Last year an Egyptian girl wrote a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama from a Coptic Christian  website.

She told the president that Muslims in the United States are treated much better than Copts in Egypt, Compass Direct News (CDN) reported.

Dina Maher Ahmad Mo’otahssem and her father have been on the run for two years due to religious persecution in Egypt.

Dina Maher Ahmad Mo’otahssem, 16, has been in hiding since 2008 with her father, Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary.  They have suffered constant persecution whenever people discover their identities, CDN said.

Dina asked Obama to pressure the Egyptian government to ensure religious rights, and expressed hope that she and her father could migrate to the United States, CDN reported.

Last week Dina and her father lived in a tiny, two-bedroom apartment in an unidentified city in Egypt.  The floor was littered with grime and trash. Clumps of dust and used water bottles were everywhere.  El-Gohary had taped over the locks and the inside of windows and doors to guard against eavesdroppers and intruders.

He taped over all the drain holes of the sinks and the shower so no one could pump in natural gas at night.  When the neighbors learned he was a Christian, they threw rocks and pebbles at his home, enough to litter the porch.  El-Gohary couldn’t open a window because rocks might get thrown in, according to CDN.

Whenever he leaves, he padlocks the door, wraps it with a small plastic bag and melts the bag to the lock with a match.  But he rarely leaves the place because it is not safe to go out.

Last month while walking to a market with Dina, someone poured acid over her jacket.  When El-Gohary saw it sizzle and dissolve he immediately ripped it off of her and threw it away before she was hurt, CDN said.

He can’t work and relies on other Christians to bring him food, water and the occasional donation. He cannot count on his own family for help.  When the food runs out, he has to brave going outside.

El-Gohary can’t attend a church more than once, nor can they go to a supermarket more than once.  He has been a Christian for 36 years, but he was forced to go into hiding after August 2008, because he sued the national government to allow him to change the religion listed on his state-issued ID from Islam to Christianity, according to CDN.

El-Gohary didn’t want his daughter to be forced to take Islamic education classes or have her declared an “apostate” by Egyptian Islamic authorities if she decided to stay a Christian into adulthood.  This is why he asked for the ID change.

Dina is required by law to possess an ID card, which is used for everything from opening a bank account to receiving medical care. The ID also determines whether Egyptians are subject to Islamic civil courts.  Dina is considered to be a Muslim because her father was born a Muslim, CDN said.

Conversion

El-Gohary became a Christian after he read the account of Jesus meeting a woman caught committing adultery.  He was touched by the level of mercy that Jesus showed her, CDN said.

El-Gohary said. “The basis of Christianity is love and forgiveness, unlike Islam, where it is based on revenge, fighting and war.”  He also said of the two religions’ versions of heaven, that the Islamic heaven is about physical pleasure, while for Christians it is about being with God, CDN reported.

El-Gohary was forced to hide because the State Council, a consultative body of Egypt’s Administrative Court, charged him with apostasy, the penalty for which is death, CDN said.  The case is still ongoing.

El-Gohary believes that he and his daughter are being used to set an example to other Muslims who want to convert.  Also, he thinks they fear that if he is allowed to leave the country, he will talk about how Egypt persecutes Copts.

He said, “We are trapped in our own country without even the rights that animals have.”  When the mosque across the street learned of his identity and of his case, they began to blast messages from their minaret megaphones on how to deal with Christians, CDN reported.

The imam shouted, “Do not shake their hands. Do not go into their homes. Do not eat their food.”  Since he has become a Christian, El-Gohary has been beaten, forcibly detained, endured death threats and poverty.

Still, he and Dina have no regrets about having become Christian, and they have no dreams to become Muslim again, the CDN said.

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Some 3,000 angry Muslims, spurred by their imam, went on a rampage in the coastal city of Marsa Matrouh in Egypt recently, completely destroying 18 homes, 23 shops, and 16 cars owned by Christians according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The Muslims had just finished their Friday prayers when they were exhorted by the mosque’s imam to cleanse the city of its infidel Christians, whom they call Copts, the WSJ said.

During the rampage some 400 Copts barricaded themselves in their church for 10 hours until the frenzy died down.  Since May of last year, over a dozen violent incidents have occurred in villages in Egypt.  One of them was a drive bye shootout at Christians leaving a Coptic Christmas church service, resulting in seven dead and 26 seriously injured, according to the WSJ.

