New Priest-Martyr Rafael of El-Arish - Killed by Islamic State group in North Sinai

"The death of the Priest, which came on the third anniversary of June 30 protests that ousted former president Mohammed Morsi, was confirmed by the Coptic Church, who released a statement mourning the Priest as a martyr."

Coptic Christian Priest Killed in Egypt’s North Sinai By Gunmen

Egyptian Streets, June 30, 2016 (Many thanks to Fr Ignatius for sharing this via Facebook.):

Unidentified gunmen, believed to be members of the terrorist group Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis, shot and killed a Coptic Christian priest in Al-Arish, North Sinai on Thursday morning. 

According to a statement released by Egypt’s Ministry of Interior, the Priest of Mar Guirguis Church in Al-Arish, Rafael Moussa, was killed in the industrial part of El-Arish where he had gone to have his car checked by a mechanic. 

The death of the Priest, which came on the third anniversary of June 30 protests that ousted former president Mohammed Morsi, was confirmed by the Coptic Church, who released a statement mourning the Priest as a martyr.

Resurgence of Islam threatens ancient St Catherine's Monastery on Mt Sinai

Threat of Muslim jihad terrorist attacks forced closure of the monastery in 2013, shuttering the entire local, micro-economy.

Apparently, even the spurious "Charter of Privileges" — supposedly written by Muhammad for the monks at St Catherine's and conveying his protection and favor upon them and all Christians under Muslim rule for all time — has not had sufficient influence on the Islamic State nor on any jihadist group to prevent their relentless and fierce persecution of this ancient and revered monastery and Christians throughout all Islamic lands.

You can help support St Catherine's Monastery through Friends of Mount Sinai Monastery, a special foundation collecting donations for St. Catherine and its monks. Learn more and donate via the following link: www.mountsinaimonastery.org/donate/

St. Catherine Greek Orthodox monastery needs financial help to survive

by Ioanna Zikakou, Greek Reporter via Pravmir — September 22, 2015

The monastery was also shut down by Egyptian authorities in 2013 fearing a terrorism attack, according to Al Monitor.

The Greek Orthodox monastery of St. Catherine at Sinai city, Egypt is located at the very place where according to Christianity God appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush, beneath the Mount of the Decalogue. It is the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery, with a history that can be traced back over seventeen centuries.

The monastery offers job positions for numerous people in the area helping the local economy flourish. St. Catherine’s Monastery employs 400 workers at its olive groves, grape farms, honey bee farms and several processing facilities. When Egyptian authorities decided the monastery’s complete shutdown in 2013 the locals were left struggling, and since then the situation remains harsh. The Bedouin residents were forced to sell their camels, since they were not able to feed them and in order to provide for their families.

Muslims raid, demand jizya from ancient St. Catherine’s Monastery on Sinai

Yet another example of Muslims applying the Quran's commands literally:

Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth [i.e. Islam] among the people of the Book [Jews and Christians], until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (Sura 9:29)

via
BEDOUINS ATTACK AND LEVY A TAX ON ST. CATHERINE'S MONASTERY ON SINAI
Pravoslavie — October 14, 2014

The most ancient St. Catherine’s (Katherine’s) Orthodox Monastery situated on the Biblical land of Sinai peninsula has been once again persecuted by Muslim extremists and local authorities, reports the Linga news portal with the reference to Copts Today.

For today Arab islamists, who lead a seminomadic way of life in the Sinai desert, pose the main threat to lives of the monks and condition of the monument of the world architecture.

Specifically, Dr. Iyhab Ramzy, a prominent lawyer, related the following details of the crimes committed by the extremists against the monastery and its monks, to the journalists:

“Recently some residents of Tala district attempted to take the monastery by storm—and eventually they managed to demolish the gate and took two monks hostage. The monks had to submit to the raiders and agreed to pay them a tax in exchange for end to the attacks. Nevertheless, the islamists are still threatening all the clergymen and monks with violence, this time because of the monastery territory that they claim had been illegally occupied”.

