Bombs exploded at two Coptic churches in different cities in northern Egypt as worshippers were celebrating Palm Sunday, killing at least 43 people and wounding about 100 in an assault claimed by the Islamic State group.
The blasts came at the start of Holy Week leading up to Easter, and just weeks before Pope Francis is due to visit the Arab world's most populous country, which has been beset by extremist violence against its minority Christians.
In the first attack, a bomb went off inside St. George's Church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, killing at least 27 people and wounding 78, officials said.
A few hours later, a suicide bomber rushed toward St. Mark's Cathedral in the coastal city of Alexandria, the historic seat of Christendom in Egypt, killing at least 16 people and wounding 41, the Interior Ministry said.
The question is: why?
One part of the answer came in the last two paragraphs of the Associated Press article, quoted below [3]:
Egypt's Copts are one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East, accounting for around 10 percent of Egypt's 92 million people and have long complained of discrimination.
The Copts were largely supportive of the military overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, a senior Brotherhood figure, and incurred the wrath of many Islamists, who attacked churches and other Christian institutions after his ouster. [The point made here will be revisited below.]
A second part of the answer requires a look back at the Obama administration in 2011 when President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt stepped down after "after nearly 30 years in power and 18 days of relentless pressure from street demonstrations demanding an end to his rule." [4] A president of the United States has a lot of power over other countries economically and militarily, and if the person who was in charge of the world in 2011 wanted to, he could have intervened, quashed the uprising movement in Egypt and ensured that Mubarak's government stayed in power, but had not, and possibly could have introduced "Arab Spring" to the region, leading to the ouster of Mubarak. Perhaps this was done because he wanted to out-do his predecessor from a different political party who invaded a sovereign (Iraq) without provocation and wanted history to remember him as the person most influential in re-shaping the Mideast into a (peaceful) democracy. Not wanting to be a copycat using a very visible United States military, he might have employed an "invisible" group of well-paid local community organizers that was backed by an elite and blameless media siding with the uprisers to create havoc in Egypt (and later in Syria). To top it all off, he also bombed Libya and had probably paid handsomely for a discreet execution service that ended Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's life. [5] As it turned out, what took place under his watch, and under his predecessor's watch, have not been good for the world based on this blogger's opinion, an opinion he is not qualified to form because of his ignorance of world affairs and politics, but he formed it nonetheless because he believes that to be God's Truth, in a delusional way.
Looking at what had taken place is almost like watching a science fiction movie in which mythological Greek titans and gods that hate each other battle for dominance using defenseless pawns (weak unsuspecting sovereigns) like disposable chess pieces to do their dirty work, and watching real people suffer and die from a distance seemingly without any remorse, as if there is no blood on their hands, until of course, they awaken to the sad but inevitable realization that they are not titans or gods after all, and that they will die like all humans do. The scene then changes, and the movie cameras turn to a set that represents Hell, where these supposedly gods and titans will see the blood from all the people that had been killed as a result of their decisions flow suffocatingly from their every orifice and feel all the pains their actions had caused extend to every space that constitute their respective forms. It would be an amazing movie to watch if it were made and if Franco Zeffirelli were to direct it, for in this blogger's opinion, he is the filmmaker equivalent of the painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, but then science-fiction is not his forte.
Back to (almost) reality, the combined actions taken by these powerful (almost mythical) earthly creatures, assisted by Satan, have to this day been causing those who are caught in the middle much suffering; the sufferers are not only Christians, but also Muslims.
If Christians and Muslims were true to their respective faiths, there would be no animosity between them. In its place will be mutual respect at least, that could develop into a certain love as their co-existence approaches the ideal. Reading the last two paragraphs of the Associated Press article quoted above identified by footnote [3], one ought to be able to conclude that both Christians and Muslims disliked each other because of politics, mixed in with religion. In addition to religious wrath and political wrath, pride, unforgiveness and vengeance on all sides form the third part that completes the answer to the question "why" asked above.