The Copts comprise 12% of the population of this primarily Muslim country.  The last few years have resembled a Christian purge however, with waves of mob assaults forcing up to thousands of Christian citizens to flee their homes, the WSJ said.

Despite frantic appeals the police usually arrive after the violence is over.  Then they coerce the injured to accept “reconciliation” with their attackers.  No Muslim to date has been convicted for any of these crimes, the WSJ said.

The Egyptian government insists that there is no sectarian problem in the country, and they say those who draw international attention to the Copts’ plight are traitors, the WSJ said.

The United States and the rest of the Western democracies, despite repeated Coptic appeals, have done little besides calling upon the Egyptian regime to foster greater tolerance, the WSJ reported.

Egypt’s Christian Copts suffer customary and official discrimination.  For example, no church can be built or even repaired without a presidential decree.  Also, Copts may not join intelligence and security services because they are deemed a security risk, the WSJ said.

The discrimination springs from a traditional social norm that rules the elite and large sectors of the Muslim community.  This norm, though no longer legal, lives in the social psyche that views Christian and Jewish minorities as dhimmi in Muslim lands.

The dhimmi status presumes it is unreasonable in an Islamic society to expect strict equality between Muslims and the infidels; and that an individual offense by a dhimmi against a Muslim warrants retribution for the entire dhimmi community, the WSJ said.

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A group of Egyptian and foreign Christians sought government action recently against a suit they filed against the Muslim author of a bestselling, award winning novel that they say discriminates against their Christian faith.

The novel, entitled Azazeel (Beelzebub) by Youssef Ziedan, won the 2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, backed by the Booker Prize Foundation.

However Mamdouh Ramzi, a Coptic (Christian) lawyer, called the novel offensive adding, “He insulted priests and bishops and said many things with no proof or evidence from books or history…He is not a Christian man, what does he know about the Church?”  Reuters reported.

The case has been joined in by Coptic groups in the United States, the Netherlands, Canada and Austria.

This reflects broader complaints by Copts that they are discriminated against and marginalized in Egypt, where they comprise only 12 percent of this primarily Muslim nation of 78 million.

“We should receive attention from the authorities or we will start to wonder why the law does not respond unless the matter includes an insult to Islam,”  Ramzi said to Reuters.

Egyptian law prohibits insults against Islam, Christianity and Judaism.  However, even Al-Azhar, the world’s preeminent Sunni Islamic institution, has published a pamphlet declaring the Bible a corrupted document and Christianity a pagan religion, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Al-Azhar’s textbook for its high-school students, called “Al Iqna’,” states that killing a Muslim is punishable by death, but if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim he is not subject to capital punishment since the superior cannot be punished for killing the inferior (p. 146).

It also states that the blood money (compensation for manslaughter) rates for a woman is half that for a man, but for a Christian or Jew it is one third that of a Muslim (p. 187); and that there can be no stewardship (such as a superior in work) of a non-Muslim over a Muslim (p. 205), the WSJ reported.

Hundreds of thousands of Azhar schools in Egypt, monitored by the state, indoctrinate and discharge annually hundreds of thousands of young Muslims into Egyptian society with an ideology of intolerance, contempt and hatred toward Copts (and even more intensely toward Jews), the WSJ said.

Meanwhile, the hand of the law is more clearly seen when it involves writings that criticize Islam—even when the author is Muslim.

For example in 1995 an Egyptian sharia court declared Egyptian intellectual Nasr Abu Zayd to be disloyal, and called him an apostate from Islam.  They took issue over Zayd’s liberal, critical approach to Islamic teaching.  As a result his marriage was annulled and he was forced into exile, Reuters reported.

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The U.S. Commision on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted in its recent 2010 annual report that President Obama has fallen short of doing what he can to lobby for the protection of religious freedom in the world.

The report noted that until now, President Obama has failed to appoint an Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom, a request that was made to him last month in a petition signed by lawmakers, scholars and human rights groups.

The same petition requested that the position be given equal level to other Ambassadors-At-Large who report directly to the Secretary of State, according to The Christian Post.

The USCIRF also noted that under Obama’s watch, no countries have been rated CPC, or “countries of particular concern” for having the worst religious violations.

