‏إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات Copts. إظهار كافة الرسائل
‏إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات Copts. إظهار كافة الرسائل

8/18/2013

#Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood militias hit Christian churches

After torching a Franciscan school, Islamists paraded three nuns on the streets like "prisoners of war" before a Muslim woman offered them refuge. Two other women working at the school were sexually harassed and abused as they fought their way through a mob.
In the four days since security forces cleared two sit-in camps by supporters of Egypt's ousted president, Islamists have attacked dozens of Coptic churches along with homes and businesses owned by the Christian minority. The campaign of intimidation appears to be a warning to Christians outside Cairo to stand down from political activism.
Christians have long suffered from discrimination and violence in Muslim majority Egypt, where they make up 10 percent of the population of 90 million. Attacks increased after the Islamists rose to power in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that drove Hosni Mubarak from power, emboldening extremists. But Christians have come further under fire since President Mohammed Morsi was ousted on July 3, sparking a wave of Islamist anger led by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

Nearly 40 churches have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged since Wednesday, when chaos erupted after Egypt's military-backed interim administration moved in to clear two camps packed with protesters calling for Morsi's reinstatement, killing scores of protesters and sparking deadly clashes nationwide.
One of the world's oldest Christian communities has generally kept a low-profile, but has become more politically active since Mubarak was ousted and Christians sought to ensure fair treatment in the aftermath.
Many Morsi supporters say Christians played a disproportionately large role in the days of mass rallies, with millions demanding that he step down ahead of the coup.
Despite the violence, Egypt's Coptic Christian church renewed its commitment to the new political order Friday, saying in a statement that it stood by the army and the police in their fight against "the armed violent groups and black terrorism."
While the Christians of Egypt have endured attacks by extremists, they have drawn closer to moderate Muslims in some places, in a rare show of solidarity.
Hundreds from both communities thronged two monasteries in the province of Bani Suef south of Cairo to thwart what they had expected to be imminent attacks on Saturday, local activist Girgis Waheeb said. Activists reported similar examples elsewhere in regions south of Cairo, but not enough to provide effective protection of churches and monasteries.
Waheeb, other activists and victims of the latest wave of attacks blame the police as much as hard-line Islamists for what happened. The attacks, they said, coincided with assaults on police stations in provinces like Bani Suef and Minya, leaving most police pinned down to defend their stations or reinforcing others rather than rushing to the rescue of Christians under attack.
Another Christian activist, Ezzat Ibrahim of Minya, a province also south of Cairo where Christians make up around 35 percent of the population, said police have melted away from seven of the region's nine districts, leaving the extremists to act with near impunity.
Two Christians have been killed since Wednesday, including a taxi driver who strayed into a protest by Morsi supporters in Alexandria and another man who was shot to death by Islamists in the southern province of Sohag, according to security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.
The attacks served as a reminder that Islamists, while on the defensive in Cairo, maintain influence and the ability to stage violence in provincial strongholds with a large minority of Christians.
Gamaa Islamiya, the hard-line Islamist group that wields considerable influence in provinces south of Cairo, denied any link to the attacks. The Muslim Brotherhood, which has led the defiant protest against Morsi's ouster, has condemned the attacks, spokesman Mourad Ali said.
Sister Manal is the principal of the Franciscan school in Bani Suef. She was having breakfast with two visiting nuns when news broke of the clearance of the two sit-in camps by police, killing hundreds. In an ordeal that lasted about six hours, she, sisters Abeer and Demiana and a handful of school employees saw a mob break into the school through the wall and windows, loot its contents, knock off the cross on the street gate and replace it with a black banner resembling the flag of al-Qaida.
