{"id":3813,"date":"2020-01-07T16:47:16","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T15:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forfulgtekristne.dk\/2020\/01\/07\/egyptiske-kristne-fejrer-jul-i-dag\/"},"modified":"2024-04-17T11:21:16","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T09:21:16","slug":"egyptian-christians-celebrate-christmas-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forfulgtekristne.dk\/en\/2020\/01\/07\/egyptiske-kristne-fejrer-jul-i-dag\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian Christians celebrate Christmas today"},"content":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forfulgtekristne.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/henrik-ertner-rasmussen.jpg\")
In Egypt, Christmas is celebrated beginning with the night between January 6 and 7. The Christmas Eve liturgy is celebrated all over Egypt, with a particularly festive atmosphere at the great St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo, where the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church traditionally presides over the celebrations. Traditionally, many official guests attend and the government sends a representative. Coptic Christmas Night 2015 was a landmark event: for the first time in the history of the republic, the president himself visited to congratulate the Christians on the holiday. It was a big surprise for everyone. Pope Tawadros and the President embraced, and since then the President has attended this Christian service every year.<\/p>\n
Henrik Ertner Rasmussen is the former Secretary General of the Danish European Mission and has been a missionary in Egypt for 7 years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nPope Tawadros stood next to al-Sisi as he stepped forward to announce the transfer of power after the army led by al-Sisi ousted elected Muslim Brotherhood president Morsi in the July 2013 coup. The coup was followed by a period of numerous attacks on churches around the country. It is fair to question the wisdom of the church leader standing so clearly behind the leader of a coup d'\u00e9tat. It didn't help the general perception among the Muslim majority in Egypt, where Christians are seen as a fifth column for foreign (read: Western) domination in the country. Many believe that Christians have large stockpiles of weapons hidden in their churches to seize power in the country and oppress Muslims.<\/p>\n
President al-Sisi has, among other things, ensured that Christians in Egypt now have much more freedom to build churches. He has also ensured that a huge new cathedral has been built in \"New Cairo\", a brand new district being built to ease the pressure on central Cairo, but it is one thing to make a gesture like the Christmas visits to St. Mark's Cathedral and ensure fairer national legislation regarding church building. Another is how things work out in the communities where prejudice against Christians is alive and well, in schools, in the police, in the armed forces and among the common people who are easily incited by a Muslim preacher to lash out against Christians if word gets out that a Christian has flirted with a Muslim girl or sent a blasphemous text from his cell phone.<\/p>\n
President al-Sisi, like his predecessor Hosni Mubarak, must walk a fine line to stay in office. If he sends too many Islamists to jail, he creates more resentment. If he releases some of the \"least bad\" Islamists, he risks them forming the basis of a conspiracy similar to the one that led to the assassination of President Sadat in 1981. If he does more for the Christians, he risks being accused of loving the Christians more than the Muslims and having to take even more costly security measures for himself and the Christians. Every official church building in Egypt is guarded by police. Opposition to Christians is confirmed by the Pew Research Center, whose study of attitudes in 20 different countries shows that dislike of Christians is highest in Egypt.<\/p>\n
Thank you to everyone who prays for Egypt.<\/p>\n
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