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Egypt’s Christians flee Sinai amid Islamic State killing spree

Christian families who left from Al-Arish in the North Sinai Governorate after the escalation of a campaign targeting Christians by Islamic State militants last week, arrive at the Evangelical Church in Ismailia, Egypt February 24, 2017. REUTERS/Ahmed Aboulenein

By Ahmed Aboulenein

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) – Christian families and students fled Egypt’s North Sinai province in droves on Friday after Islamic State killed the seventh member of their community in just three weeks.

A Reuters reporter saw 25 families gathered with their belongings in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia’s Evangelical Church and church officials said 100 families, out of around 160 in North Sinai, were fleeing. More than 200 students studying in Arish, the province’s capital, have also left.

Seven Christians have been killed in Arish between Jan. 30 and Thursday. Islamic State, which is waging an insurgency there, claimed responsibility for the killings, five of which were shootings. One man was beheaded and another set on fire.

“I am not going to wait for death,” Rami Mina, who left Arish on Friday morning, said by telephone. “I shut down my restaurant and got out of there. These people are ruthless.”

Sectarian attacks occur often in Egypt but are usually confined to home burning, crop razing, attacks on churches, and forced displacement.

Arish residents said militants circulated death lists online and on the streets, warning Christians to leave or die.

“My father is the second name on their list; anyone Christian they put on the list” Munir Adel, a vegetable seller who fled on Friday, said as he huddled with four family members at the Evangelical Church, waiting for church officials to find them a place to stay.

Adel’s parents did not leave Arish because of their old age, he said. “They could be killed at any moment.”

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Islamic State released a video on Sunday threatening Egypt’s Christians and vowing to escalate a campaign against them after it bombed a chapel adjoining Cairo’s St Mark’s Cathedral, the seat of the Coptic papacy, in December, killing 28 people.

“Oh crusaders in Egypt, this attack that struck you in your temple is just the first with many more to come, God willing,” said a masked man in battle-dress the group said blew himself up in the chapel.

Orthodox Copts, who comprise about 10 percent of Egypt’s 90 million people, are the Middle East’s largest Christian community. They have long complained of persecution.

The Coptic Orthodox Church denounced “the recurring terrorist incidents in North Sinai targeting Christian citizens” in a statement on Friday.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told military and police chiefs “to completely eradicate terrorism in northern Sinai and defeat any attempts to target civilians or to undermine the unity of the national fabric”, in reference to the killings, his office said on Thursday.

Egypt is battling an insurgency that gained pace in 2013 after its military, led by Sisi, overthrew President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed.

Major General Mostafa al-Razaz, North Sinai’s deputy police chief, said security forces were capable of handling the “crisis” and that they added more patrols and checkpoints.

But Sinai’s Christians say security forces on the ground are unable to protect them and are overwhelmed by the militants.

“The government does nothing. There is no security in Sinai, they can’t even protect themselves,” said Adel.

“It was an officer who told us to leave.”

(This story has been refiled to delete extraneous word “was” in paragraph 11)

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, Ali Abdelaty, and Mostafa Hashem in Cairo; Editing by Alison Williams)

Suspected Istanbul nightclub attacker wanted to kill Christians

Flowers and pictures of the victims are placed near the entrance of Reina nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey,

ANKARA (Reuters) – An Islamist gunman, who has confessed to the killing of 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub on New Year’s Day, told a court that he had aimed to kill Christians during his attack, Hurriyet newspaper said on Monday, citing testimony given this weekend.

Abdulgadir Masharipov initially planned to attack the area around Taksim Square but switched to the upscale Reina nightclub due to the heightened security measures around the square, Hurriyet said, without saying how it had obtained the document.

Reuters was not given access to the confidential document.

“I did not take part in any acts before the Reina event. I thought of carrying out an act against Christians on their holiday, to take revenge for their killing acts across the world. My goal was to kill Christians,” he was quoted as saying.

“If I had decided to do so, I would have used a gun and killed the people there (Taksim). There was no entrance to Taksim, it was swarming with police. I changed my mind after that,” Huuriyet quoted him as saying in the court document.

Turkey is a majority Muslim nation. Turks, as well as visitors from several Arab nations, India and Canada, were among those killed in the attack. Victims included a Bollywood film producer, a Turkish waiter, a Lebanese fitness trainer and a Jordanian bar owner.

Islamic State claimed responsibility the day after the attack, saying it was revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria. Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State and launched an incursion into neighboring Syria in August to drive jihadists and Kurdish militia fighters away from its borders.