By the time the Islamists ordered them out, fire was raging at every corner of the 115-year-old main building and two recent additions. Money saved for a new school was gone, said Manal, and every computer, projector, desk and chair was hauled away. Frantic SOS calls to the police, including senior officers with children at the school, produced promises of quick response but no one came.
The Islamists gave her just enough time to grab some clothes.
In an hourlong telephone interview with The Associated Press, Manal, 47, recounted her ordeal while trapped at the school with others as the fire raged in the ground floor and a battle between police and Islamists went on out on the street. At times she was overwhelmed by the toxic fumes from the fire in the library or the whiffs of tears gas used by the police outside.
Sister Manal recalled being told a week earlier by the policeman father of one pupil that her school was targeted by hard-line Islamists convinced that it was giving an inappropriate education to Muslim children. She paid no attention, comfortable in the belief that a school that had an equal number of Muslim and Christian pupils could not be targeted by Muslim extremists. She was wrong.
The school has a high-profile location. It is across the road from the main railway station and adjacent to a busy bus terminal that in recent weeks attracted a large number of Islamists headed to Cairo to join the larger of two sit-in camps by Morsi's supporters. The area of the school is also in one of Bani Suef's main bastions of Islamists from Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and ultraconservative Salafis.
"We are nuns. We rely on God and the angels to protect us," she said. "At the end, they paraded us like prisoners of war and hurled abuse at us as they led us from one alley to another without telling us where they were taking us," she said. A Muslim woman who once taught at the school spotted Manal and the two other nuns as they walked past her home, attracting a crowd of curious onlookers.
"I remembered her, her name is Saadiyah. She offered to take us in and said she can protect us since her son-in-law was a policeman. We accepted her offer," she said. Two Christian women employed by the school, siblings Wardah and Bedour, had to fight their way out of the mob, while groped, hit and insulted by the extremists. "I looked at that and it was very nasty," said Manal.
The incident at the Franciscan school was repeated at Minya where a Catholic school was razed to the ground by an arson attack and a Christian orphanage was also torched.
"I am terrified and unable to focus," said Boulos Fahmy, the pastor of a Catholic church a short distance away from Manal's school. "I am expecting an attack on my church any time now," he said Saturday.
Bishoy Alfons Naguib, a 33-year-old businessman from Minya, has a similarly harrowing story.
His home supplies store on a main commercial street in the provincial capital, also called Minya, was torched this week and the flames consumed everything inside.
"A neighbor called me and said the store was on fire. When I arrived, three extremists with knifes approached me menacingly when they realized I was the owner," recounted Naguib. His father and brother pleaded with the men to spare him. Luckily, he said, someone shouted that a Christian boy was filming the proceedings using his cell phone, so the crowd rushed toward the boy shouting "Nusrani, Nusrani," the Quranic word for Christians which has become a derogatory way of referring to them in today's Egypt.
Naguib ran up a nearby building where he has an apartment and locked himself in. After waiting there for a while, he left the apartment, ran up to the roof and jumped to the next door building, then exited at a safe distance from the crowd.
"On our Mustafa Fahmy street, the Islamists had earlier painted a red X on Muslim stores and a black X on Christian stores," he said. "You can be sure that the ones with a red X are intact."
In Fayoum, an oasis province southwest of Cairo, Islamists looted and torched five churches, according to Bishop Ibram, the local head of the Coptic Orthodox church, by far the largest of Egypt's Christian denominations. He said he had instructed Christians and clerics alike not to try to resist the mobs of Islamists, fearing any loss of life.
"The looters were so diligent that they came back to one of the five churches they had ransacked to see if they can get more," he told the AP. "They were loading our chairs and benches on trucks and when they had no space for more, they destroyed them."

