Pope Condemns 'Vile' Killing Outside Egyptian Church

By Francis X. Rocca
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI denounced the "vile and murderous" New Year's Day killing of 21 Egyptian Christians, and was rebuked by Egypt's top Muslim cleric for an "unacceptable interference in Egypt's affairs."

Benedict made his remarks on Sunday (Jan. 2) to crowds in St. Peter's Square, following his weekly public recital of the Angelus prayer.

The pope called the killings, by a car bomb that exploded outside a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt, a "vile and murderous gesture, like that of placing bombs near the houses of Christians in Iraq to force them to leave."

Bombs killed two people in Baghdad, Iraq, on Dec. 30 in the latest attacks on the Christian minority there. The pope has repeatedly lamented the exodus of Christians from Iraq amid violence following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

In two other recent outbreaks of what Benedict has denounced as "Christianophobia," six people were killed at two Christian churches in northeastern Nigeria on Christmas Eve, and at least six were injured by a bomb at a Catholic church on the island of Jolo in the Philippines on Dec. 25.

Benedict on Sunday encouraged Christians to "persevere in the faith and in the witness of non-violence" in the face of "these strategies of violence, which aim against Christians but have consequences on the entire population."

Later the same day, according to the Middle East News Agency, the grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar University criticized Benedict's remarks as inappropriate and biased.

"I disagree with the pope's view," said Ahmed al-Tayeb, "and I ask why did the pope not call for the protection of Muslims when they were subjected to killings in Iraq?"

Tayeb was among the Muslim leaders who met on Sunday with Pope Shenouda III, leader of Egypt's Coptic Christians, at his headquarters in Cairo. The streets outside were later the scene of violence by Christians protesting the previous day's attack.

Comments

[Jason Raider]

09:34 PM on 01/07/2011

The majority of "progressives" who are howl in protest everytime Israel defends itself are remarkably silent when muslims persecute Christians, Jews & Hindus. Most are ignorant of the fact that in the last 100 years at least 80% of the indigeneous Jews and Christians of the middle east have been squeezed out by muslim intolerance.

[thebigbike]

09:06 PM on 01/06/2011

soooooo. did any muslim clerics of any wide reputation condemn the killings of the coptics and catholics? Seems to me that an enormous part of the muslim deaths in iraq are caused by muslims.

[ejreed]

12:41 PM on 01/05/2011

Coptic Christians Outside Egypt on High Alert
Coptic churches in around the world are on high alert following a New Year's Day church bombing in Egypt that killed 21 people. http://www.newslook.com/videos/280229-coptic-christians-outside-egypt-on-high-alert?autoplay=true

[david penner]

09:53 AM on 01/05/2011

Why judge religion on the worst it has to offer?

How would anyone fare if they were judged on their 10 worst actions?

[American Air]

10:04 AM on 01/06/2011

people are indeed judged and adjudicated. They are sent to prison for crimes every day.

[PeteLeS]

07:02 AM on 01/05/2011

Pope condemns the killing of christians. I don't remember him condeming the killing of muslems. There will NEVER be peace in the middle east, this holy war has been going on for over three thousan years.

[david penner]

09:41 AM on 01/05/2011

If you don't remember the Pope condemning the ki.lling of Muslims, you should use the Goggle for a bit.

[Eric Shun]

10:56 AM on 01/05/2011

You just cannot condemn these savages for the slaughter of Christians praying inside their own church can you? What if this was Christians that had bombed a Mosque? Would you be screaming about those terrible, vile, violent Christians?

[merrymay]

08:51 AM on 01/06/2011

Or a Hollywood movie that uses " Mohammed" as a cuss word, like "Jesus Christ" which is like breathing in many scripts. And yet Jesus is a great prophet in Islam...explain please.

[quedog]

06:30 AM on 01/05/2011

ignorance and religion dont mix
religion is a recipe for disaster

QD

[Eric Shun]

10:57 AM on 01/05/2011

This is despicable, but not all religion is like this

[xscout]

09:47 PM on 01/05/2011

Here, here. . .

[joeyfoto]

06:13 AM on 01/05/2011

Religion may not be the root of all evil but it certainly feeds the most evil impulses in human beings with delusions of "absolute truth" and "divine authority" for human bigotry.

If contemporary events are insufficient to convince you of the dangers of religion, all anyone need do is to read the Biblical defenses of slavery that were put forward in 19th century America, which demonstrate, without question, the absolute worthlessness of religion as a moral compass. The world's prisons are filled with psychopaths who claim that some god called upon them to execute his will,

But, to be realistic, the world needs slaves. Where the master class is constrained from forcibly subjugating people, the bosses find ways to convince citizens to enslave themselves. Fundamentalist religion is a very useful form of mind control. "The truth shall set you free." If liberation is also to be found in religion, it is clearly a minority position.

[david penner]

09:46 AM on 01/05/2011

Official atheism has been much worse.

And Christian principles brought about the end of slavery.

Sure, there are the granola-bars, as there are in every organization.

[julian101]

03:49 PM on 01/05/2011

That's a false choice.

[joeyfoto]

06:57 AM on 01/06/2011

David Penner wrote: "Official atheism has been much worse. And Christian principles brought about the end of slavery. Sure, there are the granola-bars, as there are in every organization."

David: First, nobody is defending the atrocities of "godless communism." However, your statement: "Christian principles brought about the end of slavery." is difficult to defend.

If "Christian principles" made slavery anathema, Christians had about1700 years to bring up the subject. Do you want to read the list of Christian apologists for slavery? It was not until the Enlightenment agitated consciences across Europe then, finally, America, that anti-slavery outrage reached the level of action. The Enlightenment is a product of Humanism — and even though many of the Enlightenment figures were Christians of some stripe — slavery was not ended by "Christian principles."