Masharipov, an Uzbek, acknowledged his membership of Islamic State and said the jihadist group would develop a presence in predominantly non-Muslim countries if it had the power, Hurriyet said.

Masharipov said he and his family had originally planned to travel to Syria from Uzbekistan, but stayed in Turkey because they were unable to do so. He said he had not taken part in any meetings or phone calls with the group while in Turkey.

He was caught in a police raid in Istanbul on Jan. 16 and was formally charged with membership of an armed terrorist group, multiple counts of murder, possession of heavy weapons and attempting to overturn the constitutional order, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

In his testimony this weekend, he told officials he would prefer the death penalty as a sentence, and said he did not regret his actions, which he believed were not targeting Turkey, but rather were acts of revenge.

“It would be better if a death penalty was ruled. I threw the stun grenades after my ammunition had finished, nothing happened. I remained alive, but I had gone to die there,” he said, according to Hurriyet.

Turkey formally abandoned the death penalty in 2002 as part of its European Union accession talks, and its restoration would probably spell the end of Turkey’s talks to join the bloc.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has revived the question of reintroducing the punishment in the wake of a failed July coup, saying he would approve the change if parliament passed it.

“Why do they say I work against Turkey or am against Turkey? I don’t think I did anything against the Turkish republic, I did not do anything against Turkey. I took revenge,” Masharipov was cited as saying.

“I do not regret what I did. I believe I retaliated.”

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by David Dolan and Louise Ireland)

Trump says his travel ban needed to ensure U.S. religious freedom

DAY 9 / JANUARY 28: Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump agreed to try to rebuild U.S.-Russia ties and to cooperate in Syria, the Kremlin said, after the two men spoke for the first time since Trump's inauguration.

By Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump defended his order to temporarily bar entry to people from seven majority-Muslim nations, which has come under intense criticism at home and abroad, saying on Thursday it was crucial to ensuring religious freedom and tolerance in America.

Trump, speaking at a prayer breakfast attended by politicians, faith leaders and guests including Jordan’s King Abdullah, said he wanted to prevent a “beachhead of intolerance” from spreading in the United States.

“The world is in trouble, but we’re going to straighten it out, OK? That’s what I do – I fix things,” Trump said in his speech.

Trump’s executive order a week ago put a 120-day halt on the U.S. refugee program, barred Syrian refugees indefinitely and imposed a 90-day suspension on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The measure, which Trump says is aimed at protecting the country from terrorist attacks, has drawn protests and legal challenges.

Trump, a wealthy businessman and former reality TV star who had never previously held public office when he was sworn in on Jan. 20, also sought to reassure the large crowd about the nature of his phone calls with world leaders.

The Washington Post said Trump had a tense call with Australia’s Prime Minister about his immigration order.

“Believe me, when you hear about the tough phone calls I’m having – don’t worry about it. Just don’t worry about it,” Trump said. He did not specify which calls he was referring to.

“We’re taken advantage of by every nation in the world virtually. It’s not going to happen anymore,” said Trump, who campaigned on a stance of “America first” that he said would ensure the country was not taken advantage of in its trade or other foreign relations.

Trump said violence against religious minorities must end. “All nations have a moral obligation to speak out against such violence. All nations have a duty to work together to confront it, and to confront it viciously, if we have to,” he said.

Trump said the United States has taken “necessary action” in recent days to protect religious liberty in the United States, referring to his immigration action.

Critics of the measure have accused him of violating the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom, because the designated countries are majority-Muslim, and of slamming the door shut to refugees.

Trump has said the move was necessary to ensure a more thorough vetting of people coming into the United States.

“Our nation has the most generous immigration system in the world. There are those who would exploit that generosity to undermine the values that we hold so dear,” Trump said.

“There are those who would seek to enter our country for the purpose of spreading violence, or oppressing other people based upon their faith or their lifestyle – not right. We will not allow a beachhead of intolerance to spread in our nation,” he said.

Trump said his administration’s new system would ensure that people entering the United States embrace U.S. values including religious liberty.

He also pledged to get rid of the “Johnson Amendment,” a tax provision that prevents tax-exempt charities like churches from being involved in political campaigns.

The White House said on Wednesday it has issued updated guidance on the travel order clarifying that legal permanent residents, or green card holders, from the designated countries require no waiver to enter the United States.

(Writing by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Frances Kerry)

Iraqis celebrate first Christmas near Mosul after Islamic State pushback

A Christian woman inspects a home in the town of Bartella east of Mosul, Iraq, after it was liberated from Islamic State militants

By Maher Chmaytelli

BARTELLA, Iraq (Reuters) – A few hundred Iraqi Christians flocked on Saturday to Bartella, a northern town recently retaken from Islamic State, to celebrate Christmas for the first time since 2013.