8/14/2013

#Muslim_Brotherhood militias burned #Coptic churches in #Egypt #Update

Violence by Morsi supporters leaves dozens of Christian churches, Coptic-owned businesses and properties burnt; fears grow among Egypt's Christian minority of widespread sectarian strife
 Churches across Egypt came under frenzied attack Thursday as the country became convulsed in violent turmoil after security forces forcibly broke up two major Cairo protest camps held by supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
Incensed by the bloody crackdown that has claimed more than 500 lives, Morsi loyalists orchestrated nationwide assaults on Christian targets, wreaking havoc on churches, homes, and Christian-owned businesses throughout the country.
Coptic rights group the Maspero Youth Union (MYU) estimated that as many as 36 churches were "completely" devastated by fire across nine Egyptian governorates, including Minya, Sohag and Assiut — home to large Coptic communities.
The group, alongside media reports, said that many other churches were looted or stormed in ensuing street violence Wednesday.
Egypt's interior ministry told reporters in Cairo Wednesday that at least seven churches had been vandalised or torched by suspected Islamists.
MYU spokesman Antwan Adel said at least two were confirmed dead — in the cities of Minya and Alexandria — during the anti-Coptic attacks. No independent confirmation of this tally has appeared.
Adel deplored what he termed "criminal acts and terrorist perception" of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which deposed president Morsi hailed. "They seek to drive a wedge between Christians and Muslims," Adel told Ahram Online.
"It's Christians in Egypt who pay the price to overthrow tyranny," Adel said, citing sectarian incidents under long-time strongman Hosni Mubarak through until now.
The sectarian conflagration has set off fears of deeper polarisation and insecurity amongst Christians in a predominantly Sunni Muslim state. Coptic Christians — Egypt's largest minority — make up some 10 percent of the national population of 84 million.
The Upper Egypt governorate of Minya was scene of the lion's share of ًWednesday's attacks. The MYU put the number of churches assaulted in the city alone at 11, with some "completely burnt."
Gebrial Dafshan of Minya's Christians Youth Centre (Al-Wady), which was stormed and engulfed by flames, blamed lax security on the part of the government at Coptic facilities.
"There was no security presence. Even when we called the Fire Department for help they said they were themselves being attacked," Dafsahn said.
Morsi's Islamist backers set dozens of police stations ablaze across Egypt and attempted to storm provincal governor offices following Wednesday bloody crackdown. A group of Morsi supporters also set fire to the finance ministry building in Cairo's Nasr City district, a few miles away from a main Cairo protest camp they manned for six weeks.
Some Coptic Christians appear understanding of what they deem was "the inevitable" violence that would result from dealing with Islamist "terrorists." Yet critics say there should have been pre-emptive measures taken by both the army and police for what appeared to be a likely scenario of widespread chaos.
Forty-one people were killed in Minya Wednesday in violence sparked by security forces storming pro-Morsi camps in Cairo, health ministry officials said.
On Thursday, Egyptian authorities referred 84 people from the canal city of Suez — including members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood movement — to military prosecutors on charges of murder and burning churches, state news agency MENA reported.
Egypt's interim premier, Hazem El-Beblawi, condemned the "criminal acts" against Copts in a telephone conversation with Coptic Pope Tawadros II, who threw his weight behind the army's ouster of Morsi early in July. El-Beblawi vowed to deal strictly with "terrorism," asserting that "unity between Muslims and Christians is a red line."
Egypt's army chief General Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi pledged the military would cover the costs of restoration for all damaged churches.
Egypt's health ministry said Thursday that some 525 people were killed and more than 3717 injured across Egypt Wednesday, leaving the most populous Arab nation in ferment.
The unrest led the interim government to declare a month-long state of emergency, with a daily curfew between 7:00pm and 6:00am in Cairo and 13 other governorates.
Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Prize laureate who gave his blessing to the ousting of Egypt's first freely elected president, resigned in protest at the use of force instead of pursuing a political resolution to the six-week stand-off between the army-installed government and the Muslim Brotherhood.

UPDATE 

list of Coptic churches his been burned By Muslim Brotherhood terrorists

 1. Church of Our Lady and Saint conclusion of the Coptic Orthodox village Dljh Center Deir Mawas, Minya Governorate burning church and demolished.
 2. Church of St. Mina Coptic Orthodox + Abu Hilal, a neighborhood clinic tribal province of Minya burning church.
 3. Center Baptist Church Beni Mazar, Minya Governorate burning church. 
4. Prince Taodharos Church Street Husseini, Medan Sednawy, Minya fire. 
5. Third Evangelical Church Minya fire completely. 
6. Evangelical church Ezbet Gad Mr., Minya fire completely. 
7. St. George's Church Copts الارثوزكس the land of the archbishopric, Sohag Governorate burning church. 
8. Church Marmriqs and built services electricity Street, Sohag burning.9. Church of the Virgin and the conclusion of Sohag burning news. 
10. Prince Taodharos Church Echatbi Fayoum burning. 
11. Church of Our Lady of Copts الارثوزكس the village Nazlah, Yusuf Center, province of Fayoum burning. 
12. Church St. Demiana village Alzerba, Fayoum burning. 
13. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd + school + church Army Street, province of Suez burning. 
14. Parents Alfrencescan the Church Street 23 Suez burning. 
15. Greek Church Paradise Street, Suez fire completely. 
16. Evangelical Church Army Street, Suez fire. 
17. George Church Street said and Namees province of Assiut fire. 
18. Apostolic Church Street I said and Namees, province of Assiut fire. 
19. Reformed Church Assiut fire completely. 
20. Church of Our Lady row, Asfih, Helwan fire. 
21. George Church Meadow, Qalyubiyah fire. 
22. Urban Mina Church, Giza burning. 
23. Virgin Church Street ten, Boulaq Dakrour, Giza burning. 
24. George Church Arish burning. 
25. Mariouhna Church Street, longing, Minya Governorate burning. 
26. Church of Our Lady Kafr Hakim, Kerdasa, the Giza burning. 
27. St. Mina Church in Beni Mazar-Minya burning. 
28. St. Mary Church Street Center Beni Mazar-Minya burning. 


