade business across the border in Mandera, in eastern Kenya. ‘I am afraid for my life — the al Shabaab want to get a proof that I follow the Christian faith,’ Matan told Ismael. ‘They have not been seeing me in the mosque and seem to have realized that I am not part of them.'”
— Crosswalk: Beyond Piracy: Inside Somalia’s Religious Landscape and Christian Persecution