Christians Flee Villages in Egypt's North Sinai After Terrifying Murders

23 hours ago

CAIRO, Egypt (Morning Star News) – Christians in two villages in North Sinai, Egypt have fled for their lives after a priest was gunned down and a Christian businessman was abducted and killed, his decapitated body dumped onto a street.

On Thursday (July 11) the body of Christian businessman Magdy Lamei was found in the town of Sheikh Zuwayed. Suspected members of an unidentified Islamic extremist militant group had kidnapped him on July 6, and he was thought to have been killed on the first day of Ramadan, which in Egypt began on Wednesday (July 10).

At first glance, the abduction seemed to be just another of the kidnappings that have unsettled the area. But Yousef Soubhy, a Coptic Orthodox priest formerly in Rafah, said investigations indicated that wasn’t the case. The suspected militants purposely targeted a Christian leader, he said.

“He was a committed Christian, and he used to serve in the church, and he was active in his prayers and his ministry – he used to open his home for prayers,” Soubhy told Morning Star News. “It was obvious they didn’t kill him for the money.”

Soubhy said that when Lamei was killed, negotiations with the militants were still underway, and the ransom demand of 300,000 Egyptian pounds (US$42,545) was close to being collected.

“They didn’t wait for the money, they just killed him,” Soubhy said. “They killed him to terrorize the Christians.”

The grisly killing of Lamei and the lethal shooting of the Rev. Mina Aboud Sharubim, a Coptic priest, in Arish on July 6, were the final factors depleting three villages of Christians who have suffered months of attacks, threats and harassment. All Christians in Rafah and Sheikh Zuwayed have left, as have most of the Christians of Arish, sources said.

Some of those who left the three towns took only what they could carry and abandoned everything else; others said they hope to return once things cool down.

Fadiya Abdel Sayed, her husband and their three children left Rafah on Tuesday (July 9) to move back to their hometown of Assuit. They left with 13 other Christian families, broken and fearful over the killing of Sharubim in Arish.

“A lot of our neighbors had some of their family members that got kidnapped, and others were shot at,” Sayed told Morning Star News. “I left my work and property, and my husband left his trade and everything to come to our hometown until things calm down.”

There were about 130 Christian families that were living in Arish, but most of them have left, Sayed said.

Approximately 5,000 Egyptian Christians reside in Sinai, but the exact number of Copts that were living in Rafah and Sheikh Zuwayed is difficult to determine. In a recent statement, the Egyptian Institute for Personal Rights confirmed that all the Christians had left the two villages.

For years, North Sinai has been a hotbed of Islamic militancy, with one set of brazen attacks following another. Members of militant, Islamic extremist groups – some from the Palestinian Territories and elsewhere, most of them Egyptian – have attacked the North Sinai’s natural gas pipeline to Israel, captured or killed numerous policemen, raided security checkpoints and raided an international peacekeeping base and the regional headquarters of an Egyptian military security unit, among other targets.

The Egyptian Army is engaged in daily fighting with the militants. On Monday (July 15), militants attacked a busload full of factory workers with rocket-propelled grenades, killing one and wounding 17. The army has publicly speculated the attacking forces assumed the bus was full of police.

The militants have also run a campaign of intimidation against Christians in North Sinai. In January and February 2011, the Church of the Holy Family and St. George in Rafah was set on fire, with graffiti on the charred walls declaring the area “…a land of Islam. There is no room for Christians here.” In September 2012, after weeks of receiving threats to leave the area or be killed, several Coptic families fled when a group of militants raked a Christian business in Rafah with gunfire.

“The situation is horrible. It is insecure and unstable,” said Soubhy, now stationed in Arish. "There is a lot of fighting between the army and terrorist groups. We have been receiving a lot of threats, and after the killing of Father Mina and the murder of brother Lamei, who had his head cut off and left on top of his body, the feeling of fear has increased and things have gotten worse for Christians.”

Soubhy said he is unable to return to Rafah because the militants threatened to kill him. Because of Soubhy’s absence and the destruction of the church building there, for two years those wishing to attend services in Rafah have had to travel 45 kilometers (27 miles) to Arish.

On Sunday (July 14), leaders of the North Sinai parish announced that all the churches in the parish, including Arish, would be closed except for a very brief time in the morning.

c. 2013 Morning Star News. Used with permission.

Religion Today

Wall Street Journal: Netanyahu Has Red Lines, Obama Doesn't

WSJ says Israel attacked Syria at least four times, adding this means that Netanyahu adheres to his red lines, unlike Obama.Elad Benari

A Wall Street Journal editorial has claimed that Israel has attacked Syria at least four times in 2013.