Such a rating can prompt government action including trade restrictions, sanctions, embargoes, and withholding of military or financial aid, among others, The Christian Post said.

The same report said that the USCIRF, an independent US government commission, made these observations even as it said that with every year the issue becomes less and less important to the White House and the State Department.

The position of Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom, for example, was created in 1998, but it had only been filled in its initial year, and has remained vacant since 1999.

The commission warned Obama that failure to fill the position sent a message to the international community that religious freedom is not an important issue to the American government, the Christian Post said.

The same report noted that USCIRF took issue with the fact that Obama rarely mentioned religious freedom when he visited Ankara and Cairo last year.

Furthermore, Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton replaced the words religious freedom with “freedom of worship.”

The commission said authoritarian governments could skirt the issue by noting that faiths that are okay with them can freely worship.

Credit:svilen001/sxc.hu

They could also permit only token houses of worship for minority faiths.

According to CNN, the USCIRF also reported that:

* Over 24 countries are religious freedom offenders and practice religious persecution.

* Forms of religious persecution may include imprisonment, murder, being fired from jobs, and being kicked out of universities; being forbidden to have bank accounts, driver’s licenses and even birth certificates, among others.

* 13 countries should be rated CPC or “countries of particular concern” because they have the worst religious violations. These countries include Myanmar (Burma), China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Suda, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

* 12 countries on the watch list are Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Venezuela.

* The report has five more countries under CPC rating than does the State Department’s 2009 report, which did not include Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan or Vietnam.

* 3 countries, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka, should be closely monitored.

Specific Countries

* Egypt. Members of the Baha’I faith and minority Muslim sects are imprisoned, fired from jobs, kicked out of universities, and barred from having bank accounts, birth certificates and driver’s licenses.

* Nigeria. A decade of violence between Muslims and Christians in the Jos state recently culminated in 500 men, women and children hacked to death with machetes and dumped into wells.

* China. Cracked down on Uyghur Muslims in the west.

* Iran. Labeled domestic political opponents “enemies of God” which is a capital offense and can merit severing of the head.

* Eritrea. Harassment of Orthodox Church members and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

* Vietnam. Imprisonment of Buddhists and Protestants.

The USCIRF report urged the government to double its efforts to protect international religious freedom and to raise issues of abuse to the highest levels of the world community, the Christian Post said.

“Anything less betrays our history and values, and fails to leverage the extraordinary capacity we have as a nation to promote religious freedom and related human rights for all,” the report said.

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The Jewish holiday of Passover for 2010 begins at sundown on Monday and lasts the next seven days. It is the celebration of the Israelites coming out of slavery in Egypt.

A properly set Passover Seder table. The Haggadah book is in foreground.

The biblical event takes place in Exodus 10 through 13 in the Old Testament.

God instructed the Jewish people to mark their doorposts with lamb’s blood so He would “pass over” them when slaying the first born of Egypt (the last of the “10 Plagues” causing Pharoah to release them from bondage).

Many Christian churches have begun incorporating a Passover “Seder” (say-der, meaning service) into their activities around Easter.

Passover is what Jesus and the apostles were celebrating at the Last Supper, because they were Jewish men with Jewish observances:

“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord – a lasting ordinance.” (Exodus 12:14)

“Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.  Jesus sent Peter and John, saying ‘go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.’” (Luke 22:7-8)

Passover is also celebrated by “Jewish believers” – Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah of both the Jews and Christians. Psalm 22; Isaiah 11:1, 7:14; Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 1:1-16, 21:7; Mark 15; John 3:16 are a few parallel passages in the Old and New Testament supporting this belief.

Jesus’ Hebrew name is “Yeshua” – the Lord saves. Jewish believers attend Messianic Synagogues or Christian churches.

How is Passover celebrated?
The opening night Passover Service (“seder”) is usually held in family homes or in unison as entire congregations. A large meal is served, with some items representing the hardships faced in Egypt and in the desert.

Prior to the meal, attendees read from the Haggadah, which is the re-telling of the Exodus story. The Haggadah has existed for about 300 years and includes songs about the sacrificial lamb and the escape via the Red Sea.

