Egypt

“100,000 Christian families had left the country in the preceding months, and… since Mubarak’s ouster, sectarian strife has escalated in the country,” Now Lebanon reports.

 Prominent activist Naguib Gobraiel said “Copts must unite in one party, as the military junta did not offer anything for the Copts.” He added that “We [Copts] shall make the Party a political bloc, not religious.”

The Zabbaleen, or "garbage collectors", are a community of predominantly Coptic Christians who for generations have lived by harvesting garbage off the streets of Cairo. They fear the fall of Hosni Mubarak's government and the rise of Islamist parties in Egypt may lead to increased sectarian violence. 

Should Egypt become a full-fledged religious state governed by Shar'ia law, Egyptian Christians would confront a stark choice: submission to ever-greater religious persecution or emigration.

 They told their story at a service of prayer for Christian unity at the Coptic Orthodox Church of St. Mary and St. Mena, in Hope, Rhode Island, that took place on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2012.

 According to eyewitnesses, the perpetrators were bearded men in white gowns. “They were Salafists, and some of were from The Muslim Brotherhood,” according to one witness

 "The Christian community in Syria has been hit by a series of kidnappings and brutal murders; 100 Christians have now been killed since the anti-government unrest began," the Jerusalem Post quoted the Pakistan Christian Post.

Presently over 4000 Copts are staging a sit-in in front of Nag Hammadi police headquarters until Ahmed Saber and his accomplices are caught.

"There have been low-level pressures on Egyptian non-Muslims for centuries, of course, but these began to especially intensify in the 1970s with the emergence of Political Islam."

One of the tycoon’s deepest fears was that an Islamist government would deny equal rights to Egypt’s Coptic Christians. He also worried that Islamists would impose moral restrictions: banning alcohol and beach bathing (undercutting the tourism industry); imposing a mandatory dress code; and restricting women.

Attorney Tawfik Kamel, who accompanied the Sabry family to Giza, said that on January 15 a man named Mohammad Ahmed Ibrahim phoned the family and said that Amira had been staying at his home in Boulaq El Dakrour for the last 38 days and asked for 200,000 Egyptian pounds for her return. "The family asked to speak to their daughter, and she spoke to her mother," he added.

“It's not safe to be a Coptic Christian in Egypt,” Amira Salama, a Coptic Christian living in Florida, told Tampa Bay Online. Click here to watch a video on how Tampa-based Coptic Christians are providing clothes, shelter, and education to Egyptian Christian refugees who have been forced to flee their homes in Egypt's continued unrest. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers as they try to help those fleeing persecution.

“An Egyptian [Coptic Christian] blogger jailed by the military junta for insulting the army has been officially pardoned, as the country's ruling generals attempt to bolster public support before protests planned for the Wednesday's anniversary of the uprising,” The Guardian reports.

“For Christians, the revolution was a bad event,” Magdi Kamel, a Coptic Christian who arrested in April, told The Washington Times. “Before Mubarak [was ousted], things were quieter, things were better for us.”