Statement of churches that have been infringed Muslim Brotherhood terrorists

1. Saint Marmriqs the Coptic Catholic Minya throwing stones + infringement on doors and try to intrusions. 
2. Jesuit Church of the Fathers Menia attempt to storm the throwing of stones and bricks.
 3. Church of Our Lady Street butchers Minya landing Cross and an attempt to storm and arson. 
4. Church of Our Lady 10 Basin province of Qena siege and trying to break into.
 5. Diocese Atfih Helwan Governorate embark on the demolition of the church. 
6. St. Joseph School Minya try to burn it and infringed upon. 
7. School Jesuit Fathers Minya try to burn. 
8. St. George Bacchus Church, Alexandria firing gunshots martyr / Rami Zechariah. 
9. St. Maximus Church Street 45 Alexandria harassment. 
10. Diocese of Malawi Malawi, Minia Governorate firing gunshots Molotov + stones.  
11. Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Deir Mawas Minya firing gunshots Molotov + stones. 
12. Diocese of Saint John the Baptist Qusiya, Assiut stones. 
13. Church of the Virgin Kafr Abdou, 6 October firing gunshots Molotov + stones. 
14. Der vine Atfih, Helwan firing gunshots Molotov + stones. 
15. George Church centrist centrist, Beni Suef firing gunshots + stones. 
1. The Bible Society of Friends of burning. 
2. Youth Center to Fayoum Church facility kindness of God, Fayoum Governorate burning. 
3. Club young Christians Wi-Minya burning. 
4. Franciscan School Suez fire completely. 
5. Copts School Street Husseini, Minya fire.
 6. School Franciscan nuns Beni Suef fire.
 7. Good Shepherd School Minya burning.
 8. Association Jesuit and Frere Minya burning. 
9. Building Emile Wear 10 Basin, Qena fire. 
10. Shops scattered areas Copts in Minya and Abu Qurqas and contorted, and different centers looting and destruction and burning of the number 15 Mahal. 
11. Arksm Shops Luxor fully Fire King / Daniel Joseph and his brothers. 
12. Goods St. Claus Luxor's entire fire king / Akram. 
13. Horus Hotel fire in front of the Temple of Luxor destination + Doreen King / Medhat Maurice Salameh. 
14. Susanna Luxor Hotel Fire fully King Dr. / Murad Subhi. 
15. A Father Angelios home king pastor of the Church of the Virgin and Bishop Abram Bdljh Dljh center of Deir Mawas Minya Governorate house was completely burned. 
16. Gold ship of the Evangelical Authority Minya burning. 
17. Mgae soldiers of Christ for Boys Minya burning.






























8/05/2013

#Egypt: #Muslims_Brotherhood burn down 23 houses belonging to #Christians

Where is Obama's condemnation? There is none. Instead, just days before the protests, the Obama administration asked the Coptic Pope to urge the Copts in Egypt not to protest -- supporting sharia subjugation of Christians.
And yet when Muslims allege they are being persecuted, Obama jumps at their back and call (ie in Burma, where the Buddhists are fighting back against jihad). Obama has all but abandoned religious minorities living under the sharia. It is despicable.
As the Morsi supporter said in this video: "I am a religious Egyptian lady. I tell the Christians one word. You live by our side! We will set you on fire! We will set you on fire!" "Update: 23 houses belonging to Copts burned down," from DPA,
The situation has heated up in Naga Hassan village, west of Luxor, after the killing of a Muslim man and the injury of a Copt on Friday. The number of houses belonging to Copts that have been burned is now 23. Police fired teargas bombs to stop the clashes. Police are protecting dozens of Copts at the police station near the area where the clashes are taking place. Security has been enhanced around Dabe’iya church, for fear of an attack. The police and military troops have exerted a huge effort to end the clashes.







5/05/2013

Happy Easter 2013


Happy Easter 2013

Happy Easter to all those celebrating it all over the world today especially in Egypt ,Yemen and Syria.

