Palm Sunday Terror: Explosions Rock Two Christian Church in Egypt [VIDEO]

Palm Sunday Terror: Explosions Rock Two Christian Church in Egypt [VIDEO]

Palm Sunday Terror: Explosions Rock Two Christian Church in Egypt [VIDEO]

Palm Sunday begins Holy Week, the most sacred week of the church calendar for Christians.

But in Egypt this morning, a bomb exploded outside St. Mark’s Coptic Church in Alexandria. Another went off in St. George’s Church in Tanta, 50 miles north of Cairo. The current death toll appears to be around 30 people, including three police officers. And who has claimed responsibility? Why, ISIS of course.

Click to enlarge.

Following is a video of raw footage as one of the bombs went off:

Just a few months ago Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who is Muslim, attended a Christmas service at the St. Peter and St. Paul Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo, where explosions killed 27 worshippers in December. Sisi is working to tamp down anti-Christian violence in his nation. Unfortunately it still continues.

Which leads me back to President Trump’s bombing of Syria.

There is no doubt that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is a monster. Yet there are some in Syria who regard him as a protector, and those are the Syrian Christians. They view him as a lesser of evils amongst the Islamist wolves who would annihilate them. Because of Assad, Christians have been able to return their towns once ravaged by ISIS.

Chicago Tribune writer John Kass, who is Greek Orthodox, supports Trump’s actions in Syria. Yet he also reminds us that while the U.S. wants to see Assad ousted, we should be careful of what we wish for:

If Assad is removed, what will happen to the remaining religious minorities, namely Christians, who’ve been slaughtered and driven out and hounded by many of the same Syrian rebels who would scream for joy if Assad was gone?

It is Holy Week, after all, isn’t it? And the Middle East is where Christianity was born.

As an Orthodox Christian, I’ve always wondered why the West doesn’t seem to be worried about the Christians of the East.

Is it because there is no blue-eyed Jesus to be found on the road to Damascus?

The Palm Sunday explosions in Egypt remind us of the fragility of existence among Middle East Christians. And they are a stark warning that whenever a Middle East dictator is removed, a Christian minority is often marked for slaughter by the Muslim majority. Assad is dreadful, to be sure, but will any vacuum he leaves behind be filled by someone or something worse? ISIS, perhaps? Or the Muslim Brotherhood? There are no good answers, are there.

UPDATE: Egyptian president al-Sisi has declared a three-month state of emergency in Egypt. The death toll in the church bombings has now climbed to 45.

Written by

Kim is a pint-sized patriot who packs some big contradictions. She is a Baby Boomer who never became a hippie, an active Republican who first registered as a Democrat (okay, it was to help a sorority sister's father in his run for sheriff), and a devout Lutheran who practices yoga. Growing up in small-town Indiana, now living in the Kansas City metro, Kim is a conservative Midwestern gal whose heart is also in the Seattle area, where her eldest daughter, son-in-law, and grandson live. Kim is a working speech pathologist who left school system employment behind to subcontract to an agency, and has never looked back. She describes her conservatism as falling in the mold of Russell Kirk's Ten Conservative Principles. Don't know what they are? Google them!

4 Comments
  • Darleen Click says:

    Is it because there is no blue-eyed Jesus to be found on the road to Damascus?

    Could it be that Westerners have been bullied for decades that between the Crusades and Israel, Christians have no place in the ME?

    • Kim Quade says:

      I think one of the reasons for the lack of concern for ME Christians can be laid at the feet the the selective-outrage machine known as the media.
      They’ve largely ignored the plight of the Christians, and prefer to focus on the fact that “most of ISIS’s victims are other Muslims,” along with any outrage du jour pushed by CAIR.

  • VALman says:

    Saint Mark the Evangelist, inspired by the Holy Spirit, went again to Alexandria. He visited the home of Ananias and healed his crippled hand. Ananias listened to Mark’s words and was Baptism. Others were likewise baptized.

    This roused the enmity of the pagans, who wanted to kill Saint Mark. Having learned of this, Saint Mark made Ananias a bishop, and three Christians Malchos, Sabinos, and Kerdinos were ordained presbyters to provide the church with leadership after his death.

    While serving the Liturgy, pagans seized Saint Mark beat him, dragged him through the streets, and threw him in prison. A vision of the Lord Jesus Christ strengthened him before his sufferings. On the following day, an angry crowd again dragged the Saint through the streets to the courtroom, but along the way Saint Mark died saying, “Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”

    On this day when so many proclaim “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” may we commend the spirit of those who died this day. And, may there martyrdom serve as an inspiration to Christians everywhere to more faithful discipleship, even to the point, if necessary, suffering in His name.

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