On Palm Sunday of this year, a total of 55 Coptic Christians were murdered while worshipping in their churches, one just outside Cairo, and another in Alexandria. ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombings.
While persecution of all Christians has been a tactic of terrorism for ISIS, the Coptics (or Copts as they are usually referred to), have been terrorized and attacked even more frequently than many other groups. The militants have previously claimed that attacks against Coptics are revenge for Muslim women persecuted by Coptic crusaders in Egypt.
It is also believed that this particular Cathedral was attacked for the second time because it is the seat of the Coptic Pope, and the persona of Mark himself, author of the oldest of the four gospels. Copts are among the oldest of all the continuous Christian faiths, if not the very oldest.
Furthermore, experts who have studied ISIS and other similar groups confirm that these groups “absolutely detest cultural symbolism.” This is why we see them destroying historical monuments thoughout the lands they conquer.
The word “Coptic” means Egyptian, and Christians living in Egypt identify themselves as Coptic Christians. But as a distinct religious denomination, the Copts originated in the city of Alexandria.
Coptic Christians acknowledge St. Mark as their founder and first bishop sometime between A.D. 42 - A.D. 62. The Coptic Church was involved in the very first major split in the Church, well before there was such a thing as "Roman" Catholicism, and it was also well before the East/West split.
Accoring to baptismal records of the Church. The cathedral is said to stand on the site of the church founded by St. Mark. John Mark is believed to be the writer of the earliest of the four gospels and has been connected with the city of Alexandria since earliest Christian tradition. Coptic Christians believe he arrived in Alexandria around 60 AD and stayed for about seven years.
As Alexandria became a leading Christian city, it vied with Rome for ecclesiastic and theological leadership until the Council of Chalcedon in 451 divided the Christian church into East and West over the definition of Christology.
St. Mark’s Cathedral in Egypt is considered the most sacred building for millions of Christians around the world. The beautiful cathedral “holds symbolic and historical significance for all Christians” Raymond Ibrahim writes in his book “Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s new War on Christians.” The cathedral was first attacked on April 7, 2013, and then again on Palm Sunday this year. Ibrahim writes that an attack on St. Mark Cathedral “is no different for Copts than a jihadi attack on the Vatican would be for Catholics.”
The church is led by Pope Tawadros II, who was in the Alexandria church at the time of the attack, but escaped uninjured, local officials confirmed. The long-standing Pope Shenouda III, who died in March, was the 117th apostolic successor of Mark the Apostle, believed to have established the church in Alexandria where he died as a martyr in the first century.
An interesting side story to this is that in accordance with religious tradition, the pope is chosen by a blind-folded altar boy who selects his name from a chalice.
Today, there is a small population of Coptic Christians remaining in Alexandria, but most are located elsewhere. Estimates of the current population of the Coptic Church range from 10 million to 60 million members worldwide. Theologically, Coptic Christianity is very similar to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. They profess to be genuine followers of Jesus Christ and a part of His worldwide Church.
The recent incidents of persecution against the Copts are too numerous to detail here. However, twenty Coptic Christians were
kidnapped in Libya in 2015 and later found with their throats cut. There was a mass beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by Islamic state terrorists, also in Libya. A 2012 report commissioned by Christian Solidarity International described 500 cases of Coptic females having been kidnaped and forcibly converted to Islam.
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