Dr. Ashraf Ramelah

Egypt’s election: All votes will go to Al-Sisi

Egypt is holding its presidential election now through March 28. President Abdul Fatah Al-Sisi is running for re-election after four years of his first term. There is one opposing candidate from the Tomorrow Party who has vowed to cast his vote for the president and encourages all Egyptians to do the same. The ballots will be counted by the Election Commission as usual with the political parties in observance. The president is an independent candidate of the military without a political party. However, the military will be absent from the process because constitutionally it cannot be a part of civilian elections.

Egypt: Al Sisi’s pre-election maneuvers guarantee his March election victory

Imagine just one of the eighty-seven ancient, Orthodox churches in Egypt now in a heap of rubble fully restored and meeting the needs of the poor at its door. Should the state funds for Egypt’s upcoming presidential election this March be put to better use?

Al-Sisi’s old guard appointee maintains anti-Copts solutions to jihad

General Essam Al-Badawi was installed as Al Minya’s governor (in Upper Egypt) in September 2016 when President Al-Sisi was replacing local officials. He graduated from the police academy in the mid-eighties last century after a long career with the National Security Service. Statements made recently by the governor in response to antagonism and threats towards Christians and the forced closing of Saint George Church (on Oct 27) have aroused widespread suspicion of him among Copts inside and outside Egypt.

More "peace solutions": Egyptian Copts pay the price

The Islamic Bedouin peace process, used for negotiating an agreement between two tribes, arrived in Egypt via Saudi Arabia with the Arab conquest. Today, the technique is utilized to settle issues between Muslims and the indigenous Copts. The Copts submit to prepared agreements that force them as innocent victims into statements of guilt along with penalties, by-passing the courts.

Egyptian president visits France: Declares “modernity” while Coptic church is seized

During President Al Sisi’s press conference during his visit to France a few days ago (Saturday, Oct 21), a journalist asked about Egyptian human rights. The President replied that Egypt is suffering from disorder and chaos, adding, “I am keen to establish a modern and civil state.”

Islamic terrorist murders Coptic priest

We are not without sympathy for the Muslim Egyptian who is under pressure, indeed coercion towards a Sharia fundamentalism that’s touted today in Egypt – in particular by the powers-that-be from Al-Azhar Institute, the Muslim Brotherhood factions and the fundamentalist Salafi remnant currently influencing believers.

Al-Azhar deep state strikes at Egypt’s constitutional free speech

In June this year, Justices Alito and Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in their separate opinions for Matal v. Tam that there is no “hate speech” exception to the first amendment of the constitution.

Two Coptic churches re-open; two meetings held: Are they related?

On Sunday, September 10, two Coptic churches were re-opened by an executive order made by President Al-Sisi. One of them was the St. Mary Church of Al-Furn village in Al Minya diocese, which was illegally shut down by Egyptian police recently in the final days of the Virgin Mary fast.

Tunisian gender reforms countered in Egypt by female Coptic MP

Under the Al-Sisi government, Copts expect the religious scholars of Al-Ahzar Institute to reform Islam. A good beginning would look like this: removal of violence-oriented content from school textbooks, moderate preaching from imams who are Al-Ahzar-certified, and the advancement of women’s rights under Sharia-Islamic law (indirectly affecting Copts who are pressured to follow it.)

Egypt: “War on terror” shuts down churches and prayer

Imagine walking through your village to church to pray during the final days of fasting for the Feast of The Assumption. You find police barricades blocking all roads to the sanctuary.

Egypt uses “fatwa” kiosks to combat terrorism or spread fundamentalism?

For the past two weeks in Cairo, a resistance movement has been gaining momentum against a recent transgression by Al-Azhar Institute to insert newly constructed taxpayer-funded “fatwa” (edict) kiosks into every subway stop in the city.

Identity erasure: Threat to Copts in Egypt

Westerners dealing with global jihad can heed a warning through examination of the struggles of one of the longest surviving and largest remaining Christian minority populations in a jihadi nation. We see that Islam in the majority is never satisfied until the minority is subsumed entirely by its religious-political system, which includes the Arab/Muslim heritage.

Egyptian police become terrorists: Attack Christianity

Local police serving the Islamic deep state At 2 am on Friday, June 16 -- just 20 days after the Al Minya Coptic bus attack by terrorists from Libya--Christians of Bani Sweef province (Al Minya governorate) faced flagrant degradation of law and order when local police in the small town of Saft Al Kharsa broke into the Coptic Orthodox social services center and desecrated the building. The non-operational three-story center was already shut down by the government for no reason.

Reflection on Al Minya’s bus attack: How massacre leads to Sharia law

The narrow, unpaved road snaking through the desert of Upper Egypt does one thing. It connects visitors from Al Minya, the capital city of the Al Minya governorate, to Bishop Samuel Monastery, a Coptic Orthodox institution. The road with no name was carved out for this purpose in the 12th century. Today, as in the ancient day, only Christians have use for this road. Not a soul dares this trip when the Winds of Kamasin whip up the sands from across the great desert in May and June. The air is unbreathable and the road disappears.

Egypt: Bloodshed on Palm Sunday

Egypt’s Coptic Christians suffered another fatal attack on its churches during this morning’s (April 9) Palm Sunday celebrations. Many parishioners were killed and maimed in a dual-church attack during the Palm Sunday services.

Open Letter To President-elect Donald Trump

Dear President-elect Donald Trump My name is Ashraf Ramelah, and I am an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian. I am the founder and president of Voice of the Copts, a non-profit human rights organization. Egyptian Copts, who are the largest Christian minority in the Middle East, are praying for your continued success. So are the Iraqi and Syrian Christians.

Jihadists strike again, 25 Copts die in Cairo church bombing

Members of the Voice of the Copts community offer sincere condolences to the Coptic families mourning today for the loss of loved ones as a result of Sunday’s (Dec 11) bombing of the Botrossia Church in Cairo that killed at least 25 people attending mass.

Coptic Pope muzzles US Copts in favor of Al-Sisi

Egyptian Copts in the diaspora of New York and New Jersey must decide to obey a call by Orthodox Pope Tawadros II of Egypt for a NYC rally at the UN General Assembly in support of President Al-Sisi’s speech on September 20. An official statement by the Coptic Church indicated that Bishop Beeman of Nakada and Qus and Bishop Yuanis of Assuit were sent to the US to arrange and promote Coptic crowd support prior to the president’s arrival.

Egyptian youths escape Sharia inferno

Mocking Islam or mocking the prophet of Islam spells doom. In Egypt you will be arrested, have home and property confiscated, and be coerced to “force emigrate” from your town. Then count on a five-year prison term. This was exactly the penalty for four Coptic Christian school boys, ages 14 through 17, and their teacher.

Stealth war on American soil began with chaos of 9/11 terror

I grew up in an Islamic country within the Coptic Christian community of Egypt. On September 11, 2001 I was already a free man living between two nation-state democracies – Italy and the USA. I must admit I never looked back.