 

3/15/2013

Baha’i in #egypt



January 2013- Despite the new year, Egyptian Minister of Education Ibrahim Deif reiterated his old comments about the (lack of) acceptance of Baha’i children in Egyptian government schools in an interview with the Egyptian newspaper “Al Akhbar al Yowm”.
The newspaper asked:
ما موقف الوزارة من أبناء من يعتنقون الديانة البهائية, و هل لهم الحق في الالتحاق بمدارسها بعد اعتراف الدستور الجديد بالديانات السماوية الثلاث فقط؟
What is the position of the Ministry regarding the children of Baha’is, and do they have the right to register in government schools after the recognition in the new constitution of only the three monotheistic religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism)?
The Minister of Education, Ibrahim Deif, replied:
 هناك ديانات ثلاث معترف بها، و لن أعتزف بأي ديانة أجري، والتربية الديانية مادة اساسية و إذا استطاعوا استيفاء شروط الالتحاق بالمدارس فأهلا و سهلا بهم، و من لا يرضي بشروطي فلا مكان له عندي لأن الديانات المعترف بها دستوريا هي الديانات السماوية الثلاث فقط ولم يعترف بسواها
[The monotheistic faiths] are only three recognized religions, and no other faiths are recognized.  Religion is a crucial subject in school, and if [a student] is able to full the conditions of enrollment in government schools, then they are welcome. However, there is no place for anyone who does not accept these conditions because the only constitutionally recognized religions are the monotheistic faiths, and no others.
If readers find the tautologically confusing and meaningless response of the Minister of Education frustrating, then so do many others. Professor Basma Moussa, a Baha’i activist in Egypt, has a response of her own to the Egyptian Minister:
I have a question for the Minister. What are these conditions that are required for a Baha’i child to enroll in a public school, a school that we all used to attend without conditions, a school from which we succeeded and went on to hold prominent positions that serve our dear country, Egypt?  According to the new constitution itself, education is the right of every child, so please tell us, what are your conditions for an education so that Baha’i parents can figure out how to enroll their children in Egyptian schools, school that are built from the taxes that are taken from us, like they are taken from all Egyptians without discrimination. Please respond, thank you.
The Minister of Education’s remarks are an echo of his comments to another newspaper on November 30th, where he claimed “State law in accordance with government procedures only recognizes three religions, and the Baha’i faith is not among them. Thus their children do not have the right to register in government schools.” His new comments add unidentified “conditions” to the enrollment of Baha’i children in school, which is in fact more dangerous than closing the door entirely.
By claiming that there is a vague method for inclusion, the Egyptian government has the ability to discriminate against Baha’i children and the entire Baha’i community while claiming that there is nothing inherently discriminatory about their laws. Just like the new constitution affirms that “Freedom of belief is an inviolable right” while denying the legitimacy of any faith other than Islam, Christianity, or Judaism, the Minister of Education’s comments pave the way for a discriminatory policy against Baha’is that is given constitutional legitimacy.

2/23/2013

#egypt Salafists beating a Christian student in the street

Salafists beating a Christian student in the street

4/16/2012

Is Sham El-Nasim against Islam?