The lawyer stresses that in spite of the numerous complaints and appeals the law-enforcement agencies did not react to the existing situation at all, remaining outsiders and, in fact, accomplices of the above-mentioned offences. “The only pseudo-juridical instance in the desert is the Arab tribes’ court that has levied a tax of 150,000 Egyptian pounds (about 21,000 USD) on the monks,” notes the expert.

Egypt: Sinai Islamists say all tourists must leave by Feb. 20 or face attack

NBC News via Pravoslavie — Feb 18, 2014

A militant Islamist group has warned tourists to leave Egypt and threatened to attack any who stay in the country after February 20, raising the prospect of a new front in a fast-growing insurgency.

Related: SINAI ATTACKS: ISLAMIST CLAIM TOURIST BUS BOMB ATTACK

The Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group, which claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed two South Korean tourists and an Egyptian on Sunday, made the statement on an affiliated Twitter account.

"We recommend tourists to get out safely before the expiry of the deadline," read the tweet, written in English.

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis has said in the past that it does not post statements on social media sites but statements that appeared on the Twitter account in the past have afterwards surfaced on jihadi websites the group does say it uses.

Islamist militants have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the army deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July, but Sunday's attack on a tourist bus marks a strategic shift to soft targets that could devastate an economy already reeling from political turmoil.

Egypt: Brotherhood, Hamas 'plot to attack churches' during Christmas Celebrations on January 7

Ma'an News Agency, via Jihad Watch — 1/2/2014

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – The Egyptian intelligence said Wednesday that groups affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas movement plotted to blow up Coptic churches in the North Sinai district during Christmas celebrations on Jan. 7.

Egypt's al-Watan newspaper reported that Egyptian intelligence intercepted communications between “terrorist groups” in Sinai and activists of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

The Sinai groups, according to the report, were given directives to continue with “what they called Jihad” against Egyptian police and army, according to the report.

St Catherine's Monastery on Sinai becomes Muslim Organization's ISESCO World Heritage Site

At the end of Summer, St Catherine's had to shut its gates due to threats of Muslim attacks. This looks like a good and hopeful development, but sometimes we just have to 'wait and see.'

Pravoslavie — 11/14/2013

In his statement on November 7, the director of Research and Archaeological Studies Administration in the Sinai province DR. Abd ar-Rahim Raihan has confirmed inclusion by the Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) of Abu Mena the Monastic complex (situated in 75 kilometers from Alexandria) and the Monastery of St. Catherine (Sinai) in its world heritage and culture list. Raihan has called this event "a victory", the role of which in strengthening of relations between Christianity and Islam cannot be overestimated, reports the Salam1 portal.

In the view of the scientist, this step of ISESCO has become the most important "milestone" in the process of the formation of a modern pilgrimage route for Christians from Europe through Alexandria to Sinai and then, to Jerusalem.

Sinai's St. Catherine's Starves, Monastery Shuts Down

Father Paolos, a member of St. Catherine's Monastery's Holy Council, walks out

of the farm for an interview with Al-Monitor on Monday, Sept. 2, 2013. He has

been living in the monastery since 1972. (photo by Mohannad Sabry)

AL Monitor — h/t Fr A — 9/4/2013

ST. CATHERINE'S — In the Sinai city of St. Catherine, a few thousand people and around 800 camels have been left struggling since the first week of August, when Egyptian security authorities ordered the total shutdown of the town's 1,500-year-old monastery. Bedouin residents of the mountainous area were forced to sell their camels, which they cannot feed, to feed their families.

Over the past 50 years, St. Catherine's Monastery closed its gates twice, in 1977 when former President Anwar Sadat made his historic visit to Jerusalem, and in 1982 when the Egyptian military entered Sinai after the withdrawal of Israeli forces. This time, the shutdown, which wasn’t explained by any official statements from either the Defense or Interior Ministry, was allegedly ordered after a failed attempt to kidnap a monk traveling in South Sinai in June and rising suspicions of a possible attack on the monastery.

