Yet another Coptic church recently “caught fire” in Muslim Egypt.
On Sunday, Mar. 24, 2024, a fire broke out in the Church of St. George in Akhmim, Sohag governorate. With the help of church youth and locals, civil authorities managed to quench the blaze.
Mass was held in the church earlier that day, and the building was empty when the conflagration began. As a result, no one was hurt. The fire did, however, destroy the structure, air conditioning units, pews, icons and electrical appliances of the second floor.
Initial reporting said the cause of fire was unknown.
Although it could have been—and likely will be officially deemed—an “accident,” there are several reasons to suspect arson.
For starters, arson attacks on churches in Egypt are commonplace. According to one researcher, Magdi Khalil, “close to one thousand churches have been attacked or torched by mobs in the last five decades [since the 1970s] in Egypt.”
More recently, churches continue to burn, though these are increasingly being dismissed as accidents—including 11 churches that mysteriously “caught fire” in one month alone (Aug. 2022). It’s worth noting that “accidental” fires in mosques in Egypt—which outnumber churches by a ratio of 40 to 1—are almost unheard of.
Either the “radicals” have become more sophisticated and clandestine in their attacks on churches—in one instance, surveillance cameras caught a votary candle suddenly and randomly exploding and creating a fire—or else Coptic Christians have, for some inexplicable reason, become so much more prone to causing fires inside their own churches than all other peoples combined—even though, in reality, they are especially careful with their churches, precisely because they are so few and widely suppressed and under attack in Egypt.
Sohag governorate, it’s worth adding, is also another hotbed (along with Minya) of anti-church and anti-Christian activities—that is, another hotbed of “radicalism.” The following are some of the many other incidents to occur in Sohag governorate:
- Rioting Muslim Brotherhood supporters torched several churches following the ousting of Muhammad Morsi in 2013.
- Muslims have on several occasions risen in violence against Christians on the mere rumor that a church was being built.
- After burning their temporary worship tent, Christians were forced to celebrate one Easter in the streets (pictures here).
- A Muslim man randomly attacked and killed a Christian with a meat cleaver.
- Coptic girls have “disappeared” off the streets with police shrugging their shoulders.
- Christians have been abducted and held for ransom—and sometimes still killed after their ransom was payed.
- A school principal in Sohag openly refused the enrollment of Christian students, unabashedly declaring that “As long as I am present in the school, no Christian pupils will be accepted in this school.”
As such, Egypt’s Christians might be excused for suspecting foul play in this, the latest torching of one of their churches.
Thanks Raymond. A brief but telling article, no place to hide for these suffering Christians, or their families, daughters, women.
I’m contacting R legislators enough to get regular highlights on their personal YTube channels. They don’t get a lot of views so easier for my comments to get noticed. My next idea is to send them packets of your articles printed out or see if staff can recieve emails with links.
I’m in regular contact with Mary and she sounds good in her writing. I’m reading the book she recommended, Stealth Invasion, by Leo Hohmann. The preface and first chapter are riveting, and eyeopening. His research is thorough with endnotes and well sourced.
Mary was interested in what I would think about the book so I jumped to the last chapter to see his conclusion. He sounds like an evangelical and his conclusion seemed to suggest preaching the gospel to more muslims and more boldly in general. I’m an evangelical but thought his ideas on the practical side are void of anyting that would stop the Islamists’ jihad.
There is nothing, other than “overwhelming military strength – and the will to use it” that will stop the jihad currently in progress. Not to mention the communist regimes now salivating at our weakness under the B Admin, my solid opinion.
I think the research will be valuable as it tells the story of how we swithched from policies meant to help the Vietmanese come here, to allowing the UN to dictate to us who should come in. Creating the disaster we are in currently worsened by the O Admin, and B Admin now with our open borders policies of the B Admin flooding the country.
Perilous times times Raymond as you know. I’m watching international politics and the progressives and green policies that are literally aimed at destroying Western Civilization itself, again I’m sure you’re aware.
The rise of conservative parties across the globe gives some encouragement, but we’ll see if we can break through the propaganda machine of the left combined with their alligiance to one of our greatest adversaries, i.e. Islam, which is also now flooding into western nations, en masse.
Thanks again for all your work, research and reporting. Stay well.