How does the perspective differ for Christians and Messianic Jewish believers?
The story of the Exodus remains the same. But countless parallels exist for Christians and Jewish believers between the lambs sacrificed in the Old Testament, and Jesus as the “Ultimate Sacrifice.”

There are also striking prophetic similarities between the first Passover dinner in the book of Exodus, present-day Jewish Passover activities, and what Jesus did at the Last Supper:

• The Jews were told to take only unleavened bread on their journey.-Jesus broke unleavened bread with the disciples.
• The ceremony contains glasses of wine as an honor to the lamb’s blood and sweat of the Jews.-Jesus offered the disciples wine as a symbol of his blood, yet to be shed.
• The “matzo” crackers (today’s symbol of the Israelites’ unleavened bread) are dipped in bitter herbs and eaten to represent sorrow and hard labor.-The disciples dipped and ate unleavened bread to represent Jesus’ body.
• Lamb’s blood was shed at the first Passover to save the Jews from the plagues and free them from a seemingly never-ending bondage.-Jesus was “sacrificed” (crucified) soon after he celebrated Passover at the Last Supper.  His blood was shed to save us from our sins and free us from eternal death.
• The ceremonial matzo (“Afikomen”) is hidden under a cushion, not to be seen until the end, when the children uncover it and bring it out.-Jesus was entombed and wasn’t seen again for three days. At the end of three days he is seen alive outside by  the women, having shed his wrappings.
• There are 3 matzohs separated in different folds of a napkin, used in the ceremony at various intervals.-Jesus was born, died, and rose again. (3 stages).

About the author: Sheryl Young is a Jewish believer in Jesus and author of “What Every Christian Should Know about the Jewish People: Improving the Church’s Relationship with God’s Original Chosen Nation.” The book contains more information on Jewish Holidays.)

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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Usama Dakdok of The Straight Way of Grace Ministry

 Usama Dakdok longs to tell Christians and the Muslim world community that only the love of Christ can overcome the dangers of true radical Islam. 

Dakdok, a Coptic Christian (Christian native of Egypt), runs the Straight Way of Grace Ministry. The organization’s motto is  “Equipping Christians, Reaching Muslims.” 

He has been in America for 18 years. 

I became aware of Dakdok’s ministry after publishing an article on Jewish-Muslim tensions at UC Berkeley. 

This is the first of my two-part interview with Dakdok. 

Q: How did you and your family become Christians in Egypt?
A: My family was always Coptic Christian. Coptic means Egyptian. This was the main faith in Egypt before Islam, since biblical days when the disciple Mark brought the Gospel to Egypt. He was a bishop of Alexandria. I gave my life to Jesus as Lord and Savior at age 11, after a revival at the church, and was baptized at age 12. 

Q: Is the Christian community still accepted well in Egypt?
A: Christianity has not been well accepted since Islam came to Egypt in the Dark Ages (circa 641 A.D.). Four million Christian men were killed in the first 100 years. Their women and daughters were raped and taken. 

The government is Islamic; all children of Muslim men are automatically considered Muslims by Islamic law even if the mothers are American, Christian, etc. Last Christmas, some Christians were shot in an Egyptian church by an Islamic terrorist group. 

Q: Did your Christian faith help you filter through what Egyptian schools taught about Islam?
A: Yes. There is much indoctrination of the children in schools to believe in the Muslim faith. Western culture is ostracized in the school system, to make the children think that Christianity is silly. For example 1+1+1=3, not one Godhead of three persons. 

Q: Why don’t Muslims believe in Christ as the Messiah, since the Quran contains many same stories as the Bible?
A: Muslims believe that Jesus couldn’t be a deity; as Allah is only one, God can only be one. Jesus to Muslims was a good teacher, good man and good prophet, but not God’s Son. Muslims actually think they are honoring Jesus by not calling him a god. But [I believe] He cannot be a good teacher if he lied about being God’s Son or the way He died. 

Q: Is Allah the same being as the Jewish and Christian God?
A: I believe Allah is not the same God. I believe he is Satan because he leads people astray. Quran 1:1 says “Praise be to Allah, God of this world” – and 1 Corinthians 4:4 says Satan is the god of this world. Quran 3:54 says “Allah is the best of deceivers,” but Revelation 12:9 calls Satan the Deceiver. 