The world is filled with decent Christian men and women, as it is with decent people of every religion and of none. Someone's religion is not the measure a reasonable person uses to predict someone's decency.

When I hear someone express the prejudice for Christians being morally superior, I thing if President Johnson's reaction when someone said to him: "I'm just a country boy." Lyndon Johnson retorted: "I'm just a country boy, myself, and any time someone says that to me, I reach for my wallet to make sure it's still there."

[syntax facit saltum]

05:17 AM on 01/05/2011

Here is a very interesting article with an informative report from Al Jazeera on the bombings in Alexandria: http://ricochet.com/main-feed/The-Alexandria-Bombing-Useless-and-Useful-Questions

[American Air]

01:03 AM on 01/05/2011

How do I e-mail this to the Pope?

http://www.nobeliefs.com/mementoes.htm

[david penner]

09:49 AM on 01/05/2011

I don't know, but I am no defender of the Pope.

The Catholics need a shake-up of a large magnitude.

But neither do I condemn them.

[syntax facit saltum]

06:36 PM on 01/05/2011

Better email the swastika symbols to the Hindus and Jainists if that is your thinking.

[monstercat]

10:26 PM on 01/04/2011

Egypt's top Muslim cleric's defensive tone in respond to Pope Benedict XVI condemnation of the church bombing in Egypt makes the Muslim cleric sound very much like a big bully.

The crime was indeed vile & murderous. If it was another public building, that crime is still vile & murderous irregardless of the religion of the perpetrators. The Pope's description of that crime was accurate. So, why didn't the top Muslim cleric feel the same way about this crime huh???

[Talossa]

12:29 AM on 01/05/2011

It is hilarious that the Egyptian imam compares this to Iraq. One of the reasons the Iraq war was so hopelessly misguided is that it dislodged a secular regime from power and helped Islamic fundamentalists -- the very people whose actions this Egyptian cleric is praising with his silence -- to seize power.

[American Air]

12:57 AM on 01/05/2011

And every christian n utj0b here supported the invasi0n of Iraq

[monstercat]

03:23 AM on 01/05/2011

Seriously, that's their agenda - to convert as many as possible; to have certain leverage against the superpowers of the world. The leverage I think, is to implement Sharia law progressively into the secular systems. That's just my suspicion, that's why I said I think ;). Thanks for the fan.

[Vieux Charles]

09:49 PM on 01/04/2011

We should all love atheists and save them from the eviIs of atheism!

[Talossa]

12:27 AM on 01/05/2011

Touché. F&F.

[American Air]

01:06 AM on 01/05/2011

You buggers have been doing that for a long time and hurting a lot of people while doing it. why do you think I am here showing y'alls face to the mirror?

[syntax facit saltum]

01:15 AM on 01/05/2011

FYI, we don't use the term "buggers" in American English.

[American Air]

08:59 PM on 01/04/2011

We should all love christians and save them from the eviIs of christianity!

[American Air]

08:57 PM on 01/04/2011

Why cn't evangelicals pick any of these instead of remaning in a bigoted cult?

How about any of these religions..

Sikhism
Buddhism
Shintoism
Atheistic Humanism
Hinduism
Judaism
Jainism
Quakers

None of them are as bigoted as Christianity and Islam

[Talossa]

12:10 AM on 01/05/2011

Quakers ARE Christians.

[syntax facit saltum]

12:53 AM on 01/05/2011

Come on, the guy thinks Catholics are Evangelicals. Your remark is perhaps too nuanced.

[American Air]

12:58 AM on 01/05/2011

Quakers are not like the main stream christians. They don't evangelize and they don't believe in the Nicene creed. so they may as well be Buddhists for all I care.

[julian101]

03:59 AM on 01/05/2011

I have to wonder....The muslims must be pretty happy the christian missionaries showed up in India.
It gave the rabid and insecure Hindu nationalists like America Air someone else to beat with clubs now and again.

[American Air]

08:42 PM on 01/04/2011

For all the Rapture believing Christians:

A man was on his way to heaven.

When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'

'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered..

'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.

'Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.'

The man gestured, and the gate began to open. 'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveler asked.

'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed.

There was no fence.

As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book....

'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?'

'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.'

'How about my friend here?' the traveler gestured to the dog.

'There should be a bowl by the pump,' said the man.

[American Air]

08:43 PM on 01/04/2011

contd....

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.

The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.

When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree..

'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked.

'This is Heaven,' he answered.

'Well, that's confusing,' the traveler said.

'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.'

'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope.. That's hell.'

'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?'

'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'

[KDMac]

12:16 PM on 01/05/2011

Nice one : D

[merrymay]

09:27 AM on 01/06/2011

Sorry old chap...you got a mean sort of religion that is unscriptural and cold. Many Christians not only believe Heaven has pets and all animals, but they can argue for it.

I could tell many stories and many Bible quotes...but have some fun and look for yourselves.

[syntax facit saltum]

09:11 PM on 01/04/2011

There is a policy against spamming. Here we have conversations, not rants.

[American Air]

09:16 PM on 01/04/2011

Do you know who invented spamming? Christians.

Go forth and spam! Said the man!

LOL :)

[monstercat]

03:41 AM on 01/05/2011

Hi Syntax Facit Saltum, let him rant & rave like a sexually-deprived kid, on too much steroids or something like that. Perhaps he/she failed in seducing a Christian person to bed, hence the vindictive tone of his/her postings. We should all pity him/her from now onwards.

[ammsamm]

07:33 PM on 01/04/2011

I guess the support of mass paedophilia didn't disqualify this man for the job.

How enlightening.