The editorial, which appeared in the print edition of the newspaper on Tuesday, was critical of U.S. President Barack Obama over his inaction on Syria, while noting that Israel has red lines and it acts on them when they are crossed.

It asserted that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s comments during an interview with CBS this week were confirmation that Israel had carried out air strikes near the Syrian port city of Latakia to destroy Russian-supplied anti-ship missiles.

I'm not in the habit of saying what we did or we didn't do," Netanyahu said, adding, "My policy is to prevent the transfer of dangerous weapons to Hizbullah and other terror groups.”

“So Israel has red lines after all,” said the Wall Street Journal. “Mr. Netanyahu's non-denial amounts to confirmation that Israel has launched at least four attacks on Syrian targets this year. Previous targets include a convoy of surface-to-air missiles headed for Lebanon, and an arms depot near Damascus believed to contain Iranian ballistic missiles that could have brought Tel Aviv within Hizbullah’s range.”

The article then went on to criticize Obama, who has in the past said that use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime would be a red line that “would change my equation.” The editorial quoted two similar statements by Obama, one dated August 2012 and another one from this past March.

“As everyone—most especially Bashar Assad—now knows, Mr. Obama has no red lines regarding Syria or chemical weapons,” the editorial charged. “Even his belated policy change to deliver small arms to the opposition is bogged down in bureaucratic inertia and congressional resistance. Readers may or may not think the U.S. should involve itself in Syria, but serious powers cannot issue empty threats and not expect consequences.”

The U.S. government, which has confirmed that the Syrian army used chemical weapons against rebel forces on multiple occasions, has said it will increase the “scope and scale” of its assistance to rebels in Syria in response.

U.S. sources said last week that congressional committees are holding up a plan to send U.S. weapons to rebels fighting Assad, fearing such deliveries will not be decisive and the arms might end up in the hands of Islamist rebel groups.

Finally, noted the Wall Street Journal editorial, “In his CBS interview, Mr. Netanyahu was also asked when he would be prepared to take military action to stop Iran's nuclear programs. ‘Well, I can tell you I won't wait until it's too late,’ he replied. The Prime Minister has been saying this for nearly two years, perhaps waiting for the U.S. to act instead, but he is learning in Syria that Israel will have to enforce its own red lines.”

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Russia Amasses ‘Full Combat Readiness’ Strategic Bombers

As I reported on Sunday, Russia’s large scale amassing of over 160,000 troops, naval ships, fighter planes, and strategic bombers has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media — with only Russian-based news services really reporting on the entire event. From the Israeli bombing of the Russian missiles to the ‘snap drills’ calling upon Russian forces to enter this period of ‘full combat readiness’, it appears that only RT has been analyzing the situation and looking at what’s going on based on military sources.

Tabloid Media to Busy to Cover Brewing World Conflict

Originally being revealed by an anonymous intelligence individuals within the US military and shared with CNN as reported by the Israeli National News, the revelation that Israel was behind the strike on the Russian-made missiles in Syria may be behind the reason for the combat drill — assuming the Russians found out before the general public. Unfortunately, the US mainstream media is too busy covering the minor intricacies of what George Zimmerman ate for breakfast today to discuss the potential brewing of mega conflict.

And when you throw Edward Snowden into this mix of tensions between world powers, it’s additional fuel on the fire amid all of this diplomatic turmoil. And with  the intelligence leak that it was Israel who blew up Russia’s missiles after they deemed them to be a threat to the country, you have a real serious key going into the ignition of world war.

An excerpt from the Russian report on the English version of the .RU website RIA Novosti reads:

“Russia’s air base of Tu-95MS Bear-H strategic bombers in the Amur Region is switching to full combat readiness as part of massive snap drills in the Eastern Military District, the Defense Ministry’s press office reported on Sunday… The exercise, which involves over 160,000 servicemen, some 1,000 armored vehicles, 130 aircraft and 70 warships from the Pacific Fleet, was ordered by President Vladimir Putin on Friday evening.”

Whether or not escalations reach the point of conflict, and I certainly hope they do not (as Israel vs Russia is the absolute ‘perfect storm’ setup to launch the next world war and potential nuclear armageddon), the amassing of over 160,000 troops and strategic bombers with orders to achieve ‘full combat readiness’ is newsworthy. But apparently not to the mainstream media within the United States. A simple Google search at the time of writing for ‘Russia 160,000 troops’ will in fact bring up forums, social media posts, Russian websites, and small-time blogs.

Story leak