Coptic riots in Egypt

[foolishmortal]

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101125/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_riots
I’m glad they’re not Catholics. We had enough vindictiveness from the Irish ones. I can’t point fingers, as I’ve never been really discriminated against for my faith, but I guess we look for profound acts of faith (even many irreligious) these days (or effective leadership from “Rome)” and get disillusioned and lost.
I wonder if any early Christians rioted. In an organized way, maybe Constantine’s soldiers were taking on ancient Rome.

 

[Darryl1958]

A desparate people are resorting to desparate measures.
They are not asking to build a church on the Kaaba, or under the nose of the Sphinx.
And yet the religion of peace will not budge to help make accommodations for growing numbers.

 

[foolishmortal]

Yeah, but you hear of martyrs sneaking around into house churches in times of persecution; not rioting over discriminatory real estate practices. Some think with their rioting, the Egyptian Muslims will feel vindicated, but I don’t believe that. I think we just feel let down when martyrs riot.

 

[NEWCATHOLICJEFF]

They are not asking to build it on the Dome of the Rock, or Name it after a famous victory like Cordoba or build it near Ground Zero.

 

[dzheremi]

Reading a bit of what the Copts have had to put up with, especially in recent decades with the increasing Islamicization of Egyptian society, makes me wonder why the riots did not start a lot sooner. I fear for what this recent round of persecution at the hands of the state will bring to the Copts in the future, but I do not think that the community as a whole is out of line at all. The Egyptian state has already proven time and time again to not be the least bit interested in actually providing its Coptic minority with anything like justice despite the many vicious attacks that community has suffered (see, for instance the incident at El Kosheh in 2000 where 21 people were martyred at the hands of a Muslim mob and not one member of said mob was convicted on any charge). I can’t say that I would not do the same, if I were under that kind of constant degradation, where the local organs of government often either encouraged my brutalization or at best proved completely unwilling and ineffective to stop it.

I quite admire the Copts for standing up for themselves in any way in the current state in which they find themselves. For sure, their struggle is a just one, and it should be supported by all Christians who care about the conditions in which our fellow believers in Christ are made to live under the yolk of Islam. I pray that the two who are feared dead in the protests are received into God’s heavenly kingdom, because their sacrifice was quite literally for His Church in the land of His people (Isaiah 19:25). I can’t think of a more profound act of faith than that. As they have so profoundly chanted in protest: “With our blood and our souls, we will sacrifice our lives for you, oh cross”. We non-Copts should ever be so resolute in our faith! I support them 100%.

 

[seanflynn]

I’m glad they’re not Catholics.

I think Copts are in full communion with us. Feel free to correct me, anyone who knows better. The options for non-Latin-Rite-Catholic Christians are, in ascending order of age,
(1) Protestant
(2) Orthodox
(3) Easten Catholic (Maronite, Melkite, Ukrainian, Chaldean . . . I think Coptic is in with number three here).

 

[dzheremi]

Seanflynn: The Coptic Orthodox Church is not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church (or the Eastern Catholic churches in communion with it; there is a Coptic Catholic church among these, so that is probably the church you are thinking of), nor the Eastern Orthodox churches. They are a member of the Oriental Orthodox communion, which also includes the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Armenian Orthodox Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and the Malankara Orthodox Church. These churches are distinguished from both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox communions by their pre-Chalcedonian Christologies, as they do not accept the Council of Chalcedon to which the other communions adhere.

 

[foolishmortal]

How are Protestants in higher ascendancy to anything over the Orthodox? Aren’t most Orthodox able to receive Holy Communion at Mass (or is it vice versa), as opposed to Protestants? Aren’t most Orthodox churches technically apostolic? Protestants aren’t.

 

[Sonic]

I’m glad they’re not Catholics. We had enough vindictiveness from the Irish ones. I can’t point fingers, as I’ve never been really discriminated against for my faith, but I guess we look for profound acts of faith (even many irreligious) these days (or effective leadership from “Rome)” and get disillusioned and lost.

Luke 18: 10-14