‘Tis the season
Christmas marked new kinds of attacks against believers from North Africa to the Middle East
ICC Note:
“Before we go to church we have to kiss our families goodbye, because we may never see them again.”
By Jamie Dean
1/15/2011 Middle East (World Magazine) – For some Egyptian Christians, a new reality grips their weekly routines: “Before we go to church we have to kiss our families goodbye, because we may never see them again.”
That’s what one Egyptian Christian told an American ministry partner hours after a terrorist detonated a bomb at Saints Church in Alexandria as worshippers left a New Year’s Eve service. The attack killed at least 23 of the 1,000 attending midnight Mass at the Coptic Christian church, and wounded nearly 100.
The bombing marked the worst violence against Egyptian Christians in a decade, and signaled a dramatic turn for the oppressed minority in the Islamic country: Instead of discrimination, drive-by shootings, and smaller-scale violence that Christians have faced in the past, this attack brought a stunning introduction to full-blown terrorism.
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