XPost: alt.religion.christian, alt.culture.egyptian, aus.politics   
   XPost: aus.politics.guns   
   From: nambla.muslims@cnn.com   
      
   Egyptians are just uppity niggers in need of a few good   
   whippings.   
      
   MINYA, Egypt — Masked militants in military-style uniforms   
   opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt   
   on Friday, killing at least 28 people in the latest bloodshed   
   targeting the country’s Christian minority, officials said.   
      
   There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the Islamic   
   State has claimed links to previous attacks against Egypt’s   
   Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population.   
      
   The massacre took place on the eve of Islam’s holy month of   
   Ramadan, a time when some militant factions have stepped up   
   attacks in the past.   
      
   The ambush — in the Minya region about 150 miles south of Cairo   
   — underscored the increasing pressures on Egyptian forces as   
   Islamist militants gain greater footholds around the country,   
   undercutting Egypt’s vital tourism industry and forcing greater   
   security for Coptic Christians and others targeted by militants.   
      
   The Minya governor, Maj. Gen. Essam el-Bedewey, said at least 28   
   people were killed and at least 25 were wounded when the   
   attackers fired on the bus heading for the St. Samuel Monastery,   
   one of several pilgrimage sites in an area that is home to a   
   large portion of Egypt’s Christian population. Among the dead   
   were two small girls, 2 and 4 years old, local officials said.   
      
   A member of the region’s security department, Maj. Mohamed Abdel-   
   Moneim, told reporters that about 10 men wearing military-style   
   gear carried out the attack.   
      
   The attack spurred global condemnations, and Egyptian warplanes   
   retaliated by striking militant bases in eastern Libya after   
   President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi warned in a televised address   
   that training camps for terrorists who attack Egypt would be hit   
   regardless of where they are. The planes targeted the   
   headquarters of the Shura Council in the eastern Libyan city of   
   Darna, where local militias have been linked to al-Qaeda rather   
   than the Islamic State, the Associated Press reported.   
      
   Sissi also appealed to President Trump to lead the fight against   
   terrorism. “I trust you, your word and your ability to make   
   fighting global terror your primary task,” the Egyptian leader   
   said.   
      
   Trump, attending a Group of Seven summit in Italy, denounced the   
   “merciless slaughter of Christians” and called on nations to   
   come together to fight “evil organizations of terror” and their   
   “thuggish ideology.”   
      
   Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened” by what he called a   
   “barbaric attack” and a “senseless act of hatred.”   
      
   Israel joined the condemnation, as did its two main enemies in   
   the region: Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah militant group and the   
   Islamist Hamas group that runs the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah   
   denounced “terrorism that takes religion as a cover,” while   
   Hamas called the bus attack “an ugly crime.”   
      
   The victims included Gerges Mahrous, a 25-year-old accountant,   
   and his brother, Kirolos Mahrous, an 18-year-old high school   
   student who were on their way to pray at the monastery, family   
   members said after identifying their bodies at a local hospital.   
      
   “Why?” screamed their cousin, Amal Fares. “What have they done?   
   Kirolos was just telling me he wanted to become a cardiologist   
   and treat the people for free. An accountant and an honor   
   student — what is their sin?”   
      
   An uncle, Fares Ishak, 70, said that according to survivors, the   
   attackers demanded that the victims recite the shahada Islamic   
   creed. His nephews “refused to give up on their faiths and died   
   Christians,” he said.   
      
   Another cousin, Sama Malak, 15, angrily demanded justice. “No   
   matter how strongly we condemn this and regardless of how much   
   we speak out or even scream, nothing changes,” she said, citing   
   previous attacks on Christians. “It is heart wrenching. We were   
   shopping for dresses to attend Gerges’s wedding. Now we are   
   wearing black to mourn him.”   
      
   Egyptian Grand Mufti Shawki Allam, the country’s top Islamic   
   authority, condemned what he called “the disgusting terrorist   
   operation that was carried out by extremists against our   
   Christian brethren.” He quoted the prophet Muhammad as having   
   declared: “Whoever harms a person of the covenant [a non-Muslim   
   of a Muslim territory], I am his adversary, and I will be his   
   adversary on the Day of Judgment.”   
      
   Last month, twin bomb blasts rocked churches in the   
   Mediterranean port of Alexandria and the northern city of Tanta,   
   leaving 44 dead and prompting Sissi, to declare a state of   
   emergency.   
      
   After the latest attack, the Egyptian president called an   
   emergency meeting of security officials, state-run media   
   reported.   
      
   [Pope Francis calls for tolerance during visit to Egypt]   
      
   In late April, Pope Francis visited Egypt as part of Vatican   
   outreach to Egypt’s embattled Christians, whose community dates   
   back to the early centuries of the faith. But the papal trip   
   also brought denunciations from Islamist militants and warnings   
   of further reprisals.   
      
   In December, a bomb hit the main cathedral in Cairo, killing 25   
   people as part of what is being described as a new strategy by   
   the Islamic State to target Christians.   
      
   Christians have been generally supportive of Sissi’s military-   
   backed government, but have become increasingly critical of the   
   inability of the country’s security forces to protect their   
   places of worship.   
      
   “The state is doing its best, but we need more efforts,” Minya’s   
   Coptic Bishop Makarios told The Washington Post. “They [security   
   forces] are always present and on guard after the attack takes   
   place, and keep their security measures tightened for a short   
   while after. .?.?. What we need is real effort exerted to ensure   
   this is not repeated, not just solidarity and compassion.”   
      
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/gunmen-kill-23-christians-   
   in-central-egypt/2017/05/26/3d2693dc-41fc-11e7-adba-   
   394ee67a7582_story.html?utm_term=.a4ad57815764   
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)