Al Qaeda Flag Flies High Above Christian Churches

by Raymond Ibrahim, via Gatestone Institute — 8/7/2013

Days ago, al-Qaeda’s Egyptian leader, Ayman Zawahiri, portrayed  the overthrow of Muhammad Morsi and the Brotherhood as a “Crusader” campaign led by Coptic Pope Tawadros II who, according to Zawahiri and other terrorists, is trying to create a Coptic state in Egypt.

Since then, not only are Egypt’s Christians and churches now being attacked in ways unprecedented in the modern era, but new reports indicate that al-Qaeda’s black flag has been raised on some of them, specifically St. George Church in Sohag.  Considering that it was al-Qaeda linked terrorists who  initiated one of the bloodiest church attacks in recent history, the 2010 Baghdad church attack where nearly 60 Christians were slaughtered (click here for graphic images), that al-Qaeda is singling out Egypt’s Christians bodes ill.

The Islamic terrorist organization’s incitements against the Copts are just the latest to emanate from Islamists—from the top of the Brotherhood leadership to the bottom of the “Muslim street”—creating something of an “open season” on Egypt’s Christians.

African Christians Tortured and Enslaved by Bedouin Muslims

by Martin Barillas, Spero News, via Creeping Shariah — 8/4/2013

Reports are emerging from the Sinai Peninsula, currently controlled by Egypt, of Bedouin Muslim Arabs who abduct Christians from Africa and hold them for ransom for exorbitant sums of money. When their often destitute families are unable to pay for their release, the Christians are tortured to death in ways reminiscent of the earliest days of Christianity and also the 7th Century AD when Islam emerged from the wastes of the nearby Arabian Peninsula and swept through the Christian Mideast and North Africa.

Eritrean and Ethiopian Christians are fleeing their homelands, seeking safety in Europe and Israel. Frequently, they are abducted from refugee camps in the Horn of Africa and then smuggled to the Sinai Peninsula where their ordeal truly begins. 

Monks in Egypt’s Lawless Sinai Hope to Preserve an Ancient Library

Fears of Muslim attacks following the "Arab Spring, " and the ouster of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi have elevated safety concerns and caused the ancient monastery to step up its efforts to preserve its priceless collections.

Ladan Cher   Jul 22nd, 2013

Time via Pravmir

Just as they have done for 17 centuries, the Greek Orthodox monks of St. Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt’s Sinai desert and the local Jabaliya Bedouins worked together to protect the monastery when the 2011 revolution thrust Egypt into a period of uncertainty. “There was a period in the early days of the Arab Spring when we had no idea what was going to happen,” says Father Justin, a monk who has lived at St. Catherine’s since 1996. Afraid they could be attacked by Islamic extremists or bandits in the relatively lawless expanse of desert, the 25 monks put the monastery’s most valuable manuscripts in the building’s storage room.

Christians Flee Villages in Egypt’s North Sinai after Terrifying Murders

Killings top months of kidnappings, attacks by Islamic extremist militants.

Detail of the corpse

of Magdy Lamei.

(Morning Star News

photo from Facebook)

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.”

Christians Tortured in the Sinai: ‘I Was Hanged for Days’

Chris Mitchell - CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief – 11/7/13

CBN via OCP Media

JERUSALEM, Israel — From the West Coast of Africa to the deserts of Sinai, Bedouin tribes are conducting a human trafficking trade on a massive scale.

It’s no secret. The trade reaps millions of dollars and deals with human misery. It could be stopped but so far no one has dared.

“By that time I had lost sense (sensation) in both my hands,” an Eritrean torture victim told CBN News. 

“It was a result of the accumulated torture but mainly because (both) of my wrists were tied up so tightly, (and I was) hanged up from the ceiling for three days, the blood was cut off from my hands and the flesh started to literally drip from my hands.”