Monday 16 April marks Sham El-Nasim, which Copts celebrate each year as part of Easter. It is also one of the few days that Egyptians of all religions celebrate together, since ancient times. Egyptians mark the day spending time with their families and friends.
Salted fish is the main dish of the day and eggs are painted — a ritual linked to ancient Egyptian feasts since 2700BC. However, in the wake of January 25 Revolution, with Islamists dominating the political and social scene, claims have been made by some Islamists that the feast is unIslamic and ought to be prohibited. 
A Salafist statement widely distributed last year prior to Sham El-Nasim said the feast originated with the Pharoahs, described as infidels. On ikhwanonline.com website, the official site of the Muslim Brotherhood, an article by Al-Azhar scholar Sheikh Atteya Saqr put forward the same idea. This despite statements to the contrary by the awqaf ministry (religious endowments) and Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni religious authority.
Adel Afifi, president of the Salafist Asala (Authenticity) Party, had studied music and is a composer of music symphonies and received international music awards. Even though Afifi says that he supports art that serves society, especially opera (at the time when many Islamists, especially Salafists, argue that music is not permitted under Islam) he believes that celebrating Sham El-Nasim is wrong.
Afifi believes that only Islamic feasts should be celebrated.
Amna Nosseir, professor of Islamic doctrine and philosophy at Al-Azhar University, believes that, "Celebration and fun for the Egyptian family cannot be prohibited by a sane person." Festivals and feasts are not against Sharia (Islamic law) and Islam, Nosseir added. Nosseir believes that the Islamists who make the claim that Sham El-Nasim is haram (forbidden) are reading religious texts in a narrow and literal way to the expense of reason.
Some who oppose Sham El-Nasim quote the Prophet Mohammed's saying (hadith), "We are a nation with two feasts." Normally the two feats refer to Eid Al-Fitr that comes after Ramadan and Eid Al-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice) that follows later in the Islamic year. But the hadith does not establish that Muslims should refrain from celebrating anything else.
Nosseir added that there's a hadith by the Prophet Mohammad that Islamists who claim Sham El-Nasim is prohibited never mention. It says: "At the head of every 100 years, there would be someone to revive the religion." It infers that times change and circumstances change.
"How can enjoying God's created nature be a wrong thing?" Nosseir asks, explaining that this is part of observing and appreciating the beauty created by God. She adds: "The Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) said, 'Allah is beautiful and loves beauty.' So those who make such claims basically lack knowledge of what beauty and joy is."
Ahmed Shawky Al-Aqabawy, professor of educational psychology at Al-Azhar University, believes that "Those who call themselves Salafists are actually not Salafists." He explains that the term Salafist means those that follow Al-Salaf Al-Salih, who are the four Imams of Islam, who represent different schools of Islam.
Instead of this grounding in diversity, current Salafists follow the most strict fatwas and interpretations. They also assert that the way Al-Salaf Al-Salih lived fourteen centuries ago is the perfect way of living, without taking into consideration current circumstances. "They want life to be the way it was in the time of the Prophet, which is irrational," Al-Aqabawy said.
Al-Aqabawy explains that Imam Al-Shafii, for instance, changed certain fatwas when he went to live in Egypt, "because he realised that the country's circumstances and civilisation do not comply with them." He adds that prominent Islamic scholars know these facts well.
Al-Aqabawy stated that the general climate in the Arab world for the past 40 years has been Islamic, so it was no surprise that voters chose Islamists over other political currents. 'The Islamist current offers people the most amazing recipe: 'Vote for me, and go to heaven,' which is using religion for a worldly purpose," Al-Aqabawy said.
"And most Islamists are very extreme and do not even focus on the important issues that should be handled or discussed in Islam," he added.
Psychologically, political Islam gives permission to people — especially the youth — to stop using their minds since Islamist leaders are deemed to have all the answers, Al-Aqabawy stated. Meanwhile, the Islamic nation suffers from poverty and illiteracy. In this context, says Al-Aqabawy, it is telling that "people who call themselves spokesmen of religion and Islam argue on such lame matters as whether or not Sham Al-Nasim is prohibited."
Mona Youssef, sociologist and member of the National Centre of Social Studies, believes that no matter how dominant Islamists become, they won't be able to take away from Egyptians the small joys and forms of happiness they are used to, such as celebrating Sham Al-Nasim.
Youssef explains that celebrating feasts has become a habit in Egyptian culture. "I don't think the majority will be convinced that it's not right not to celebrate it." She added that Egyptians have their own religious references (Al-Azhar for Muslims and the Coptic Church for Christians), and she does not think that any other kind of religious authority will be followed blindly.
The name Sham El-Nasim (inhaling the breeze) is derived from Coptic language that in turn is derived from ancient Egyptian language. It was originally pronounced Tshom Ni Sime, with tshom meaning “gardens” and ni sime meaning “meadows.”
The Wednesday prior to Sham Al-Nasim (which always falls on a Monday) is known as “Jacob’s Rara” after the Rara plant that the Prophet Jacob bathed in, curing 18 years of illness. On that day, Egyptians traditionally bathed with it, to rid themselves of the waste of the past year. Some Egyptians, in Upper Egypt, continue the tradition to this day.
Like most ancient Egyptian feasts, Sham El-Nasim was also linked with astronomy and nature.
It marks the beginning of the spring festival, which is the time when the sun is in the Aries zodiac, marking the beginning of creation. The exact date is confirmed annually by sighting the sun in relation to the Great Pyramid. Ancient Egyptians named it the "Feast of Shmo" (the revival of life) and have celebrated it since 2700BC.