Police at the site of the Berlin Christmas market attack, which left 13 dead.
Raymond Ibrahim :Originally published by the Gatestone Institute
As in previous years, the month of Christmas saw an uptick in Islamic attacks on Christians--much of it in the context of targeting Christmas related worship and celebrations.
The one to claim the most lives occurred in Egypt. There, on Sunday, December 11, an Islamic suicide bomber entered the St. Peter Cathedral in Cairo during mass, detonated himself and killed at least 27 worshippers, mostly women and children, and wounded nearly 70. A witness described the aftermath: "I found bodies, many of them women, lying on the pews. It was a horrible scene. I saw a headless woman being carried away. Everyone was in a state of shock. We were scooping up people's flesh off the floor. There were children. What have they done to deserve this? I wish I had died with them instead of seeing these scenes." In death toll and severity, this attack (pictures and videos of the aftermath here) surpassed the New Year's Day bombing of an Alexandrian church that killed 23 people in 2011. A couple of weeks before Dec. 11's bombing, a man hurled an improvised bomb at St. George Church in Samalout. Had the bomb detonated--it was dismantled in time--casualties would likely have been higher, as the church was packed with thousands of worshippers congregating for a special holiday service. In a separate December incident, Islamic slogans and messages of hate--including "you will die Christians"--were painted on the floor of yet another church, that of the Virgin Mary in Damietta.
