Editor in Chief
Youssef Sidhom
Watani
عربى English French
  • News
    • Accidents
    • Crime
    • Diplomatic briefcase
    • NewsLine
    • Outside Cairo
    • Special Occasions
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • International media
    • Reader`s Corner
    • Opinion
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • International Politics
    • Islamisation Politics
    • National Affairs
    • Parliament
    • Politics
    • Protests
    • Rights
    • Terrorism
  • Culture
    • Antiquity
    • Art
    • Books
    • Culture
    • Drama
    • Egyptology
    • Festivals
    • Films
    • Heritage
    • Islamisation Culture
    • Media
    • Museums
    • Music
    • TV
  • Coptic
    • Church Affairs
    • Coptic Affairs
    • Coptic Culture
    • Copts in the Media
    • Coptology
    • Copts Abroad
    • Religious
      • P. Shenouda: Bible Study
    • Sectarian
    • Inter-religious
    • Holy Family
  • Features
    • Counselling Corner
    • features
    • Economy
      • Business
    • Education
    • Social Issues
      • Behaviour
      • Mothers Day
    • Health
    • Environment
    • Humour
    • In memorial
    • Interviews
    • Nile
    • Profile
    • Special needs
    • Sports
    • Technology
    • Tourism
    • Wars
    • Women
    • Youth
  • Watani Special Features
    • Egypt – Arab Spring
      • 25 January Revolution
      • 25 Jan revolution, one year on
      • Egypt post-30 June
    • Watani Milestones
      • 20 years Watani International
      • 10 years Watani International
      • Watani Jubilee
    • Pope Shenouda
    • Pope Tawadros
    • Watani Forum
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Accidents
    • Crime
    • Diplomatic briefcase
    • NewsLine
    • Outside Cairo
    • Special Occasions
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • International media
    • Reader`s Corner
    • Opinion
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • International Politics
    • Islamisation Politics
    • National Affairs
    • Parliament
    • Politics
    • Protests
    • Rights
    • Terrorism
  • Culture
    • Antiquity
    • Art
    • Books
    • Culture
    • Drama
    • Egyptology
    • Festivals
    • Films
    • Heritage
    • Islamisation Culture
    • Media
    • Museums
    • Music
    • TV
  • Coptic
    • Church Affairs
    • Coptic Affairs
    • Coptic Culture
    • Copts in the Media
    • Coptology
    • Copts Abroad
    • Religious
      • P. Shenouda: Bible Study
    • Sectarian
    • Inter-religious
    • Holy Family
  • Features
    • Counselling Corner
    • features
    • Economy
      • Business
    • Education
    • Social Issues
      • Behaviour
      • Mothers Day
    • Health
    • Environment
    • Humour
    • In memorial
    • Interviews
    • Nile
    • Profile
    • Special needs
    • Sports
    • Technology
    • Tourism
    • Wars
    • Women
    • Youth
  • Watani Special Features
    • Egypt – Arab Spring
      • 25 January Revolution
      • 25 Jan revolution, one year on
      • Egypt post-30 June
    • Watani Milestones
      • 20 years Watani International
      • 10 years Watani International
      • Watani Jubilee
    • Pope Shenouda
    • Pope Tawadros
    • Watani Forum
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Watani
ع Fr

Coptic villagers hold funeral in street while church remains closed

11 February, 2019 - (12:13 AM)
0 0

Nader Shukry

Coptic villagers hold funeral in street while church remains closed
1.8k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

For the third time, the Coptic villagers of Koum al-Raheb in Samalout, Minya, some 250km south of Cairo, had no option but to hold a funeral service on a street in the village after their church was closed by the police in December 2018.

Last week, the funeral service for Nazmy Boutros Sidhom was held on a village road in Koum al-Raheb . Hundreds of Copts gathered before his coffin as the priests held the ritual funeral prayers.

One of the Coptic villagers said: “This is the third time we had to hold a service in the street since the closure of the church. Our Muslim neighbours came to offer condolences.” Together with the other Copts, he demanded that the church should be reopened. “Worship,” he said, “is one of our basic rights”

Sunday 9 December had seen the Copts in Koum al-Raheb open a new, unlicensed church in the village and hold Mass inside. The police got wind of the activity and arrived at the site demanding immediate closure of the church.

The Copts persuaded the police to wait for Mass to conclude before closing the building, which they did and confiscated its keys.

Monday morning, local government employees arrived to the church to cut off water and electricity from the building through removing the electricity and water metres, a standard measure taken against unlicensed buildings. The village Copts gathered around the church to oppose this procedure, and stood praying out loud in the street in front of the four-storey building.

To Islamic cheers of “Allahu Akbar”, literally Allah is the Greatest, groups of Muslim villagers waged attacks against the houses of the Copts in the village, pelting them with stones and thumping at doors and windows.

According to the village priest who asked for his name to be withheld, the fundamentalist Muslims used the local mosque’s microphone to rally the village Muslims against the Copts. He said the new church would have served the village’s 2500 Copts, since the village includes no church.

The police arrived, made the arrests, imposed calm, and heightened security over the village.

Upon request of the Copts, a ‘pacification session’ was held the following day, attended by local politicians and security officials. It resulted in an agreement that the Copts should obtain license for the church, with a promise from the local politicians to speed up the process. It was also agreed that the detainees would be released.