From a religious perspective, if Christians were humble like the Holy Family Who might have lived a life that had been subjected to discrimination (possibly because Joseph took Mary Who was with Child while betrothed but before the consummation of marriage) and like Christ Who was subjected to hate (because of His teachings), Who washed the feet of Judas whom He knew would betray Him the evening of the Last Supper rather than castigating him in front of the other eleven disciples, then perhaps the Christians (who may still be discriminated against in some ways within a country having a Muslim majority (which has to do with human nature and nothing to do with religion)) would probably not be terrorized, especially if they had not supported the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi. This is not to say that the extremists who carried out terrorist acts against two Christians Coptic churches on Sunday, April 9, 2017 (see [1] above), had every right to do so because they had somehow been offended. Those acts were Satanic; not Islamic. Therefore, the killers have to account for their barbaric acts before their Allah, as opposed to Mohammad who was "[Allah's] prophet and messenger." [6]
This blogger believes that the good in religions come from God for God is the author of good. If both Christians and Muslims, Jews and Buddhists, and followers of other non-Satanic religions adhere to their respective faiths, and keep their fingers out of politics, the world could be a lot more peaceful than it is now. Of course, the world cannot be peaceful because many in power who practice their respective religions are hypocrites. Some even go as far as claiming that they have a religion but who are actually non-religious (even atheists)--they only use religion as a mask to deceive others into believing that their actions come from good and are good when in fact they are Satan's minions, but then even nearly all of Satan's earthly minions have to pay their share of taxes.
This blogger has no idea what the other religions' positions are on the payment of tax to one's government, but he knows the Christian's position [7], [8], for Christ had said, "'[G]ive back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.'" [9] When Christ said this, was He referring only to Caesar's coin with Caesar's image and inscription on it? Could He be also referring to Caesar's taxing authority and beyond that, Caesar's political powers over the living whose most dreaded fears are punishment and death and over all the resources the land and the sea provided? Since Christ feared neither punishment nor death, Pontius Pilate had no power over Him, [10] and because He took no interest in "the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence," [11] Satan had no power over Him.
The fact that Satan was able to offer Christ "the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence" means that Satan has dominion over this world even though it has no dominion over the will of man. Therefore those who ascend to the heights of power because they desire to have power over the world are necessarily submitting themselves freely to the will of Satan and as such, they seek to destroy on Satan's behalf, and the more powerful the position assumed, the bigger the potential power of destruction. Destruction is not only limited to bomb-dropping on the military side but also includes different kinds of exploitation that occur on the civilian side.
The Son of God did not become man to show man how to destroy himself but how to save himself. Thus, when Christ said to "'repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God,'" [12] He is saying to all not to play politics and covet the riches of and power over the world (at any level, of any kind, in any amount) but to repay God for the gift of life by devoting the entirety of one's energy in loving God and serving one's neighbor humbly.
[1] http://time.com/4732233/cairo-egypt-palm-sunday-bo
[2] http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2017-04-09-ML-Egypt/id-86a48ea81adf42cd9f0cdd0a8c565170
mbing/
[3] Ibid.
[4] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-12324664
[5] "'We needed to move on, and Gaddafi, by dying, made that easier,'" said "Jalal el-Gallal, the wartime spokesman for the rebels’ National Transitional Council." See http://world.time.com/2012/10/18/how-did-gaddafi-die-a-year-later-unanswered-questions-and-bad-blood/ There is no evidence that Obama personally knew Jalal el-Gallal, but if Jalal el-Gallal were a loyal protégé of Gaddafi, does anyone think that he would have lived to make that statement?
[6] http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/religion-miscellaneous/islam-religion-miscellaneous/difference-between-muhammad-and-allah/
[7] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22 at 15-22.
[8] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22:15-22
[9] Ibid.
[10] http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/19 at 10-11.
[11] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/4 at 8.
[12] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22 at 21.
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