Bartella, once home to thousands of Assyrian Christians, emptied in August 2014 when it fell to Islamic State’s blitz across large parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria. Iraqi forces took it back in the first few days of the U.S.-backed offensive that started in October.

“It is a mix of sadness and happiness,” said Bishop Mussa Shemali before a Christmas eve ceremony at Mar Shimoni church, which has been badly damaged, with crosses taken down and statues of saints defaced.

“We are sad to see what has been done to our holiest places by our own countrymen, but at the same time we are happy to celebrate the first mass in two years.”

The region of Nineveh is one of the most ancient settlements of Christianity, going back nearly 2,000 years.

Islamic State targeted all non-Sunni Muslim groups living under its rule, also inflicting harsh punishment on Sunnis who wouldn’t abide by its extreme interpretation of Islam.

The region’s Christians were given an ultimatum: pay a tax, convert to Islam, or die by the sword. Most of them fled to the autonomous Kurdish region, across the Zab river, to the east.

It will be some time before people can return to the town which remains without basic services, and many buildings still bear the scars of the fighting.

“This is the best day of my life. Sometimes I thought it would never come,” said Shrook Tawfiq, a 52-year-old housewife displaced to the nearby Kurdish city of Erbil.

The front line in the battle to retake Mosul – Islamic State’s last major stronghold in Iraq, has moved a few kilometers to the west, into eastern districts where the militants are dug in among civilians, fighting off the advance of elite Iraqi units with suicide car bombs, mortars and snipers.

More than one million people are estimated to live in areas of the city that remain under militant control, complicating the war plans of the Iraqi army and the U.S.-led coalition providing air and ground support.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Adrian Croft)

Artist works to preserve Christian heritage in Hamas-run Gaza

Christian artist and sculptor Naser Jeldha crafts a sculpture in his studio in Gaza City

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Only about 1,200 Christians remain in Gaza — only a tiny fraction of the population in a territory run by Hamas Islamists — but artist Naser Jeldha is doing what he can to preserve its Christian heritage through art.

In his studio in the heart of old Gaza, not far from a 5th century Orthodox church, Jeldha spends his days carving religious figurines, chiseling low-relief carvings of Biblical scenes and painting portraits of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the saints.

“My message is about my religion,” said the gray-bearded 57-year-old, a member of the Greek Orthodox community.

“I want to make it visual, I want to make people see it, not only to be kept as texts in church.”

As he works, steel-rimmed spectacles perched on his nose, Jeldha listens to Byzantine prayer music that echoes softly around the studio, creating an atmosphere from another era.

The walls are covered in his pictures, with more laid out on the arms of chairs and sofas, and others propped on a 150-year-old Russian piano in the corner. As well as painting and sculpture, Jeldha plays the accordion, piano and guitar.

In the run up to Christmas – celebrated on Jan. 7 in the Orthodox church – Jeldha is busy making pieces as gifts for friends and relatives.

While he has been an artist for 35 years, he does not display his works or offer them for sale. Instead, he presents them as gifts at weddings or events on the Christian calendar. He does, however, have plans for a public showing soon.

In the next two weeks, he is also hoping he will be one of about 800 Christians granted a permit by Israel to leave Gaza and travel to Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to attend prayer services in Jesus’s birthplace.

“We have applied for permits and if we get them I intend to travel with my family,” said Jeldha, who is determined to remain in Gaza despite the departure of many Christians over the last decade in the face of rising economic hardship.

While Gaza’s Christians generally enjoy good relations with their Muslim neighbors, there have been isolated attacks by hardline Salafist groups on Christian tombs and symbols.

Hamas, the Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza since 2006, is keen to ensure the Christian community feels safe and protected. Its leaders occasionally visit the heads of the three Gaza churches to build stronger relations.

Jeldha acknowledged that the economy was suffering, with the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt, a move to pressure Hamas, limiting trade, driving up costs and causing despair.

Despite that, Jeldha, whose white front door is adorned with a small cross painted in blue, said he would never leave.

“I have lived in this neighborhood for 54 years. I have brotherly and wonderful relations with Muslims,” said the father of four. “Gaza is beautiful and I will not leave it…I do not feel I am a stranger here.”

(Writing by Nidal Almughrabi, Editing by Luke Baker and Angus MacSwan)

Artist works to preserve Christian heritage in Hamas-run Gaza