Egyptian TV Host Ibrahim Issa Following Cairo Church Bombing: The Copts Are Persecuted Both By The Terrorists And By The State Institutions

Egyptian TV host and journalist Ibrahim Issa rejected the view that terrorism does not draw a distinction between Christians and Muslims, saying that not only were Christians targeted by terrorism more than Muslims, but they were “persecuted by the state institutions as well.” In his show on Al-Kahera Wal-Nas TV following the December 11 bomb attack on a Coptic church in Cairo, Issa said that the Wahhabi Salafis, who are firmly ensconced within its educational, governmental, religious, and security institutions, “persecute the Copts in Egypt, using takfir and hatred… amid a shameful, strange, alarming, and despicable silence and acquiescence on the part of the state institutions.”

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brahim Issa: “The [Coptic] church, which lived in safety all those years, is no longer safe. The churches are not safe today. Nobody should hurl empty slogans at me, saying that terrorism makes no distinction between Muslims and Christians. Terrorism does distinguish between Muslims and Christians. Who are you trying to fool?! Christians are targeted by terrorism and are persecuted more [than Muslims]. It is churches that are bombed. The terrorists target the Christians more than they target Muslims, just as they target Shi’ites more than they target Sunnis.

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“The Wahhabi Salafis, who run Egypt and who are ensconced in its curricula, its universities, is mosques, its ministries, its institutions, and even in its security agencies, persecute the Copts in Egypt, using takfir and hatred. This is happening amid a shameful, strange, alarming, and despicable silence and acquiescence on the part of the state institutions. The Copts are persecuted by the terrorists, who target the Copts and their churches, killing Copts, slaughtering Copts and planting bombs in their midst. But the Copts in Egypt are persecuted by the state institutions as well.

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“Are you trying to intimidate the terrorists with death?! If one or two suicide bombers were to blow themselves up today – could they be intimidated with death? How naïve can you be? Sayyid Qutb was executed… Khalid Islambouli was executed… Muhammad Abd Al-Salam Faraj was executed… So what? Did it change anything? Last year, you killed 2,000 terrorists. Was that the end of the terrorists?”

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