Monday, February 28, 2011

Copts under fire...again

So you thought everything was going to be hunky-dory in Egypt now? Not for the Christians, it isn't. In a somewhat lawless time, Copts are once again being attacked. As Terry Mattingly notes, the treatment of the Copts in Egypt is the equivalent of having canaries in a mine. If the Copts are being treated okay, things are going well; if they're not, Egypt remains a troubled nation.

Here's a section of a report from the Assyrian International News Agency, for example.

For the second time in as many days, Egyptian armed force stormed the 5th century old St. Bishoy monastery in Wadi el-Natroun, 110 kilometers from Cairo. Live ammunition was fired, wounding two monks and six Coptic monastery workers. Several sources confirmed the army’s use of RPG [rocket propelled grenades] ammunition. Four people have been arrested including three monks and a Coptic lawyer who was at the monastery investigating yesterday’s army attack.

As Mattingly notes, what's sad about this is that it's only a few weeks since Muslims and Copts stood together called for reform.