Egypt
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Official name: Arab Republic of Egypt |
DEMOGRAPHY
ECONOMY |
LIFE & LIBERTY |
Contents |
[edit] Geography
[edit] Location
- Egypt is a country in North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a land bridge to Asia. Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south and the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. The northern coast borders the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern coast borders the Red Sea. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa. The vast majority of its estimated 80 million people live near the banks of the Nile River in an area of about 15,000 square miles, where the only arable agricultural land is found. Egypt is well known for its pyramids, Pharaohs and the Nile.
[edit] Region
[edit] Climate
[edit] Natural Resources
[edit] Demographics
[edit] Peoples
[edit] Provinces
- The Cities of Egypt
- Cairo
[edit] Life
- "City of the Dead": There are reports of upwards of millions of homeless people living here amongst the tombs.
- During Ramadan the Egyptian authorities arrested 150 people, non-muslims and Christians for eating. The arrests were made in the area of Aswan and the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada. According to Al-Arabia, the authorities are cracking down on anyone, including foreigners and non-Muslims, who are found drinking, eating or smoking during the fasting hours. Pray for the Christians and their witness in this hostile environment. (September 2009)
[edit] Refugees
- About a million Sudanese refugees live in Agypt. They live in some of the most difficult situation imagimable with hardly any rights to protect them, without proper medical care, and education. The hospitals are forbidden from giving them emergency help, so many people dia and nobody takes care for them.
[edit] Economy
[edit] Government
- Police have been deployed in large numbers to prevent a national strike by pro-democracy activists. The campaigners are pressing the government to raise the national minimum wage and are calling for a new constitution to be drafted. Christians are a minority group in Egypt who often experience injustice. Pray for them to remain faithful and for an improvement in their lot in a country where there has been one-person rule for thirty years.
[edit] Religion
- Muslims make up 86.5% of Egypt’s population, while indigenous Coptic Christians comprise only about 13%. The number of Muslim converts to Christianity remains unknown. Harsh treatment of converts from Islam to Christianity topped the the list of religious violations.
[edit] Islam
- Young Egyptians Put Faith In Televangelists. The Arab equivalent of televangelists preach a moderate brand of Islam in Cairo, and it's catching on with young Muslims. Critics say they're promoting Islam "lite," a watered-down version of Islam that ignores the inherent clashes between the religion and western life.
[edit] Buddhism
[edit] Christianity
[edit] History
- For over 1,000 years Egypt was a majority-Christian country even after the Arab Muslim conquest in 640AD. Egypt gave to the Christian world some of its greatest theologians and the monastic movement. Coptic Christians are more authentic Egyptians than those who follow the religion of their Arab conquerors. Every effort has been made to expunge Egypt’s great Christian heritage from the historic records, downplay the size of the Church and marginalize its contribution to society. Pray that in a rediscovery of this heritage many might turn to Christ.
[edit] Churches
- Thank God that the Christian Church in in this country has survived for nearly 2,000 years, despite times of discrimination and severe persecution, and the Coptic Church is by far one of the biggest groups of Christians anywhere in the Middle East and is a strategic key for the evangelization of the area. Pray for the leadership of the Church. They need a close walk with God and wisdom in handling the Muslim authorities, Islamist persecution and the questioning world. Pray that Coptic Christians today would be filled with the Holy Spirit and have a strong relationship with God. Praise God for His faithfulness in Egypt.
[edit] Church and State Relations
- Forced deportation of Coptic Christians increasing, see for many details - http://ow.ly/KXsd
[edit] Challenges for Christians:
- “The government of Egypt has denied conversion to Christianity even by people who were born into a Christian family, later converted to Islam and then want to go back,” U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom John Hanford said regarding the latest U.S. State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report. In April 2007, a Cairo court rejected the right of converts to Islam to return to Christianity, the report said. The decision overturned three years of rulings that had allowed at least 32 “re-conversions” to Christianity. Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court is due to rule on the appeal of 12 of these former Christians on November 17, 2007. At least 200 cases of Christian converts to Islam who now wish to return to their original faith are pending in Egyptian courts, the report stated. Much is at stake for would-be converts. The report noted that marriage, divorce, alimony, child custody and burial are based on one’s religion under Egyptian law. Additionally, kidnapping and forced religious conversion of Christian women to Islam remained a contentious issue, the religious freedom document stated.
- On Sunday 23rd November an extension to the Church of the Virgin Mary in the Ein A-Shams suburb of Cairo was officially opened. A large hall has been added by buying land adjacent to the existing church building. It took five years to obtain all the required permissions. In the evening a large mob surrounded the building and started threatening chants. Estimates for the size of the mob vary greatly. Certainly there were several hundred people, and possibly several thousand. Many Christians were inside the building holding a prayer service. The mob turned to violence, breaking down the doors, smashing the whole ground floor and setting part of the building on fire. Egyptian Christians reported this being very frightening for those trapped inside.
- Riot police and the fire brigade attended the scene. Eventually they used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators. In the ensuing melee at least one car owned by a Christian was badly damaged. 38 Muslims and three Christians were arrested. However, many of the Muslims were quickly released, ostensibly because they were (or claimed to be) under 18. The three Christians remain detained. The building is used by many different ministries and for other ministerial purposes.
[edit] Persecution
- By far the largest body of Christians in the Middle East. The Church has come through nearly 2,000 years of discrimination and times of severe persecution, yet has retained its strong spiritual character. Persecution of Christians steadily increased in intensity during the 1980s and 1990s. They can face intimidation and police brutality and some of died at the hands of Islamic extremists. In the last few years over 1,300 Christians have died at the hands of Islamists.
- Hundreds of Coptic young girls, including many under aged, are being kidnapped, raped, forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men.
- Worshippers arriving for mass at St Mary's Church in central Cairo say they were shocked, but not surprised by a deadly attack against Coptic Christians in southern Egypt earlier this month. Six Copts were killed in a drive-by shooting in the busy town, 60 km (37 miles) from Luxor, after they left a late-night mass on 6 January, the eve of the Coptic Orthodox Christmas. A Muslim policeman was also killed. Pray for those who have been bereaved. Pray also that the authorities take this matter seriously and address the issues fermenting the underlying conflict between the Coptic and Moslem communities.
[edit] Mission and Evangelization
- Cairo International Book fair from January 24 to February 2008. A number of Christian book publisher and distributors participate in the fair, considered to be one of the major book events worldwide, second only to Germany. God is opening extraordinary opportunities to tell people the Gospel during this time. The churches are allowed to circulate literature, to present the “Jesus Film”, and to display books. Many unbelievers attend the book fair because they know that God's word will be available for them, not only in printed form, but also in video, cassette and CD/DVD. sSeveral hundred Bibles were sold. Pray for Egyptian Christians to play a unique role in reaching other Muslim lands in the Middle East.
- The missionary vision of the Egyptian church is growing, but it is limited by lack of vision, training opportunities, experience and funds. Missionaries from Egypt would be more acceptable than Western missionaries in many Muslim lands. Pray that the many Egyptian Christians in the West and Middle Eastern oil states may catch the vision to support such a thrust. Pray for:
- A group drawn from several Arab nations which is seeking to initiate indigenous church planting movements across the region.
- A new partnership focused on new and effective ways of reaching the majority population.
- The further development of training courses focusing on mission within Egypt and beyond.
[edit] Broadcasting
[edit] Councils and Networks
[edit] Future Trends
[edit] For More Reading
