Religious Tolerance In Egypt

RG “There is really a problem for people who want to change their religion – and that is where the Muslim fundamentalists become violent and make demonstrations. They threw the picture of (Coptic) Pope (Shenouda) on the ground and burned it...these things increase the tension in Egypt”

“I think (these terrorists) used these two girls just maybe to make the Christians of Egypt afraid. That is why now all the churches, we have police all around our churches… it’s as if we are in a fortress.”

Fr. Rafic goes on to say he thinks the terrorists targeted a Catholic church in Baghdad “in response to what was said in the (October) synod for the Middle East.”

RG “This is what the Muslim fundamentalists want: they want the Christians to evacuate from the Middle East and leave (the region to them). And this is what is happening every day… and the governments do not take serious action to relieve or solve these problems.”

Fr. Rafic speaks of a “double standard” in Egypt where obstacles to church-building can mean a wait of ten years or more for a new church while a room used for improvised prayer can be turned into a mosque over night.

The whole interview with Fr. Rafic can be listened to on a podcast at Vatican Radioas well as the rest of the article.