* A suicide bomber attacked a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt on New Year’s Day, killing 21 people. Egypt’s Christian community appears to have heard the last straw breaking in the sound of that terrible blast. The Associated Press reports rioting in both Alexandria and Cairo over the weekend, resulting in dozens of injured policemen.
The bombing was the latest in a string of violent incidents directed at the Coptic community, which makes up a little over fifteen percent of the Egyptian population. In fact, the Associated Press quotes a study from Christian-rights activists listing 52 incidents over the last two years. Amazingly, no one was punished for any of these offenses, fueling the widespread perception that the Egyptian government is increasingly indulgent of radical Muslims, at the expense of the Copts. There are also complaints of job discrimination and government interference in the building of churches, which led to civil unrest last November, when officials used force to stop the construction of a church in Cairo.
Egyptian Christians fear they can see their future playing out at hyper-speed in Iraq, whose ancient Christian community is well on its way to extinction. The homes of a half-dozen Christians in Baghdad were targeted over the weekend, resulting in two more deaths...
* Pope Benedict XVI decried recently the Christmas holiday attacks against Christians in several churches in Nigeria and a church in the Philippines, leaving 32 people dead and 83 wounded from both assaults.
The pope called both assaults “absurd violence,” and also condemned a suicide bomb attack outside a United Nations aid center in Pakistan, All Voices said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault which left 43 people dead on Christmas day, AFP reported.
Benedict, in his Angelus Address in the Vatican, also called out to Catholics in Iraq and China, who are undergoing extreme persecution...
* CNN's Richard Allen Greene reports:
A pastor sits on death row in Iran. His crime? Renouncing Islam for Christianity.
A Christian mother of two faces execution in Pakistan - and a preacher has put a price on her head in case the president pardons her. Her crime? Insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
In Iraq, dozens of Christians lie in fresh graves. Their fatal mistake? Going to church.
And these are not simply isolated incidents, but part of a broader pattern, experts say.
"There does appear to be an upsurge in violence directed against Christians," said Leonard Leo, the chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
He says part of the problem is that "governments are not cracking down on sectarian violence the way they should."
"We've got to have governments taking ownership of these problems and enforcing the laws that exist," he said. Whether it's "Christians in Iraq or Afghanistan, or Copts in Egypt, the government has to prosecute (people) and put them in jail for killing people on account of their religion."
