In America approximately half of the country’s population attends church services of a regular basis, though about 80% of the population claim to be Christian. The rest of the population is made up of Muslims, Jews and Hindu, with a small number of Buddhists and various smaller sects. A sizeable portion of the US population is composed of atheists, agnostics, secular humanists and even some Satanists. The beauty of America lies in the first Amendment to the US Constitution, which clearly maintains a freedom of worship as a basic right of all citizens. Nominally Egypt has a freedom of religion as well, in fact roughly 10% of Egyptians (approximately 8 million) are Coptic Christians. Coptics are a sect of Christianity separate from the Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox traditions, but sharing the same fundamental beliefs. The Coptic Church was founded by the Apostle Mark in the years after Christ’s death. For centuries Coptics accounted for the majority of Egypt’s population, that is until Muslims marauders from Arabia embarked on armed conquest of the Middle East and Mediterranean world, since that time relations between Muslims and Christians have been tenuous at best. Islamic fundamentalists regard the very existence of a Christian church in the heart of their country as an offense, especially one that stands by its faith and does not kow-tow to the all-knowing mullahs of Islam. This week Muslims have taken offense to a DVD, no doubt freely distributed by Islamists, which depicts a play conducted at a local Coptic Church. The play shows the deprivation and misery a local boy experiences upon his conversion to Islam. To the Mullahs, this is unacceptable, how dare Christians re-enforce a message to their own people, after all Christians are supposed to be spreading the message of Islam or teaching that Christianity is not the answer, right? One must remember that a Muslim can never be “offended” to do so is apparently to invite death. Islamic radicals have sparked rioting and caused the deaths of three people, including a nun who was stabbed, all in the name of a religion of peace. Even the Egyptian government, no friend to the Christians of Egypt, recognized that the radicals were to blame for stirring up trouble. The reaction of Islamists further demonstrates the inescapable truth in the Coptic production. These Islamists can’t even live in peace with their own countrymen, who are of the same ethnicity, who speak the same language, yet happen to be Christian. They are governed by a credo, which draws no distinction between Arab and Westerner, the credo is simple: submit, convert or die. Wherever there is radical Islam, this credo shall be enforced.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4366232.stm