Q: So, are most Muslims lacking knowledge of what the Quran really says?
A: Many Muslims, “good” Muslims as Westerners call them, are not following the teachings of the Quran. They are Muslim without true Islam. Much of the text they read has been what we call “abrogated” – changed to have a different meaning for presentation to the world community. There are 124 verses to quote to Americans with abrogated interpretations. 

Q: But some people say the Bible is “abrogated,” too – people give it their own interpretations.
A: The Old Testament is not abrogated by the New Testament; it is fulfilled. 

Q: Why do you think people are converting to Islam in such large numbers today, even in America?
A: The number is not large. Many new converts leave Islam within a year, because they are taught a false Islamic faith and abrogated Quran. The Quran of love and respect for women does not exist. Plus, names are added as “converts” upon a first visit to a Mosque. 

Check back for part 2 of my interview with Dakdok. In part 2, he will discuss the dangers of extreme Islamic terrorism.

The views expressed in this interview do not necessarily reflect the views of The Underground.

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When Jesus Speaks To His Disciples He is Clear And Specific

In Luke Chapter 22 at verse 7, Jesus asks Peter and John to go and prepare the Passover Meal. Jesus is aware of all that is going on, and the meeting place is to be kept as secret as possible. Jesus has to have one last evening with His disciples, and until the teaching has been given, nothing and no-one will be allowed to interfere.

Judas was not going to be informed; not too soon, just in case.

Peter and John are such a contrast to Judas. They are in the right place going the right way, in the right direction, in the right company, doing the right thing, and most importantly, obeying Jesus.

They find a man in a most unusual way. This man is prepared to give his best room to Jesus. They got things ready. They knew what to do. They were Jews.

They were going to remember that night, when God visited Egypt, 1,300 years previously, and the first born in every house was slain, except for those in the houses marked with the blood of the lamb, as commanded by Moses. And GOD came down and visited that land that night. You will find the text of this incident in Exodus Chapter 12.

We never know when God is going to come down and visit us in a new way, and do a new thing, and speak again. We never know when God is going to move again. During the 1960’s and 1970’s there was this amazing outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the risen Jesus baptised me and anointed me with the Holy Spirit, as I was about to resign from the ministry of preaching and teaching the Word of God. We never know when God is going to come down!

This miraculous deliverance from Egypt was no problem to Jesus. Men question this all this; the angel of death and the opening of The Red Sea. Jesus didn't. Jesus acknowledged and remembered that night and observed the Passover, because it was real and true.

These men had the living Jesus with them, but they were going to remember the significance of the past too. What we believe affects how we behave.

O, to keep the balance. Remember what is important, and also be led by the risen and living Lord Jesus Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit. It was in the middle of this significant meaning remembrance, that Jesus did something new, when He took the bread and the wine, and gave these men such vital teaching.

You will find much of what Jesus said and taught in John Chapters 13,14, 15,16.

Jesus comes and takes the ordinary. He takes what was routine and which had been going on for 1,300 years, and He saturates it all with new meaning and significance.

We are reading in The Word of God, and all of a sudden He reveals something and He speaks. Have we not found that to be true as we read and study the Bible each day? We are reading a passage, and all of a sudden a light shines and God speaks so clearly and specifically. I have been reading part of the Bible every day since I was eight years old, I can testify to this being so true and so real.

Jesus is Master of this situation. He planned it. He controlled it. Jesus decides when and how and where. Normally only women would carry a jar of water.

Go. Meet this man. Follow him. Peter and John are even given the words to speak. This is wonderful.

Verse 22. Jesus mentions that someone is going to betray Him, and they begin to ask questions. Who could do something as horrid as this? Who would do something as horrid as this? It is someone to whom Jesus had given the bread and shared the cup.

Notice, they had to partake. You must accept it for yourself. They had to be involved, filled, fed, obedient. It looks so little, but the significance is immense. They were symbols and signs, and no more than that. His real body was there in front of them.

Jesus invites us. He takes us into that room. What a privilege, not only to be present there, overhearing and listening and watching, but to receive, as they did.

This is the New Covenant, a new relationship, and all of this has a forward look, to that day when we shall eat and drink with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom.

Originally here:
Word from Scotland

Author bio:
Alexander “Sandy” Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness – on the Moray Firth Coast – not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40 a.m., New Orleans time, at wsho.com.

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