Minya, Islamists seize a Protestant church and turn it into a mosque
Minya (AsiaNews /
Agencies) - The Muslim Brotherhood have turned an evangelical Protestant church
in Monshaat Baddini in the province of Samalout ( Minya, Upper Egypt) into a mosque.
According
to local sources, the Islamists have removed all sacred furnishings ,
paintings, icons and recited the special prayer to consecrate the building to
Allah. On
the wall of the church an inscription reads : "mosque of martyrs and there
is no other God but Allah."
Menassa
Nesseim , the Pastor of the local Protestant community , tells Mcn-direct (an Egyptian Christian Press
Agency) that " since August 14 , the day of the Islamist assault against Christians
, no one has been able to enter the building ." He
denounces the inaction of the authorities who have accepted the fact with
indifference: "Neither the police nor the armed forces have raided the
church, to eject the squatters and return the building to the Protestant
community". Nesseim reports that the militants have placed their men to guard
the complex. Christians
are afraid to approach their church.
Attacks
against Egyptian Christians began in mid- August, after the evacuation of the
sit -in of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo and other cities of the country. There are
currently over 80 churches destroyed. Added
to this sad toll are he 162 homes and shops destroyed and the daily threat of
being subjected to more attacks and kidnappings.
In
Delga city of the province of Minya , Islamists have created a kind of parallel
state, turning the city into an Islamic enclave in which shariah prevails. To
survive Christians must pay the "jizya " tax "compensation"
demanded by the Koran from non-Muslim subjects who are "protected" the
Islamic umma .
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