See below.

Best Regards,
Dean

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Metropolitan Jonah offers condolences to Coptic Pope Shenouda after Christmas eve murders

Posted 01/15

SYOSSET, NY [OCA] — As widely reported in the international media, six Coptic Orthodox Christians and a Muslim security guard died in a drive-by shooting in front of the Church of Saint John in Nag Hamadi, Egypt, after services on January 6, 2010, the eve of the Great Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord according to the Julian calendar.

The attack, the latest in a series of similar incidents to rock the predominantly Muslim country, was the worst to target Christians in nearly a decade. Copts make up about 10 percent of the nation’s population of 80 million.

Two days after the incident, three suspects surrendered to police, who continue to face mounting pressure to resolve the escalating number of sectarian disputes. Human rights groups say sectarian violence has been on the rise in Egypt. Amnesty International reports that attacks on the Coptic Christian community left eight people dead in 2008.

In a letter of support sent to the Coptic Primate, His Holiness, Pope Shenouda III, dated January 12, 2010, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah expressed sympathy on behalf of the hierarchs, clergy, and faith of the Orthodox Church in America.

The text of Metropolitan Jonah’s letter reads as follows.

“Your Holiness, dear brother: The Holy Synod, the clergy, monastics, and faithful of the Orthodox Church in America offer prayers before God in behalf of the Coptic Christians murdered on Christmas Day, 2010, at the site of the Saint John Church, at the city of Nag Hamadi, and for all those who suffered and are suffering from the attack.

“At this blessed holiday of the birth of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, our Lord, we join you, Bishop Kirillos, and the faithful in beseeching the Almighty God to enlighten all Egyptians to live in peace and harmony.

“It is our intention to discuss this incident and the on-going persecution of the Coptic Church with American authorities, with whom we shall meet in Washington, DC in January.”

During the past 1,358 years, the Christian of Egypt have been attacked, persecuted, scorned, enslaved, and all but annihilated by the Arab Muslim majority….. the public needs to know about the excruciatingly slow genocide that has been taking place in Egypt over the past 1,300 years.

I have said it before and I will say it again – after Lebanon/Syria, Egypt is next. The only reason there are any Christians in the the former is the Baathist regime of Syria. As soon as it falls (as all such dictatorships do), the killing/conversion/immigration of 99.9% of Christians from this area will happen in a very quick timespan (within a generation). Egypt will be slower due to the size of the Christian population, but it will happen.

There is nothing “the west” can do (notice I did not say will do) because the west simply no longer has the cultural basis for such a response. We are in decline, which means we are confused, weak, and have no confidence in our own beliefs. We can not even begin to address the conversion of our own culture to Islam (witness Europe and Dearborn, Michigan), let alone the lands that have been conquered by Islam for quite some time.

This century will not be remembered as the culmination and success of the secular project that was started in earnest in the last century. I twill be remembered for the quick transition from secularism to Islam in “the west”. Secularism is based on the fiction that man can live and thrive with a nihilistic belief system. Secularism’s failure is as obvious as it is thorough. France will be “Francostan” in 40 years – the ununassimilated Islamic majority will vote sharia law in. If a culture aborts it’s children and fails to reproduce, something will fill in the vacuum.

Christianity is NOT rising to the challenge. Yes, Christianity is more robust than nihilism, but then so is almost any other philosophy/world view. The fact that there are any Christians left in Islamic countries is a testament to this. However, the fact that Christianity has been thoroughly suppressed into the ghetto (dhimmitude) is evidence enough that it does win a few battles, while Islam wins the war.

We Christians have been losing the culture war of the west for the last 100 years or so. Techno/nihilistic secularism is a far less intractable enemy than Islam. Some reply that our current cultural state is more a crises *within* Christianity and it is only a low point of sorts. While I am sympathetic to such a view, it hardly matters. Islam beats both (Christianity and Nihilism) on their own turf.

“Getting the word out” is not a solution, unless you are the sort of person who brings an air rifle on Safari. I don’t have a solution myself. I see this macro trend in world history and I don’t see any way of stopping it. Only God can do that. Unless/until a people (in this particular the Coptic people of Egypt) are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice (i.e. revolution), until they are ready to die fighting for independence, then they will continue to suffer the“excruciatingly slow genocide that has been taking place in Egypt over the past 1,300 years”

Dean, Times like this make you realize just what a charade and how empty the EP/GOA Human Rights talk is.

A possible reply from the Archons: (scarasm on)

“Are these people Greek? Why should we bother, Alexander the Great subjegated them long ago. Besides, they are heretics aren’t they?”

From the secularists politicians (that means all of them): “Islam is a ‘relgion of peace’. Islam is not to blame. We all know that Christianity is the reason for all the wars since the relgion was legalized. Besides we need Egypt as part of our balance of power in the region–can’t offend them”

Just remember the Afro-American reporter who first broke the story years ago of the genocide and enslavement of Christians by Muslims in east Africa ws almost forced out of the profession for even reporting the story. He managned to offend both Muslims and their black supporters in this country. Only Jews initially supported the reporter.

Christians in Islamic countries and in the Soviet countries have always been betrayed by the US power structure. Certainly under our current President, that will not change. OOPS, I forgot, everything was supposed to change. Ah well.

Times like these…you begin to appreciate how completely impotent and irrelevant our disunity has made the Orthodox in this country…and what a force a united church could be.

This country sends how many billions to Egypt each year? Last time I checked, they were the second largest recipient of Foreign Aid dollars after Israel.

Ya think we just MIGHT be able to apply some pressure here?

Best Regards,
Dean