The Koum al-Raheb street funeral is not the first of its kind. In another Minya village, Dimshau Hashim, Copts had to do the same thing last September.

Coptic villagers whose church was attacked hold funeral service in street

Watani International

10 February 2019

Comments

comments

Tags: Coptic villagers hold funeral in streetEgypt Minya Koum al-Raheb Copts

Related Posts

Police contain attack against Luxor church granted legality
Coptic Affairs

Police contain attack against Luxor church granted legality

June 25, 2022
Killer of Sohag Copt referred to criminal court
Crime

Killer of Sohag Copt referred to criminal court

June 21, 2022
Claim against lawyer of killer of Alexandria Coptic priest
Crime

Claim against lawyer of killer of Alexandria Coptic priest

June 17, 2022
Court sentences to death killer of Alexandria Coptic priest
Coptic Affairs

Court sentences to death killer of Alexandria Coptic priest

June 12, 2022
Prosecution charges killer of Sohag Copt with intentional murder
Crime

Prosecution charges killer of Sohag Copt with intentional murder

June 10, 2022
Copt from Akhmim hacked to death by Muslim extremist
Crime

Copt from Akhmim hacked to death by Muslim extremist

June 8, 2022

Editorial

International North Coastal Road: Gilding the Lily

More

MOST READ

For 28 years in Port Said: Holy Virgin icon still drips miraculous oil
Coptic Affairs

For 28 years in Port Said: Holy Virgin icon still drips miraculous oil

February 26, 2018
0

This February 2018 marks the 28th year in succession since miraculous oil started dripping from a large modern paper icon...

Read more
Egypt: 6.9 pct rise in COVID infections

Egypt: 6.9 pct rise in COVID infections

July 4, 2022
Old houses at new prices?

Old houses at new prices?

February 1, 2017
Youssef Sidhom

International North Coastal Road: Gilding the Lily

July 1, 2022
Police contain attack against Luxor church granted legality

Police contain attack against Luxor church granted legality

June 25, 2022

Features

Conserving an age-old craft
Art

Fawakhir village: Conserving age-old craft of pottery

July 6, 2022
0

A news item circulated the first week of July 2022 ran to the effect that Cairo Governor Khaled Abdel-Aal handed...

Read more
Watani started as an Egyptian weekly Sunday newspaper published in Cairo. The word Watani is Arabic for “My Homeland”. The paper was founded in 1958 by the prominent Copt Antoun Sidhom (1915 – 1995), who strove for the establishment of a civil, democratic society in Egypt, where all Egyptians would enjoy full citizenship rights regardless of their religious denomination. To this day when Watani is published as a weekly paper and an online news site, the objective remains the same. Those in charge of Watani view this role as a patriotic all-Egyptian vocation. Special attention is given to shedding light on Coptic culture and tradition as authentically Egyptian, this being a topic largely disregarded or little-understood by Egypt’s media. Watani is deeply dedicated to offer its readers high quality, extensive, objective, credible and well-researched media coverage, with special focus on Coptic issues, culture, heritage, and contribution to Egyptian society.
-----------------------------------------------------------

27 Abdel Khalek Tharwat st, Downtown, Abdeen,Cairo

00202-23927201

00202-23935946

 [email protected]

      

categories

  • News
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Egypt – Arab Spring
  • Coptic Affairs
  • Features
  • Watani Special Features

Recent Posts

  • Fawakhir village: Conserving age-old craft of pottery
  • Egyptian athletes win total 49 medals in Oran’s Mediterranean Games 2022
  • Egypt: 6.9 pct rise in COVID infections
  • International North Coastal Road: Gilding the Lily
  • Pope Tawadros on 30 June 2013 Revolution: Rescuing Egypt from
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Egypt – Arab Spring
  • Coptic Affairs
  • Features
  • Watani Special Features

Powered BY 3A Digital.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Accidents
    • Crime
    • Diplomatic briefcase
    • NewsLine
    • Outside Cairo
    • Special Occasions
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • International media
    • Reader`s Corner
    • Opinion
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • International Politics
    • Islamisation Politics
    • National Affairs
    • Parliament
    • Politics
    • Protests
    • Rights
    • Terrorism
  • Culture
    • Antiquity
    • Art
    • Books
    • Culture
    • Drama
    • Egyptology
    • Festivals
    • Films
    • Heritage
    • Islamisation Culture
    • Media
    • Museums
    • Music
    • TV
  • Coptic
    • Church Affairs
    • Coptic Affairs
    • Coptic Culture
    • Copts in the Media
    • Coptology
    • Copts Abroad
    • Religious
      • P. Shenouda: Bible Study
    • Sectarian
    • Inter-religious
    • Holy Family
  • Features
    • Counselling Corner
    • features
    • Economy
      • Business
    • Education
    • Social Issues
      • Behaviour
      • Mothers Day
    • Health
    • Environment
    • Humour
    • In memorial
    • Interviews
    • Nile
    • Profile
    • Special needs
    • Sports
    • Technology
    • Tourism
    • Wars
    • Women
    • Youth
  • Watani Special Features
    • Egypt – Arab Spring
      • 25 January Revolution
      • 25 Jan revolution, one year on
      • Egypt post-30 June
    • Watani Milestones
      • 20 years Watani International
      • 10 years Watani International
      • Watani Jubilee
    • Pope Shenouda
    • Pope Tawadros
    • Watani Forum

Powered BY 3A Digital.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Posting....